Seeing as the original one died a month ago, we’ll try it again, but this time the next poster finishes the story the first one started, then puts in his or her own prompt (mundane or whatever), onward and upward (or downward), you know the drill. Don’t get attached to the one sentence rule either-Rule of Funny overrides (else we’ll get Semicolon and Dashed Hell).
Little Maria smiled when she opened the box-it was what she had always wanted.