Screenplay - The Postman

Below is part of a scene from a short film I am almost done with. A mailman, Edward, is on the cusp of burning out and a soon-to-retire coworker's tragedy pushes him to act.  

EDWARD
You deliver mail for thirty years and after that...

ROGER
Never gonna touch another letter. That’s where everything is going anyway. Direct deposit, email, online banking. Hell, I threw out my checkbook. We don’t need mail anymore. I hate it. I hate the mail

EDWARD
You don’t need it. But I do. I still got sixteen years left. I need to hold out until retirement. 

Olivia nearly flirts with Edward.

OLIVIA
Honey. You too smart to be delivering mail. You’re fancy, creative, you gotta nice smile. Anybody can open a box and put a piece of paper in it. 

EDWARD
Just like that? Quit?

OLIVIA
We all know what you should be doing.

ROGER
What he should do is wait out until retirement. It pays. Medical, dental, vision. Until you die. Forever.  It pays you forever. 

OLIVIA
Alright then. You stick it out honey. You just put that bag on and walk that route. You push lil’ Eddie down, down, down and forget he’s alive. Just a mindless machine, a roving robot that delivers the mail. Go on. You know how to do it. You’ve done it for more than a decade.

EDWARD
You can’t argue the pay or the retirement.

OLIVIA
Can you afford to wait for retirement? Your life will be over by then.

ROGER
Oh leave him alone. Your life begins when you retire, we all know that. We’re not Donald Trump or that Facebook guy. Besides, if that is the deal, why are you still working here?

Olivia smiles because she doesn’t want to have this conversation with an old codger. She winks at him and blows him a kiss.

OLIVIA
You just get cuter and cuter the older you get.