What's in the package

Peter gasped when the doorbell rang. He was startled by that sound when he was pacing the perimeter of his bedroom. He exhaled with his mouth and tried to open his bedroom door, but he was unable to grab it. He kept trying to get hold of the doorknob, but his hands went through it and came out.

"Wait! I am now a ghost. So, I can go through the walls!" Peter shouted looking at his lifeless body lying on the floor of his bedroom.

He took two steps back and walked towards the door. Just as he was about to hit it, he stopped abruptly as his human instincts kicked in. He shook his head and took the next step through the door. His leg was not visible now. Slowly, he pushed himself through the door and he jumped in joy as he emerged out of it on the other side. He checked his hands and legs and they did not have any cuts or scrapes. The doorbell rang once again and brought back his attention.

He calmly walked to the door and continued walking through it. He emerged outside his home and nearly hit the delivery man standing outside.

"Sorry!" Peter was almost having his face close to the delivery man. The delivery man looked around and again went on to press the doorbell.

"Hey! I will not answer it. I am dead. It has been thirty minutes since I left my body." Peter sighed.

The delivery man kept a package right outside his door and walked back to his vehicle. Peter watched the delivery vehicle depart away and turned his attention to the package outside his door. It was a rectangular package, almost the size of his arm. It had a card pasted on its top and on the card was written 'To Peter, With Love'.

Involuntarily, he bent down to fetch the package but his hands went through it. He kept trying it until the thought that he is now a ghost struck him.

Peter went inside through the door and walked ahead to his bedroom.

"We have a package delivered. It is a rectangular package that could be of our arms’ size. But we cannot open it. You could have opened it, maybe an hour before,” Peter said looking at his body.

He had tried entering back into his body umpteen times for the past thirty minutes, but he was bounced back by some superpower whenever he went near his body. Nevertheless, he tried once more. He was again pushed by some invisible power and he retired back to his old spot.

"Ok. We cannot open it now. How do we find out its sender?" Peter scratched his chin.

Just then, his mobile phone which was on the floor rang and he focused his eyes on the phone screen. It was from Elise. Peter knew that he cannot touch the mobile phone but yet he tried to do many acrobats around his phone. The call ended as a missed call.

"It is your girlfriend, Peter, our girlfriend. Did she send the package?" Peter spoke to his body.

"Maybe, I can check the visible portions of the package to see who had sent it," said Peter and raced back to the package.

Outside the door, he was on his knees and tried to find anything printed apart from the letters on the card. He was unable to find anything.

"It should be on the bottom then," Peter sighed and shook his head.

He strolled towards his bedroom and sat down on the bed. After what seemed like an eternity, his mobile phone rang again, this time from his mother. He gazed at the wall clock and the time was already 4 PM.

"Today is Sunday. I usually call my mom on Sundays at noon. Maybe, she waited for my call and decided to call me." Peter cocked his head to see the messages piling to his mobile phone.

By 8 PM, his mother and Elise had called him at least a dozen times. Both of them were back in his hometown and even if they take a plane right now, they would reach him only the next morning.

Unable to do anything and bored of sitting in the same place for a long time, Peter decided to go out for a walk. This time, he walked through the walls for a change and stood next to the package lying on the floor. The card was fluttering due to the breeze.

Peter passed through the gate of his house and started walking on the road. He was startled when a car passed right through him.

"Why not blow the horn?" he shouted at the car which had gone ahead of him and then he realized that the driver would not have noticed him press the horn. With a smirk, he started walking in the middle of the road. He danced on the road, slept on it for some time. He stood before speeding trucks and even slept on the nearby railroad tracks.

Peter's enthusiasm too died soon and his mind went back to the package lying outside his home. He thought, 'It must be from Elise. This is her first gift after I proposed my love to her last week via video call.' He wanted to propose to her directly in his hometown but he cannot afford to avail absence as he works in ER and the hospitals are full for the past few months due to pandemics. And with the pandemic engulfing them, he decided to declare his love earlier and did it via a video call. Elise was surprised but she accepted it right away as they knew each other for eight years.

Lost in thoughts, he made his way back home. The sun was already on the horizon in the east when he was back in his home. He was standing beside the door when the milkman came in, placed the milk bottles, and left. While leaving, the milkman had forgotten to close the gate and a stray dog came into his home. It sniffed near the door and started barking at the door. Peter tried to shoo it away but the dog did not notice him. But he felt that the dog had smelt his dead body. The dog kept barking for a while and started sniffing the package lying outside his door. It gnawed its teeth into the package and carried it to the road.

Peter ran behind it, trying to get the package, but he could not catch hold of the dog or the package. The dog ran for a mile grabbing the package using its mouth and later dropped the package next to a trash can. When he went near to it, he noticed that the card which was on the top of the package is now gone. He turned back to see the dog having the card still in its mouth. However, Peter stood on the spot to find out who would pick up the package and follow them.

A few minutes later, two garbage collectors appeared near the trash can. One of them showed the package to the other and both of them started walking backward. They called someone using their phone and soon, a police car appeared on the scene. Three policemen inspected the package from a distance and one of them barked orders on their walkie-talkie. An hour later, the bomb squad was on its way to the package. People started assembling at a distance from the spot where the package was found.

One of the bomb squad members carefully inspected the package with the bomb detector. He then waved his hand to his team members and they tried to open the package. Peter went past the policemen and stood next to the bomb squad as they started opening the package.

At that moment, Peter felt a hand on his shoulder and was startled that someone could touch him. A man in a red coat smiled at him and said, “You are needed at our office. It has already been a day since you died. We have to register you in our Ghost list before deciding whether to let you roam like this or not.”

Peter tried to turn back to see the package but the man in a red coat pulled him up and the next second, they were flying in the air. Even with all his strength, Peter was unable to escape the strong grip of the man taking him up in the air.

They entered a floating skyscraper and he was made to sit on a chair inside a room on the ninth floor of the building. The man in the red coat had him bound to the chair by his spell.

A woman in a red coat walked into the room, looked at him, and said, “Peter. 28 years old. Working in a hospital. Died due to a heart attack. A side effect of the pandemic which is also giving us extended shifts.” She sighed.

“I want to talk with my mother,” Peter demanded.

She replied, “Not possible.”

“Let me talk to my girlfriend at least,” Peter begged.

“You can only communicate to them via a dream and it is an option only for those above 40. You’re 28 and so nope,” she affirmed.

“At least, you should have let me watch the contents inside the box. That is my last wish.”

“Last wish before death only counts. You saw the box only after your death and so it would not be accommodated as last wish,” she replied back.

Peter stared at the woman for a long time and then uttered, “What next?”

“Rebirth. Good for you, you are going back to the same city where you died.”

“Will I have past-life memories in my rebirth?”

“Till you start speaking,” she replied.

She looked at the man in the red coat and he approached Peter and tapped his head twice.

“Adam! Adam! Here you are,” a woman picked up Adam and tried to grab the

package from his tiny hand.

“Ben! Adam has taken your package again. I had told you last week to get rid of this package.”

Adam turned his head to look at Ben, his father, approaching them.

“Oh... this one!” Ben exclaimed, “it has been here for three years and I had not noticed it.”

“It fell down from the shelf last week and its contents spilled out. Ever since then, Adam has been crawling and trying to tear the contents of the package,” Adam’s mother said to Ben.

Ben took a framed photo and a folded letter from the package. When Adam saw the photo, he kicked his legs in excitement.

“A lovely couple.” Ben looked at Adam’s mother and smiled. Ben read the letter in murmur. Anyhow, it does not matter even if Ben had read it aloud, as, at two years of age, Adam cannot understand much of the language.

“Someone named Elisa had written to some Peter about her love for him. I guess it is Peter and Elisa in the photo,” Ben looked at the photo and showed it to Adam. Adam kicked his legs in excitement hearing the names and seeing the photo taken in his previous birth.

“Oh. This package has the address of Elisa at the bottom,” Ben said after inspecting the package cover, “Funny thing is, we initially received a call after folks suspected this package to be a bomb. When we opened it, it was just a letter and a photo kept inside a cardboard box. I just threw this package into my car but forgot to take any further action on this. I do not remember how it ended up on that shelf. Glad Adam brought this to my attention. I will mail this to Elisa today.”

Ben placed the photo and letter back into the package and took it to his car. Adam started crying and his mother started to embrace him.