I couldn’t wait to leave. It had been too long since I had taken time for myself. When the law firm shut down, of course I was upset. That had been my source of income for who knows how long, but it also meant I would finally get my much earned vacation hours. I graciously added up my gained hours and found it to come to a total of three weeks! I had been saving money for as long as I can remember and was able to book a flight to my dream vacation, Paris. I planned to leave the day after I lost my job, just to gather my thoughts. I needed this break to figure out what I would do next with my life.

The next morning I was at the airport before the sun came up. Of course I was tired from lack of sleep, but all that went away due to adrenaline. As I was walking to my gate, the rush hour traffic of businessmen came through. I struggled to make my way out, and when I could barely see an opening, a man grabbed my arm and jerked it.

“Ow!’ I exclaimed. When I turned to look up, a man in a dark trench coat was still clutching onto my arm. In his other hand, he held a large cardboard box. He viciously pulled me into a small hallway that I assumed was used for janitors. As he ran, I noticed a limp in his step. Confused, I regained enough strength to question the man.

“Hey! Let go of my arm! What do you want!” I was frantically trying to escape his grasp, when he leaned in and whispered something in my ear that I could barely make out.
“Now here’s what I want you to do,” almost too quiet for me to hear. “You are going take this box and you’re not going to open it. I will give you $3,000 right now on the spot it you agree. But then again if you don’t, we might have a problem.”

I was taken back by his blood shot eyes and his breath that smelled like old cheese. My biggest fear was for my life, as I imagined the man pulling a knife out of his pocket if I refused his offer

“Okay! Okay! I’ll take the box!” I must have sounded just as scared as I felt, because the man laughed in a cruel way as a large amount of weight was forced into my arms.
“Remember, don’t tell anyone about the box and especially, don’t open it!” With that, he was gone.

I didn’t know what to do. I needed to get help, to have someone figure out what had happened to me since I obviously didn’t know. I didn’t know whether to continue on my trip or to stay here and return home. I continued to head towards my gate since I figured I needed to be as far away as possible from this man. I looked down at my watch and discovered I had only two minutes before I boarded. I raced to the gate, which is quite hard when you are carrying someone else's package along with your own belongings. I made it to my gate in time and found my seat.

As the plane took off, my mind was no longer filled with thoughts of my trip, but was reviewing the events that had happened today. A man I had never seen or met before gave
me a strange package for $3,000. When I had time to breath, I decided I had done the right thing, as I needed the money and possibly would have gotten hurt if I had said no. After all, it didn’t sound like I had much of a choice anyways. I had so many questions, but the one I kept thinking of was, why me? I took a peek at the box below me and guessed what could be in it. I assumed the worst. A nuclear bomb was in the box and I would get caught for having it and be in prison for the rest of my life.

The entire eight hour flight I contemplated opening the it, just to see what I had gotten myself into. My curiosity was driving my crazy. I finally arrived in Paris. If anyone had asked me earlier in the day, I would have said, “The first thing I’m going to do when I get to Paris is sight seeing,” but upon actually arriving, I just wanted to go to sleep. I took a taxi to my hotel and couldn’t even take in how amazing the room was because of the large box I kept seeing. I attempted to fall asleep, turning my pillow over and over until I could get comfortable, but it was not possible. I tossed and turned for what seemed like hours, shutting my eyes only to see the cardboard that I was trying to escape from. My head was spinning and suddenly, I rose from the bed and walked slowly, as if in a dream, towards the package. I made sure no one was watching, and I opened the box.