A Cold Winters Day PART FIVE!!!!

The weak, because of how things worked out, I will be listing the LEAST popular vote, which was "Follow the girl."

Which mean Rex Worthington will be both opening the box AND returning the call.

Deciding not to follow the girl at all, Rex sits down at a bench on the sidewalk, fumbling to open the box, whilst holding the phone to his ear with his other hand, waiting to see who answers.

Finally, the string has come off the package, and Rex fumbling continues as he tries to remove the paper, using his shoulder to hold his phone against his ear.

"Hello," comes the voice from the other end.
"Hi, my name's Rex and-"
"Please hold the line."
"Damn it!"

Finally, the paper is off the package, and what's in side is a particularly nice carved wooden box, with gold hinges, locked at the front with a padlock, and a four digit number combination above it.

"Where's the key?" says Rex aloud, as he fumbles through the paper in which it was packaged.

"Hello?" answers the oddly familiar sounding voice at the other end.
"Hi ... um ... who's this?"
"This is Rex Worthington ... and I've been expecting your call."
"Wait, that's impossible"
"Right now, you're sitting on a bench on the sidewalk out side of a bakery where you shared a quick bight to eat with an old lover."
"How could you possibly know that?"
"I told you, I am you."
"Well then you know how I get into this box - what's in here anyway?"
"Knowing what's in that box could potentially cause an unwanted paradox - the only way to know is to find out."
"So you're me ... from the future?"
"A potentially alternate future, but yes."
"Will you at least tell me one thing?"
"You're going to ask me what the combination is to open the box, and where the key is for the padlock.  As for the padlock, I'm not going to tell you, the combination however, you already know."
"I do?"
"Yes - how many options have you had?"

*~*~*~*~*~*

How many options have you had? (Remember, it's a four digit number)

*~*~*~*~*~*

A Cold Winters Day ~ Part 4.

There was no majority vote. Note: You are no longer "you," you are now Rex.

Standing on the sidewalk, Rex comes to an indecision about whether or not to walk or take a taxi, standing there, as the snow begins to ease, he is approached by stranger.
 "So you are the one they've been talking about," she says.
"Me? No, I'm just-"
"Here, take this," she says as she puts something into Rex's pocket, before continuing on.
"Wait, who are you? You can't just give things to strangers."
The woman looks back at Rex, almost as if she's suggesting he should follow, but would be unconcerned if he didn't.

Rex's phone rings, and the box he was earlier given starts to vibrate in a very telephone-like manner.  Panicking, Rex pulls out the phone, and sees it's not a call, but a text message from an unknown number reading "It's almost time to open the box - do so at your own discretion."

NOTE:****  Sorry about the non-working poll.

We'll do it the old fashioned way ... it's Google's fault for not allowing polls on a per-post basis, and all the kerfuffle that has to be gone through to get one there ~

Open Box
Return Call
Follow Girl

(Combinations are allowed),  Posts that offer more than just a choice will be completely ignored.