Boxing Clever

Boxing Clever

The persistent low hum from outside her window had Hannah rolling her eyes. It was the kids at number 22 with their stupid intrusive Christmas present…

Why the hell would you indulge kids with this expensive irritating nonsense…if you wanted kids to fly things, what was wrong with a kite?

She pressed her forehead against the sitting room window peering out, exasperated and ready to bark at the culprits.

The family were out, their car was gone. Wasn’t them then.

Then who? She realised that the thrum of the drone had stopped.

“Oh, thank God for that” she thought, picking up her coat and stuffing her feet into her slides. She did not waste anymore time on wondering who…? She had work to do and she was already late.

She barged out of the front door but her leading foot connected with a large rectangular box, that was sitting on her doorstep.

Hannah stepped around it and peered up and down the street. No one there. She would have heard the postman..

She glanced back at this unexpected doorstep guest. There was no label. It was just a plain brown box.

She wondered how it got there. She’d have a look at the security camera footage. Dale, her flatmate had insisted in putting that in. She had thought it over the top at the time. This was a quiet area, but this was weird.

Could it have an explosive device in it, she pondered.

Hannah was known by the alliterative nickname of Negative Nelly for good reason. The rest of her family were such glass half full people .

Maybe it was a wonderful gift from an unknown admirer. How about holding onto THAT thought.

Hannah glanced at her watch and sighed, she was really late now and was feeling very anxious about that fact, but this box was making her feel even worse. She tapped out a quick message to her boss. He was a reasonable person who could be easily hoodwinked with the “my car won’t start” excuse. That bought her a little more time.

Hannah hunkered down ready to bear the weight of the box as she dragged it off the doorstep. Only it wasn’t heavy at all, it felt like it was empty! Not a bomb then….

She sliced through the packing tape with her car keys … and, after taking a deep breath in, and not letting it escape… flipped open the lid…

Well, this looks boring.. there were just a bunch of papers and tiny empty bottles inside, it looked like. She exhaled,feeling irritable.

Impatiently Hannah scanned the papers

They seemed to be instructions of some kind. But there was also an envelope and that, Hannah hoped, contained something comprehensible and most importantly, of interest.

Flipping open the expensive stationery therein, she began to read.

“I’m sorry that I have been unable to introduce myself to you personally. I hope you will read on and maybe understand”

“I have been watching you for some time”. ( oh, thought Hannah, not creepy at all…) “The times being what they are nowadays I fear an approach in person would have been rebuffed. I am the CEO of a very well known company and am one of the richest men on this planet, as I say I have been following you for some time and have also had a team of researchers looking into you…

“I am almost 100% certain that you are my daughter” (No, Hannah screamed inwardly Bill is my Dad!). However she read on. “I believe that blood trumps everything if you are my daughter you are entitled to a substantial swathe of my fortunes, and I’d like to get to know you. I’m sure you can understand why I had to preserve my anonymity and had this information sent to by a state of the art discreet drone. ( Huh thought Hannah sounded as discreet as the ones you can buy in KMart, but ok..)

“You can’t know who I am until I am certain about who you are…. Will you please take the enclosed DNA test, you just need to swab inside your cheek and put that swab in the bottles you see. There’s and envelope for you to send….

Hannah didn’t realise that she was sweating and shaking with rage or fear she wasn’t sure. Bill was her Dad …how could it be anyone else?

And yet… she had always been a bit of a misfit amongst her siblings. The idea of being freed from being a wage slave was a tempting one. Oh, what could it hurt? It looked like the DNA test her aunt had been given at Christmas. Yes, why not?

From an apartment across the street she was being watched by someone who was feeling a rising sense of panic.

Hannah pulled a face at herself in the mirror, who would have thought that this funny looking kid could be a millionaire’s daughter? She opened the swab and swiped the inside of her cheek….

The watcher looked frantically on “oh God that wasn’t Barbeiro, she lived at 26 not 24. Damn drone!

Inside her bathroom Hannah fitted and foamed at the mouth….

Then everything went black.

Next door Notorious Crime boss Hester Barbeiro flipped open her newspaper,

She was enjoying a peaceful morning.