The Package

It was just another Tuesday afternoon in late July. The temperature was a blistering 97 degrees Fahrenheit, and no one wanted to be outside unless they were in a pool. The neighbor’s dogs were barking as usual, so the TV had to be turned up again. Kelly decided to make some lemonade and chocolate chip cookies. Her lemonade and cookies were the best in the state, and though she knew it, she never bragged about it. The thought of surprising Mike and the kids when they got home was always a treat for her.

Once Kelly finished making the treats, she decided to relax by taking a bath. Just as she got the water to the perfect temperature, she heard the doorbell. “I wonder if they’ll go away if I ignore them,” she said with an exasperated tone. The doorbell rang another 3 times within 30 seconds, which gave Kelly her answer. She hurried to get the door so she could begin tub time as soon as possible.

Once she opened the door, she noticed no one was around. At first, she believed she was being pranked. She looked around to see if any trouble was brewing, but she found nothing of the sort. Instead, she found a package wrapped in brown paper. The package had no addresses or labels, but it had one distinct item attached: an envelope taped to the top of the package. What freaked out Kelly the most was the fact that the envelope had nothing written on it.

Kelly wasn’t sure if she should even bring the package into the house. What if it had a bomb or something? What if she opened the package outside and it contained something embarrassing that the neighbors might see? Kelly was confused, but she was glad that at least the kids weren’t home yet. She decided the smartest thing to do would be to leave the package outside but to open the envelope inside. What Kelly would read would soon turn her world upside down.

Once she got back inside the house, she immediately grabbed a letter opener and saw the letter was only a single page. What intrigued Kelly even more was that the letter was only five words long. It read, “Aliens exist. You are one.” She immediately began laughing uncontrollably. “What a gag,” she said to herself. She wasn’t really worried anymore. Of course, why would she be when this was clearly a joke? She decided to grab the package to discover its contents, hoping to have another big laugh.

Once Kelly had gotten the package inside, she tore it open as quickly as possible to see how this would play out. The package contained what looked like a watch with a single red button in the middle. It had no clock, no alarm, nothing of any sort except for the button. Naturally, she wondered what the button would do. Now, she had to decide whether or not to press the button. At this point, she had completely forgotten about her bath and the relaxation time she desperately craved only a few minutes ago. She went back and forth for what seemed like a hundred times on whether she should actually press the button. Finally, curiosity got the best of her, and she pressed the button.

Nothing happened. There were no lights, no sounds, no indication that anything at all had just happened. It was like she didn’t press the button at all. Thinking maybe she didn’t press it down all the way, she pressed the button again, this time making sure she pressed it all the way down. It was the same result. She began pressing the button frantically, something in her stirred to action by the letdown of the entire ordeal. She figured there was nothing to be done about it, chalked it up to a childish prank, and tossed the watch in the garbage.

Two days later, as she working on her latest novel, she thought about the watch. No matter how many times she pressed the button, it did nothing. What she didn’t factor into the equation previously was that she wasn’t wearing the watch. Maybe the blood flow in her arm would cause the button to do something, anything. She opted to wait until Mike and the kids went to bed before she would do anything about the watch.

After Mike had gone to bed, and the kids were long asleep, she found a pair of gloves and went outside to sift through the garbage. She felt a little self-conscious at first, but she soon dismissed it for the excitement of the event at hand. Even if the watch didn’t do anything this time, at least she had some fun with it. After searching for a few minutes, she found the watch.

She went back inside the house and quickly cleaned the watch. Happily, she put the watch on and pressed the button. Suddenly, a feeling she had never experienced had come over her. She couldn’t even begin to describe her thoughts and emotions in those moments. After a few seconds, Kelly looked around and noticed she wasn’t in her home any longer.

There were three men standing within ten feet of where she stood. She asked them, “Where am I?” One of the men explained they were scientists that had been searching for beings on other worlds for many years, and they finally found the first world with life only a few decades before. Because of the physical similarities between the two races, they sent several babies to this planet to be adopted and to grow up learning about the planet and its inhabitants. They designed watches that would transport the wearer back to their world so that they could study and learn from these observers. They were using a translation tool to understand Kelly’s language.

Despite a barrage of questions popping into her head simultaneously, Kelly exclaimed, “You still haven’t answered my question. WHERE am I?” One of the other scientists simply stated, “You are on Earth.”