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Newspaper Deliverer

March 18, 2017

In this society, newspaper deliverers were a rare job. People got up in the morning and read a newspaper. This custom wasn't different from the old days. People ate breakfast and while eating they wanted something to use for their eyes and hold with their vacant hand. To get recent information, a newspaper is a good thing, as well as watching TV. But nowadays, the number of readers who read paper-newspapers were decreasing because people read newspapers on their handy PCs, such as tablet PCs. In this era, tablet PCs were very thin and light (sometimes even flexible) so people preferred to use those rather than paper documents like newspapers, magazines, and books. For them, newspapers were troublesome because you have to spread it out to read, turn it over; and after reading, fold it back up; stack it, then throw it away after binding a bundle of them. People also liked the PCs' ability to change the size of letters, and look at precise pictures. But some people insisted on paper-newspapers.   Mr. Higgins (Reader): Mr. Higgins was waiting for the newspaper. At around 6 a.m. he heard the sound of the newspaper that was being put into the mail slot on the door. He liked that sound. He grabbed it out. He liked the touch of the texture of the newspaper. He liked the smell of the ink of the newspaper. He opened the paper. He liked that he could see the whole page. After browsing the first page, he flipped to the second page. He liked the sound that the paper generated when it was flipped over. He picked up a yellow marker pen and underlined some sentences. He could cut some articles out and scrapbook them, he, of course, liked this part too. He used his PC and smartphone for news, but he didn't have any intentions to give up these little joys from the paper-newspaper. Ms. Jovovich (Reader): Ms. Jovovich was afraid of the Internet. When she was young, she would write her opinions on bulletin boards, and one day somebody attacked her of one of her opinions badly. After that she felt fear about the Internet. Of course, she needed to access the Internet for work, but she kept her use of the Internet at a minimum. So she subscribed to a paper-newspaper. She preferred to read paper-books, too. She didn't like an e-reader. She couldn't get accustomed to e-books that had no notion of pages. She liked to flip pages. When she flipped a page, she felt a sense of completion to finish that page, and at the same time, expectation for the new page. She liked to fold the newspaper after reading it and put it on the magazine rack. She liked that the newspaper was there waiting for her to resume reading it at night. Because there were still a few readers of paper-newspapers, newspaper companies couldn't quit delivering their newspapers. The delivering time should be early morning, so the post or other delivery services couldn't deliver, and so newspaper deliverers were needed.     Kate (Deliverer): She got up at 4 a.m. and got to the newspaper delivery station at 4:30. The station was near her delivery area. Her delivery area was about 10 km in diameter. And there were about 100 subscribers there. But it didn't mean that they subscribed to the same newspaper. As the number of real newspapers decreased, this new type of delivery stations were made. The delivery station had newspaper printing machines. They printed various kinds of newspapers every day. With the contracts with each newspaper company, they printed regular newspapers (national and local), sports newspapers, finance newspapers, agricultural newspapers, specific political parties' newspapers, specific religious newspapers, etc. She went to her box with other deliverers. In her box, with the newspapers separated by each kind, there was a list of subscribers and newspapers for each. She browsed it. It was the same as yesterday. Some of the readers might stop their subscription, and someone might start to subscribe. Some of the readers might suspend their subscription because of being on a trip or entering into a hospital. So her course varied depending on the day. She bound them on her bicycle. As the delivery areas were rather large, the deliverers usually used motorcycles. But she liked to cycle. And for her, delivering newspapers was a kind of exercise. She was an actress who couldn't earn enough money of living so she needed a part-time job. But she liked this job. She swiftly started to pedal. It was 4:45. The first person was Mr. Spenser. He was in his 70s and lived alone in his house. He got up early and sometimes was waiting at the door. But he was the type of person who was careful not to surprise her. He would slowly open the door and receive the newspaper from her smiling her and saying thank you. She at first wondered why he always knew she was coming. But one time, he said that he could recognize her breaking sound and stepping sound approaching the door as it was silent in the early morning. He laughed saying he thanked God for his good ears at his age. She liked to think about her subscribers, although some of them seemed to be a little bit eccentric.

*bundle :束
*texture :質感、感触
*notion :概念
*completion :完結
*resume :再開する