The next morning sees me kissing Tellina goodbye before sunrise. If not for the extra shift I am being forced to take tomorrow, I would be leaving as well. They’re all going for her grand-aunt’s ninetieth birthday celebration this evening. With all the travel and gathering restrictions going on, they almost canceled completely. If they weren’t staying through tomorrow to help her sort through estate matters, the trip wouldn’t even have been a continued consideration. I don’t expect them back until Monday, perhaps Tuesday without me along.

I am so tired. I think I’ll lay down on the sofa for a while. I have a lot I’d like to get done today, but there’s no hurry, really. Maybe I can re-join the nice dream I was having about flying.

In no time at all, my phone awakens me with Tellina’s ringtone.

“Hello?”

“Turn the TV on and go to the news!” she exclaims. Something big must be going down.

“Hang on,” I say, “What’s going on?”

“Black boxes are showing up on everyone’s doorsteps!” she says, “Is there one on ours?”

“Hang on,” I say, grabbing the remote first. I turn on the sound system and the television. Why did I never finish programming the one-button power? I can’t remember why. Oh, well.

Opening the front door, a large black cube is sitting a few feet from the storm door, right in the middle of the walkway.

What’s going on here?

“Turn on channel three.” I hear from Tellina. She echos my thoughts quite frequently. Sometimes with a supernatural-seeming ability.

Time to switch the source on the television over to the antenna. Thinking of the antenna mode on the TV reminds me yet again of the home-made setup in our attic. I’m quite proud of my work in creating it. Our reception is fantastic now.

“...again, there is no official word yet on the origin or contents of these black cubes. They have been delivered this morning by flying drones to every front door in the city. City officials are advising citizens not to touch the cubes. We go now, live, to Sally Forthright, on the scene at City Hall.”

This is insane.

Drones? Autonomous Drones? Delivering to everyone? Our city is about 180,000 people. Since not all of them will have a house, let’s just guess it is something like 100,000 boxes. They were all delivered this morning. How long did they take? Hours? If each delivery averages only one minute, which seems like not nearly long enough, it is still something like seventy drone-days of effort. Just how many drones were there?

“It sounds like everyone is clueless about what’s going on.” Tellina comments.

“The news says it’s happening all over the country, and nobody knows anything.” Theresa’s voice says.

“Do you think they are bombs?” inquired Tellina.

“Yes!” came Theresa’s reply.

“What do you think, Thomas?” Tellina asks me.

“I think I have no idea. This is freaky for sure, but bombs seem unlikely to me” I said.

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“Why not?” came the dual-voiced reply.

“It’s a waste of effort, for one thing. Someone has gone to an awful lot of trouble to deliver these so quickly. If they really wanted to deliver bombs, the roof would be easier and would go unnoticed for longer.” I said.

“So what? It’s a gift?” Tellina said, incredulous tone included.

“Could be, I suppose. There’s no bow, though.” Oops. Apparently humor is off the agenda this morning. “I am going to get a closer look.”

“No! Don’t!” she implores.

I can hear her concern for me. She’s right. This really could be anything. Most of the things I can list off the top of my head are definitely on the not-good list. Still, it’s an awful lot of effort, just to deliver them.

The television grabs our attention again. It appears the boxes have been delivered all over Europe. This must be world-wide.

Could it be? It would definitely fall into the too good to be true category. Even so, could it really be? Could my wild conspiracy daydream be actually true? It certainly seemed insane enough.

“I need to look at this more closely.”

“What do you mean, ‘need’?” she asks. She caught the word. I know better, honestly. She catches everything.

“I mean: Need. I need to get a close look. If they are what I think they might be…”

“What? Wait! You don’t mean that crazy theory of yours?” Her tone tells me what she thinks of my “theory”.

“It would fit,” I say. “I’ve got to know.”

“Let’s do it this way: Can you hear me, Theresa?” I asked.

“Yes, I can hear you and I think you should stay away from that box!”

I can hear the concern. I know she wants the best for all of us.

“I’m not agreeing to let you blow yourself to kingdom come by voiding a lethal warranty!”

You see, this is why I love this girl. Well, one of many reasons, really. Still, she gets me. She knows I have voided many warranties in my time, and not always successfully. Poking me with such a phrase hits me closer to home than a non-geek argument would. I can tell she thinks I want to indulge my inner tinker self. While she is definitely correct, there is a lot more to this.

“I will be careful. You know I’m good with gadgets,” I told her.

“Really? With alien boxes from outer space? You’ve got no business going anywhere near it!”

This is not going all that well. Time to shift gears.

“We have no idea where they’re from. They could easily be from any number of terrestrial sources.”

“Bull! There’s barely a handful of possibilities and you know it! Are you actually listening to yourself? ‘Terrestrial sources,’ really?” The air quotes in her voice are a nice touch, I think.

“Turn around!” I hear her say, “We need to go back!”

“Don’t you dare!” I sharply reply. “You can’t get back in time to help me, and Aunt Claire is going to need your help now more than ever. The sooner you can get there, the more you will be able to help her.”

“Don’t worry about me,” I continue as they are pondering, “Everything I find out while you’re traveling will only help you that much more when you get there.”

“You’re a damned fool if you even try to touch that thing.” my father-in-law inputs. He is generally a man of few words.

“You already knew I was a fool,” I say, “And you also know I’m not an idiot and I can be very, very careful.”

“Just stay inside and see what the television says,” came Tellina’s pleading reply.

“No. I told you. I need this,” I hope she can hear my resolve. “If it starts to seem dangerous I will cease and desist. I promise.”

“You stubborn moron!”

“Yes, dear. I love you too,” I reply, “I will be as careful as I can. You guys stay safe, and I will let you know what I find out.”

All three of them know my stubborn streak. From my perspective, it is usually just a tendency to mean what I say. It goes along with saying what I mean, nicely, I think.

“Thomas,” I hear Theresa say, “If you won’t stay away from it, at least run away if it seems the least bit threatening. Please?”

“I will, definitely,” I answer.

“Thomas?” I hear Tellina say.

“Yes, dear?”

“You be careful,” she says through a cracking voice. I know the tears are coming. I need to go before they come for me too.

“I will,” I say with sincerity, “I love you.”

“We love you too,” comes Theresa’s voice. Tellina probably can’t speak now.

“Thank you. You guys be careful, and I’ll talk to you later,” I say.

“Make it sooner than later!” she replies. Have you ever noticed hanging up phone calls is unreal in movies and television shows? One of them would have just hung up at the end of the information part of the call. If someone hung up on me before I said ‘bye’ or whatever, I would be quite angry.

“Will do,” I answer, as I punch the hang-up button.

I know they’re right. I know this is a crazy, lame-brained idea. Downright dumb.

As I move back to the porch, I take a deep, nervous breath. Contemplating the alien object on my front porch, words come to my mouth unbidden...

“Let’s dance.”