Pandora (not from iddqd's list) (507 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: 1.71 on 10 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by DrunkMonk (View user info) at 2004-01-09 13:47:22 EST
Again, this is not related to the idea suggested by iddqd: http://www.ubersite.com/m/22413
Or the excellent post by sublime: http://www.ubersite.com/m/22437
But the title reminded me of a story I wrote last year.
There's more after this if you want it, or I'll stop here if you don't...
Would that I had never opened the box. But open it I did, and there is no changing that. Tempted by my own greed, my own base curiosity, I have unleashed vast death and destruction upon my fellow Man. And for what? The contents of the box affected me first, the very humanity that caused me to open the box lost in an instant. Now, I have become what the rest of the world has to look forward to; I know what Fate has in store for them. Pandora was nothing compared to what I've released into the world. At least with her, mankind had Hope.
What would make the tale better? To know that I had received the box, unopened, from my father, who was given it by his father, and his father, such back through the generations of my family? That would be untrue, our only family "heirloom" is a twiggy Christmas wreath my mother's grandmother made. Maybe I was given the box by a mysterious old man who appeared before me on a foggy, moonlit night? No, that too would be false. No genies granting wishes, no hell-spawn demons offering bargains signed in blood, and no solar eclipses. The box was a gift, however. Given to me by my wife.
"Look what I found!" She always used to get so excited about finding new "little treasures" at yard sales or estate auctions. I used to think that these auctions, her preferred bargain hunt, were rather gruesome; bidding on the belongings of a dead person. I used to kid my wife about what might happen if the deceased was displeased at the final selling price of his pipe-caddy or her gilded hand mirror. She'd shriek and giggle. She did once buy a hand mirror at an estate sale; it wasn't gilded though, but silver. I made her get rid of it anyway. Somehow the idea of looking at myself in a dead woman's mirror didn't sit well with me. What if a mirror continues to reflect it's owner's visage, even after their death? What if you happened to glimpse their face, peeking over you shoulder? I never told my wife why I wouldn't have it in the house, but I think she knew anyway.
No, the box didn't even come from an estate sale. It never held the ashes of an ancient ruler of some long-lost empire. It wasn't the bridal gift of the princess of a forgotten realm, passed down mother to daughter for centuries. My wife found it at a yard sale, the remnants of a price tag, probably Wal-Mart, yellowed and illegible, still clinging to it's underside. Neighbors we had known for years were moving to a new state; maybe the husband had gotten a promotion to a new location, or the wife had grown bored with our city, perhaps the children were grown and done with college and the house was just too big for the two of them, take your pick, in the end these aren't the details that matter. These neighbors had decided to sell some of their belongings to help pare down the possessions they would have to move. Being neighbors, and with my wife's yard-sale fetish, we were naturally among the first to arrive.
<to be continued>
User Reviews
Submitted by DrunkMonk (user info) at 2004-01-10 13:19:22 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
You like me, you really like me!
Alright, I put some more up next week...
Thanks yall.
Submitted by Christ (user info) at 2004-01-09 17:19:24 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by sublime (user info) at 2004-01-09 16:30:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
both our posts were excellent.
Submitted by quack (user info) at 2004-01-09 16:18:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
quacky!
Submitted by potatomanjack (user info) at 2004-01-09 15:16:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Very cool there InebriatedFriar, very cool indeed.
Submitted by Deisangua (user info) at 2004-01-09 14:45:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
So far, very entertaining...
I hate it when dead people look at me from the reflection within their former mirrors.
Submitted by SpikeGoddess (user info) at 2004-01-09 14:38:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Where the hell is everybody?
THIS IS GOOD!!!!! COME READ IT!!!!!!!!!!
DrunkMonk,
You earned it.
SpikeGoddess
(My invocation worked once today, might as well try again...)
Submitted by DrunkMonk (user info) at 2004-01-09 13:53:52 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
oh Spikey, you're too good to me.
Submitted by DrunkMonk (user info) at 2004-01-09 13:53:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
The picture isn't mine, but was drawn by a schizophrenic patient who eventually killed himself.
Submitted by SpikeGoddess (user info) at 2004-01-09 13:52:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Yes, YES, oh please don't stop, DON'T STOP!!!!!
SpikeGoddess