500: An Anthology of Short Stories

“Do you know who sent it?” Kazimla asked, curiosity consuming her alive. She peered over Keenan’s shoulder to get a better view.

“Lemme see if there’s a card,” Keenan told the impatient girl, pushing her slightly out of his way.

“Can you hurry it up? A tortoise is faster than you!” Kazimla stated.

“If you don’t shut up and move, I’ll take this package to my office to open it in private. Something I should have done in the first place,” Keenan threatened. He was slightly irked by Kazimla’s bossy attitude. The girl drove him nuts on occasion.

Keenan finally unwrapped the numerous layers from the mysterious, unexpected gift. What he revealed was nothing short of a marvel.

“What a marvelous gift!” exclaimed Kazimla, unknowingly echoing Keenan’s thought. “That thing must be worth a fortune, yeah?”

“I don’t know if it’s very expensive,” Keenan said, “but I do know I’ve never seen anything this beautiful or this strange in my life.”

“Now that you mention it… what is that exactly?” Kazimla asked, mystified.

The object was cylindrical in shape, glowing a deep gold in slow, rhythmic pulses. At one end there was a small indentation that resembled the imprint of a finger; on the other end were three vertical grooves cut into the canister. Each groove had a different colour.

“Look, there’s a note,” Kazimla said a second before Keenan noticed it. It was a tiny handwritten card affixed to one of the sides of the golden cylinder.

“‘Green equals a dream. Blue grants a royal boon. Black could transport you back.’ That’s all it says on the card,” Keenan said, frowning in perplexity. He disliked riddles.

“I love puzzles!” Kazimla exclaimed as if in mockery of Keenan’s inner aversion to them. “I’m sure that’s the explanation for those grooves. See? The colors are exactly like those mentioned in the note: green, blue and black!”

“Kazimla, I don’t think we should make any assumptions about this thing,” Keenan cautioned the eager girl. “I always tell you never to be impulsive, but you hardly ever listen,” he continued.

Kazimla rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Why must you be such a wet blanket? Don’t you ever just want to be spontaneous and leap into the unknown instead of analyzing everything to death?” Kazimla asked in obvious annoyance.

“And live to regret it? No, thank you. I value my skin and prefer it intact,” Keenan retorted.

“Well, then I’ll be impetuous for both of us!” Kazimla declared, grabbing the tube from Keenan’s hands. “I like the sound of the option black offers,” she shouted as Keenan tried to wrestle the cylinder back from her, “as I’ve always wanted to travel back in time, so I choose black!”

So saying, Kazimla ran her finger down the black groove, which automatically led to her digit ending up on the slight depression on the other end. A black light blinked brightly for a second.

Keenan stared in shock at the baby sitting wide-eyed on the floor.