24 January 2021

Tell Me a Light Story, Tell Me a Tale


Your Job: Write us a story of mystery and intrigue.

It’s a box, just an ordinary carton for a light bulb. At $25, the lamp is a bit expensive, but it’s an LED ‘smart bulb’ with motion and light sensors. It also communicates with Google Home automation, which activates it at sundown and disables it at sunrise. The flood lamp supposedly lasts 22 years and uses less than $2 a year in electricity.

Here are the four sides of this curious box:

box front
box left
box back
box right

The box features the specs, a picture of the light and two additional images, one of them a girl who’s apparently joyously toying with her cell phone. The other graphic also pictures a girl… but… what the hell?

blowup of panel picture

The well-lit house appears to be in a forest. This night, two lawn chairs sit empty on the deck. Wood pallets on one side rest against a tree.

But why is the girl on the ground? What is she reaching for? Or pointing at? Or warding off? Why is her pose so peculiar?

Imagination might suggest an Andrew Wyeth painting gone wrong. Or perhaps the girl has been kidnapped, captured and held in the woods. Perhaps she’s trying to escape.

But who’s taken her? Seven little guys with names like Flippy, Flappy, Floppy, and Dorky? Or a weird prince with delusions of Roquelaure? Or aliens? Or a boyfriend in a consensual game of hide and seek? Or she twisted her ankle when three bears chased her? Are those bears hiding beneath the deck or behind the pallets? Enquiring minds want to know.

So click on the picture below to expand it for any grainy detail you can discern, then tell fans a story about the scene.

Strange scene on Sengled light bulb box
*click* the picture to enlarge

Mystery number two: Pray tell us what the hell the package designer was thinking.

12 comments:

  1. She appears to be awaiting ET arriving in that mysterious cone of light!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think she's part of a criminal gang holed up in a forest hideaway. As police close in, a helicopter facilitates their escape, she falls as the helicopter flies away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And THEN the three bears ate her! Anne, that's a good interpretation and explains what we see. Thanks.

      Delete
  3. The package designer is sending us a message: 2 chairs in light; a red light streaming down on the right; a reddish light in the sky; obviously, JFK Jr. is alive, and she's spotted him!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. By Jove, Eve! Considering the recent political landscape, that makes more sense than QAnon conspiracies. Thank you.

      Delete
  4. They commissioned the package design from the estate of Edward Hopper?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ohhhhh. That could work, Brian, all that light and shadow. Thanks!

      Delete
  5. Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes! I thought of Hopper! Or Andrew Wyeth! Maybe "Christina's Vacation in a Little Cabin With Some Beer and Some Attentive Guys Who Look Like Charles Atlas."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Man, you're sharp, Jeff. Hopper and Wyeth! Very clever.

      Delete

Welcome. Please feel free to comment.

Our corporate secretary is notoriously lax when it comes to comments trapped in the spam folder. It may take Velma a few days to notice, usually after digging in a bottom drawer for a packet of seamed hose, a .38, her flask, or a cigarette.

She’s also sarcastically flip-lipped, but where else can a P.I. find a gal who can wield a candlestick phone, a typewriter, and a gat all at the same time? So bear with us, we value your comment. Once she finishes her Fatima Long Gold.

You can format HTML codes of <b>bold</b>, <i>italics</i>, and links: <a href="https://about.me/SleuthSayers">SleuthSayers</a>