�What is it, what is it??� Jane pestered in my ear.

�I haven�t finished opening it yet! Hold your horses��

�Well hurry up!� She seemed more interested in the letter than I was.

I held the envelope in my left hand and used my right index finger to open the flap of the envelope that was glued down. After tearing about one centimeter of the paper, it suddenly closed again, on my finger. Frightened, I jumped back, accidentally dropping the phone. My finger was trapped in the seam of the envelope! I scrambled on the ground to pick up the phone, apologizing profusely to Jane for dropping her. I then realized I was shaking.

�What, what?� she pressed.

�It�s stuck!� I gasped.

�What do you mean it�s stuck?�

�I mean IT�S STUCK! The stupid thing is stuck on my finger! I don�t know how it happened�one second I was opening it, and then it started closing, and it closed on my finger! It won�t come off!�

�You�ve got to be kidding me,� she laughed.

�No, I swear to fucking god, it�s stuck!�

I stopped flapping my hand and trying to yank the envelope off of it, and decided to take a closer look at why it could possibly have closed around my finger. Gold writing started to appear on the back of the envelope. It was writing something out�

I spoke the words aloud as the ink wrote: �Alone��

�...you�must�be��

�What?� Jane asked.

�It�s writing�it�s writing a message. Shh,� I replied.

�...to uncover the�mys�ter�y. Alone you must be to uncover the mystery! Jane, I think it�s trying to tell me that I have to open this when I�m alone.�

�But you are alone.�

�No, I�m on the phone with you��

�Oh, that�s such a load of crap! I�m coming over.� Click�

I stared at the envelope for a second, and then slowly placed the phone on the counter top. Alone you must be to uncover the mystery� I repeated in my head. I tried to pull my finger out of the envelope again. This time, it came out, but sealed up immediately after, as if by vacuum. I stared in awe for about twenty seconds, slowly turning the letter around and back, looking at every inch of the surface.

I decided to try to open it again. This time I walked over to my father�s office and opened the desk drawer to get his letter opener. I started to carefully cut the top of the envelope open with the blade. About a quarter of the way through the incision, Jane burst through the front door. I turned to look, and the moment I turned back, the letter was sealed up again. It was as though the cut was never made, except that the letter opener was sticking out of the top of the envelope. Jane looked at me then my hand, then back at me.

�Give me that; let me see,� she said, and grabbed the envelope from my hand. She tried to pry open the letter and extract the letter opener, but it wouldn�t budge.

�What the hell?!� she exclaimed.

�I�don�t�know��

�Well, why won�t it open?� she pressed.

�It was, and then it stopped and sealed up when you walked in. I think it wants me to open it when I�m alone, Jane.�

�Fine, take your stupid magical thing! Call me and tell me what happens since it obviously doesn�t like me,� she huffed.

�Jane, I��

�No, I have to go anyway. Just call me later, okay?�

�Um�okay, sure I guess. Bye��

Jane walked out. I was too confused to move. I just stood, confounded, with the envelope in my hand, staring at it blankly. I blinked, shook my head, and attempted to remove the letter opener from the aperture it was sealed into. Charily holding the handle of the opener, I started to pull it out. The second the blade was removed, the hole sealed up as though it had never been sliced into.

This was too much. I threw the letter opener back into the drawer, closed the drawer and walked out into the kitchen with the letter still in my hand. I put the envelope down onto the breakfast table, quickly jerking my hand away. At this point I wouldn�t have been surprised if it bit me. I didn�t want to deal with it then, so I walked away, slowly, back upstairs to my room. I needed time to think.

before - after