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Shae stares blankly out of the window next to her small joyless office cubicle, absentmindedly twirling her curly brown hair. Her mind was a million miles away, daydreaming about all the places she’d rather be. A loud noise suddenly rips her from her trance. She gasps, looking around frantically for the source of the noise. Her eyes land on her phone lit up on the corner of her desk with a notification from her doorbell camera. She unlocks the phone slightly concerned, she wasn’t expecting any visitors or deliveries today. Her jaw drops as she opens the video to see a large black drone slowly lowering a brown package onto her front step before flying out of view. She can see lettering on the top of the package, but the video isn't clear enough to make it out.

“What on earth?” She says to no one in particular.

“What’s wrong, honey?” Susan, the woman in the cubicle next to hers pokes her head up over the divider inquisitively.

“Have you ever heard of a package being delivered by a drone?”

“A what honey?” She asks, concerned.

“A drone, you know, those little remote control helicopters?”

“Oh dear” her face filled with genuine shock and confusion. “I don’t know about anything like that honey.” She shakes her head and disappears back into her cubicle.

Shae stares up at the ceiling for a moment, racing through the names and faces of everyone she knows, trying to figure out who would have sent her something this way. Maybe it was her boyfriend, he’s weird enough to try to pull something like this, she thinks, grabbing her phone to call him.

“Hey babe, did you send me something?”

“Did I wha- no?” He says questioningly, “oh crap! Did I forget something? It’s not your birthday, is it? Anniversary-“

“No, no! You didn’t miss anything!” Shae cuts off his rapidly escalating panic. “I just had a package delivered by a drone of all things, so I’m just a little freaked and trying to figure it out.”

“Oh wow! That was definitely not me! But that’s really odd, I don’t know of any companies that use drones, but I’m sure someone’s doing it! You probably just ordered something and forgot about it.”

“Maybe.” Shae says, unconvinced.

“But hey babe, I gotta get back to work! Let me know what it is when you get home, kay? I love you!”

“Love you t-“ but the line was already dead.

Well that wasn’t helpful, she thinks to herself as she begins to compose a text to her best friend, Laura. There is no way it was her, as Laura is horrible at keeping any kind of secret whatsoever, but maybe she’d have an idea of what to do.

S: 'You’re never gonna guess what just happened!'

S: 'A package just got delivered to my house… BY A DRONE!!'

S: 'It wasn’t you right?'

L: 'A DRONE?!?!'

L: 'W.T.F!?!'

L: 'Wasn’t me!!'

L: 'That’s fricken weird though!'

L: 'You should call the police!'

She stares at her phone, contemplating whether or not she should actually call the police, surely they have better things to be doing right? She just starts to dial them when she hears the sound of someone clearing their throat behind her. Grimacing, she slowly turns to see the sharp angry face of her unyielding boss, Kris.

“I’m so sorry!” Shae exclaims and clumsily attempts to explain the situation. “Would it be ok if I ran home quickly? I just want to make sure everything is ok!” Kris glares at her coldly for what feels like forever before finally saying, “No. Obviously not. Get back to work.” She turns on her heel and walks away, leaving a chill in her wake.

“Okay, I’ll just have to wait until lunch then.” Shae concedes.

Over the next few hours, it becomes increasingly more challenging to get any work done as she watches the clock, a giant lump of anxiety sinking deeper and deeper into her gut with each tick.

Shae would never consider herself to be particularly athletic, but when lunch time came anyone would have been impressed with the speed at which she ran out to her car.

She flung open the door, jumped inside, thrust the keys into the ignition, turned!

And..

Nothing. Not even a sputter.

“NO! No no nonono! This can’t be happening!” She yells beating the wheel of her run down old Chevy with the palms of her hands. She lets out a sound, half sigh, half sob and begins furiously fumbling for her phone in her pocket. Luckily the auto shop was just down the street, hopefully if she calls them now, they can have it fixed by the time she gets off work.

“Sorry ma’am, we can bring it over now, but we won’t be able to get it in for another 4 hours at least!” The voice on the other end of the line says, apologetically.

She spends the next hour desperately trying to focus on anything but the mysterious box awaiting her on the front steps, but to no avail.

“I got it!” She yells much louder than she had intended, making everyone in the surrounding cubicles turn to look at her with concern. Embarrassed, she smiles and waves a hand dismissing them. She had just come up with the perfect plan to figure out who sent that box, without having to go home herself! She grabs her phone once more and opens the SnackInASnap app. She starts an order for a couple of drinks and some chips from the convenience store and puts in her home address. In the special instructions field, she types: “I will tip you an extra $15 if you get the package on my step in the delivery photo!” she smiles a smug smile as she submits the order, congratulating herself on her genius. Immediately a notification pops up that the order has been accepted and the snapper was on their way to pick it up. With her mind at ease, she finally manages to get back to work. She gets so engrossed in trying to catch up on everything she’d missed so far today she almost forgets about the package until a little ding from her phone quickly snaps her back to her mission. She opens the notification with a broad smile, fully expecting to see the photo that would end this whole mystery. But instead, she sees a message from her snapper.

'Hey soooo theyre like outta everything so they canceled your order and refunded it sorry dude'

Her heart sank. This was the perfect plan and it failed! Now what was she going to do? She sat in her despair for just a moment before remembering she had her neighbor's number! Surely they would be willing to go check it for her! She hastily thumbs through her contacts and calls them!

The phone rings.

And rings.

And rings.

And rings.

No answer, no voicemail.

Defeat creeps into Shae, her shoulders slump and tears begin to well up, she drops her head into her hands and sits there, unmoving, unable to fathom the events of the day. Work was almost over, but she still had to go deal with the car. She shakes her head, as if trying to shake away the stress and negative thoughts. I’ll just focus on getting a little more work done, she thinks decidedly. But just as she starts to scootch her chair back up to her desk her phone rings. She grabs the phone, answers, and pulls it to her ear in one quick movement.

“Hello?” She almost yells into the phone

“Uh, hey! Did you call me?” It's her neighbor!

“Yes! Yes, I did!! I know it sounds silly, but I was wondering if you could go look at the package on my porch and tell me who it’s from?”

“I’m so sorry, I wish I could! I’m actually out of town right now. We’re visiting family.”

She doesn’t even know what to say. Her last hope was dashed for a second time.

“Hello? Shae? Are you there?”

“Oh yes! Sorry! That’s ok! Have fun with your family!”

She hangs up and flops her phone onto her desk. This day is becoming quite exhausting.

“Hey” Susan pops her head over the divider again, “it’s time to go! Want me to give you a ride over to the shop, honey?”

She didn’t even realize how much time had passed! Thank goodness, she didn’t even care if she hadn’t gotten any work done, at least she was about to be one step closer to getting home and getting to that package!

She walks into the shop and John, her mechanic, waves her down immediately. It must be ready already, she thinks, there’s a little luck in this day after all!

“Hey John, what’s the damage?” she asks cheerily.

“Shae.” He grimaces, “I really hate to tell ya this. But we’re gonna have to keep it overnight.”

“What? Why?” She cries.

“We just don’t have the part we need, and we can’t get it until tomorrow, I’m so sorry.” He looks genuinely sad to have to be the one to tell her this.

“Do you want me to order you a RydeShare?” he asks, seeing the hopelessness spreading across her face.

“Yes, please. That would be great,” she says dejectedly “thanks”

She waits out front for her ride to arrive, replaying the day in her head. Whatever is in that package, it better be worth the stress it’s caused her.

A large white SUV pulls up, the driver rolls down the window and yells, “hop in!”

She climbs in to find five other people already buckled into the spacious back seats.

“Just got a few more stops before you, kiddo” The driver yells from the front, pulling away. Shae looked around awkwardly at the other passengers, almost all of them looked just as frazzled and dazed as Shae. Heads down, looking down at their laps, not saying a word. They sat in complete silence for at least an hour as the vehicle made stop after stop, dropping people off, and picking more people up.

Finally, the vehicle pulled up in front of her house, she awkwardly crawled over the other passengers to the door, thanked the driver, and jumped out.

She was finally home, finally able to figure out who this package was from. The thing she had been trying to do all day. But she couldn’t move. Her feet were frozen to the sidewalk as she was filled with fear and dread. What if it’s something bad? What if it’s a bomb? Maybe she really should have called the police. She gathered her courage and very slowly walked towards the front steps. She grabbed a long branch that had broken off of her tree, stood as far back from the package as she could, and jabbed it with the branch. Nothing happened. She used the branch once more and knocked the package onto its side. Still, nothing happened. At least it’s not a bomb, she thinks to herself, gathering the courage to go up and grab the package. She walks up the first step, craning her neck trying to read it, but she had flipped it too far over. She steps all the way up to the package, takes a deep breath, and flips it back upright.

Scrawled across the top in black ink is her address, written in the familiar handwriting of her mom. Her mom? It was from her mom this whole time? But how? Her mom doesn’t even know what a drone is, and she lives miles away! But as she looks at the package closer she sees a little piece of white paper taped to the top. She rips it off and unfolds it.

Hey neighbor! Hope you’re doing well! This package got delivered to our house by accident! I charged my son to run it over to you, but he insisted on using his new drone! I do hope it gets to you in one piece! If you find anything amiss please let us know! - The other 2627 house

Shae couldn’t believe her eyes. She didn’t know what she expected, but this was not it. She sighed a sigh of both relief and exasperation as she opened up the top flaps of the package. The contents of the package were all wrapped up in paper towels, and another note sat on top, this one, from her mom.

Hi Shae Sweetie! I just wanted to send you a little something to let you know that I love you and miss you so much!!! Everyone else misses you bunches too, especially the dogs!!

I know that work has been stressful lately, so I figured you might need some more of your favorite bath bombs to help you relax! I just made ‘em fresh!

Love you, sweetie! Call us soon!

-MOM

“Yes mom, I am definitely going to need them.” Shae laughs to herself as she brings the package inside.