The Mystery Box

My days had been unseasoned nightmares the past years. The constant feeling of black despondency and the empty longing for another dawn. I make nothing happen and nothing happens to me anymore, other than self-provoked embarrassments as the result of my lack of understanding of this world. I had been given the secret of the living Dead I remember thinking everyday back then.

On that winter day, as dreadful as any other. I decided to call in sick to work, for the 5th time that month, facing the potential termination of my only source of living in this society.

“Hi Jacinta…” —my hesitant voice was giving me away— “I’ll be working from home today as well…”—

“I understand” —We both knew all the overdue work I’ve accumulated— “Thank you.”

“Thank you” —I was grateful for her. But also felt I was failing her deeply.

Dead silence.

I hung up.

Not everyone could understand. But I was involuntarily glued to my bed. My hair was turning white due to the daily melting process my hair was undergoing with my pillow.

At the time, I lived in a low-rise courtyard apartment building, with that fabricated grass area in the middle and doll-house toys that nobody used. The neighbors’ arguments noises really bounced well though. So far I know about five cheaters and someone’s mom died last week.

Wrapped up in the bed sheets, a buzzing noise caught my attention, like a moving bee hive, followed by a thud outside my front door. I felt my very self crumbling. What was that? I wasn’t expecting anything to be delivered today. The uncertainty was mocking my existence once more. As soon as the buzzing sound disappeared into the the distance and I felt a shade of confidence to open the door, I rushed. Slowly opened the door. I spotted a box on my doormat. I gazed up and I saw what seemed like a dark silhouette on the sky, and the buzzing sound moving away with it. I’ll be damned if it wasn’t one of those dreaded things that everyone’s been getting. A drone. Between us, I wanted one also.

I grabbed the box and locked my door as fast as possible to avoid Nathan. My noisy neighbor that seemed to think everything was a conspiracy and wanted to share his unsolicited opinions on the “real shape of planet Earth” and “the truth about dinosaurs’ origin” which apparently were Chinese nationals. Who knows.

Not complicated enclosed, just simply taped. I opened it. I was shocked.

This must’ve been noisy Nathan. It had to be. He was attaining his revenge after countlessly ignoring him everyday.

The box was empty.

I grabbed the box, rushed to the door, put on my coat and hat and took off at breakneck speed. “That drone couldn’t have gone far” —I remember thinking. Going back to that moment, it was silly of me thinking it could’ve been Nathan. He was missing one or two screws to be honest, but he wasn’t “THAT” crazy I thought.

I needed to know who was behind the delivery via “drone express”. I got in my car and drove off. I circled the block and asked a couple of people. Just one guy thought he might’ve seen something landing on top of the hill at the nearby park when he was jogging.

I drove there, parked, and walked to the top of the hill, just to find a letter pinned to the only tree on the hill. Well. Of course I grabbed the letter and opened it. I was being the main character in something. I had to know what was all this about.

What was written in the letter brought me to tears.

“It will be ok. Even if it doesn’t look like it, there are people who care about you. Just look closely. I think you're an interesting person. I could fill you in on cheater number two. They're back together.

P.S. I know Earth is not flat. I was just trying to be goofy. I do need clarification on the whole dinosaurs matter though.

— Nathan”

My stupid nice neighbor. We married 3 years after that. I own the damn drone now.