The package sat in the kitchen table under the slight yellow LED light I replaced last week, one could still see the shoe marks on the edges of that table, thankfully the rackety old table was built out of solid wood so it held my weight well.
“You said you found it on the porch right? Inside the apartment complex, before anyone else could snatch it?” I asked, staring into the paper box wishing I had X-Ray vision.
“I doubt Snake or Frank would touch anything on our side of the corridor” Answered the lady on our one couch scrolling on her phone if the rapid finger movement is any indication “Last time they were over Snake’s wouldn’t shut up about the proper placement of dishes and the state of our stove”
“That was because you let the beans boil too much the day before, *and* it just so happened that the day after they came was the day *I* was supposed to clean the kitchen, Sara” With an annoyed sigh I stood up and went over the mysterious box, the package tape turned out to be stronger than my bare fingers today.
“You always pick the worst way to do things, Nick” she smugly said holding out scissors with her smug face.
I took it, begrundginly and the package tape was torn open revealing two objects inside, A simple black pyramid about the size of my fists with white faces and a thin black booklet on the side.
“Is that for your tabletop?” her voice interrupted me as I took the pyramid out.
“I didn’t order anything” putting it on the table, reinspecting the box I got confirmation “No return address, it doesn’t have my address either just a label ‘For Nicolas Henrique’”
She took the pyramid and looked closer, the outsides were shiny but the inside, face material was an opaque white “It doesn’t have any ports or covers anywhere, maybe it’s a collector’s prop”
“I don’t know any shows with that thing” The obvious move was to simply open the booklet, maybe it’s a manual “’The Willing Pyramid, from Renata Henrique’ That’s my mom, but she never said she was sending anything…” I continued to read the manual as Sara put the pyramid down.
She chuckled, reading with me “’This object of power has the power to reshape your life by simply betting, agreement and causality siphoning’, You sure this isn’t just some kid’s toy?”
The mention of my mother’s name had me intrigued, but the entire phrasing of the first page made it seem like some kind of legendary object, yet it came with a user’s manual on friendly light blue font and comic sans.
Deciding not worth her time Sara walked back to the couch “And here I thought you were secretly a hitman or something, its still your laundry day by the way” and fished her phone back.
“I know, I’m just trying to understand what this is supposed to be. But it’s filled with corporate speech” The second page had the title on instructions to use, but I was losing patience at this point so I just flipped the page and it dropped a piece of paper, on it was my mom’s handwriting.
“Dear Nicolas
It has been 8 months since we talked last, ever since you went to that university. I miss you dearly, but I’m sorry I’ll miss your graduation.
It always bothered that my only son was born without aptitude to be a wizard, you always loved it when I took to the Between and you played with the nymphs, but over time you eventually forgot about all that just like folks without magic would.
So as a reward for my services I have chosen to gift you a little something, that I have been crafting ever since you left to study, I saw your dedication to try get a job, but you never had the faith in yourself to do it, I was worried sick you’d get in trouble over there and I wouldn’t have any mundane way of helping you being this far apart.
The pyramid in your possession is yours and always will be, until you choose to pass it on to your children if you wish to. Since you always loved your games I made it to work with that, so that it’ll fill your life with magic, just as you did mine.
Your dearest mother, I love you Nico”
It was written in Portuguese unlike anything else in the box, I saw a tear falling into the page, her tone made me really worried, I forgot completely to contact her. I rushed to the phone wiping my eyes.
From the corner of her eye Sara spotted me and stood up concerned “Nick, are you alright? What happened?”
“There was a letter from my mom in the manual as well, I need to talk to her” with phone in hand I quickly found her contact.
The dial tone came and went, a beep and a silence, until eventually it went to voice mail, I called again, a tone then quiet, until it went to voice mail again.
I tried to call many times, she didn’t pick up once, she lived alone and I didn’t know any of her neighbours so I called Dad he should be home at this time.