The Music Box

The year was 1985, it was a cold snowy day in Gravity Falls, Oregon. Snow was swirling around and around and the air had an extra freezing chill.

Stanford Pines was by himself in his home working on a computer that was connected to what looked like a pasta strainer that was also connected to two tubes. He wore a mask for he was blow torching the tubes to the pasta strainer when he heard a knock at the door.

‘Who could that be? Could It be Stanley?’ He wondered, he had recently contacted his twin brother, Stanley, to come up and see him for he had a job for him to do. He honestly didn't expect him to come so quickly. He went to answer the door with caution to make sure it wasn't an intruder such as Bill or some other paranormal beast that he was enemies with.

“Who is it?” He asked, “Mail delivery.” A male voice said from behind the door, Stanford blinked once in confusion and reached over and grabbed his crossbow. He shakily put his other six-fingered hand on the doorknob and in one quick move opened the door and aimed the crossbow at the man behind the door.

“Stay back! Or I'll shoot!” He yelled, the man on his doorstep donned a mailman uniform holding a package. He looked understandably frightened by the crossbow aimed at in between his eyes.

Stanford’s look softened as he lowered the crossbow and just looked at the mailman feeling ashamed of mistaking him for a monster.

“My...my apologies sir,” Stanford told him, “I’m…I’m just not used to people showing up here.”

The mailman just nodded and replied, “Uh..th-that's alright Mister.” He took out the package that he kept tucked under his arm and held it out to him.

“Package for you sir.” He said, Stanford took the package from the mailman suspicious and confused. “Who's it from?” He asked,

“I don't know, there's no name on the return address.” The mailman replied, then he tipped his hat, bid Stanford good day and left. Stanford took the package down to the basement and placed it down on one of the tables staring at it still confused, who could've sent him this? It couldn't have been from Stanley, they haven't talked in over ten years and besides, he was going to be in town soon anyways, and it couldn't have been from their parents because he decided to cut off all contact from them completely.

He opened the top flaps of the box to reveal that the box itself was filled with styrofoam packing peanuts, but that was not all that was in there. There was also a small white marble box with a gold lock on the front, lying next to it was an envelope. Stanford took the envelope out still suspicious of what was in it. He opened the envelope to find a folded up piece of paper. He unfolded it and there was very neat writing. It said,

“We may be miles apart, but you’ll always hold a special place here in my heart. Open this music box with this special key, and you will hear its sweet melody. Every time you hear this song play softly, close your eyes and think of me...”

Happy Birthday, Stanford, I’ll see you soon... —Love, Millie

Stanford’s eyes immediately widened as his chest tightened and his heart skipped a beat.

..Millie…

Stanford hadn't heard from herin years! He actually tried to contact her a few years ago but she never came to see him like he had offered. Just a few weeks ago he tried to invite her to come up and see him once again but he hadn't gotten a response back yet. He had really missed her over the years that they were apart, besides Stanley she was the only other friend he had. Since he now felt like he was losing his sanity courtesy of Bill, he was hoping that seeing her could bring some of it back.

Ever since they met when they were twelve he always felt they had this special connection and that he could tell her anything that was on his mind, he trusted her with every secret and surprisingly, she always kept them. The last time he actually talked to her was when they were eighteen, he told her that he was going to get into his dream school but that Stanley would have to stay behind in New Jersey. But when he didn't get into his dream school and Stanley got kicked out of the house, he wanted to tell her what happened but he decided to not say anything because he didn’t want her to feel like she had to hear about all of his problems, he also didn't want her to worry about Stanley so he kind of kept her in the dark about that too.

He then felt something else in the envelope. He turned it upside down and shook it and out fell a gold key. Stanford knew that it must’ve been the key that opened up the music box. He took the marble music box out of the cardboard box and set it gently on the table so it wouldn't break. He inserted the key into the lock and turned it and the box slowly opened letting out a soft melody that sounded almost like something out of a lullaby. Millie was right in the note, the music was pretty soothing. But then Stanford remembered Millie’s other words in the note and closed his eyes tightly and pictured Millie in his head with her beautiful red hair, those gorgeous lake green eyes, and that soft innocent smile that she always displayed in the pictures that she used to send to Stanley and him.

Suddenly the nice music coming from the music box sounded extremely familiar to him. Finally he realized it as the song that he, Millie, and Stanley used to listen to when they were younger, they called it “Their song”. Then he began to stare at one particular word in the letter. Love.

It was really no secret that he always had this slight crush on her since they met. The only people who really knew about it were Stan and their parents. The kids at school eventually found out but they didn’t really believe that someone like her could actually choose someone like him so they really cared less. When she left New Jersey and headed home for Australia, he told her that he loved her and she told him she felt the same way. However they remained friends throughout their teenage years. This made him think that she didn't understand what he meant and thought that he just loved her as a friend, but that was not the case. He LOVED loved her. She was the only girl he had ever met that didn’t judge him for being different, but he also loved her because she was silly, quirky, intelligent, cocky, and in every picture that she sent to him and Stan she just glowed.

So many years flew by and his feelings hadn’t changed. But he still couldn't bring himself to tell her the truth. What worried him the most was that it would ruin what the easy going realtionship they already had and then he’d really lose her. So he kept his mouth shut.

He then turned his attention to a bunch of pictures hanging on the wall by his work station. The pictures that were taped up formed a huge collage of himself, Stan, and her. In some pictures it was just him and Stan, in other pictures it was just Millie, those were the pictures she sent them over the years they stayed in touch, then there were only two pictures in the collage that contained the thtree of them. One was a photo strip that was from a photobooth that they used when showing her the amusment park, the other was Millie holding the camera towards the three of them, Stanford himself was holding her close in the picture and Stanley was leaning into the photo shooting a wink and a finger point of approval.

Stanford walked over to the wall and just continued to gaze at all the pictures that he collected over the years. He looked upon the ones with just him and Stan with slight sorrow and then shifted his gaze to the ones with just Millie. One of them was a picture that she sent to him a few years back, she was standing on the Great Wall of China and she was smiling that precious and sincere smile of hers that he adored. Stanford reached a hand out and ran his six fingers across the picture where her face was staring into the still lake green eyes that were motionless in the photo but still held their special glimmer. His hand then moved up to her medium red hair just flowed down her back in ruby colored waves.

The recent events of the last few years such as building the portal with Fiddleford and Bill betraying him were enough to keep her off his mind. But now, these old feelings that he thought were gone suddenly came flowing back like a tidal wave.

It was clear…

...He still loved Millie Lee...