Thousand: Seven Hundred Forty-Six

vial that has been melted shut at both ends then strapped to a velvet cushion in a glass-faced box with carrying handles. This box remains packed in an iron casket bound with chains until its once-a-year removal for the faithful who have purchased the highly-sought-after (and inevitably expensive) tickets to the exclusive viewing in a nearby colonial manor’s antebellum ballroom. The storage facility is known to a bare handful of initiatives and is protected from tornadoes by the daily prayers of a local congregation secretly devoted to this single operation and an infrequent but much ballyhooed chili cook-off. One year