Carlos sat in his room absentmindedly plucking at the strings of a banjo when he suddenly realized he hadn’t done his chores yet.

From somewhere beyond his bedroom door, he heard his mother call out:

“Carlos, do your laundry! You only have one underwear left!”

Carlos frowned in disbelief and set the banjo down beside him. That couldn’t possibly be right. He was usually on top of things like that.

He walked over to his dresser, opened the drawer, and immediately froze.

Sure enough, there really was only one pair of clean underwear left.

“How did this even happen?” he muttered quietly to himself.

A wave of embarrassment passed through him. If his mother hadn’t reminded him, he might have ended up going to school in dirty clothes. His friends would never let him live it down.

Before he could think about it any further, a sharp knock echoed from the front door.

Carlos glanced toward the hallway. His mother was still busy with something elsewhere in the house, so he got up and went to answer it himself.

Standing outside was a delivery man holding a plain cardboard package.

“Do I have to sign for it?” Carlos asked.

The man didn’t answer verbally. He simply handed the box over to Carlos, turned around, and walked away without another word.

Carlos stood there for a moment watching him leave.

That was a little strange.

He closed the door and looked down at the package in his hands. There was no mailing label. No return address. In fact, there didn’t seem to be any information on it at all.

His curiosity immediately got the better of him.

Carlos carried the box back to his room and carefully began peeling away the wrapping.

Inside was some kind of metallic three-dimensional puzzle.