The "box"

When I got  the box I never thought anything of it.until the day of March 4th

You told me you had something for me .you said it was a "present" for me on my 18th birthday.

March 3rd had  come and mom and dad where waiting for me with presents.

A new game and a gold watch.

A box at the door.A note for me.

" At 6 tonight watch the news and enjoy your present.Happy birthday."

I waited and played my Xbox till I looked  at my watch.

6.it' was time.Channel 5.

"Three young men where found in back of a local wal Mart,bloody and bruised.

Ok so what.shit like that always happened.

"They where missing their fingers and both their ears have been sliced off.The assault weapon is currently unknown."

Don't tell me.

I opened the box.

A piece of paper with three different addresses on it.

Oh thank God!

I turned back to the tv.A thumbs  up in the background.

I had  put the box back under my bed.

10:17pm.

Damn it.

To my phone.Google map.

A small bushy area near my  old school.

A back ally street of our local drugstore.

My  former neighbors yard.

After school that day I made my way to the first location

Next to the largest branch of the Bush.A doll.

Made from a finger and twigs.

911.


The following week my friend mark did not show up for class.

That night I watched the local news and I could not believe what I heard.

"While in police custody  at the Augusta county jail , Mark Hofmann , age, 19 was found dead in his holding cell at 3:13 this afternoon"

I remember bursting into tears first and then absolute terror.

"He appeared to have bit off his own tongue and wrote "Alex I hope you had a great birthday" in blood.



2 years after his death his mother came to my house.

She told me that she looked at his search history for the first time in 2 years.

She handed me a piece of paper with his entire search history on it.

A few pornography sights and other random stuff.

At the very bottom.

"People puppets.Com.

On the webpage it said.

"Great gifts made for and from your close friends and family!"

I later found out that the FBI found and shut down the sight an hour before mark committed suicide.

My neighbor found the ears.

An employee on her smoke break found the last of the puppets.

I kept the first puppet.I keep it in a small box in my sock draw.

I think of it as a keep sake in marks memory.