Unexpected Delivery

The Mailbox door slammed shut as Evan locked it and headed to the elevator. He stepped inside as he thumbed thru the junk mail. The elevator reached the fifth floor, opened up the doors, and let out a large ding as Evan stepped out into his hallway. The grunting on his left was from an older delivery man struggling with a medium sized brown paper wrapped box.

Evan rushed over to offer a hand as the delivery man set the package down and began to enter information into his tablet. "Do you need someone to sign for that?" Evan asked. The delivery man continued to type on his tablet as he responded.

"Nah, just hate leaving packages out in the hallway. Had a lot grow legs and walk away." Evan looked at the box as he continued the conversation. "Well, I didn't know I had a new neighbor. But, if it helps I will take the package and give it to them." The delivery man stopped and looked at Evan suspiciously as he pondered the request.

"You want to take responsibility for this package? Then I will need your name, signature, and phone number in case it never makes it to its owner. Because, I am not going to take the flack if you decide to keep it." The delivery man spoke bluntly as he handed the tablet to Evan and pointed out where to put the information.

Evan did his best to scrawl out his name with his finger. He handed back the tablet and waited for the delivery man to give his ok. The older man looked at the tablet and then to Evan. "Ok." The delivery man wasted no time going to the elevator and getting on.

"Your Welcome." Evan stated as the doors closed. He reached down expecting the package to be heavy. It puzzled him slightly as the box felt empty. He shrugged it off as he unlocked his door, sat the box down on the table, and flopped down onto his couch. Evan turned on the T.V. and settled in to watch.

Loud music woke him up as he looked out his window and saw it was dark. Evan noticed it was from the new tenant as he stood up and stretched. He looked over to the table and found the package was missing. Evan immediately began looking around the table and his apartment for several minutes. He turned on all the lights, but still could not find it.

The puzzled man scratched his head as he slowly surveyed his apartment. The loud knock on the door made Evan jump. He realized he had not even noticed the music was off. Still looking around Evan answered the door to an impatient brunette woman.

"The delivery company said you were holding my package!" She spoke with an agitated tone as Evan gathered his thoughts to respond. "Yeah, I did. But, I...um...misplaced it. I sat it down on my table and when I realized you were home, I went to grab it..." The impatient brunette became angry as she interrupted. "You misplaced it? Where is my package?"

Evan stood there and tried to come up with an explanation. "I told you. I sat it on my table and now it isn't there. I've looked everywhere and I can not find it." The brunette pushed past Evan and entered his apartment.

"What do you mean you can't find it? It's right there on your table! And you opened it!" Evan spun around to the angry tone of the brunette to find the opened box on his table. He yelled back in defense.

"How did I open it, when it wasn't there...!?" The apartment went dark, cutting Evan off in mid-sentence. He waited a few seconds before fumbling in the dark to the couch and his phone. Evan turned on the flashlight, shinning the light on the still agitated brunette and her open package.

"Hold on, I'll go check my breakers. Only downside to this old building." Evan watched as the brunette crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. He quickly went to his bedroom and opened the breaker panel. The light from the phone showed that all the breakers were still on.

Evan decided to flip the main breaker off and back on with no results. As he studied the breakers muffled noises coming from his Livingroom caught his attention. "Just a minute or two and the power should be back on." Evan sighed as he yelled into the dark apartment, still flipping the main breaker off and on.

After several tries the apartment lit up and Evan turned off his flashlight. He walked into the Livingroom to find it empty and an overturned chair. His door was still open as he walked into the hall looking for the brunette. Evan knocked on her door for several minutes with no answer.

He walked slowly back to his apartment looking back several times hoping to see the door open. Evan shrugged it off as he closed his door, chalking it up to a disgruntled neighbor. The weirdness of it all played through his mind as he righted the chair and began turning off lights to go to sleep. Even as he climbed into bed it did not make any sense.

A noise from the Livingroom brought Evan back to awareness. He sat up, listening more intently and going thru his mental checklist, to make sure his apartment was securely locked for the night. Another noise made him doubt his checklist as he quietly climbed out of bed. Evan tiptoed to his bedroom door, holding his breath as he opened the door enough to peer out with one eye.

The light from the T.V. caught his eye and allowed him to have a sigh of relief. He smiled to himself at the silly scenarios that he imagined as he walked into the Livingroom to turn it off. Evan grabbed the remote, clicked the T.V. off, and turned to head back to bed. He made it a few steps before the T.V. popped back on, startling him in the darkness.

As Evan turned to look at the T.V., the open box on the table caught his eye in the dim light. He cautiously approached it, as the hair on the back of his neck stood up. The scared man slowly reached for the box and as his hand touched the cardboard, the dim light disappeared as the T.V. clicked off.