Unexpected Trek, by Christopher DeLuca
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Every day after school, Danny Fitzwilliam would ride his bike home.
He could have taken the bus, but he liked riding his bike because it
made him feel connected to the journey. No grimy, impersonal windows
to get between him and the outdoors; just the pure pleasure of being
part of the world. Danny liked to watch the muggy suburban landscape
pass him by. He liked to watch the different objects that made up
suburbia, noticing the intricacies of each one; hedges, telephone poles,
pinwheels, evenly spaced trees, sparkling clean sedans, flowerbeds, and
mailboxes. Danny didn’t like mailboxes, and every time he saw one he
would say, “Check,” to keep it at bay. Mailboxes could be vicious
creatures, and you could never be too careful around them.

Danny liked to play ball, but he had no one to play with. One day after
school, as Danny was walking down Oak Street, bouncing his big red ball
in front of him, he happened upon a scrawny tabby cat, which meowed
piteously. Grateful for a playmate, Danny threw the ball at the cat. The
cat scampered away with a yowl.

The previous day, while Danny was riding his bike, he forgot to say,
“check” to a mailbox, and it went postal and killed him. Afterwards,
the previous paragraph never happened..