BOXES (Oneshot)

Tommy felt as if her wife’s inside a big, white box filled with strange-looking machinery. Tensed, he peeked through the small glass window of the delivery room’s double doors as Lena huffed in exhaustion.

Chelsea Wagner, the fruit of a blissful marriage, wailed after getting her left leg stuck inside an empty cereal box. Tommy chuckled as he picked up his toddler, and then told her that he’s a knight-in-shining-armor who will vanquish the monster that swallowed the princess’s little foot.

The contents of the mailbox include a letter from Tommy’s younger sister, Dahlia Wagner Truman, telling him to come to Manhattan ‘ASAP’ because their mom is ‘not well’.

The delivery box containing a baby’s crib arrived. Tommy and Lena are expecting a boy.

Among the honeycomb network of dividers is Tommy’s cubicle – a five-by-five-by-four box-like structure where he had spent ten hours of his everyday life wishing he had a better job.

Tommy assured Chelsea that her little brother, Charlie, is not a ‘favorite’. To cheer her up, he offered her a box of strawberry Pop Tarts but Chelsea merely shoved it away from his hand and sent it toppling to the floor.

Lena noticed their daughter’s fascination with fishes, so Tommy bought Chelsea a fish tank and a few cichlids.

Before driving to work, Tommy secretly placed a bar of Snickers into Charlie’s lunch box – a small token for his excellent grade on their latest exam.

After opening the box, Chelsea declared that she knew all along that Santa’s not real; because she saw her mom stash that stuffed toy from her present inside the closet the day before. Tommy shook his head, thinking: kids grow up so fast.

Lena shared to Tommy her concern about Charlie’s spending most of his time using the Xbox. Tommy said he’d talk to their son.  He didn’t.

Tommy handed Chelsea a small box. He said that in it is his birthday present for her seventeenth birthday. Needless to say, Chelsea was more than thrilled after seeing a car key inside it that she hugged her daddy – something that she didn’t do for seven years.

Before she left for the UCLA, Chelsea gave Tommy a small paper bag with a box of Strawberry Pop Tarts inside, and a note that said ‘You’re not my favorite parent, but I think you’re one of the best in the world.  I love you, dad.’  

 

Tommy stared at the empty square where the picture of the former Sales Department Head used to be, and prayed to see his picture on that spot someday soon.  

The image of the disappointed face of his mother came back to Tommy when he found out that Charlie stashed packets of cigarettes inside an old toy box under his bed.

Tommy received a relatively large paperweight from her daughter. It’s a fiberglass box with a strange-looking shell embedded in it.  Chelsea claimed that it was the preserved exoskeleton of a small horseshoe crab – the animal that is the focus of her thesis.