"To Vivia N. Rossgilde, Hope you like surprises! – Dr. Northumber."

It had been two days since the package arrived. Sylvan had not opened it yet as it was addressed to Vivia but the strange briny smell was overpowering his sense of propriety. If there was something perishable inside, it would be better to open it up and process it before it spoiled any further he told himself.

He thought of giving Vivia a heads up.

At the same time, his phone rang. It was from Vivia.

"Hey, Viv. I'm doing great. All good with you?"

Vivia was as apologetic as she had been on the day she left for the trip, "Syl, but our professor found a late Ordovician fossils exhibit at the North Rean Museum. It's the first time they are putting these on display,"

"Oh, that's good news, right?" Sylvan knew how passionate Vivia was about all things extinct and fossilized, "You're going there?"

"I want to, but it opens after two days. So it'll be take another fours days to get home,"

"No worries, enjoy the trip,"

"But, but I'm making you house-sit." he could hear the raw guilt in her tone, "I really didn't mean to mess up your schedule, but this came up and, now,"

Sylvan gently cut her off , "Like I said, don't worry so much. Your place is much quieter. I'm finally getting some work done here,"

"You sure? Nothing's bothering you, right?"

"Nope," he cast a sidelong glance at the unopened parcel, "Well, there's one thing. Were you expecting a package from Dr. Northumber?"

"Dr. Northumber?" for a second, she processed the name, then, "Wait! You don't mean the Dr. Northumber? Dr. Wysteria Northumber from Wisteria Paleo Labs?"

Sylvan had never heard of the place. In his mind, the shadowy figure of Dr. Northumber went from 'suspicious stalker' to 'respected researcher' in the matter of a few seconds.

"Might be, do you know them?"

"Of course, I've been trying to get an internship there for months now. I sent her extracts of my research last week. It might be her reply,"

"It's a whole box, actually. I didn't open it but it's starting to smell weird."

"Smell? Box? Not sure what you mean. Is there a letter?"

The mental arrow threatened to swing back to 'suspicious stalker' again. Why did Dr. Northumber send Vivia a package with such an informal message if she did not know her personally?

"Syl, are you still there? Is there a letter?"

"No, just a card," he brushed off the misgivings, "It says 'Hope you like surprises'."

"Huh? Well, it could be some kind of test. Try opening it."

"Are you sure?"

He was expecting her to be sceptical of the intentions of the sender. Or at least show some hesitation but her reply was an instant, "Sure."

He shrugged, "Alright, I'll call you back in a bit."

*****

Sylvan was a final year mass communications major. Vivia was an aspiring paleozoologist in the second year of university. Nothing about her had screamed science nerd until they started going out together.

On their second date, Sylvan had discovered that Vivia was a hopeless romantic when it came to the history of life on earth. She cooked up complex imaginary scenarios to argue how life might have differed if one could change even a single event in the geological timeline.

Sylvan found it all fascinating.

The world looked far rosier through her eyes. The conversation on most of their dates morphed into esoteric lectures on paleontology.

If they had met earlier, he might have reconsidered his choice of majors!

In the three months since they began dating, this was the first time she had invited him to her apartment. It was more of a house-sitting request than a move-in invitation.

"It's for the weekends, I promise it won't take longer," Vivia's class was going on a three-day field trip.

She had been apologetic the whole time for asking her boyfriend to house-sit.

"You're not burdening me, Viv," Sylvan had reassured her for the umpteeth time.

"The groceries arrive later at night..."

"...I'll have to get them at the reception. Everything will be under control,"

"Are you sure? And the gingko,"

"Needs 50mls of water from the pot, twice a day, at dawn and early afternoon. Put it in the sun from 10am to 2pm," it was gospel truth to him by then, "I remember, Viv. Don't worry, enjoy your trip,"

Vivia did not seem relieved. She seemed as though she might have wanted to take the apartment with her. That was the last time they had seen each other.

He was still struggling with the watering pot when the bell rang.

The mysterious parcel arrived.

It was a heavy box with sturdy packaging. Prominent "fragile" and "this side up" signs were plastered on the sides. He signed it on behalf of Vivia and placed the package beside the door. Nothing on the box mentioned urgent care, so he decided to confirm with Vivia on the expected contents.

Unfortunately, an urgent class assignment occupied his thoughts and he entirely forgot about it. He did not bring it up in calls with Vivia either until today.