Experiment

The instructions for the social experiment were simple: make your way through the room past three choices to the free coffee and pastry bar (where you were encouraged to help yourself); she had signed up immediately and was the third one to navigate the test. She passed the penny on the floor, but did not pick it up. She passed the leather jacket hanging on the back of a chair with obviously full pockets, but didn't search it. The thing that got her was the plain black box; she was steps away from donuts and a bucket o' latte when she looked left and saw a black box sitting in the corner at a table of its own. "Do Not Open" said the sign, but it was so out of place and so blink-and-you'll-miss-it that she couldn't resist. Alarms sounded, lights flashed, and Pandora sighed. "Screw you, idiots," she hissed. "Don't blame me; it was YOUR experiment."