Lights Out, Arnold Boxley Otis Luttschwager

Lights Out, Arnold Boxley

Otis Luttschwager

Student Contest, Spring 2018, 2nd Place

Lights out. Cameras on. The Box began to rustle. The face that was permanently carved into its cardboard exterior held a look of lifelessness. It was anything but lifeless. It shuffled along the floor of the back room, half awake. It was gathering other remnants of cardboard. Attaching its trash extremities. “It’s go time.” Said the man behind the camera. The Box pushes through the swinging doors of the back room. It marches. Up and down the aisles of the store where it spends its time. It moves with sureness, with purpose. The man behind the camera watches every night. He can’t figure it out. He won’t tell anyone. He tried that once with the guy that takes over after him. He still gets the occasional passing joke on his way out. It is a tall tale afterall; sometimes he doesn’t believe it himself. Occasionally the Box will stop his march and stare at an item on a shelf before it fumbles to try and hold it in its shakey fingerless trash nubs. Some days it can put the items back where it found them but most days it drops them. “C’mon, lil fella. You can do it.” Dropped. “Damn.” The Box stares at its mistake. A lone pack of Sharpies, now on the ground. It moves on as if the markers were always meant to be on the floor. About halfway through the night the Box stops marching. It saunters casually to the fridges by the checkout and pulls out a soda. Then it grabs a magazine. It sits down.

“Fifteen minute break already?”

The Box doesn’t drink the soda. Why would it? Could it even open the bottle without fingers? It flips through the magazine. Some nights it even holds it the proper way. “Oh, you picked up an issue of Cosmo today? Branching out, I see.”

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The man behind the camera talks like they are friends, but the Box doesn’t even know that he’s there. Why would it care?

The Box leaves the unopened soda and Cosmo right on the floor where it sat. The march resumes. The pace is quicker. After the third full walkthrough, the Box walks into one of the bathrooms. The man behind the camera can’t see what happens in there. It’s probably better that way. What happens in the bathroom should stay in the bathroom. What the man behind the camera can see is the green glow that comes from under the bathroom door. Nothing abnormal. The march re-resumes. There’s a glow outside the store too. It’s almost morning. Still too early for the employees to start showing up for work. Click. Click. The back door is being unlocked. The Box is alarmed, not that you could tell by looking at its face. “It’s still too early.” The store manager walks in slowly. The Box watches from a hiding spot high up in the shelves. “That a boy. Out of sight, out of mind. Wait no, don’t do that.” The Box moves from its hiding spot and follows the manager. It walks differently now, trying to mimic the person it follows. The manager turns around. “SHITNONONONONO.” The stillness is impressive even for a box. The manager gives a tired chuckle and chalks it up to the pranks of the store employees. The manager grabs some papers from the office. On the way out the manager passes the Box again. Another chuckle. Click. Click. Gone. “Oh God, that was a close call, bud. Very, very close.”

With the status quo restored the Box does another walkthrough of the store. Not a march anymore, but a tired slow walk. Like the manager. The sun will be up soon and the Box makes its way to the back room. It dismantles itself. An arm there. A leg there. It nests its head in the corner where it will be overlooked like every other day before. When the sun rises the Box is still.

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The man behind the camera is still watching. He will keep watching every night. He will keep caring about an entity that doesn’t even know he exists. The man behind the camera checks his watch. It’s three minutes after six. His coworker walks in ready to start his shift and says tauntingly, “How was Arnold Boxley tonight?” “Boxes don’t have names.” He replies on his way out of the door. Lights on. Cameras on.

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