Questions

by Jon

We’re welcoming a new cabalist to our ranks today, Jon Hansen, whose fiction has appeared in such venues as Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Realms of Fantasy, and A Field Guide to Surreal Botany, who starts out with something small but intriguing…

After the funeral you find the box in your father’s desk.  Gun-metal gray with rounded off corners, one long hinge holding on the lid, and a small dent in the front, as if it had been thrown across the room at something.  On top is a faded piece of paper, held on by yellowing cellophane tape, with the single word, ‘QUESTIONS,’ inscribed on it in neat handwriting.

You pick up the box.  It’s surprisingly heavy, but you can lift it.  The lid won’t open, but you think you can hear faint noises coming from inside it.  You hold it up to your ear and hear muffled voices: “Where were you last night?”  “Who is she?” “Don’t you still love me?”

You put it back in the desk.  What you really want is a box called ‘ANSWERS’.