Notes on... The Lives of Others

There had been an interesting looking letter in the post box for days. Neither J or K had decided to pick it up. One day K comes home from work and finds the letter opened on the side. It appeared that J had mistaken it for his own interesting looking letter. It immediately looks like the most interesting letter you could possibly ever want to read. It was typed in a handwriting type of script as if to fool the reader the sender had in fact written it. The letter actually was for R.P(not J) who K and J knew was the previous tennant. K ran to the sofa with joy to read the letter but J was very upset in the corner of the room, as if he was almost traumatised by what he had read.

The letter is from R.P's aunt, Shirley. The letter begins with general formalities and asking R.P if she still lived at the property as she had some things for her which had been left in a relative's will.
J encourages K to stop reading the letter but as K has developed an alter ego similar to Sherlock she continues regardless.

The letter takes a sudden turn for the worst. "L has been critically ill." ... "The consultant told me to prepare for the worst and to pray" ... "We are extremeley lucky she has survived."

K suddenly feels very guilty reading about the content of the letter but has to carry on anyway. Just when K thought the letter could not get any more interesting, Aunty Shirley takes the intensity up a notch, "Your Dad told me before the funeral that he and your mum wanted to draw a line and have no further contact with me and that's the way it has to be."... "I wasn't able to keep on seeing you"...I would welcome you back with open arms. I do, however, understand that its difficult."

Aunty Shirley asks R.P to get in touch and leaves her email address. K re reads the letter many times and tries to draw J in to speculation about what could have possibly have gone so wrong for Aunty Shirley. J refused to be drawn in to speculation so K tried to seek out other sources of speculation much to her avail. K told J she wanted to get in touch with Aunty Sheila but J feared Aunty Shirley would contact the police about J opening her letter by accident. After googling the penalty for opening someone else's mail K decided she would contact Aunty Shirley. I think K was secretly hoping to become a form of confidant for Aunty Shirley but unfortunately this was not to be.

K emailed Aunty Shirley to tell her R.P no longer at this address and that the letter had been opened accidentally but judging from the content of the letter K felt Aunty Shirley would want to know. K began to get very anxious when she received no reply. Some time later, Aunty Shirley's name appeared in K's inbox and K opened the message with much anticipation. Aunty Shirley thanked K for taking the time to let her know. This was the only text in the email.

K's interest in R.P was now very high. K decided to look through the mail which had been collecting for R.P since they had moved in. Suddenly K and J found themselves accidentally opening more mail. Other items of interest found include an angry letter from the landlords about the state R.P and partner left the flat in and that they had not received their deposit back. J found a letter for another person P.F which contained their membership card for a biking instructor's club. To make this even more interesting, instead of where P.F's photograph should have been was just the outline of a person. K decided she would take it upon herself to start wearing P.F's ID and live vacariously as a biking instructor. J also found an uncollected parcel notice for P.F which just needed some ID to collect it. J was temporarily foiled as he did not have any ID for P.F, until he was reminded that infact he did and K was wearing it round her neck.
K had to restrain J from running out the door to the Post Office as suddenly everything was going a bit too far. K and J tidied away the mail and put it back under the sofa in its hiding place.

K wore the ID badge for the next ten days before J threw it in the bin whilst she was at work.