LOCKED IN A BOX
                         By Robert Mauro

     He was naked, locked in a box.  It seemed like an ordinary
box in the sense that it had boundaries.  These were as far as he
could reach in every direction.  If he moved from where he stood,
he bumped into one of its sides, a side he could not see, but a
side none the less.
     He hid his nakedness.  But from whom?  And why?  He
screamed, but he had no voice.  He had lost it somewhere.  There
was not even an echo.
     So there he was, locked in a box, naked.  Speechless.
     The last thing he remembered, he was wearing a blue suit and
a red tie.  He was sitting in his office at his computer.  He had
been in his cubicle.  He hardly communicated with anyone even
then.  Now he was locked in a box.
     When he looked to his left, he suddenly saw her.  She was
naked, too, in her own box.  She tried to hide her nakedness.  He
tried to approach her, but there seemed to be an invisible wall
between them.  It was as if they were both in their own box.
     They tried to hide their nakedness from each other as soon
as their eyes met.  And they tried to apologize for the awkward
situation they were both in.  But they could not hear each other. 
Were they deaf?  Speechless?  Why couldn't they communicate?  The
hearing impaired could.  Why couldn't they?
     Covering his nakedness with one hand, he waved at her.  He
waited for a reply.  She nodded.  Nevertheless, they could not
speak to each other.
     He sat down on the floor of his box.  He noticed he was
neither hot nor cold.  Neither was the floor.  As naked as he
was, he was comfortable, at least physically.  He pounded on the
bottom of the box.  He stood and banged on the invisible side
walls.  She stared at him.  He realized he was uncovered.  But at
that moment, he didn't care.  So why did he cover himself?
     He looked up.  There was the sky high above him.  He reached
up and jumped.  The very tips of his fingers just touched the
ceiling of the box.  There were definite dimensions to this box,
but he could not see them.  The box had no physical properties. 
And it wasn't made of glass.  Nor air.  Was it all just his
imagination?  Was this all just some horrible nightmare?  And why
were they both naked?
     He looked at her.  She was beautiful.  She smiled at him,
half turned in an effort to hide her nudity.  She shrugged.  He
shrugged, as if to say, "Well, here we are.  Wherever that is."
     She was saying something to him.  He stared at her mouth.  
By reading her lips, he tried to make out what she was saying. 
It looked like, "Hello."  Or was it, "Hell no"?
     She sat down and shook her head.  Was she crying?  She
seemed to be shaking slightly.  Was she cold?  He was neither hot
nor cold.  Just frustrated.  Locked in a box.  He sat down,
waving to her, smiling, trying to make her smile.  But he was
confused.
     Where was he?  How did he get here?  Was this cyberspace? 
He recalled that he had been sitting in his cubicle, typing at
his computer keyboard just before everything crashed.  The screen
went blank.  He went blank.  The next thing he knew he was here. 
In this box.  He forced a smile and waved to her again.  She
rubbed her eyes, trying to keep her body turned so all he could
see was her bare right side.  He sighed.
     She stood up suddenly as if she had just become aware of
herself.  Her beauty.  Her being.  She looked up to the left,
then to the right.  She decided there was no reason to hide her
nakedness.  Why should she?  She liked him.  She even hungered
for him.  Yes.  She looked at him and pointed to her ear.  He
looked at her full breasts and uncovered voluptuous body. 
Something had caused him to forget his nakedness, too.
     He faced her, suddenly proud of his body.  Proud of his
nakedness.  But what had caused this sudden...change?  What had
she heard?  Or felt?  Or thought?  What was she looking for?  She
looked at him and mouthed the words, "Hello there!"  Actually, he
wasn't sure if she had said "Can you hear" or "There's nothing to
fear."  She realized he was staring at her.  She refused to cover
herself.  She smiled and shrugged.  He laughed and imitated her
shrug, and realized they were no longer hiding their nakedness.
     "My name's Joy," she said, trying to speak slowly so he
could read her lips.
     His eyes opened wide.  He had heard her!  He pointed to his
ear, as if to say, "I heard you."  Then stopped.  Perhaps she
could hear him.
     "I'm Phil," he said, speaking to her.
     "I heard you!  I heard you!" she cried.
     She ran to him and hugged him tight.  He hugged her as tight
and as affectionately as he could.  Suddenly they realized there
were no more walls between them.  What had happened to the walls? 
They didn't know.
     He held her in his arms.  Her skin was soft and warm against
his.  She kissed him.  He kissed her.  Soon they were making
love.  They had forgotten all about the boxes they had been
locked in.  Or why they had been locked in them in the first
place.  All they knew now was that they were free.  Free to live
-- and to love each other.