What's Inside - 1. Don't Peek.

The doorbell rang in the usual pattern for Sam’s best friend, Jeremy. It was always three short blasts, then two more and ended with one long one. It was like his version of Morse code, only Sam didn’t think it had any meaning. Sam’s parents had been after Jeremy for years because of it and he would always end up smiling and then ignore them. Sam thought that they should have just given up by now, but they still doggedly persisted.

“Hey, Sam,” Jeremy said when Sam opened the door. “You’ll never guess what I’ve got.” Jeremy was standing on the top step, holding a sort of medium-sized blue box with a yellow lid.

“Hey, back. What’s in the box?”

“Pandora,” Jeremy replied with a straight face.

Sam looked at Jeremy, cocked his head to the left, and rolled his eyes. One thing Jeremy was most definitely good at was practical jokes. Sam figured that this was just the beginning of another. “Come on, Jeremy it’s almost time for lunch and I’m starving. I didn’t have breakfast this morning,” Sam said. “I don’t have the patience for a joke right now. Lighten up till after we eat, will ya?”

“It’s not a joke.” Jeremy frowned. “I’m not kidding around. Pandora really is in the box. Come on.” Jeremy punctuated this with a slap of his right hand to the top of the box. Sam eyed it with interest now, wondering just who, or what, Pandora was.

“Okay. I’ll bite, are you going to show me,” said Sam. “Or, do I have to guess?” He was getting a little ticked off, now.

“No guessing,” Jeremy said with a sneer. “All you have to do is reach into the box.”

Sam regarded the box with something akin to curiosity crossed with fear. He knew what Jeremy was capable of. Sam glanced back up at Jeremy and looked him in the eye. He looked innocent enough and there wasn’t the usual hint of mischief in his eyes that Sam would normally find when Jeremy was up to no good. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Jeremy practically shouted.

Jeremy then lifted up the yellow lid slowly and just enough so that there was a small gap for Sam to slide a hand in. Sam looked down at the box and then reached out with his right hand. It felt like his hand was shaking even though he could see that it wasn’t. Sam looked up at Jeremy again to see if there had been any change in his eyes and not sensing anything off, slid his flattened hand into the box.

“Aaahhh!” Sam cried out. He yanked his hand back, almost yanking the lid off the box in the process. Sam looked at his hand as if it had been bitten. Although there weren’t any bite marks, his fingertips were throbbing. Sam looked at the box with shock. Was there something dangerous in there, could it be poisonous or was Jeremy truly playing a practical joke after all?

Jeremy was watching Sam with some trepidation this time. He wondered if Sam was going to cold cock him. He looked pretty scared and pissed, too.

“What the hell is in there, Jeremy?” Sam yelled. “What’s wrong with you?”

Suddenly, the box shuddered and then it shifted to the left in Jeremy’s hands. Sam felt his eyes expand and Jeremy clutched the box a little tighter.

“I’m sorry, Sam. Really,” Jeremy said with a sad face. “I didn’t mean to scare you like that. I just wanted to share her with you.”

And with that said, Jeremy lifted the lid on the box pulling it away. Sam leaned over carefully, stretching his neck a little, to take a peek. There in the box, partially filled with shredded newspaper, was a small hedgehog.

“That’s… Pandora?”

“In the box,” smiled Jeremy.