Prologue~Ch. 1~Ch. 2~Ch. 3~Ch. 4~Ch. 5~Ch. 6~
It was a rare Saturday morning that found both Ellen and Jessica off work and it was an unwritten rule that on such an occasion alarm clocks were never used. Despite this, and the lateness of the night before, Ellen was up, dressed and waiting when Jessica finally put in an appearance.
She had coffee and a danish waiting for her and could barely even wait for her to get dressed before pulling her into the living room.
“You’re impossible!” Jessica laughed as Ellen dragged the coffee table, the box on it, closer to them.
“So open it already!”
Ellen watched impatiently as Jessica slowly unwrapped the mysterious box.
“This is worse than Christmas,” she muttered.
“It’s just,” Jessica paused and glanced at her friend. “This is going to sound really stupid, but I can’t help feeling that whatever’s in this box is going to have a drastic effect on my life.”
Ellen shivered, “I don’t like it when you get premonitions.”
“Sorry,” Jessica took a deep breath and opened the box. Inside was another box, with a sheet of buff coloured stationery attached to it.
“This is really ridiculous!”
She pulled the note free and handed it to Ellen. “You read, I’ll keep unwrapping.”
“It says,” said Ellen after a few moments, “that the woman who owned the house you grew up in with Sandra and Jeremy found this box in her attic. She sent it to Sandra who sent it along to you. She believes it’s a box of your mother’s old clothes.”
By this time Jessica had the second box free of its wrappings. Ellen leaned forward as Jessica hesitated, then opened it.
“Whoa!” They both leaned backwards from the musty smell that wafted upwards.
“How long was this thing in that woman’s attic?”
Ellen got up to open a window. “Your Aunt didn’t say. But from the smell I’d say a long time, and that the old lady’s roof leaks.”
“Look at this!” Jessica was bravely exploring the contents. “Baby clothes!”
“They’re probably yours,” Ellen sat beside her for a better look. “Look at this stitching, they’re made by hand.”
“I can’t believe this,” Jessica said. “Can you imagine the work that went into these?”
Each tiny garment was sewn by hand and heavily decorated. Some of them were embroidered with thread that had lost only a little of its colour, some were trimmed with handmade lace and ribbons. There was no sign of moth damage or mildew, but there was no doubt it would take a great deal of effort to get rid of the smell.
Sandwiched carefully between layers of delicate baby clothes were a glass unicorn and a pair of crystal candlesticks.
“I’ve never seen these before,” Jessica said, holding the candlesticks up for a closer look. “And I’ll bet Aunt Sandra didn’t know about them either.”
“How so?”
“If she’d known about them, she would have sold them.”
Next to come out was a once white sheet, separating the baby clothes from a layer of mildewed newspapers. Jessica waited until Ellen went to the kitchen for a garbage bag, then sheet and newspapers were discarded. The next layer was sealed in a plastic bag. Jessica gingerly lifted it out and Ellen swept the boxes and wrappings onto the floor.
“We’re making a real mess,” Jessica told her.
“So, we’ll clean it up later. What’s in the bag?”
Scissors were needed to get into the bag. Sitting right at the top was an old photo album. Jessica turned the pages carefully but it seemed to be in pretty good shape.
“I don’t recognize any of these people,” she said after a few pages. “Wait, here’s one ...”
Her voice trailed off as she gazed at a picture of a dark haired young woman in a wedding gown. “That’s my mother,” she said.
The next picture was a wedding portrait. The bride was holding her bouquet, standing next to the groom, a handsome young man in a police uniform. “My parents,” Jessica whispered. “I’ve never seen my father before. He was a policeman, shot in the line of duty before I was born. They weren’t married very long.” She bit her lip to keep from getting too misty eyed and set the photo album aside. She could look at it later.
Next was a layer of neatly folded clothing, maternity clothes by the look of them, two dresses and a pantsuit. Wrapped up in one of the dresses was another book. This one was smaller, with a lock on it. Jessica looked up at Ellen.
“It’s got to be my mother’s diary. I didn’t know she ever kept one.” Jessica set it aside.
The last item in the bag was a small, ornately carved wooden box. “This is beautiful,” she said, admiring it as she turned it around in her hands. “I wonder where it came from.”
“It looks hand carved,” Ellen said. “I wonder if – Jessica, are you all right?”
The blood drained from Jessica’s face as she opened the box. Wordlessly, she handed the box to Ellen. There, nestled in a velvet lining, was the milky white disk from her nightmare.
4 comments:
LOVE that first line, it says a lot about them AND their relationship.
Yup. They're BFFs for sure. :-)
*hmm* Have you mentioned how big this box actually is?
No, I haven't. :-)
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