Love In A Battlefield

Chapter 19

The days were spread apart in an even pace. I stayed home from school hooked up on oxygen nubs 24/7. Matt has been coming by after school every day to catch me up on study material or to drop off homework that I've missed that day. The nice quality to having a boyfriend.

         I sit in my room listening to the latest audio book that I've downloaded onto my computer while tapping my wooden #2 pencil onto the desk with a steady pace. My mind tracing out geometric signs and equations while my math homework sings confusion in a language I don't get.

         The window is slightly open and I can barely feel the breeze flow at the name of my neck. I can barely concentrate to hear the birds twitter a song of joy. I can barely tell that a noise comes from my front door and echoes through the empty house. I check the time. 2:07 p.m. Matt shouldn't be coming by yet but I go to the door anyway. Geometric signs and equations will have to wait.

          When I get to the front door, footsteps depart and I watch the person walk away with hands tucked inside her jacket. Mail lady. With a sigh of—much needed—relief...I open the door to find a box sitting in a pool of potential energy right there on my doorstep. The box doesn't have any identification and no Amazon tape to suggest the sender. It has a note card tapped to the front with my address with no return address in the left corner. Not even a stamp on the top right.

          The box stares at me. I finally pick up the light box and walk it into the kitchen before setting it gently on the counter, the mere idea of opening this box with no one home is not an option but what if I should? What if it's something that is important?

         No, Quinn! The little angel on my shoulder says. The little angel is usually the one I listen to.

         Yes! We need to know what is in that box! Open it. Open it. The devil says on the opposing shoulder. I usually only listen to this shoulder when I'm in need of a little adventure.

        The box is too suspicious. The devil and angel bicker in my head for too long before I wave my hand around my head. The buzzing and deciding stops when I chose to walk away and wait for my mother to return home to open this box. You won't see me open a suspicious looking box at 2:07 in the afternoon. Nope.

          I go back to my desk of solitude while the pencil goes back to it's annoying rhythm of tap tap tap. The audio book continues speaking past a chapter that I didn't get to hear but I don't care. My chair creaks and the homework stares back at me with uncertainty tainting it's writing. The box in my view from where I sit by my door. The box and it's red sharpie writing with tap keeping the tag viable on its journey to wherever it came from.

          But I kept my composure in doing the geometry homework rather than look at the box on the counter. I peek a second look at the brown cardboard.
-                              -

          Hours later. Minutes after completely the geometry homework. Seconds after finishing the sixth chapter on the audio book, I hear a car door snap close and a lock honk that the door is fully secure. I jump up and wait on the couch for my mother to appear. The doorknob jiggles ever so slightly.

          Seconds later, my mother is walking into the house. Her face normal and her expressions normal as well. She looks at the box.

         "What's this?," She says.

          My shoulders lift "I'm not sure. I thought it was yours since it has your name on it." She takes a closer look at the cardboard on her counter. "Is it not?"

          A saddened expression waves over her face while she traces the notecard taped to the front "Yes. It's mine." She picks it up and walks away with it in her hands. I hear a bedroom door shut down the hallway.