“Put it down on the coffee table and let’s have a look at it,” said Leroy.
He pulled a small black metal object with a small screen out of one of the pockets of his cargo pants and walked over to the package. He bent over and ran the device back and forth across the brown envelope. Nothing happened. He touched the side of it and scanned the package again. It lit up like a Christmas tree.
“There is organic matter in here,” said Leroy.
“You mean like compostable material?” asked Liz.
“No I mean like living material,” said Leroy.
“How do you know? And what’s that black thing?” asked Mr. Claus.
“I had a friend put it together after all of those envelopes were sent off with Anthrax back in the day. Can’t be too careful,” said Leroy.
“So it’s Anthrax?” said Liz.
“Probably not. If I had a guess it would be some form of virus- after all it’s 2020,” said Leroy.
“But that’s not living- per se,” said Mrs. Claus.
“My bad. Yes, you’re right. And that’s an open debate on whether or not a virus is truly a living organism. But let’s save that discussion for a drunken evening on the other side of this mess. Right now I think we have a problem,” said Leroy.
“I’ll be right back,” said Mrs. Claus and went upstairs.
Everyone looked back and forth at one another.
“What’s going on?” said William.
“Search me,” said Mr. Claus.
Just then she re-appeared at the top of the stairs in a full white hazmat suit complete with built-in gloves and a plastic face shield.
As she walked down the stairs everyone then turned their heads to Mr. Claus.
“What? We like to keep things spiced up and Rosemary makes a great female astronaut,” said Mr. Claus and shrugged his shoulders.
