Pandora's Trash

It was between sessions of camp, and we decided it was time we got a chance to do some exploring. We'd shown up the night before the first session started, but had so much work to do to get things ready, and then the next day the kids showed up and we didn't have a chance to get away, so by the time they left we were ready to see what was out there, waiting in the woods. Dinner had been eaten, the sun had set, and we had all night free so we put on our bug spray, grabbed our flashlights, and headed out.

We hoped to find some inspiration for a ghost story. An old abandoned cabin or a small grave site. Or even an ancient evil would have been good, but we had no idea what we were going to find. We were walking along talking about..something or other, I don't recall. And that's when we found it. She got busy talking and didn't notice the box.

We hadn't been expecting to find a box--we were in the middle of the woods, and it was just a blank box. About two feet on a side, it was a pretty-good sized wooden box that had obviously been sitting out in the woods for a while. There were vines growing up the sides, the wood was worn from the rain, and there appeared to be some sort of next up against its side. But still, it was a box.

What was a box doing in the middle of the woods? How did it get there, what was inside? There were so many questions that ran through our minds. The top didn't appear to be attached, so we could hopefully find the answer to at least one of the questions. We couldn't get our fingers in under the lid though, so I went back to the cafeteria to grab a butter knife while she stayed out there, watching the box. Years of the elements had caked the lid on, but finally we managed to get it open, finally we got a peek inside.

We were out in the middle of the woods, in the middle of nowhere, and we were staring at an empty box. Nothing inside, no explanation, no reason. Just an empty box. In the middle of the woods. So we shrugged, replaced the lid, and continued on our way.

Of course, the next session we did tell the campers that it held the body of a kid that refused to obey the rules. But we were camp counselors, it was expected.