Challenges

"It was a dark and stormy night."

Kevin sat up, closed the screen on his laptop, and sighed deeply. Most of the time he enjoyed his job as a high school English teacher. He took pride in having the opportunity to expand their young minds and show them a world beyond video games and TikTok videos. Unfortunately, times like this made him wish that his students could show a little more originality when writing their assignments.

“Seriously Clarice, I’m pretty sure that you could do better.” The grey and white cat sitting at his feet just looked back at him and blinked.

“Don’t give me that look. Just because it’s Friday night and I’m home alone marking English assignments instead of going out doesn’t mean I don’t have a life.”

“Meow”

The knocking on the front door of his apartment caught him by surprise and almost sent him falling backward out of his chair.

When he opened the door, the UPS guy asked him to confirm his name and handed him a parcel. He opened the box and dumped out a letter, a cheque, and a little black book. The cheque was for $250,000 in trust and post-dated for the beginning of next month. The little black book contained a number of sealed envelopes.

Kevin picked up the letter and started reading it:

Dear Mr. Thompson,

Congratulations, you have been selected to receive an exclusive opportunity. In the black book, you will find a series of 15 sealed tasks designed to test your ability to adapt to new situations. Each task has a specific start date and the amount of time that you will have to complete it.

If you successfully complete all of these tasks, the cheque will be honored and those funds will be yours to keep. If you fail, then it will be cancelled. You can only open each task on its assigned date and you must open them in their correct order.

You can not tell anyone why you are doing these tasks.

Everyone in your surroundings must believe that you are doing these of your own choice.

Kevin stared at the letter for a minute and shook his head. It had to be some kind of a twisted practical joke because things like this didn’t happen in real life. More than likely his insane brother was behind it. He was always pulling crazy stunts like this and had been pulling pranks on him since they were kids.

He was about to toss it all into the garbage when he stopped and took a closer look at the cheque. It certainly looked legitimate. When he held it up to the light, he could see the security lines and watermarks in it. The printing also didn’t look like it could have been made on a typical home printer and the detail was definitely beyond anything his brother could come up with.

Maybe it was the real deal after all. And with a quarter of a million dollars at stake, he picked up the book, opened it, and looked at the first envelope. It was dated today, March 1, so he tore it open and read the card inside.

The task was straight forward, “Go outside and greet a stranger. Time allotted: 1 day.”

Simple enough, he thought. He put on his shoes and headed out the door.

45 minutes later, he was back and proudly announced, “Well Clarice, task 1 complete. If all of the tasks are this simple, it might be the easiest quarter million in history.”

The next day, he read the card for March 2. “Compliment a co-worker. Time allotted: 1 day.” He already had a specific co-worker in mind, a fellow teacher named Helen. He’d been attracted to her for over a year but could never get up the nerve to ask her out. Then it hit him, it’s Saturday. His mind started racing to find a plausible reason to call her out of the blue on a weekend. Just the thought of it scared him half to death. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves and reminded himself that $250,000 might be on the line. Then he picked up the phone and started dialing.

Nearly a month later, Kevin collapsed into his chair after completing his 14th task. He looked at his hands and saw that they were still shaking from the adrenaline rush. That’s when he noticed Clarice sitting patiently at his feet, “Can you believe it, Clarice? I jumped off a freakin bridge!”

She just looked back at him, blinked, and jumped into his lap.

Never in a million years would the thought of going bungee jumping ever occur to him. He leaned back into his chair and reflected upon the last month. No matter how many times he played those events back in his head, he still had a hard time believing that it all really happened. Most of the tasks pushed him far out of his safety zone and made him aware of just how small the box was that he was living in.

The fifth task was to volunteer at a local soup kitchen. Until then, he had no idea of how many people in his community needed help and now made it a point to go back at least once a week.

Task 6 was to go rollerblading. Even though he spent more time on his butt than on his skates, he had to admit that it was fun and would definitely be trying it again.

Task 10 was going to a gun range. He had never even held a toy gun before but getting to fire a real one was amazing. It felt like something right out of a movie. Although, he had to admit that not even the broad side of barns had anything to fear from his marksmanship.

Task 12 was to perform at a comedy club. He was pretty sure that he bombed but did manage to get a few snickers. Next time, and there would be a next time, he was going to prepare some better material. This feeling of confidence was completely new to him and incredibly empowering.

He was pretty sure that the bungee jumping was going to be a one-time thing though.

His co-workers also commented that they noticed the positive change in him and several asked him for his secret. He had even taken Helen out to dinner twice and they both had a great time. Once he had some new material ready, he was thinking of taking her to the comedy club to watch his performance. When he told her about his volunteering at the soup kitchen, she thought that it was an incredible idea and asked if she could come with him.

He picked up the book and stared at it for a while. Only one more task to go, then he would get a quarter of a million dollars. Even if this turned out to be one hell of a practical joke and he wouldn’t get a cent, it still would have been worth it. The experiences that he had over this last month were like nothing he could compare with and wouldn’t trade any of them for the world.

There was no question that he was a better person for them.

But he couldn’t stop thinking about the money and imagining what having that much could do for him. His student loans would be gone. So would his car payments and credit card debts. He could finally put a nice down payment on a condo and start making some equity instead of just paying rent.

“Meow?” Kevin could see that Clarice was getting tired of his daydreaming.

“Don’t worry sweetheart, I won’t forget you. How would you feel about a brand new cat tree with a fancy house on the top?”

“Meow”

“You probably think that I should spend some of this money on a nice vacation? How about Amsterdam? Or maybe Paris? I’ve always wanted to see the Eiffel tower.”

“Meow”

Then another thought hit him, “Do you think Helen would come with me if I asked her?”

“Purr”

“You’re right. We’ve only been on 2 dates so it might be a bit early to start planning a European vacation together but I will hold on to that thought.”

He turned his attention back to the book. The last envelope had tomorrow's date on it and, even though he was dying to see what his last task would be, he didn’t want to risk losing it all by being impatient.

After a pizza, a quick shower, and his nightly chat with Helen (who couldn’t believe that he managed to work up the courage to go bungee jumping) went to bed and tried to get to sleep.

After several hours of tossing and turning, Kevin looked at the bedside clock and noticed that it was 5 minutes after midnight. Excellent, that meant that it was now technically tomorrow and he could open the last envelope in the book. He paused as he began to tear it open and tried to consider all of the different possibilities. Perhaps it was skydiving or maybe driving a race car? It didn’t matter what it was because, armed with his newfound confidence, he was certain that he could handle it.

Instead of a card with a task printed on it, there was a picture of a distinguished-looking gentleman. The name Walter Cartwright was printed on the bottom along with an address.

He turned the card over and the three words printed on the back stopped his breath and made his blood turn cold.

“Kill this man”