Kathleen Vaughan

LILIANA

It was January 1st, 1971, my 25th birthday. I was feeling very blue that day. My grandfather had died two weeks prior and there was no one left who loved me. The box, about twelve inches square, brown-paper wrapped and tied up with yellowed cotton twine, showed up on my doorstep in the late afternoon. I noticed it when I returned from my walk to the beach. Right away I knew this was going to be strange. There was nothing on it : no tracking numbers, no postage, no addresses. Only a scrawled name, Liliana