Letters from Home

Letters …

Origins

Mail Call at Stalag 17

One of my all-time favorite films is Stalag 17. And there is a scene where a fellow named Harry Shapiro receives a bunch of mail. It is far more than anyone else. So they ask him how that’s possible. Because none of them can believe it. Why should he get all the mail?

Harry strongly implies that the mail is from girls, and refers to himself as “Sugar Lips” Shapiro. He keeps up the ruse for a few minutes.

But then his friend, Stanislaus (“Animal”) Kuzawa, grabs one piece of mail and starts reading it. So it turns out, the mail is all from a finance company. Shapiro’s Plymouth is being repossessed.

The Tie to Star Trek

Star Trek: Enterprise establishes, in canon, that commerce and trade are still conducted, and people are still using money. Hence the time period works out rather nicely.

Furthermore, there are still automobiles (Tripp Tucker refers to driving an old girlfriend to Chatkin Point). Hence I knew I wanted Tucker for this story, which was in response to a prompt about letters from home. The mail, I decided, would be reflective of Harry Shapiro’s own travails with a finance company.

So for Tripp, the finance company contacts him after the Xindi attack. Of course, he’s more than a little put out by this. And the exasperating correspondence thereby begins ….

Story Postings

• Letters from Home on Fanfiction.net
• Letters from Home on Fictionpad
• also, Letters from Home on Wattpad
• Letters from Home on G & T Show forums
• Letters from Home in context

Rating

The story has a K rating.

Upshot

I like how this one turned out. It’s got a bit of comedy as things go more and more over the top. I also think I ended it at the right point. Any more and the reader might’ve started to feel sorry for the finance company.

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