The Brown Box Enigma

It was an ordinary Tuesday the day Tess came home and found the brown box on her front porch. Tired from another day at the job she despised, and having no desire to go inside and cook dinner for her unemployed husband she bent down and picked up the suspicious brown paper box.

It was feather light but she heard something small slide inside as she stood back up. The paper was crisp and folded neatly on the shoebox size box. String pulled taut into a neat bow. Frowning, she looked for a shipping label or a label of any kind but found the box devoid of labels, names and addresses. Not one clue for who the intended receiver was or who had left it on her porch.

Looking up and down her quiet street she observed an expensive black car with windows tinted dark enough to hide the occupants, idling on the street in front of the house diagonally from hers. Tess watched as the car drove off leaving her standing on the front porch with a mysterious box in her hand.

Tess called out hello over a baseball announcer telling fans that the bases were loaded from the family room TV. Steeling herself as if going into battle, she sat the box down before entering the family room. She found him sprawled in his easy chair, no shirt on and three day stubble on his face. Tess started biting her thumb nail as she noticed the pile of beer cans and a spilled chip bag on her coffee table. Willie didn’t even deign to say hello to the person who paid his bills and kept his home from going into foreclosure.

“Willie, I’m home” She grew queasy over the nervous tone she had used. He turned glossy eyes to her and burped while rubbing his exposed stomach.

“Tess, remember, when that was me?” He used his hand holding the can to gesture to the TV where a grand slam was taking place and the hometown crowd was going wild. Tess was silent.

“I was the superstar in high school making varsity my Sophomore year. And in college” He paused to gulp some beer. “Everyone thought I was a shoe in for the pros.”

He turned to Tess who felt knots forming in her stomach. She knew that the repeat conversation that was the bane of her marriage was coming.

“Winter break of our senior year. I know you remember, Tess” She began collecting his discarded beer cans. “We went to the party celebrating the fact we were done fall term and we had that huge fight”

Rolling his eyes he says, “I was going to get those, Tess.” He always sounded annoyed when she began straightening up around him but he never bothered to jump up and help her. Another repeat that happened in their marriage.

“Besides, I’m just waiting for the game to end.” Willie waves a hand towards the TV and gulps his beer again “You thought I was flirting with that girl, what's her name?” Tess didn’t supply the name. He gave up trying to recall. “And I left you there and drove off. I ended up with a broken arm and a DUI.” He pauses. “If you would have just left me alone that night, my dreams of the pros would not have been derailed”

Tess let out a breath she had been holding in. “Willie, we can’t go back in time and change a thing” She paused, leveling her eyes with his and realizing he must have thrown away some of his beer cans before she came home. “We will never know for certain if you are correct in your assumption”

Willie smirked “It’s not an assumption if it’s fact”

Tess didn’t bat an eye “It’s not a fact.” And with shaking arms she turned and left the room heading for the stairs, grabbing the brown package before she headed to her bedroom.

Her bed was still unmade and not by choice, Willie was still in bed when Tess had left for work at 8:30. With shaking hands, she placed the box on the dresser and removed her shoes.

Willie had been drunk, no more than usual, at the party but he had been bolder than usual. The girl in question had been wearing a skintight dress with her long hair almost touching it’s hemline. Flirting Tess could have tolerated but grabbing her bottom she wouldn’t. Storming over to him, he wisely followed her outside and she told him she wouldn’t be with him if he was going to act like this.

Willie was shocked she considered that a good enough reason to end a relationship of six years. It erupted into a fight and it ended with him leaving angry and her wishing she had left with him.

As Tess pulled on her college t-shirt, she remembered how he had proposed just two weeks after that night. He stopped drinking and she never witnessed him behave the way he had that night again. They married in October, just months after leaving college, and both at brand new jobs. Her in research and him in retail. They had a nice life together until 3 years ago when he got fired. He had not worked since.

Her mother had told Tess to leave. “You have no children, just make a clean break, Tess or you will be supporting Willie for the rest of your life”. Tess loved the memories of Willie from the past enough to stay married to him. She couldn’t bring herself to give up hope that the Vibrant Willie she had fallen in love would resurface from the grumpy drunk he had become.

Pulling her hair back into a ponytail, she turned her attention to the box. Needing a distraction so she didn’t dissolve into tears, she decided to open the mysterious package.

She pulled the bow loose and then removed the paper around the box. A plain white box with a white lid like a shoebox with no brand names. Removing the lid she saw a black velvet ring box, and beautiful cream stationary paper with her full name written in calligraphy. Tess picked up the heavy paper and flipped it over.

Dearest Tess,

Have you ever wished you could go back in time and change one moment, one thing or one day of your life? I think most of us have at least at one time or another. This is the most unusual gift I’ve ever given anyone but I’m offering you the chance to have a new life. I can’t tell you how I came to possess this ring but I can tell you with all certainty that it works. If you wear this ring and wish for that one day, that one moment or that one thing, you will be there. You can relive, improve or alter anything that happened that day or moment.

I will always consider you my best friend and love you as one. A good best friend will do anything to make their other friend happy. This is my chance to give it to you.

Best wishes and good luck

Cooper

With shaking hands she placed the card as if it were a bomb about to explode back in the box. She opened up the black velvet box and found a princess cut emerald flanked by diamonds all around it on a rose gold band. Hand to her mouth, she gasped.

Tess picked it up as the evening sun seeped through the window watching the light reflect through the emerald as it brought to mind the memory of the day she met Willie. After a baseball game where Willie pitched a no hitter the teens converged in the diner’s parking lot to hang out. High school students waiting to high five and congratulate Willie took up every single space. He was wearing his varsity jacket when he introduced himself and Tess discovered she had a colony of butterflies in her stomach. Her best guy friend, Cooper had rolled his eyes as Tess accepted Willie’s invitation to sit at his table inside. A dozen years had passed since that night and Tess still found herself burning with shame at the memory of her laughing when Willie had told Cooper he couldn’t join them at the table since there were “no nerds allowed”. Tess had allowed Willie to mistreat her best friend since kindergarten and it’s no surprise that they had lost touch when they went to separate colleges.

“Tess, I'm hungry!” Willie called up the stairs as she remembered how sad Cooper had looked as Tess allowed Willie to put his arm around her and lead her inside the diner. Cooper, her brilliant friend, who had been the only person in her graduating class to attend an ivy league college.

Tess had no doubts what Willie would choose. Staring at the ring, she knew only one night defined Willie’s life. He would go back to that night he unfairly blamed Tess for. He would never let go and let his life right it’s course.

“Tess, DINNER!” He bellowed that time. Tess turned her head towards the open bedroom door. She thought about how different her life may have been if she would have seen past Willie’s charm to the hard cruelty beneath him and instead had stood up for Cooper and stayed behind with him.

“TESS, GET DOWN HERE NOW!”

Tess stared at the emerald ring in her hand wondering if Willie would even know how to cook himself dinner. Smiling at the thought, she closed her eyes and slipped on the ring.