The Box

 

“I have had about all the delayed gratification I can stand," said Geo.

 

"'The Voices' said that I could open part of my package.  I don’t know what part of that present 'The Voices' want me to have.  You show me, okay, and we will open it together, and it will be sort of like you getting something too.”

 

“Okay,” she said, her smile returning.

 

He held up the package.  “What do I do with it?”

 

“Untie the string,” she said. 

 

He did.  He opened the paper, and inside looked to be a stack of folded cardboard boxes. 

 

“Take one out,” she said, and he did this, too.

 

“Okay, now, you just sort of…play with it…until it fully expands.  I love this part" she said, letting out a little squeal.  "Grab the edge of the box, and  pull, like you do with a computer window.”  She worked with the box for a while.  It was clear that she was recovering from her tantrum.

 

“Good lord!” She said, as it kept expanding.  “I wonder what this is!”  She kept pulling on it as it stretched from inches into feet.

 

“Here, you try this,” she said.

 

He pulled on the corner of the box.  He stood up and walked as the box got bigger and bigger.  Then it seemed to stop growing. At this point it looked like a white, flat board.

 

“Now this way,” she said, and they took turns pulling forward.  It went two or three feet in that direction, forming a flat slab.  “Now up.” And it went a couple of feet in that direction too, filling in its final volume.  The box was huge.  It looked like it might be a refrigerator lying on its side.

 

“Now let me check, since this is your first time,” she said, looking at each of the corners and feeling if it was completely pulled out.  She showed him what she was doing.

 

“Okay, now… when they are all pulled out…. You should be able to find an edge where the box has a top and a bottom.  Aha!  Feel this.”  So he came and felt the box on its front edge where she indicated.

 

“Yes… okay… Now what?” he asked.

 

She rubbed her hands and fidgeted. 

 

“Now, you open the box.”

 

***

4:53:47 PM