“It’s about time you arrived Alan.” Rachel said to the gift box in her hands.
“I thought it was cool when you told me you and my witch friend Tara wanted to do something special for me for Christmas, and since it was Tara you were working this out with I figured her magic would be involved.” She said.
“With that said, I expected you to be gone for quite a while when I took you to the airport a couple of weeks before Christmas.” She continued.
“I got a call from Tara the next day and she told me to expect you to be delivered in the mail in a few days. I tried to talk her in to telling me what she had done to you but she adamantly refused. She then said she said she had cast a second spell that made her unable to tell me what she had done since she knew she would be hard pressed to resist telling me. She also added that in order to remove all temptation once we were off of the phone with one another her spell would make her forget everything about it. So I had no choice but to wait in eager anticipation for you to come back.” Rachel said with a small smile.
“But then the mail came and went on Christmas Eve and you had still not arrived. I called Tara forgetting what she had said in my worried state and she laughed at me and told me she had done no such thing but wished she had thought of doing it. So now I had no idea where you were and if you were going to make it back.” She said with a grimace.
“I was worried sick for weeks but I refused to give up hope. I even left all of the Christmas decorations up hoping you would arrive soon and find out what my husband had been turned in to.” She said.
“Finally, after five weeks I was ready to throw in the towel and give up. On the way home from work today I decided to put all the Christmas stuff away and try to move on with my life without you even thought the thought of it was devastating me.” Rachel said, her eyes misting up.
“I opened the porch door and to my astonishment there was a package waiting for me! I scooped it up and hurried in to the house. I tore open the cardboard box and saw the gift box inside. Crying tears of joy I went to tear the wrapping off to see what you had become but the wrapping paper was indestructible! I couldn’t even scratch it with a knife!” She said dejectedly.
“Through my tears of frustration I noticed a tag tucked under the bow. I wiped my eyes and pulled it out to read what it said. In Tara’s bold cursive script it read, ‘DO NOT OPEN ‘TILL CHRISTMAS!’ with a smiley face under it. I knew from previous experience with Tara’s magic and the presence of the tag that I literally would only be able to open your packaging on Christmas day. Since this Christmas had already passed I had to wait until NEXT Christmas to free you from your gift wrapped prison. I can’t even get Tara to undo her spells since she has no memory of ever doing this to you to begin with.” She said with a defeated laugh.
“I gently placed you under the tree and went and had a good cry in the bedroom for a while.” She said with a sigh and continued. “At least you are home and safe now. I’ll put you in the storage bin with the rest of the Christmas stuff so you don’t get misplaced.” She told him reassuredly, not sure if he could even hear her in the state he was in.
Rachel then spent the next hour putting everything away. The gift box containing her husband was the last item to go in, “See you in eleven months Alan, I can’t wait to see what you had yourself turned in to.” She said, gently kissing the box before putting in the bin and closing it.