TSL Pandorathon May 22nd prompt done by me

 May 22nd - As I prised open the wooden box, I gasped. Use this sentence in a paragraph max 200 words with Santosh Bakaya

It was one of those days when everything had gone wrong. I had missed the bus to work. I had to take an auto and that was expensive. I had, to start with, forgotten my mask and had to go back to get it. Work had been full of small irritants, mainly made up with that looming thought everyone had these days of being laid off, salary being cut or not given, of having no money or getting no new job if laid off, and of catching one of the many infections going around. Covid 19, its variants, from Maharashtra or some other place unnamed as yet, black fungus, white fungus, you name it, or just plain bothersome unshaved fungus.

After struggling through the day I went home. The movie I had watched last night was running through my mind. Pilgrim's progress. Yes, nowadays every man was a pilgrim and all still wanted to reach the celestial city but no one knew whether it existed or not, anymore. In fact, most were sure it did not, just like those in the cursed city called 'not cursed', in the animated movie did. Go home or go forward? What was he supposed to do? For the hero there had been no shortcut, to go forward was the only way to home, if any. For me to go home was to go forward, things were not to be taken literally but spiritually, to run away was easy, instead of to stand and fight.

I reached home and my family was there, and a package arrived from Amazon. It was a yellow cover with the usual styrofoam packing and I wondered who the hell would send me anything in the midst of a pandemic even as I felt happy to have reached home to be with my wife and kids after a long tiring day full of stress, strain, and fatigue, exhaustion and feeling out of sorts. They were happy to see me reach back in one piece too. Everything was uncertain these days. After fumigation, bath, and all the rest of it, and a meal, and distancing and doing whatever like quarantine that was needed, I opened the cover. Inside was a wooden box, with intricate carvings on it.

As I prised open the wooden box, I gasped.