The Mystery of the Box
What is it to dream if you can’t use that dream to benefit from it? That was the question that Lyla asked herself each day upon awakening. But her dreams were worthless.
She recalled none of them. Well, that is to say, after about an hour of waking up, she didn’t recall them. Her dreams either made no sense or were silly remembrances of the past.
That all changed the day Lyla woke up after having a vivid dream. The place in the dream was so familiar. It took place in the park near her house. There was a hole in the ground just feet away from the swing set she knew so well from her youth. Inside that hole was an emerald-encrusted box.
What made this dream different was that she remembered it after that usual hour. Furthermore, she had the same dream three days in a row.
Each time she dreamed of that box, she wondered what was inside. On the fourth day, it became a lucid dream. She was aware she was dreaming, but this time, she had control of it. In her wakeful state, she reached down into the hole and was able to pull up the box. Of course, as all dreams do, they end in full wakefulness, so she still did not know what was in it.
These lucid dreams continued to occur, yet no matter what she did in them, she could never complete the task and find out what was in the box.
Finally, on the seventh day, she decided to find out if anything she had been dreaming about was real. That morning, she went to the park. She even decided to bring some digging tools, should that be necessary.
When she got to the park, it was early in the morning. The morning mist covered the ground. As she approached the spot by the swing set where the hole should be, she noticed movement heading toward the same spot from the opposite direction. It was a man.
Both interlopers reached that spot at the same time. Neither said a word. Looking down at the ground, they noticed not a hole but a place that definitely had been dug up and refilled.
Both of them looked at each other, not saying anything at first, and then, as if by magic, they said the word “Dream” simultaneously.
He introduced himself as Jerry, and she introduced herself as Lyla. It didn’t take long for them to discover that they had had the same dreams, except, in Jerry’s dream, the box was sapphire-encrusted.
Since it was early and no one was around, they agreed to dig on the spot. It wasn’t long before they hit something hard—a box encrusted with diamonds. They managed to pull it up slowly.
Together, they decided that whatever was in it, they would split equally.
They opened the box, only to discover a handwritten note.
It read, “Beat you to it!”
