7464 in the New Year

"No! For the last time I absolutely will not donate the ottoman!" Cade slams the door in the face of his neighbor, who had been hounding him for weeks to donate to "the best charity on the block". He'd already sent four bags right after Christmas. He needed something new, something that stirred him out of this after-holiday funk. Commotion outside drove him to open his door again and he peered outside. Nobody on the porch. No sound in the street. But a shadow in his peripheral made him spin around. It was one of those silver drones, which seemed too big to be flying around where kids were playing. It whizzed past his head, barely missing him. He ducked, but by the time "Hey!" could come out of his mouth, it had changed direction and disappeared. He couldn't find anyone, even though he walked out to the street and peeked down the alley. A small box KER-PLUNKED onto his perfect grass. There was no need for a front yard anymore, but he still liked to keep it immaculate. He tried to open it, but there didn't appear to be a lid. There was something written on the bottom, a string of numbers. "Two, Two, Three, Dash, Six, Four, Six, Three," he read out loud. Someone must have meant to pass this to their friend and couldn't learn a simple instrument like a drone. He typed in the numbers to his phone, trying to see if they were connected to something familiar. It might be a phone number. But no luck. Maybe a code? He tried putting in letters in place of each, starting with B as 2. BBC-FDFC. Nope. He picked up the box and looked at each corner and all the edges. Definitely no opening, but there did seem to be letters here, scrawled in a light pencil, like someone tried to erase it. "Song" was the word, if he read it correctly. Just then, the phone rang.

"Hello?" When he answered his mobile, nobody was on the other end. Must be a telemarketer. They called at least five times a day. He balanced the little box on one finger. It looked like it was made of cardboard, but it felt slightly heavier and whatever was inside didn't shake very much when he flipped the box upside-down and right side up. He typed the numbers into his phone again, then notices his keypad. They had letters on them. He grabbed a pad with his grocery list scrawled on it and turned it to the blank side. He wrote starting from the top on the left side, with spaces between. It just looked like a bunch of numbers, with no discernible pattern:

Then he read out loud, "Three dash six. Could this be three sixes?" Sounds ominous. He circled the last line, having only written out to the sixth digit since the message only covered those. Then he crossed out the one, since it didn't have anything. ABG-GMD was the original. He tested his theory using three sixes instead of three, then the six, putting in the first letter next to each number to start with, continuing the pattern for the repeated numbers. ABMNMGHD

Ring! went the phone again, and he picked up again, not even bothering to say hello when he heard the dial tone. He immediately went back to his modern-day crossword puzzle. Or was it Sudoku? Then he wanted to see what it looked like with the last letter inserted: CAONOIMF. Cade copied that into search, with the word "song." Ring! This time he didn't even bother answering it. Sure enough, there was only one ring before the person hung up. Probably the machine. The constant ringing in his ears gave him an idea. Song. He added "song" to the search and was corrected to "canoe song". With a sigh, he turned back to the mystery letters. What if he split them? AB MN OG D Or possibly from the other direction... CB ON MI F. Nothing helpful except some popular artists and a kid's song.

Ring! Again with the interruptions! He picks up the phone. "Make it fast." He wasn't in the mood.

"Hey, man. It's me." His sister's fiancé was chipper. "Did you get it?"

"What, Jeff? You mean the drone was your idea?"

"Well, yes and no, I let Grant take the controls, but I think he almost made it to you. At least I hope so. There wasn't anything attached to it when--"

"Let me get this straight. You nearly knocked me out because you couldn't walk over to my house and left me the mysterious box that I can't open with that mysterious message."

"Message? What are you talking about?"

"Those numbers. And the word on the side?"

"There was nothing on the box when I sent it to you."

"Are you sure?" The line clicks. "Hello? Jeff? Are you there?" Nothing. He hangs up and turns to the box that wasn't supposed to have numbers on it. Ring!

"First of all," Jeff's voice rattled off on the other end before Cade could say anything, "That was Grant's version of a hint. Also, didn't you get my hang ups?"

"Huh? That was you? Why?"

"I'll give you a hint. Pachelbel. And you squeeze the diagonal corners. See you tomorrow night!"

Cade picked up the box, his thumb on the bottom right side and index on the top left and pinched them together. The seam split. "Oh!"

Note from the author: Did you figure it out? This was a silly story in response to a challenge that was posted on VM at the end of November, called The Mystery Box. I must have forgotten to refresh my feed and thought it was due today! If you didn't figure out my code on this one, I'll tell you the same thing I told myself (after I finished writing the story): Better luck next time! - HM.