Rachel drops me into the shoe box and closes it. I’m completely enshrouded with darkness as they carry me. I hear them leave the room, walk down stairs, open and close the front door, get into the car, and turn it on. Then the lid opens and light floods back into my shoe box. I gaze up to see Rachel looking back down at me. She’s sitting in the passenger seat of a car, and Sally is driving.
“You’re going to be a gift for our friend Amy,” Rachel explains. “It’s her 20th birthday today, and we’re having a slumber party with her and a bunch of her girlfriends in her apartment. You’ll be the main attraction, I’m assuming, so I want to see you perform to see how well you can do it.”
I look up at her, transfixed, not sure what to do and too confused to move. Things are moving too fast for me.
“I said perform for me. Now PERFORM!” she demands as she flicks me onto the ground with her finger.
“What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know anything, just something, or I’ll have to flick you again.”
The first thing I think to do is dance, so that’s what I did. I move back and forth like I am doing the cha cha. This made Rachel giggle.
“Look at him down there,” she says to Sally. “He’s trying to grove. He thinks he can dance.”
Sally only briefly looks at me, laughs, and takes her eyes back on the road. I’m not that bad at dancing! Suddenly, I find myself flying backwards into the wall of the shoe box.
“Hey, that guy just caught me off! Learn how to drive you jerk!” Sally shouts to another driver who couldn’t hear her. “Sorry Rachel for having to brake so hard.”
“It’s all right. You may have hurt our little friend over here, but I’m fine. Hey, I didn’t say to stop dancing!”
So I resume dancing.
“You know that gives me an idea,” Rachel suddenly exclaims.
Without warning she shakes the box causing me to fly back and forth against both walls. She laughs at me, as I was tumble back and forth.
“Again I never said stop.” So I try to continue dancing, but every couple seconds, she’d get bored just watching me dance and shake the box. Each time I’d smash against the walls and topple over, much to her delight. This lasts about thirty minutes until eventually they reach their destination.
“Let me give it one more shake, and then I’ll seal him up,” Rachel says. She shakes me around for about one minute straight, and when she finished, I felt like I was about to throw up from the dizziness, and my whole body was sore.
The lid is then put on top of me, and all is dark for me. I hear them covering the box with wrapping paper and taping it shut. I’m carried around, being frequently sloshed back and forth by Rachel who isn’t particularly gentle about carrying me. I hear a doorbell ring, a door opens, and loud music being heard in the background.
“Hey, welcome Rachel and Sally. Glad that you two could make it. And hey, I see you brought a gift. Thank you so much. Come on in. Right now, we’re just hanging out until more people come, and then we’ll get started. Here let me take that.”
The box I was in is handed over to this mysterious person who carries me for a minute and drops me with a thud. Presumably, I am in a pile of other gifts. I frequently hear girls talking, wishing happy birthday and making small talk. I sit in this box hoping that I’ll survive tonight in one piece.