Ancestral

There was a certain mystique about the box that lay in front of me. One that I couldn't get over. I had to know what was inside of it, there was no second thought about it. I had already decided if it was a bomb or some sort of chemical agent meant to dispatch me, that I would be ok with that. What did I have to live for anyhow?

All of my family was gone, my parents died three years ago. My older brother had been left with the farm, the house, and all the possessions therein. He passed away just last summer, while on one of his alcohol benders. Drugs and alcohol are a dangerous mixture, and he never quite understood that. Or, maybe he did and just didn't care enough to stick around. I don't know, but it doesn't matter now.

I was left with the farm when he passed, being the only living member of my family. I had no one, no distant relatives, that I knew of, a few friends, but they wouldn't be too surprised if I were to pass away mysteriously. It was just me and the old family dog, Scout. He was the one who alerted me to the drone that flew in, dropped a package, and made its escape before I could shoot it down. Who knows, maybe that would've brought even more trouble than whatever I was about to see in the box, but I enjoy my secluded lifestyle and a random drone is not a welcome sight to me.

Scout was restless because of the uninvited guest, and so was I. I let him free of his leash in preparation for the worst that could come from the mysterious box. Once inside again, and on the couch I quickly took my pocket knife to it, breaking the seal of the tape, the first obstacle. "It hasn't exploded yet," I thought, "there must not be a thing to worry about". I opened the box like a child tearing into a Christmas present. In my defense, This was the most exciting thing to happen to me in quite some time.

Once opened, I was first greeted by a letter that was completely unmarked just like the box. I threw it to the side to read later. Underneath it was three items. A wristwatch, that had to be from the early 1900s. A stick that looked strangely like a wand and finally, a large book with writing that was illegible to me. My interest was piqued. I had to know where the book came from, where the package came from, and what the items were meant for, or whom they were meant for. "This has to be delivered to the wrong address," I thought, "I'm sure someone is missing part of their costume for Halloween."

I threw the items back in the box haphazardly and tore open the letter. The letter read,

"Opening was the first step, will you take the second?"

"That's it!?" I yelled as if the letter could speak back to me.

"No name? No return address? nothing? Just three worthless items, and a stupid riddle!?"

I threw the opened letter back into the box with the other items. I stuffed the box and its contents into a corner of the living room in my frustration, feeling a bit let down. It sat there for some time.

A week went past and nobody had come for it. Every day an inkling of intrigue and wonder crept into my mind about it. I would brush it off and go about my day, but over time, it was growing unbearable. I had never been drawn to something so much in my life.

After a week and two days, I had had enough. I had to figure out the riddle. It was plaguing my mind, constantly repeating, with no possible answer I could come up with. It was making my daily chores and self-care nearly impossible. I would catch myself thinking through scenarios at all times of the day, too many to mention, and all abstract and farfetched.

I woke up this morning and decided that I would spend the day investigating the items. The book was the biggest question mark for me. There had to be some sort of code or clue inside of it. I sat down on the couch and started flipping through its pages. Almost nothing stuck out to me. It was completely illegible with very few pictures. The only thing that caught my eye was a bookmark, it was a feather that had been laminated with small purple and white flowers all around it. The feather was a Golden Eagle's tailfeather, white with a black tip. I noticed it mostly because I had seen my mother use one very similar to it while I was growing up.

In fact, I knew just where my mother's bookmark was. I jumped up from the couch and ran to the bookshelf that was in my parent's office room. I pulled the book out that I knew my mother's bookmark was in, with the new bookmark in hand. It was astonishing, they couldn't have been more similar. I paid no attention to the book it was in and went back to the couch to check out the other two items in greater detail. "Maybe this package was meant for me," I thought as I sat down.

I pulled the wand-like stick from the box next. I identified the handle as Black Walnut and the longer section to be Maple. There was nothing obscure about it, no engravings anywhere, no hidden compartment. I thought about snapping it in half to see if a note was inside, but I just couldn't push myself to do it. Something was swaying my mind to believe it had importance just the way it was.

Finally, I grabbed the watch. To my relief, there was an engraving on the backside of it, which read,

"The steps you take

may only count

with one hand in

and one hand out"

"Great! Another damned riddle!" I proclaimed

Scout looked up at me from his chair on the other side of the living room. The look in his eyes was like he knew something but just couldn't tell me. I said "What is it boy?" and he laid his head back down, almost with an attitude of disappointment. I had come up with nearly nothing from my deeper investigation into the items in the box. On one hand, I was happy to have a bookmark that was exactly like my mother's, and on the other hand, I was angry that now there were two riddles to decipher and a bookmark to constantly remind me, even more, that my family was gone.

I went to bed that night frustrated and even more confused than the week prior. I tossed and turned all night, sleepless, hopeless, and dismayed. The few hours of sleep I got were met with an awakening to a day of chores that had been neglected. I stumbled through the day, barely awake, almost zombie-like. I constantly cursed the package that had cursed my life since the day it arrived. My mental state was fading and I wanted nothing more than to throw it away and be done with its stupid riddles.

The day was coming to an end. Scout and I headed back to the house. As I opened the door, Scout bolted to the office and barked loudly at me. I unbuttoned my holster and drew my pistol and ran behind him, thinking there was an intruder in the house. Luckily there was not, Scout was barking at what seemed to be nothing at first. "What the hell are you on about, Scout?" I said in a whisper. Scout didn't miss a beat, he kept barking, turning to the bookshelf, and back at me. "You want me to read you a nighttime story? You really are getting soft in your old age buddy," I said.

Then it hit me, the book. The book my mother's bookmark was in, had to mean something. I picked it up and read the cover,

"One Hand In"

My heart nearly stopped. How could I have missed something so easy to have seen the day before? I was appalled at my detective skills. I walked briskly to the couch and began to read the book. It took hours to finish, but by the time I was done, I was more confident about the possibility of figuring out what the riddle of the box was.

The book was obscure. It talked about another plane of existence, not the afterlife, but a whole different world, maybe a different dimension, I was unsure. To me it was fiction, but the book and the items together made sense. It was at this moment I first thought I had received a gift from my family... like they were with me again in some way. One passage stuck out to me,

"The wand comes with wings, with one hand in, and the other out, your flight to this realm will be free and clear."

"What is this madness?" I said to Scout, almost expecting him to respond to me. I couldn't tell if things were coming together in my mind or if my mind was slipping. Scout was unamused by my question and didn't even perk his ears up at me. Reality became blurred. "Could there be another world, a different existence, a plane that is not seen?" I thought.

I didn't sleep that night. I stayed up and continued my investigation into the items and the book, that had added to the mystique the box brought into my life. I made no real advances until the morning light came, and I noticed something I had been missing the entire time. The seals on the spine of both books were identical. I knew at that moment that the illegible book had to be "One Hand Out".

I spent the next couple of days mulling over in my mind what I had found. Something was missing. Some sort of ritual maybe? An incantation? "Oh what the hell is wrong with me, magic and interdimensional travel ARE NOT REAL," I said to myself, in an attempt to get my mind off of the riddle that had overcome my life. I needed to focus on the upkeep of my farm, the animals, the house, and all that came with them.

No matter what I did, my mind always drifted to the possibility of some greater meaning in the books, and the items in the box. I woke up one morning with renewed vigor, one with sheer determination to figure out the overall riddle. I was sure that I had completed the "second" step. So, the riddle of the letter was complete. What was left? To find out if this wand, I've been calling a stick holds any power!

I'm the last person in the world who would ever believe in these types of things, but there was something I couldn't deny about this whole experience. Through my reading of the book, one thing was clear. The wristwatch had to be worn. In the book, the characters were always referring to a time that was on their wristwatch. Certain times would carry them to certain places. If the wristwatch was ever lost, they too would be lost.

I anxiously buckled the wristwatch on and set the time to 11:23. This time mentioned in the book was meant to carry the wearer to a world that was quite safe to travel to. "Am I really doing this?" I thought. That thought faded quickly as I remembered I had to try this, otherwise, I would be nearly paralyzed by thought and unable to accomplish my daily tasks.

The next part was unclear. I knew the wand had a role to play, but what of the books? There had to be something in the riddle of the wristwatch. "With one hand in, and one hand out." That part was what had stuck out to me as the most important. I wrestled with ideas for quite some time.

Suddenly it struck me. The book that was illegible to me, had to be part of the device. "One Hand In," the book that stayed behind. "One Hand Out," is the book that would help carry me to this new world. I looked at Scout who had been wagging his tail with excitement all day. Something I thought he had grown out of with age. I was happy to see him this way. His demeanor gave me hope that I was truly on to something.

With confidence, I clutched the illegible book in my right hand. I carried the wand grasped in my left where the watch was secured to my wrist. I opened my door and stepped out onto the porch, looking for the drone that had brought me this gift. I wanted to make sure that nothing was watching me, but I knew from what I read in my mother's book, I had to be outside to make this work.

I hurried into the forest, to make sure I would be as inconspicuous as possible. I checked the time to make sure the wristwatch had not been jostled on my journey. Everything seemed to be in order. "Now what," I said to myself. A moment passed as I questioned things and thought of myself as childish. Then, almost habitually, like it was natural to me, I raised my left arm to the sky.

Light, brighter than anything I had ever experienced and beaming with immense power, surrounded me, and in an instant, my whole world changed. Quite literally. The world around me was completely unfamiliar. The trees moved differently, slower, and more constantly. There were animals everywhere, mostly small, quick, and wary of my presence. The sky had a different hue to it, not too different, just different. The air was crisp and made me feel like I was breathing deeper. My mind raced. I had done it. I was in a new world, at least new to me.

The excitement of it all made me lose track of time. I wandered aimlessly for what must have been hours. Taking in the new smells, the sight of crystal-clear waters, and animals that were unfamiliar and unafraid. Eventually, the night was creeping in, and being in an unfamiliar world, I felt it best to return home. I reset my wristwatch, this time to 11:22, "always a minute before to return to the place you were before" as the book read.

Again, I pointed the wand toward the sky and was surrounded by light, and in an instant, I was back on my farmland. I rushed back home. Opening the door and barreling inside, Scout greeted me with his tail wagging and tongue hanging out. "I did it, boy! How did you know about this?" Scout looked at me with that look he had given me a couple of weeks before, one of knowledge I had not yet attained. "Can I take you with me?" I asked him, hoping for some kind of clue from him. He wagged his tail even harder and I knew that was a "YES."

The days came and went, and the journeys to this new world became longer each time. Scout accompanied me on each trip I took. He loved to run and play with the animals and seemed rejuvenated by the new world we had discovered together. It became our home away from home.

I doubt I will ever know for sure who had that box sent to me that day. I'm very thankful for whomever it was though. There must be more to the riddle. Maybe a hidden society of travelers? Scout and I will keep searching. In the meantime though, I like to think it was my parents' way of reaching out from the grave. That they had it sent anonymously to test me to make sure I was capable of holding such a responsibility safely within my hands.