The Weight of Curiosity

Leda sat in front of her mirror, repeatedly brushing her hair slowly. Once she was satisfied, she opened a drawer and perused her assortment of bows. Ben walked into the room, fixing his tie, and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.

“You look lovely,” he commented.

“Thanks, honey. Which one should I wear today?”

Ben inspected the options inside the drawer and squinted while he thought.

“The left one ought to do, I think!”

“I thought the same thing!” Leda smiled brightly. She reached into the drawer full of pink bows and grabbed the one on the far left-hand side of the drawer. It went well with her pink two-piece suit.

The two finished getting ready for the day and then met at the front door. Before leaving, they inspected each other and issued their goodbye kiss. Ben got into his car while Leda walked down the sidewalk of their suburb. Ben backed out of the driveway and drove away. He rolled down his window and waved to the neighbors. Leda walked up to the house next door. She rang the doorbell and straightened her blouse before putting on a big smile. An older lady answered and returned the smile.

“Good morning, Ademia!” Leda started lovingly. “How are you doing on this wonderful day?”

“Great! Great. What about you, Leda? You and Ben working on a third, yet?” Ademia poked Leda’s belly.

“Oh! Oh you!” Leda touched her own belly with both hands and laughed enthusiastically before waving her hands at Ademia. “When the time is right, we’ll add a little one to the neighborhood!”

“I can’t wait to see who it looks like!”

“I agree with you there. Ademia, as you know, it’s Friday. Is there anything you might need from the Town Hall that I can order for you?” Ademia contemplated while stroking her chin, then pointed at Leda.

“The usual!” Both women stated simultaneously and laughed.

“Great,” Leda smiled. “Well, I’ll see you soon then! Buh bye now!”

They waved goodbye, and Leda made her way to the next house. There were two boys playing on a swing set in the front yard. They were giggling and having the time of their lives.

“Good morning, Ms. Leda!” they waved as she walked up to their house. She wiggled her fingers to wave back at them and met their parents at the door. Leda went through the same interactions as joyfully as she did with Ademia. Leda left the second house and continued throughout the suburb, confirming each house only wished to order the necessary supplies. By the time she returned to her own house, Ben was pulling into the driveway right on schedule.

“Hello, my love. How was your day?” Ben asked as he closed the car door. They kissed each other and walked together towards the house.

“Wonderful. You?”

“Wonderful as well!”

Leda opened her laptop in the study. She clicked on a ‘select all’ button which checked every resident in the suburb and then clicked on the ‘submit’ button. She closed the laptop, stretched, opened her hand, and Ben gifted her with a small plate of fruit. They carried on into the night with stories and over-the-top laughs.

The next morning, Ben was making breakfast while Leda put various outfits into the washer. As Leda closed the washer; Ben placed a plate full of food on the table and the doorbell rang all at the exact same time.

“I’ll get it,” Leda said. She opened the door and was greeted by several packages and a crate with some milk and various juices. She leaned down to pick up a few. “Oh, man. These are heavy!”

“Let me help you, honey!” Ben dried his hands and came over to the front door. He picked up the juices and another box while Leda gathered the rest. They placed the packages on the dining room table. “Looks to be everything,” Ben stated. He grabbed the drinks and headed for the refrigerator. Leda tilted her head and saw one package that seemed out of place.

“What’s this?” she asked, almost to herself. Ben peeked over his shoulder and saw the package as well. It didn’t bear any symbol on it at all. A mysterious package wrapped in brown paper had infiltrated their delivery.

“Did you order something new this week?” Ben asked. Leda shook her head and opened everything else. They put away their foods and miscellaneous supplies offered from the Town Hall, leaving only the package.

“Maybe there was a mix up with the delivery?” Leda suggested.

“I can ask around on Monday to see if anyone knows anything about it.” Ben tried to pick up the box but visibly struggled.

“Maybe the owner will stop by or someone will ask about it. Let’s just give it a few days,” Leda offered. Ben agreed and they went about their day.

For the next few days, the sunlight would enter through the east windows, casting its light throughout the house however it could, before resting in the west. Then the nights would drag on. While Ben and Leda carried on with their nearly scripted behaviors day in and day out, the box would sit ominously on their dining room table.

Thursday evening came about, and Leda was getting ready for bed. Ben finished brushing his teeth and walked into the living room. He picked up an open book and took it to the shelf in the dining room. He turned and met the package on the table.

“Coming, Ben?” Leda called from the bedroom.

“I’ll be there in a moment, dearest!”

He squinted his eyes while investigating this thing that spent so much time in their house. No one in town knew anything about it. The neighbors, of course, hadn’t ordered something like it or claimed to be missing anything. Curiosity won out. Ben took a nearby letter opener and systematically made clean cuts in the packaging. Wrapped within the brown paper was… a brown box. Ben slumped his shoulders and pursed his lips as if he was unimpressed and maybe a bit annoyed. He set the letter opener down and grabbed both sides of the lid to the box. He looked around and slowly lifted it up. The contents of the box made Ben’s eyes light up.

There was nothing inside. Absolutely nothing. He desperately looked in the corners and all around. He tried to lift the box and found it to be as light as it should’ve been last week. He turned it over and tapped on the bottom. Ben was perplexed.

“Are you coming?” Leda called again.

“I said yeah!” Ben yelled back. “Geez,” he muttered to himself. He put the lid back on and walked to the bedroom.

Friday morning’s alarm went off. Ben’s hand came flying from the bed and quickly destroyed any thoughts of waking up on time. Some unknown number of minutes passed by and Leda screamed.

“We’re late!” she yelled. She ran to her seat and pulled out her hairbrush. Ben tried to blink the tiredness away and rubbed his eyes, but it was the time on the clock that woke him up. He jumped out of bed. His foot got caught in the blankets and he slammed into the doorframe on his way to the bathroom. Leda’s brushing was rough, and the knots kept pulling her head to the side. She winced at the pain while Ben hobbled into the room, trying to throw on pants.

“Which one… should I… wear?” Leda asked between grunts of pain, tilting her head to the bows.

“Why’s it always pink?” Ben asked as he fell back onto the bed, achieving his goal of putting on pants.

“Excuse you?” Leda asked with disdain, but Ben was throwing on his jacket and was already in the kitchen.

“You look lovely, by the way!” he called back.

“I better,” she responded to herself. She threw a bow into her disheveled hair and buttoned up her blouse. She entered the dining room to see the package. “Benedict, what did you do?”

Ben had a half-toasted piece of bread in his mouth while he put on shoes.

“Its fine. There’s nothing inside!” He raced by and quickly flipped the lid to reveal nothing before closing it again. Leda shook her head in disbelief.

“That’s not the point!”

“Your bow is sideways,” Ben informed her, and he was out the door. Leda stood in silence for a moment before realizing she needed to move as well. She opened the door just as Ben reversed into the street, taking out the neighbor’s mailbox.

“Hey, ya jerk!” someone called. Ben reached out the window and waved him off.

“Ah, just order a new one!” Ben yelled back and he was gone.

Leda walked down the sidewalk, still trying to fix this or that on her outfit. She rang the doorbell to Ademia’s house. She almost forgot to smile. No one answered. Leda rang the doorbell again. Finally, the door creeped open and Ademia appeared. She was hunched over and held a handkerchief to her mouth as she coughed in a rather sickly way.

“Ademia, are you alright?” Leda asked with concern.

“What did you put in my food?” Ademia accused Leda.

“Whatever do you mean?”

“Its all bad! Rotten! Something I ate and now I’ve got this, this cough! All manner of things are coming up!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I’ll be sure to put in an order of medicine and inquire about this!”

“Eh huh,” Ademia slammed the door shut on Leda.

Leda made her way to the next house. The two boys were by the swing set again except there seemed to be a dispute.

“Hey, boys!” Leda greeted them.

“Ms. Leda! Leon won’t share with me!” the younger one complained. The older one got off the swing set.

“You already had your turn!” Leon yelled. The younger one quickly took the opportunity to sit on the swing, but Leon shoved him off. The younger brother began sobbing in pain. The parents rushed outside.

“What did you do?” the mother asked Leda. “Why are you always trying to destroy this family? First my husband, now my child!”

“What?” Leda asked. “I would never—”

“I see how you dress, trying to impress my husband! Even today, you’re missing your top buttons!” Leda looked down and noticed she was still lacking a professional look.

“Honey, you’re overreacting!” the father tried to calm her down. The mother shoved away his hands and slapped him.

“Don’t touch me!” she screamed and ran inside. The father shook his head and turned to Leda.

“So are you and Ben…”

“I’m going to go!”

Leda had continued run-ins with people exhibiting aggressive behaviors or otherwise uncommon demeanors. Her feet hurt by the time she got back home. She quickly forgot that pain however when she saw Ben was already home and talking to a lady on the front porch.

“Who’s this?” Leda asked.

“Calm down,” Ben replied. “I just got home. I was wondering the same thing.”

“Oh, hello!” the woman held out a hand to greet Leda. “I’ve been looking for a package of mine. I was told it may have been delivered here.

“Oh, it was yours?” Ben opened the door and went to retrieve the box. He returned rather sheepishly to reveal it had been opened. The lady placed a hand to her mouth in minor shock and carefully took the box from him. “I’m sorry. We were just curious…”

“You were curious,” Leda corrected him. The woman looked inside, and a small relief washed over her.

“It’s okay. There’s still hope.” She turned to leave.

“What do you mean?” Ben asked. “Hey, what’s your name?” The lady half turned to the couple.

“My friends just call me Dora. I’ll see you around!”

Dora walked away as an ambulance rushed down the street and halted in front of Ademia’s house.