Roger's Box, Episode 4

(Episode four of Roger's Box. I'm either a day late or a few hours late in writing this. I guess it all depends on where you are in the world. But I wrote this up for yesterday's writing prompt over at Creative Copy Challenge. Hope you guys are getting more and more curious about what's in the box, or what the box even is. Right now, we're still finding out about what the mechanical box is and how Roger even got his hands on it. So far we know it comes from NefariCorps. And Roger and Katie are there right now. Let's go join them and find out more about the story.)




Roger’s stoic face couldn’t conceal his glee. He was stunned stupid with a smile on his face just as if venom had been injected straight into his blood stream from a snake fang. He took a seat beside the nearest table for the euphoria made his head light.


“Two boxes” What am I going to do with two boxes?” thought Roger to himself. He leaned back in his chair when he felt slightly more grounded to the earth. Only after leaning back in his chair did Roger notice that Katie had been watching him the entire time. She had a questioned look in her face.


“What are you smiling about?” she asked him, with a hint of knowing in her voice.


Roger wept the smile away from his face and hoped she really didn’t know what he had been up to.


“Nothing,” answered Roger, while thinking to himself, “I’m the mechanical box pirate, you fool!”


“No, I am sure something is going on and I want the truth. You tell me now, or I’ll figure it out for myself later.”


Roger was quiet for a blink of an eye. Then he grabbed Katie by the hand and dragged her to the balcony. He pointed to a large oak not far off in the distance. “Do you see that tree over there? The big one that stands out? Meet me there in half an hour and I’ll explain everything. I promise.”


He left her standing there and exited the building. A child of one of the guests was walking around in the parking lot, and Roger could only imagine what it would be like to have that innocence once again. His hand pulled a cigarette from his pocket. He thought of how he should tell Katie of the events. In a pedantic manner, spilling detail after detail? Or in a more elaborate way of making her ask questions and trying to dodge the truth as much as possible? He decided on something in the middle, where he could lie with certain details, but be honest with others. Hopefully she would believe him.


Katie arrived a minute earlier than she should have, but that was just her. Always prompt.


“Ok, spill it,” she said, not even giving him a greeting.


“Do you remember when we last had a conference here?” Roger began. Katie only nodded, with eyes telling him to continue. “We stayed in that hotel because we were here so late. Well, not just because we were here late, but also because we were in no condition to go home. We’d been drinking at the open bar the whole day. And when the conference was over, I think I found a pipe sometime after the sun went down and started to do something really stupid.”


Rachel lifted her palm to her forehead. “What did you do?”


“It might be better if we take a little walk first.”