Chocolates from No One

There were no footsteps in the snow. Yet the package lay there, warm as babies’ breath against the frigid surrounding air, freshly placed.

This was the third time this week.

Margot closed the door this time, walked to her broad living room window, and took up a post watching the outdoors.

Silence met her from the neighborhood- not a soul in sight. It was a frigid January morning, too cold for even the neighborhood dogs to be heard barking in their yards.

On the other side of town, Jamie was curling her hair in front of the mirror. She was preparing for a date with a man she had met on a dating app. They were to go to the local pizza place. She thought it was a lame date idea, but she hadn’t made any other plans for the weekend and wanted an excuse to look nice. She finished the last ringlet- her hair sizzled as the curling wand soaked up hair product. Then she touched up her lipstick and walked out the door.

She nearly stepped on the small package. It was wrapped in brown paper, and tied with twine. Jamie let out a little gasp, and looked around. Not a soul in sight. She smiled to herself and grabbed the package. She brought it inside and set it on the table and undid the twine.

Inside lay a neat little box. She lifted the cover on the box and revealed four neat squares of chocolate- two had neat rows of fudge stripes, one was plain, and one boasted a roasted hazelnut at its crest.

While only vaguely wondering where the chocolates had come from, Jamie popped a fudge-striped chocolate into her mouth. The center was gooey caramel. After eating the fudge one, she popped the plain chocolate into her mouth. The aroma of port wine flooded her palette.

Jasmine popped a tamarind candy in her mouth. She wound her finger around the cord of her phone charger as she listened to the news reporter drone on about the hot weather. She was sitting in one of the town’s two pizza shops, an empty pizza box in front of her and a pouch of her favorite tamarind candies. After work (she was a waitress at the only fancy Italian restaurant in town) she had stopped by her favorite Mexican grocery store and then grabbed dinner. It was a favorite routine of hers to wind down after work.

As she stared listlessly into space, a young couple walked in- Jasmine immediately recognized her friend Jamie- and whatever guy she was on a date with this time. Jasmine’s lips spread into a wide, coy smile, which was quickly smote down by a glare from Jamie- clearly stating “I’m on a date- leave me alone!”

Jasmine choked on a laugh and closed her pizza box, preparing to leave. At that moment, her phone rang. She saw that it was her boyfriend calling, and pulled it off the charger.

“Jazz,” Rafael said, voice mechanical through the phone, “You got a package.”

“I’m not expecting a package.”

There was a pause. “A gift, maybe? A little brown box showed up.”

Jasmine was walking toward the door. She paused to sneer at Jamie on the way out, who looked very uncomfortable sitting across from a man with a mustard stain on his back. Jamie was frowning and her curls were wind-swept.

Indeed, when Jasmine got outside, a chill winter wind berated her. She had donned her jacket, but it wasn’t enough for this cold. It was a two-block walk home, and when she opened the door to their large apartment, she was relieved at the warmth inside.

Rafael greeted her with a hug, and Jasmine sat down at their table where the package indeed lay, wrapped in brown paper and twine. Rafael sat on the couch- he had the news playing loudly. Jasmine picked the package up and looked for a tag or a return address, but there was nothing of the sort. She frowned. She didn’t have any family who lived in America, let alone the town, who could send her something.

“Maybe it’s like, junk mail?” she asked.

Rafael shrugged. “Open it.”

Jasmine found herself apprehensive as she picked up the package.

Margot frowned at the other two girls. Jamie and Jasmine had agreed that she had the coldest countenance of the three, and today their friend was especially judge-y. They all sat around a small, square coffee table in the crowded Sunday cafe where Jamie and Margot worked.

“You both opened the packages?”

It was Margot’s disappointed tone that made a man at a nearby table raise his head from the paper.

“Well…” Jasmine had turned pink as Margot reiterated the question for the second time.

“Yes!” Jamie said indignantly, “And they were delicious. You should have opened yours.”

“I just don’t open packages that have no sender.” Margot said, crossing her arms. She shook her head as Jasmine stared at the floor and Jamie continued to look indignant.

“Excuse me, ma’ams,” the man at the nearby table piped up. He had put down his newspaper. “I don’t mean to eavesdrop, but I received the same package this morning.”

Margot, still indignant, snapped, “Did you open it?

The man shook his head and Jasmine shrunk further in her chair in shame. “I dropped it off at the hair salon where my wife works, when I saw it was chocolate. ‘Bout an hour ago. She loves chocolate.”

Jamie smiled smugly, and watched Margot scoff in the subtlest way possible, wrinkling one corner of her flat lips.

“Well,” Margot said politely, returning to her normal investigative self, “did yours have an addressee?”

He shook his head again. “No, ma’am.”

“You know...”

Everyone jumped as a small, middle-aged lady in pink spoke from a foot behind Jasmine. The lady continued, “I got one of those too!” the lady’s eyes bugged with excitement at the gossip. But I called the police. My cousin had gotten a ‘surprise’ package once a few years back, and it turned out to be filled with dung. I’m not letting no ruffians fool me.”

“Well that settles it,” Margot said, and stood up in a most Margot-ish, final way. “I’m off to the police station with my box.” Everyone except the middle-aged lady looked at her uneasily. “It’s simply not right for strangers to be leaving packages on everyone’s doorstep in the town.

“Maybe it’s an advertisement.” the man suggested. “Is there a new chocolate place in town?”

Everyone knew there wasn’t- it was a small town that rarely changed.

“Maybe someone is just being nice.” Jasmine said modestly, “like baking cookies and dropping them at someone’s door. Maybe someone in town is making chocolates as a hobby and giving them as gifts to everyone.”

“They ought to start a chocolate shop.” Jamie murmured, her eyes shining dreamily.

“Perhaps you’re all right,” Margot said smartly, “But I want to be sure.”

No one said anything as Margot picked up her bag, turned on her heel, and walked out the door, which shut with the tinkering of bells.

Everyone sipped their coffee in a quiet moment, silently thinking to themselves that Margot was overreacting.

Margot was driving with the heat on full blast in her tiny, silver Prius. It was a short drive around the edge of town to the police station, a neat little blue office on the edge of a forest. The untouched package sat delicately in the seat beside her. Margot parked the car in the tiny parking lot, and entered the front door of the station into an office with fluorescent lighting, an ugly contrast to a big window looking out back into the snowy trees.

Margot explained the situation to the fat woman sitting at the front desk. Her badge was askew.

“Ma’am,” the woman said, “You’re not the first to call about this.”

“Oh, I’m sure I’m not--”

“We’ve had twelve different reports already about this ‘package’. Everyone is suspicious. But, honey,” she said in a placating tone, “it’s probably nothing. Just eat the chocolate. The officers here got more things to worry about than a bunch of nice gifts randomly appearing. Some lady at the hair salon almost choked on her own illegal vodka just now. She was lucky the town doctor was in her chair! She had been going to the back room and drinking it out of her hairspray bottle.”

Margot’s brain whirred at this news. “But I just met a man who gave his chocolates to a hair salon. What if she choked on that?”

The officer regarded her with a bored expression. “Honey, go worry about something else. We’ve got all this under control. These chocolates seem to be innocent. Miss 'Vodka' has a serious case to be fired for being found with liquor in her place of work. According to her clients, she’s seemed under the influence for months. This ain’t nothin’ new.”

Margot agreed with the officer’s sound logic, but left the station feeling slightly miffed and ashamed. What was she thinking, looking for trouble where there wasn’t any?

In the woods, hidden from sight in the branches of a large tree, a man crouched, who comfortably watched a silver Prius back out of the parking lot and turn down the ice-covered road. Nothing suspicious had happened all day, as far as he could see from his lookout, and today had been the last day of the deliveries. He knew that his plan was sound- with so many packages of harmless chocolate, the one with poison would easily be missed.