Postman's Hat

It was funny that Link deemed this object as a mask when it didn't cover so much as an inch of his face. The red, bulky thing was merely another hat that Link once or twice wore instead of his usual green one. Still, it made others see him as a Postman. Something he is not. Does that not, by definition, make it a mask? The logic rang clear for Link, and that was all that mattered. Obtained by a man constricted by his own need to follow a schedule down to the last second, it was a mask that once carried so many burdens with it.

"That is a fine thing. It is filled with the joy of freedom." The Happy Mask Salesman had said when Link showed it to him. Link never quite realized why he would sometimes show his increasing collection to the man inside the Clock Tower. Perhaps it was to have someone who remembered him see what he had earned, someone other than Tatl.

Link had to wonder…was the Salesman right?

The hat was what trapped the Postman within the walls of Clock Town in the first place, telling him he couldn't leave. It weighed down on the man's head and didn't let him move to safety from the demonic Moon that slowly inched its way to the land below. Only when the hat was passed off to Link could the Postman finally remove the shackles of his own schedule and run away.

But…

Did that not mean that the burdens of the Postman were passed on to Link? He could feel the weight when he donned the hat, the pressure of keeping a neat and proper schedule. One that must be followed to the second. And did Link not already have a schedule? The same, three day schedule he had to work on again and again and again and again and again and

Again?

Link didn't know for sure, and in fact this was one of the masks he wore the least. Unlike some others in his collection, this mask had no powers of any sort. It simply allowed Link to look inside mailboxes without getting attention from the citizens of Clock Town. He found some Rupees inside the boxes and, while normally he would be against stealing like this, he knew that once he played the Song of Time again, the money would all return to their rightful places. Surely that didn't make it stealing anymore. Right?

"Why do you keep that ugly thing?" Tatl had asked Link as he peered into the mailbox outside the mayor's office for the first time, a small spark of childish curiosity still lingered in his mind, despite all he's gone through. It almost made Tatl uneasy whenever she actually saw Link act his age. For any other kid, peering curiously into a mailbox to see what it was like would almost be adorable. When Link did it, it was like seeing some sort of impossibility unfold. "Shouldn't you get rid of it?"

To that, Link shook his head as he stepped away from the mailbox and took the hat off, running a thumb over the bunny symbol on its front. "It was a gift. The Postman trusted me with it, even if he doesn't remember. That's reason enough to keep it."

And that was that.