The Package

Nearly a decade after a consumer discretionary company promised to use drones to deliver packages, it was finally happening! Many of my neighbors were now relying on drones to deliver their packages.

Alex watched Mya standing outside her door from across the street wait for her package. Mya told Alex, “It is the most exciting innovation in my lifetime. I get a text message giving me the exact time the package will arrive, and I come out 30 seconds before its scheduled arrival time.”

“But aren’t you worried that the drone could harm you as it approaches your house," asked Alex. “No, as all these sophisticated machines land within inches of a location you pre-select in advance,” Mya replied.

Alex has never been comfortable interacting with these flying machines. He believed the drones were not sufficiently stress-tested to eliminate the risks to humans. “What if they went rogue and attacked me while I was picking up my package,” he said.

After a long day, Alex began preparing for bed and remained astonished at the lackadaisical attitude of his neighbors toward drones. Soon after, he heard a buzzing sound. But after looking through his window, he observed no signs that inclement weather was on the horizon.

Yet as he tried to close his eyes to get some rest, the same buzzing sound seemed to be approaching.

Was his mind playing tricks, or was this real? Alex immediately checked the weather app on his phone to see if any storm activity was in the forecast, but nothing abnormal rose to the surface.

Alex immediately put on his robe and walked outside to check his front and back yard! As he walked around, nothing strange appeared except for a distant swirling sound. Suddenly, a dragon-like drone emerged and proceeded to get closer!

Alex’s worse fear was that one of these flying machines would attack him! As he tried to avoid the drone, it kept coming closer. He screamed, “Go away." But the more he yelled at the drone, the closer it approached as he continued to zig-zag across his front lawn.

At this point, Alex couldn’t believe he could be hurt by the same technology that always tried to avoid. At this point, another neighbor named John yelled, “stand still so that it can drop off your package.”

There is no way he would allow this machine to attack him. His strategy was to keep running until the machine released the package in his yard or changed course after realizing it was in the wrong location.

But after running around for nearly 30 minutes, Alex fell to his knees and gave up. It made little sense to continue running from something so determined. Amazingly, after Alex accepted his fate and stopped running, the drone dropped the package in front of him and then flew away into the distant sky.

Alex picked up the package and brought it inside the house. “What could be inside this mystery package?” he asked. After all, anything since he always purchased everything in person. Touching, and seeing the merchandise was his preferred way to buy goods and services!

Yet his curiosity overpowered his fears. As Alex opened the package, he was shocked to learn it contained a bundle of $100 bills. “Who orders large bundles of cash? he asked” Of course, the correct answer was “nobody does.”

“Was this a trick or simply a gift sent by Lady Luck?” he wondered. “Should I report this mystery package to the authorities, or should I keep quiet and enjoy the windfall, he pondered. But as he entertained turning over the money, he remembered his dad telling him that “no good deed goes unpunished.”

As a result, Alex began to count the money. It took him almost 20 minutes to count the money and learn the box included $80 thousand dollars!

After losing his hardware store job, the store filed for bankruptcy and wiped out his pension plan. His employer informed him that the same thing had happened to his other six coworkers.

“Could he be getting a second chance,” he asked. Of course not because no one gets a second chance.

But he ignored his instincts and prepared to contact all the other employees suffering the same predicament. At first, he was reluctant because sharing good financial news with others could generate resentment.

Strangely enough, Mary, the first person he called said she was very happy for him. This caught Alex off-guard.

“Why are you so happy for me?” he asked Mary, "We all received sizable money packages delivered over the past couple of days. You are the most anti-tech person in our group so we were worried that you would not have allowed a drone to drop the package in your yard. We assumed you'd be the only one who didn't receive any assistance.

Mary told Alex that the hardware store owner that filed for bankruptcy told her an anonymous philanthropist sent the money. The experience taught Alex an important lesson. The things we fear and try to avoid may often be the same ones that can rescue us from our despair.