The box

It had gotten tangled in a nearby bush filled with white roses and thorns. It kept whirring furiously, as if trying to extricate itself from the prickly branches. The noise was bothering me tremendously. I walked out of the house and followed that insistent and infuriating noise. I looked left and right and finally saw something onyx black glinting in the summer sun.

“OK”, I said to myself. “So that’s what’s doing that horrible noise”.

I came closer to the bush and saw the drone. I looked at it for about 5 minutes, not knowing what to do. Shall I release it? Shall I just wait for it to eventually power off? What is it doing there?

Then I saw the package it had left a few feet away from where I was. It had aimed for my doorstep but had failed by about 2 feet. Perhaps a gust of wind hadn’t allowed it to deliver the box directly to the front steps… but I hadn’t felt any breeze… it was a sunny day with not a cloud in sight, and nothing was rustling…

It was small. It was rectangular and had lots of different color marks splashed on it. But it had no label. Who is this from? And who is it for? I hadn’t bought anything online for a long time. The inflation rate hikes were really affecting me and my economy, so I had been forced to buckle down and do without, and find second-hand stuff on Offerup for free…and get into the trend of upcycling…

But this package… what is it?

I looked for a stick in the yard and poked at it. Nothing happened. I was reluctant to pick it up. What if it’s poisoned? What if it had sinister connotations? Why was it there? Who sent it?

So many questions on my mind, and I was so busy, trying to complete a job my boss had sent me to do within a very short period of time. Working from home has its advantages but it also has disadvantages. When I used to work in an office, there would be a set time for me to stop working, but now… my boss was requesting tasks from me at all hours of the day and night… and it was exhausting me… to the point where I was feeling that I needed a vacation soon, or else I might have a nervous breakdown… and now this… this thing, that took me by surprise, caught me off-guard, coming to distract me from my duties… and now? What shall I do?

“Take a deep breath”, I said to myself. “Go inside, leave the package where it is. Take a breather, brew a cup of coffee, take a 10-minute break and then you’ll see things more clearly”, I said to myself.

“Alright”, the other part of me responded. What! The other voice in my head had sprung up again! Oh no… this spells trouble…

I went back in and looked at myself in the mirror in the entrance hallway. Can I see my other me? No, thank heavens. So I’m ok for the time being. Wait! the other split part of me faintly appeared behind me, faintly as a cloud or white smoke, laughing at me and mocking me, as it always does. I better get ahold of myself and become one again. Oh no… I sense trouble ahead…

I left the package outside overnight but couldn’t stop thinking about it. How strange… who could have sent it and what is the meaning of it? Does it have anything inside? And whatever is inside, is it for my good or has it come to destabilize me?

“I’d better leave it all night long, under the full moon and morning mist, that will cleanse it of any evil vibrations”, I thought. “I better throw some pink opal and purple amethyst stones on it, for further protection”.

“Haha”, said my other half inside my head. “What good is that going to do? And besides, where are those goddam stones?”

“Oh, that’s true”, I thought. “Where are those stones that my godmother had given me all those years ago?”.

I started rummaging in every drawer of every piece of furniture that has a drawer in my house. Are they in the kitchen? No. Are they in the coffee table of the living room? No. Are they in the night stand of the master bedroom? No. In the antique desk with roll-top cover that conceals all my important papers and laptop? Ah yes, here they are, inside the lilac gossamer bag she had given them to me in. Pretty little stones. When I hold them in the palm of my hand, they make me feel so relaxed and peaceful. Well, let me soak them in some water and Himalayan pink salt first, so that they release whatever dust and bad vibes they may have collected all this time…

All this time… how long was it that I have them?