First Class Stamp by Aj Harmon

from a company, Latin World Corporation, she’d
never heard of. Scanning the contents of the letter, an audible sigh of
frustration and despair escaped her lips. “How much more?” she asked herself. Laying
the envelope and letter down in front of her, Maria rubbed her forehead and
stood to go and get a drink from the break room. The phone rang only three
steps from the door and she contemplated ignoring it, but couldn’t.
    “Maria Calvo,” she said in her most professional voice.
    “What the hell are you doing at work? I told you to stay
home!”
    “Why are you calling me at work then?”
    “Because I figured you’d still come in. You are loyal to a
fault, Maria!”
    “It’s my job!” she exclaimed. “We still have tenants in the
building you know.”
    “I know,” Ben replied. “How is it there? Bad?”
    “It’s not great, but we’re managing.”
    “So what happened to your car windows?”
    “What? How did you know…”
    “Luca,” he interrupted, “doesn’t understand how the ticket
box in the parking garage could possibly break the windows on the other side of the car. If you are going to try and hide things from him you should at
least come up with better lies...believable ones.”
    Maria sank into her chair. The gig was up. “The protests are
close now,” she sighed. “I assumed the first brick that came through the window
was a random incident, but with the second one I knew they were aiming at me !”
    “Why didn’t you tell me? We could have…”
    “Could have what? You’re all thousands of miles away and you
pay me to do my job. That’s what I’m doing.”
    “How’s Luca?”
    “He’s fine. We live far enough away from this that he
doesn’t know anything and I need to keep it that way. A ten year old boy doesn’t
need to have the added burden of worrying about his mother.”
    “Added burden?” Ben asked.
    Sighing again, Maria confided in Ben, a man she hadn’t seen
in almost six years, but a man who appeared to care for her son. “I think he’s
not liking school very much,” she began, “but I’m not sure I can put my finger
on what it is.”
    “He’s being bullied,” stated Ben.
    “He is? Did he tell you that?”
    “Not in words,” Ben frowned. “I just…sense something in his
letters. He likes learning but he doesn’t like school. In my limited
experience, it sounds like there’s some kids who he isn’t getting along with.”
    “Oh God,” she pleaded. “Please don’t let anyone hurt my
boy.”
    “Look, you’re coming here next week, so maybe I can talk to
him and…”
    There was a massive crash that Ben heard through the phone.
If it was that loud for him he couldn’t imagine how close it was for Maria.
    “What was that?” he demanded. “Are you alright? Maria?”
    “I’m here,” she stuttered. “They just drove a car through
the glass windows!”
    The added security leapt into action and within minutes the
building was secured and the police had arrived. The mob, however, had
scattered. Maria had dropped the phone and run to the lobby only to be
heartbroken at the site. An old battered Nissan pick-up truck had driven up the
concrete steps outside and right through the glass wall into the building. Its
bumper and tailgate were the only part of it still outside. Shattered glass
carpeted the tiled floor and steel bars were twisted and bent. Chaos ruled.
    By the time Maria returned to the phone, Ben was all but
having heart palpitations not knowing what was going on and if Maria was in any
kind of danger.
    “The police are here and they’ve arrested the driver. I’ll
need to get somebody here immediately to secure the building until necessary
arrangements have been made to have the repairs done. I wondered what that note
had meant.”
    “What note?” Ben asked.
    “The letter warning us about Americans in Brazil.”
    “What letter?” he asked again.
    “I faxed it to New York weeks ago. Patrick told me he’d look
into it.”
    “Are you