I got this mug in the mail last week.

If you don’t recognize it, it refers to the Netflix series Stranger Things, a science fiction-horror hybrid set in the 1980s in Indiana. The Upside-Down is kind of a netherworld the story’s protagonists have to battle and escape from time to time.

As a child of the 80s, I find the series eminently bingeable, and I was delighted to get the gift. The only problem is…there was no card, no message, no return address. Just the shipping ticket, which yields no clues as to the identity of my benefactor. I emailed a few friends who I thought might have sent it as a late Christmas gift. Nope.

This is where stories come from. Unexplained phenomena. What-if questions that nobody can answer satisfactorily. Here we have the inciting incident of a new novella or novel, with possibilities for a variety of literary genres: a woman receives a mysterious gift in the mail from an unknown sender. As she searches for the identity of the giver, she…

• Unlocks a portal to another world? [Sci-fi/fantasy]
• Slowly discovers the item is cursed? [Horror]
• Makes a connection to a past she thought she’d left behind? [Literary? Historical fiction? Romance?]
• Realizes she’s the next intended victim of a deranged serial killer? [Thriller]

I could (and eventually probably will) ask on social media who sent this, but I predict I won’t get an answer. That leaves me to fill in the story with my imagination. In truth, the vendor who sent it probably made a mistake, but that’s no fun, is it?

If you sent it, or if you have a theory, post it in the comments.