Postal Workers

[Brian]

Harry turned his head away from his new colleague Justin whom he had just spent twenty minutes chatting to on arriving at his new place of work as he spotted a third person approaching the table where the two of them had been drinking coffee and getting to know each other. Justin, Harry had been relieved to see, was kitted out in exactly the same dark blue postal deliverer's uniform as the one he himself had been issued with. Justin, Harry learned, was just a year older than his own twenty-eight years. It also turned out to be Justin's first day on the job too, and Harry was pleased to have someone else in the same position as he was. Not being the only new recruit made a difference.

A woman in smart business attire, contrasting with the postal workers uniforms which other people around them were wearing, was now walking briskly up to them and greeting them both. "Hi, I'm Caroline Merchant, depot manager. You two must be our new recruits from the agency, right? Which of you is Harry and which is Justin?"

Justin stood up and introduced himself, Harry followed suit, and the two of them then listened as Caroline outlined what would be expected of them on this first day. "I won't have you driving the postal vans just yet. Instead you'll go round with another driver in his van, learning the standard routes around the district and helping him with loading the parcels and delivering them to the doors. It's a round which normally takes three and a half hours, but with the three of you working together you should do it in well under three. Hopefully you'll all be back by twelve o'clock for an early lunch break."

Caroline called over to a man in his thirties who was standing by a vehicle which was parked in one of the bays. "Derek! Come over here a minute."

Derek set the box in his arms down inside the van and walked up. "Meet your two trainees today, Harry and Justin," said Caroline. "They're already on paid time, so they're yours to train up and use as you require on the Merton and Kerridge route this morning. See all three of you back here when you've delivered all that lot."

Derek shook hands briskly with the two new recruits, then got straight down to business. "Drink up then, finish your coffees. We've got forty-five parcels to load, then we're off out on the road. Come on!"

***

"I said no! What don't you understand about a short, two-letter word?"

Harry stared at the middle-aged man who had opened the door, taken aback at the ferocity of this opening. He immediately understood why his fellow-trainee Justin had been unwilling to return to this particular person's doorstep, and he felt his hackles rising in defence. "If you look a bit closer, sir, you'll see that I'm not the same guy who delivered your parcel just now," he responded coldly.

The man's exasperated facial expression switched to one of somewhat grudging contrition. "Oh, sorry, you postal workers all look the same to me in your uniform," he muttered. "What is it, then? Have you got another parcel for me?"

"My colleague forgot to get you to sign for your box," said Harry, holding out the electronic device which he and his colleagues had been using for more than two and a half hours already as they delivered around the district. "The sender requires proof of delivery. Can you please sign with your finger in between the two horizontal lines?"

The man sighed and stared at the device, his finger poised to provide the required signature. Then he stopped short suddenly and looked suspiciously over Harry's shoulder, his eyes scanning the area behind Harry keenly. "Why couldn't your colleague come back himself? What's he doing now? Not watering my shrubbery, I hope!"

Harry turned round and glanced behind him, not understanding what the customer was talking about. He saw only the tidy front garden and his colleagues Justin and Derek sitting in the van behind the neat hedge. They appeared to be in animated conversation, even possibly arguing about something, and Justin was self-evidently not tending to this strange man's garden, so Harry chose to ignore the questions. "Thank you, sir," he offered as the customer finished scrawling with his finger and passed the device back to Harry.

Instead of returning the civility, the man fixed Harry with a hard stare. "Is your colleague new on the job?"

Harry felt his hackles rise even more but controlled his emotions sufficiently to force himself to remain obsequious. "Yes, sir, we both are," he replied. "We're being trained. That's why we're going round the route in a group of three."

"That explains a lot. I'll let it pass then, but tell your new colleague there are some things you just don't ask when you're out delivering, and make sure you're aware of that yourself as well. Your employer won't take kindly to receiving a complaint about that behaviour." The door was pulled shut allowing Harry to drop his polite mask and vent his feelings by sticking two fingers up without being seen.

"What an arsehole," began Harry as he climbed back into the van forcing Justin to move over to the middle of the seat next to their trainer Derek who started the van's engine and pulled the van out into the road. "Most of these people seem alright, glad to have their parcels delivered, but not that man. I hope the last few people on the round are going to be okay. I don't think I can stand another experience like that." He looked at his colleagues, hoping for some moral support. Neither, he now noticed, was paying much attention to him. The silence between them and lack of immediate reponse to his remarks was in marked contrast to the friendliness with which Derek had earlier been chatting to his two young trainees.

"There's always a few unpleasant people," murmured Derek after a long silence in response to Harry. The van was making a full 360 degree turn on a roundabout.

Harry attempted to keep the atmosphere light by grabbing the printout on the dashboard and studying the list of deliveries. "Well, looks like we have just eight, uh no, ten more parcels to drop before our break. I'm keen to get these done so we can get back. I could certainly use a piss-break, to be honest." He studied the address of the next delivery on the list and then added: "Why are we turning round? The next drop-off is number seventy-four on this same street."

"So you need a piss as well!" said Derek, ignoring Harry's question. "You guys really do need to learn that you don't go drinking too much coffee before a delivery round. You can't go for a wee while we're out on the road, so in future make sure you don't need to!" His tone was one of exasperation.

"Hey, I only said I could do with a piss-break," protested Harry. "I can hold it till we're done, you know. I can hold my piss in. Blooming heck, I don't need a whole load of shit from you on top of what I've just had from that prick at the last address!" Harry was well aware that he should not be answering Derek back like that considering that, just like Justin, this was Harry's first day on the job and he would need a good report from Derek to satisfy his new employer Caroline, but the tone of Derek's remarks had riled Harry and seemed an unnecessary response to his light-hearted remark that he could do with a piss.

"Okay, sorry," said Derek as he executed a sharp turn. "What did the prick say to you, then?" The turn was causing Harry to lean heavily on the lad next to him who gasped slightly in response and then crossed one leg over the other as soon as Harry had righted himself in his seat.

"Well, I didn't really understand what he was on about, but he was having a go at you, Justin, saying you'd asked him something you shouldn't. I couldn't make sense of it. What was it all about?" Harry looked at the guy he'd just leaned into, hoping to re-ignite the friendliness with which he and Justin had indulged over their mugs of coffee back at the parcel depot before setting out with Derek to learn their first delivery round.

Instead of replying, Justin just shrugged his shoulders with an expressionless glance back at Harry. Harry stared at him, noticing for the first time that Justin's forehead was covered in a light sheen of sweat and his demeanour was tense. As Harry watched, Justin eased his crossed leg back off the other one as if he could not get himself settled.

Derek glanced at Justin too, also inquisitive about the nature of Justin's original encounter with the man at number forty-nine.

The silence became oppressive. Harry filled it by providing some more details. "He was also on about you watering his garden, or something. I thought, what the hell? What did he mean?"

Derek intervened at once. "Oh Lord, you didn't try and piss in the customer's garden, did you?" he asked Justin.

"No of course not. I just asked him if I could use his toilet because I was desperate. But I didn't press the matter when he said no." Justin made as if to cross his legs again in the limited space which the van's footwell offered, then pushed his leg hard into Harry's thigh instead, putting his hands down in the seat in between his legs and pushing his body slightly up off the seat. His extreme discomfort was obvious in his face. Harry stared at him in concern.

"You don't ask that!" said Derek. "It doesn't matter how desperate you are, you don't ask to use customers' toilets. A complaint about that gets you the sack!"

"Are you alright, mate?" Harry asked Justin.

Justin looked back at him, the agony all too apparent in his face. "I'm bursting. I can't hold it any longer."

"Which is why he forgot to get forty-nine Shipley Road's signature and why we're cutting the round short with ten parcels still to deliver," Derek filled in. "Back to the depot for him to wee it all out, then all the way back out here again to finish the job off. And we won't get any overtime paid for the extra half hour it's all going to take. Why I have to do this, I don't know." His tone of voice suggested someone with all the cares of the world on his shoulders.

Harry slapped Justin sympathetically on his knee, anxious to cancel out the intolerance which Derek was showing. The nature of the heated conversation which the two of them had been having in the van while Harry had gone back for the customer's signature was now obvious to Harry. Justin, who had been noticably quiet during the last few deliveries, had evidently finally told Derek what his problem was after being refused permission to pee at the most recent customer's house. "You're not the only one, mate," said Harry. "I've got to pee as well. We shouldn't have had those coffees, should we?" He could see that Justin was making urgent squirming motions with his legs now in the blue trousers of his new uniform and hoped that a bit of moral support would help him survive the ten minute journey back to the depot.

Justin groaned audibly. "I really can't hold it any longer," he said softly.

"If it's as bad as that, why didn't you say anything earlier?" said Derek. "If you'd mentioned it while we weren't so far away from the depot, we wouldn't have to lose so much time now."

Justin ignored the question and appeared to decide that an emergency measure was called for. "Can you just stop by this park? I'll go behind a tree." He was already making to climb over Harry and open the door despite the fact that the van was driving at normal speed past the small area of green space which he had identified.

"That's not a park," said Derek as he drove on past. "And you really can't pee in public in your uniform."

"Would you rather he just wets his uniform, then?" said Harry, realising that the coffee which his new young colleague had shared with him before they set out with Derek was threatening to have its inevitable effect on the panicking Justin and come out before they were all back at their workplace.

"No, but as I said, he can't pee in public in uniform. He'll hold it in like we all have to sometimes. If he pees on the seat the van will have to be cleaned and he can say goodbye to his job, so he doesn't actually have any choice but to hold it. Now, if the two of you don't give me any more hassle, I can concentrate on driving and I'll have us back in ten minutes flat."

Complete silence greeted Derek's assessment of the situation. Harry quietly thanked providence that he wasn't the one hanging on to a bursting bladder as the van swung round more bends throwing the three of them against each other. His own bladder was aching, and he was glad for his own sake that they were heading back prematurely because he knew that he would have become pretty desperate by the end if Justin had not called this temporary halt to their shift. But looking at Justin squirming in his seat, his hands visibly trembling in his lap as he pushed them into his groin, Harry knew that his colleague's situation was absolutely dire. Justin gave no response to his subsequent supportive "Hang in there, man, we're almost there", Justin's face directed rigidly at the road in front of them and his forehead continuing to perspire visibly.

A few more minutes passed by. The silence among the three of them was then broken by a groaning sound from Justin as Derek stopped the van in front of a red traffic light. Harry looked at the colleague next to him once more and witnessed the dark blue trousers darkening over the crotch area. The patch continued to grow in front of Harry's eyes. Justin silently undid his seatbelt, knelt down on the floor of the van in front of the seat and exhaled audibly as he let all the rest go.

***

Harry came back out of the men's room, sighing to himself as he relished the newly relaxed state of his bladder, and wandered up to where three familiar people were congregating around the van. "He got down on the floor before he peed his pants," Derek was saying to Caroline, "so there's no damage to the seat."

"Yes, well, that's something," said Caroline. "A quick go with a mop and bucket should suffice to get that sorted out." She was looking into the front of the van as she spoke. "You can send Harry here to get that mopped up," she added, looking at Harry as he joined them, "then you and Harry can go back out and finish the round."

"What about Justin?" asked Derek, looking at the other new recruit who was standing with his hands in front of his groin, clearly trying to conceal the huge wet stains all over what had been a pristine new pair of uniform trousers. "What are we going to do with him?"

Justin, who had previously been gazing down at the ground and avoiding everyone's eye as he tried to conceal his accident from any onlooker who did not already know about it, now looked up in abject shame at his new employer to hear from her what his fate would be.

"Justin, go home, get yourself cleaned up, put your spare uniform on and get back here by twelve-thirty please. I'll then send you out with Kevin on the Horton route. We'll put your little accident down to a learning experience. In future you'll know not to drink too much coffee before a delivery run, won't you?"

Justin nodded dumbly and made to leave.

Harry reached out and touched Justin on the shoulder. "Nice working with you, Justin. I felt for you in the van just now - I knew you couldn't hold it till we would arrive back, and I felt so sorry for you when you did it in your pants. It could have happened to me too. You'll be okay when you've got changed. Maybe see you later today."

Justin nodded, turned round and left, but not before overhearing Harry ask Derek about the next practical job. "Let's get the floor of the van cleaned up then. Where's the mop and bucket?"

[JonInFl311]

Last year there was new house under construction across the street from me. The mailman parked his truck nearby and made a beeline for a portapotty out in front of it. He looked a lot happier when he came out. It got me to wondering what they do when they don't have such a lucky break.

[jdoewest]

Love this! Amazing detailed description of the desperation and interactions between these three men.

[Fred]

Amazon drivers have this problem, but they're usually alone in the car and don't have the burden of a uniform and federal regulations to deal with.

[Lee]

Fantastic story.

I love the fact that a 29-year-old bloke wets himself on his first day at work. Most stories are about young lads having accidents, but for someone of that age to do it is brilliant.

The scene when he arrives home would be mind-blowing for me.

[Brian]

Thanks for all the comments.
Yes, Justin probably doesn't live by himself, and when he arrives home too early anyone he lives with is going to have a lot of questions for him! I remember you've sometimes included that scenario yourself in your stories, Lee.

[Mullat123]

Very hot story!!! And very well written, as usual! Thank you

[SimonWater]

That's amazing, a fantastic read!
The whole time I was asking myself whether Justin would make it and if not, how and where the accident would happen.
I love men in all kinds of uniforms who are desperate for a piss, so picturing the two of them in those postal uniforms was very exciting.

[Def123]

Excellent!!

[Wombat48]

Great story