A couple days later, Andy and Barney watched as the town drunk, Otis Campbell come in for the weekend. Andy and Barney were still talking about Ralph's letter. Otis was listening in on the conversation.

"What the heck are you talking about, Barney?" Otis asked, already interested in this kind of talk.

Barney told him.

"Wow. Are you actually going to be doing this?" Otis asked.

"This guy actually wants to meet in person," Barney answered, "so I guess I will just have to wait and see."

"This should be interesting – a family member living in the future coming to Mayberry in the sixties. I want to see this for myself," Otis said.

"Otis, the whole town of Mayberry wants to see this," Andy said, "and so do I."

"What was the date when the letter was sent?" Otis asked with curiosity.

"I read the date in the eighties, Otis, but Gomer and Floyd saw the date as 2014," Barney told him.

"Holy cow! We have a long time to get there," Otis said with surprise.

"You better believe it," Barney said as the phone began to ring.

Both Barney and Otis watched Andy pick up the telephone.

"Sheriff's office," Andy greeted the caller.

He listened to the caller for a minute, then they hung up.

"Barney, you stay here with Otis. It was Opie's school, saying he got sick," Andy said as he stood up to leave the office.

"Sorry to hear that, Ange. I'll stay with Otis."

By that time, Andy had already left.

"So are you going to call up or write this person who found out about you, Barney?" Otis asked.

"I guess I'll have to, Otis. Andy thinks I have a mystery to work on," Barney answered.

"It does look like it, Barney. I do agree with Andy," Otis said.

Otis wasn't finished talking quite yet.

"Barney, while we're still on the subject, have you started writing to this person about your decision?"

"I started it last night, but I didn't get too far," Barney answered.

"Did you bring your letter here today so you could work on sending it to the character who wrote a 2014 letter here to Mayberry? Boy, strange things have been happening here in Mayberry lately," Otis said while he shook his head.

Barney answered, "Yeah, I did bring my letter with me this morning, Otis, but we'll just have to wait and see how busy Andy and I get."

"Well, that makes sense. Why dont' you share what you've got so far?" Otis asked.

"Not yet. I have only three lines of it," Barney told Otis.

"Oh," was all Otis said.

Andy came back to the office and sat down at his desk.

"So, how's Opie doing?" Barney asked.

"He's doing a bit better, Barney. It looks like he'll have to stay home from school tomorrow," Andy answered.

"That's a shame, Ange. You didn't miss much of anything while you were gone."

"I know I haven't," Andy said.

"Barney bought along the letter that's going to be sent to the future, Andy. He won't even share what he has written," Otis told Andy.

"Maybe he doesn't want to share with us, Otis," Andy replied.

"Andy's right, Otis. You can forget about it for now," Barney said, agreeing to what Andy had just pointed out.

"Darn," Otis said.

Maybe once Andy and Barney would leave for patrol, Otis thought he could look at Barney's letter to Ralph Furley. Maybe by now, he hoped he wouldn't get caught from Andy or Barney about his reading the beginning of Barney's letter. 'Wow, this should be interesting,' Otis thought to himself. Otis laughed.

"Mayberry is all about the secrets. Can't anyone give me time to myself with wanting to know what goes on with my life?" Barney asked out loud.

"It doesn't look that way," Andy answered.

Barney wished Ralph's letter never came here to Mayberry, but it showed up unexpectedly.