Nighttime Stamp Outpost

Evening shadows were stretching clear across the mail table, so I had to rig a cozy night bunker fast! Right beside an oak sorting cubby sat an enormous wooden date stamp with tiny serrated black rubber gear wheels! A precision adjustment crank! I clamped both plush mitts around the bottom thumbwheel and hauled with all my might to spin the dates. Scrrr-clack! The rubber band caught, snapping backward and flinging my boots right out from beneath me! Whoosh—I took a wild slide straight into a stack of discarded shipping labels! But guess what? The stamp tipped sideways and wedged its grooved handle tight under a heavy brass paperweight, tilting the red inked pad into an illuminated crimson reflector! Perfect night beacon for my new sleeping bay!