“Albert Cross?” Brandy guessed.

“Seeing as how you’re the only Brandy R. Iknow and I’m probably the only Albert C. you know,” he replied,“I’d say it’s a pretty good bet.”

“Do you think whoever gave us these thingsgot them mixed up? Mine had your name and yours had mine?”

Albert shook his head. “But then we wouldn’tknow where to find the other half.”

“Yeah. That’s true.” Brandy’s eyes droppedto the backpack at Albert’s feet. “Did you bring the box?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I see it?”

“Of course.” Albert unzipped the bag,removed the box and handed it to her. “After my American Historyclass last night I walked out to my car and it was just waiting forme. I’m in there from six to nine. It was in the driver’s seat. Ialways lock my doors.”

Brandy held the box in her lap as shestudied it. “My car was in the commuter lot next to Wuhr.” TheDaniel R. Wuhr Building was the science and math building oncampus. It was where their Chemistry classrooms were located. “Itwas right there in my driver’s seat after class today.”

“Did you have your doors locked?”

Brandy shrugged, almost embarrassed. “Theywere locked when I came back out, but I have a bad habit of notlocking my doors. Whoever put the bag there could’ve lockedthem.”

Albert nodded. “I can’t be a hundred percentsure of mine, either, actually. I say I always lock them, but everynow and then...”

Brandy stared at the box as she held it inher lap, her eyes fixed on the letters of her name. “I didn’t sayanything earlier, but when you showed this to me the first timethere was just something eerie about it. It gave me chills. Ididn’t even want to touch it.” She turned it over in her hands,looking at each side. “I’m not sure I want to be holding itnow.”

Albert said nothing. He watched herexpression for a moment and then followed her gaze to the box.

“Brandy R.,” she read.

“Yeah. I guess we know for sure what thatside means now.”

“You haven’t figured any of the other sidesout?”

“Nope. Maybe they’ll make sense once we openit.” Albert looked down at the key he was holding. He could feel acold tingle of excitement rising up his spine.

“Maybe.” Brandy turned the box again,observing the other sides. “Well these are all Beatles songs.”

Albert’s eyes snapped from the key to thebox. “What?”

“‘Help’, ‘Come Together’ and ‘Yesterday’ areall songs by the Beatles.”

Albert stared at the words on the side ofthe box. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure.” She glanced up at him,met his eyes for just a brief moment, then looked back down, as ifshe detected the hungry attention her revelation had drawn from himand was disturbed by it. “I like music. I listen to a lot of it.All different kinds. I don’t know what ‘G N J’ means, though.”

Albert felt numb. “The Beatles.” He mighthave recognized country or pop titles, but The Beatles?

“That doesn’t mean that’s what these mean,”Brandy explained. “It could just be a coincidence. But theyare Beatles songs.”

“Wow. I’m impressed.”

Brandy looked up at him again. This time shesmiled a little.

“Any clue about the other side?”

Brandy turned the box again and tried toread it. “Just looks like garbage to me.”

Albert nodded. “Yeah. Me too.”

“But these last two sides are a map,right?”

Albert nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t know whatit’s a map of.”

“Maybe it’s inside.”

“Maybe.” He looked down at the key again.“Let’s see.”

Brandy looked up at him, but made no move tohand him the box. “Do you think we should?”

“What do you mean?”

Brandy shrugged. She looked extremelyuncomfortable. “I’m just not sure about this. Somebody went to alot of trouble to set this all up. Why?”

Albert stared back at her, unable toanswer.

“I mean this thing still gives me thecreeps. It’s just too weird. It’s like something out of a… I don’tknow. An Alfred Hitchcock movie or… Or a Stephen King short story.It’s just not natural, you know.”

Albert looked down at the box. She wasright. It was very unnatural. Inside, he’d understood thatall along.

“I don’t want to sound crazy, but there’s apart of me that really thinks that maybe we should just throw itaway. Forget about it.”

This suggestion hit Albert like a punch inthe gut. How could he just forget about it? That box had commandedhis every thought since he first laid eyes on it. But then again,wasn’t that reason enough to do just as she suggested? Perhaps shewas right. Perhaps it was unhealthy, even dangerous.

The two of them sat there, each of themstaring at the box.

“There’s also a part of me,” Brandy added, alittle cautiously, “that still doesn’t trust you.”

Albert looked up at her, surprised.

“I mean I don’t know anything about this.One day, out of the blue, you show up to class with this box withmy name on it and say you found it in your car. After class I go tomy car and find a key with your name on it. And I reallydon’t know you.”

Albert lowered his eyes all the way to thefloor. She certainly made a point. “That’s true.” He nodded andlooked back up at her. “I guess I really can’t expect you to trustme. I really don’t have reason to trust you.”

Brandy started to say something, but shestopped herself.

“As far as I know, you could’ve leftthat box in my car. After all, I have no way of knowing whetheryou’re telling me the truth about how you came by this key. For thesame reason, you have no way of knowing how I came by that box orthat I didn’t put the key in your car.”

“Yesterday you beat me to class and I leftbefore you did…”

Albert was impressed. She’d really thoughtthis through. “But I could’ve had an accomplice.”

“Yeah.”

He leaned back against the cushions of thecouch and stared down at the key. Three more people had entered theroom since Brandy arrived. Two were young men who were speaking alanguage he could not place and playing a game of chess. The thirdwas a young woman with a huge mane of curly black hair and asurprisingly unattractive face. She was sitting alone by one of thewindows with a Dean Koontz novel in her hand. The girl who was withthe ping-pong players still seemed to be waiting on whoever it wasshe was expecting. “You don’t really seem like the kind of personwho would ever want to do me wrong,” he said at last.

“Neither do you,” said Brandy.

“But we don’t know each other.”

“Exactly.”

Albert continued to stare at the key.

“But so what if we’re both telling thetruth?” Brandy asked after a moment. “Then what? Somebodysent these things. Somebody scratched our names into them.That person knows what cars we drive, what classes we have, whenwe’re in class and God only knows what else. So then who was it?Why would they do something like this? I’d rather think thatyou were trying to prank me. The fact that someone else outthere is capable of this sort of stunt is way worse.”

Albert could think of no reply for her. Cometo think of it, how could anyone have known to leave that box inhis car the previous night? It was the first time he’d ever drivento his night class. He didn’t know until the previous weekend thatthe campus police stopped ticketing after five o’clock. Hedidn’t even know he was going to drive until just before he left.He’d intended to drive only on rainy days, but he decided to seehow much time it saved him.

That meant that someone must have beenwatching either him or his car that evening. The thought of a pairof eyes lurking unseen somewhere out there sent a shiver down hisspine.

Two more students walked into the roomtogether. One was a stout young man with short black hair and athick, black goatee. The other was a rather plain-looking blondegirl with remarkably large breasts. The shorthaired girl stood upfrom the couch as they approached and greeted them both with ahug.