Gifts From Destiny

The packages started arriving the day after I turned thirteen. The first package was a small brown paper box tied with a string the size of my hand. It was just sitting in our mailbox, and it was the first piece of mail that was addressed to me that I ever received. At first my parents were suspicious because there was no return address, but after opening it and checking the contents, they relaxed and gave it back. Inside was a key chain of an atom, of course I didn’t know at the time, I just thought it was cool.

When I went to school with it attached to my backpack, I was stopped in front of the classroom door by the prettiest girl I’d ever seen. She was practically glowing with joy and excitement as she started to explain my keychain was that of an atom, what an atom was, and the science behind it. I didn’t understand a word of what she was talking about or why she was talking to me, but she was beautiful, and I didn’t want her to stop. She trailed off when she noticed that I was staring in awe and confusion and started to flush. She looked down at her shoes in embarrassment and had begun to tug at her yellow sundress.

Suddenly, I felt like I needed her to smile at me again and, without really thinking about it, I reached out and took her hand in mine. Startled, she snapped her head up and met my eyes. Gazing deeply into her beautiful brown eyes and unconsciously tugged her closer to me. I gently touched her cheek with the tips of my fingers and murmured, “Please, don’t stop. I like listening to you talk.” She blushed to the roots of her hair at my boldness, but she smiled. It was small and shy, but it was still the smile that I was longing for.

She had introduced herself as Gloria Thomson and I fell in love with her that day. I knew then that she was it for me, I would settle for no one else, she would be Mrs. Adrian Black. I got to marry her nearly a decade later. Throughout the years more packages like that have found their way to me, no matter where I live. The contents varied greatly from small items, like the antique his and her meteorite wedding ring set that I used for our wedding when the ones we bought went missing; to a large item, like the brand crib that showed up on our porch the day Gloria told me she was pregnant. The thing I always noticed was that when ever a package would arrive some kind of event would always happen after.

Sometimes I would need to use the things I got, like when I used the bat, I’d received earlier that day, to knock out burglar that very same night. Other times, they would be the cause of said event, like when I got an all expense paid trip the Bahamas where I reunited with Gloria after she had moved away when we were fifteen. I never questioned it. I never knew why I started receiving these packages or why I was the one receiving them, I just accepted it and adapted, my whole family did. They were just some weird occurrences that would happen occasionally, in my otherwise relatively normal life. Besides, why would I look a gift horse in the mouth.

That is until I received the last package on the day my youngest granddaughter was born. The final package appeared in the inner chest pocket of my jacket while Glory and I were waiting in the waiting room of the maternity ward with our youngest daughter’s then boyfriend, who she met on a trip from one of my packages. It was a simple envelope with my name written on top and inside, it contained a single photo. It was a picture of myself and a young woman in front of what seems like the completed form of my wife’s unfinished project. She looked to be in her late teens maybe early twenties and bears a startling resemblance to Glory except for the almost heart-shaped birthmark on her cheek.

I turned the photo around already expecting what I saw, “My granddaughter, Destiny, and I celebrating completing Glory’s quantum project.” I felt breathless as a doctor came in to let us know the baby was born, and the mother was ready for visitors. I walked in to see my baby girl holding her own baby, a baby with a heart-shaped birthmark on her cheek. My daughter looked up with a smile and said, “Dad meet Destiny.”