Melissa The Invincible Mail Lady
by John Barker,  IV



Copyright: John Barker, IV

2005

Female bodybuilder and mail carrier Melissa saves a girl from a vicious dog.

The afternoon sun oppressed every inhabitant of Lynn that August day. It was
the third day of the heatwave. Temperatures in the nineties and high humidity
with no breeze were things the denizens of that run-down mill city got used
to.

As Melissa walked her route, she was glad of the heavy USPS-issue boots, light
shorts and short-sleeved shirt she was wearing. The boots added little to her
height of 5'8". Her long blonde hair was done up in a ponytail for comfort and
convenience. Her tanned skin showed almost brown where it protruded from her
pale blue shirt and slate-grey shorts. And the flesh under that dark-gold tan
was powerfully muscled.

Melissa boasted 16-inch biceps, and 26-inch thighs. They complemented her new
42DD breasts that she paid three months' wages for. She wasn't wearing
make-up, but still knew she was pretty. She didn't need make-up. She got lots
of second and third looks and whistles from the male residents of the beat-up
neighborhoods she served.

Melissa had been making ends meet by delivering the mail in this suburb of
Boston for two years. In her spare time, she was accumulating every award that
she could in the female bodybuilding scene in the Northeast. She had just
built her own website, and happily noted that, with 10,000 hits per day, she
could develop a members-only pay section soon. That would help pay the bills.

Shortly after 2 PM, she turned down Walker's Court, the part of her route she
liked the least. Three houses of the eight on the street had either Pit Bulls
or Rottweillers in the household. As in most cases, the only reason for the
presence of these dogs was to keep the police at bay while drugs and drug
money were flushed down the toilet. Young children were left to themselves
while their "mothers" dozed in heroine-induced bliss in front of the TV
watching Oprah. Shiftless men, old and young normally prowled the court,
looking for mischief to do. None were about now in the heat of the day.

After the first two houses on the left side of the court, Melissa came to a
house with her least favorite creature in the yard, behind a chain-link fence.
This was a dog, if you could still dignify the animal with that title, bred
from mastiff and Rottweiler stock. It was huge, the size of a pony. It was
ferocious, and showed its desire to explore human anatomy to every passerby at
all hours of the day and night. And it was strong. The beast was, through
repeated efforts, dislodging the foundation of at least one post in the
eight-foot high fence.

Melissa hated delivering the mail here. The inhabitants of the house were the
most villainous-looking people she had ever seen. Both male and female, they
were large, fat, odorous, and lacking in anything that might be called social
graces. Loud "music" constantly pounded through the walls, and could be heard
on the next street. Plus she had to get past the "Hound From Hell" without him
smashing through the fence. She doubted that the can of mace she carried would
do anything to stop this creature.

Melissa made it past the snarling beast, though he was hurling himself at the
fence in a very disconcerting manner. "Well, that's over for the day," she
thought.

She reached the end of the court, and turned to work the other side of the
street. A woman in very short skirt and very high heels emerged from the house
at the end of the street just as she passed; An habitue of the streets getting
ready for an evening's work.

A little Hispanic girl of about five came out of the second house from the end
to greet Melissa and get the mail. No sign of anyone watching out for her from
the window, naturally. At the sight of her, the creature in the yard across
the street was at first silent, and then began barking and snarling in as much
earnest as it had when Melissa delivered to its own house.

"Hi Melissa," said the girl, Mariel by name.

"Good afternoon, Mariel, I have something for your Mom," said Melissa in her
best Spanish.

The girl took the catalog and the second notice on the electric bill casually,
and smiled up at Melissa. "See you tomorrow."

"Good-bye Mariel."

Melissa noticed that Mariel made no move to go back inside. She also noticed
that the beast across the street had not stopped its furious noise, both
barking and hurling itself against the fence that encased it. Apparently, it
didn't like children, or liked them too much.

"Another happy day on Walker's Court," passed through Melissa's mind as she
continued on her route. Only five more streets and she was done for the day;
maybe an hour more. It was too hot to work out tonight, though it was her
regular habit.

Melissa delivered the mail to the last house on the street (three "past due"
notices and a summons from Lynn District Court), wiped the sweat from her
forehead, and was starting to turn the corner when she noticed that the sounds
the "dog" was making had changed.

She looked back and was aghast to see that it had finally succeeded in
unearthing at least one post in the fence, had made it underneath, and was
charging for Mariel. Mariel, who had apparently been playing with a piece of
debris she had found on the curb in front of the building she lived in now
stood transfixed watching the beast close the distance between them.

"Shit!!!"

With that, Melissa flung down her bag and ran back, trying to head the beast
off from Mariel. She knew she would not be in time. Her cell phone was in her
pocket. No time for a call.

The beast reached Mariel first, and clamped its jaws on the tiny child's arm.
Melissa was still a good ten yards away when it closed on the child.

"Oh God, let me not be too late."

Melissa had not formulated any real plan of what to do when she got to the
animal and the terrified and now bloodied child.

Mariel was down, and the "dog" was starting to drag her around. The beast's
back was now turned to Melissa.

Melissa reached the scene, and without further thought, hurled herself onto
the animal's back.

Somehow, she had to make it relinquish its grip on the child. She drew back
her fist, and landed a mighty blow on the side of creature's head. Briefly
stunned, and realizing it had a more dangerous, if not so tasty opponent, the
beast let the child's arm go.

Melissa took advantage of the animal's temporary indecision and wrapped her
arms around its neck from behind. The creature's fearsome size just enabled
her to lock her hands in front of the base of its throat.

The "dog" began to try to dislodge its new opponent. Melissa tightened her
grip, and held on, knowing that she dared not let its teeth reach her. In her
fear, she tightened her grip again. Her large biceps bulged and constricted
the creature's neck and throat. Still, the beast wriggled and snarled and
tried to bring its powerful jaws to a place from which they could sink huge,
sharp teeth into Melissa's flesh.

Melissa looked down and saw that Mariel was badly hurt. The skin of her arm
was torn along a gash at least a foot long. Melissa was sure that she could
see bone exposed. Nobody was stirring in the neighborhood. None would come out
to help. If any had stirred out of drug-induced drowsiness enough to notice,
the most they might do was call 911. This was Melissa's problem to deal with.

As she saw how badly hurt Mariel was, a great rage boiled up inside Melissa.
And she came to a determination of how to deal with the situation,
permanently. Her boots now found the creature's back paws, and stepped on
them, holding them down. She had noticed that its back claws had been
sharpened by the owner, to make it an even more fearsome instrument.

She not only continued her arms' grip on the beast's neck and throat, but
found the strength to increase the pressure. Slowly she drew her strong hands
back in to her, locked and knotted in front of the beast's throat.

She summoned up even more strength, and somehow lifted the creature's front
half from the ground, so that it was now pawing the air. The back of its head
pressed into her huge breasts, while her powerfully muscled arms tightened
even more.

More and more pressure Melissa exerted. And weaker and weaker became the
beast's struggles in her arms. The snarling was now subdued. Soon it was
silent, concentrating its strength on ways to break free from Melissa. It was
still trying to find purchase for its teeth.

Greater and greater was the force Melissa was exerting. Soon she noticed that
the only sound the beast made was violent efforts to bring in air. Slowly but
surely, she was strangling the huge beast in her powerful arms.

The gasping was desperate. Otherwise, the beast was silent and still. All it
could do now was to try to find air to keep itself alive. With unbroken
concentration, Melissa was determined that it would not live to maim another
child. She would make sure of that with her bare hands. She made her grip
tighter still and drew her hands even closer in towards her.

After nearly a minute more, she could hear the gasping no more. Then the beast
tensed almost every muscle in its body, and suddenly went limp in her arms.
Melissa continued the pressure, and even increased it for another minute. She
counted off the seconds, fighting back tears, and calling to Mariel. The child
was crying pitifully, unable to heed her, losing a lot of blood. Melissa
needed to be done with this beast and help the child.

To be sure it would harm no more children, she wrenched it violently to her
right. Her effort was rewarded with a sound like a tree-branch breaking as its
neck bones snapped. She was sure it was dead now.

Melissa quickly let the lifeless body drop to the ground, and rushed to
Mariel. There was no sound of sirens. She looked over the injuries, and knew
they were beyond her first aid ability. She took her cell phone out and made a
hurried report to 911. The operator stayed on the line with her, assessing the
situation and telling her what to do until the ambulance arrived four minutes
later. Mariel had lost a lot of blood. The EMTs rushed her into the ambulance.
Melissa pointed out the house Mariel came from to the accompanying cops. They
knocked on the door until well after the ambulance left.

One of the cops looked over the body of the beast in the street.

"It sure is dead. How did you kill it?"

"I strangled it."

"No shit? You strangled that? It's the size of a small horse."

Melissa made her statement to the cop, who listened with admiration. Of course
there would be no charges. Even in Massachusetts, no judge or jury would ever
consider convicting someone of killing an animal if that animal was
threatening a child's life.

The cop had the station call Melissa's base, and a replacement would finish
her route. Melissa was shaking now, and crying. She had never killed anything
bigger than an insect in her life. Yet somehow, she had found the strength to
strangle something about the size and ferocity of a large mountain lion. All
the pumping iron had a purpose after all.

She went home, and cried some more. She called the hospital, and found that,
with the privacy laws, they now no longer gave out information on patients'
conditions.

The low-lifes who owned the beast had called the post office to complain about
the "unnecessary force" Melissa used to save the child and destroy the "dog."
Her supervisor gave them no comfort at all. Melissa briefly wished she had
them in her arms, but thought better of it.

It was three weeks before she saw Mariel again. She was with DSS workers, and
leaving her home with her things packed in a garbage bag as Melissa went by on
her route. The child ran to her, and threw a heavily bandaged arms around the
mail lady who had saved her life.

"Out of all this misery," Melissa thought, "at least there is a little joy."