Writing Treasure Box (A short children's story...)

[RicoTranzrig]

[b][i][u]Treasure Box[/b][/u][/i]
By: Andrew (me) :D




[color=darkblue]Over the hilltops of a small town, a lone house sits at the top of the hill, covered in tall grass. A middle-aged woman sat in her room looking out the window. Dark clouds began to cover the bright sky, brining light rain.


?Another rainy day,? she said with a disappointing sigh. She left the window and walked downstairs for something to eat. She opened the cabinet and took out a glass jar of homemade cookies. She headed back upstairs and sat on her bed, eating and thinking of something to do. Her bed was littered with cookie crumbs when she was done and she set the jar on the table. She jumped off the bed, some of the crumbs falling on the floor, carpet speckled with drink spills. She went into her closet and started looking at the different items that she had kept inside. Old clothes from her birth up to the clothes she wore now. Toys scattered on the bottom. An old doll in the corner with a missing eye and different pieces of a child?s train set, the rails scattered into hundreds of pieces. Her older brother?s collection of model cars lay under the blue pieces of plastic railroad, most of which are in good condition, though a little dusty. Except one car, which her brother called ?the cheap Volkswagen.? She picked up her old doll and began to talk to it.


?Hey there, haven?t seen you in a long time. What have you been keeping in here all these years I haven?t been playing with you?? She began to sift through the pile of toys, holding her doll. She noticed something sparkling at the bottom of the all the clutter and pulled it out, revealing a small chest, a small part of it still shining its golden plating. She set her doll down on the bed and held the box up over her head. ?This is my treasure box. All that it holds belongs to me.? She set the chest down on the bed next to her doll, knelt down, and opened it with a key in her drawer. ?Maybe I should tell you how I got all these things. They may not be beautiful to you or anyone else, but I treasure these with all my heart.? She sifted through the four items within the box and pulled out a dried rose.


?Here we go, my first treasure. I got this on my very first day of school. I was so scared of being left alone without my mother but I promised myself I wouldn?t cry. I was one of the first students to go inside and see my teacher, Mrs. Hammerstrom. It wasn?t long before my mom hugged me goodbye, told the teacher to take good care of me and leave the room. Tears started to come from my eyes as I took a seat on the floor and I just cried. The entire day I was crying, the teacher couldn?t even start the first game to get to know each other. They probably all knew who I was, the crying girl. I finally calmed down because I promised myself that I wouldn?t cry. But I missed my mom so much. That was when the teacher started the first game, we were paired up and we were told to do different activities around the room and outside on the playground. I was paired up with another girl to go outside and pick a flower out in the garden to give to her. So she sent us out and told me not to cry. We went into the garden where I got myself lost ?cause I was so small. I found a beautiful rose on a bush in the corner and tried to look for my partner, but I couldn?t. I started to cry again but I shook it off and wiped my eyes. I looked up and saw my partner holding a rose of the same kind, but a bit smaller. ?Don?t cry, my name?s Kirsten,? she said and she handed me the rose. I gave her my rose and we found our way out of the huge garden together. I felt a lot better knowing someone cared about me, even if they didn?t know me that well. We came back to class and I started talking with her the rest of the day with her gift in my hands. Little did I know, we never stopped talking to each other, she became my best friend. Ah, memories.? She reached into her box. ?But there?s more, don?t you worry. It looks like it?s going to be a long while before the storm goes away.? She set down the dried rose to the side of her doll and reached into the box again, pulling out a large white feather.


?A few years passed and I was in the third grade, could you believe it? It?s been three long years and I got through all of them!? She smiled proudly. ?Anyway, I got this feather when we got our first pet which was a small dove. Yeah, I know that it?s a strange pet to have around the house, but it was really pretty. My mom bought it for me during her trip to a place far, far away and gave it to me on my eighth birthday. I didn?t really like pets at first, I would just rather play with dolls like you or go outside and play with my best friend or my neighbors, but I grew to like it. The dove made such soothing sounds that put me to sleep in the living room downstairs and I would invite my best friend on sleepovers so we could play with it and it would put us to sleep in no time. I decided to ask my mom if I could put it in my room so I could take care of it more easily, especially at night when it gets really hungry. My mom agreed and she had the cage hung up on the ceiling.? She points to the hole where the chain was attached to hang the cage on. ?It was really nice having it around. But once school started to get harder, I had less and less time to give it the care it needed. I tried to keep it in my room as long as I could, but it started getting angry, as if I hated it. But that was never how I felt. I loved it but it was hard to give everything it wanted or needed. My mom and brother saw that and decided to put it back into the living room so they could watch over it and I could concentrate on my schoolwork. Unfortunately, the dove was so attached to me; it was mean to my brother and mom every time they came near it. I was the only one who could take care of it, but I couldn?t. That was when my mother finally decided to let it go because all it did was make loud noises that would wake everyone up. When it flew out of its cage and out of my life forever, it left a feather, a gift to me, thanking me for taking care of it as much as I could.? She put the feather next to the dried rose and she reached into the box again, this time, pulling out a silk ribbon.


?A few more years passed and I was a little older.? She took the thin piece of ribbon and used it to tie back her hair into a ponytail. ?Nice isn?t it? My mom used it to tie my hair each morning before I left to go play with my best friend. It wasn?t much of a fashion statement, but I liked how it blended into my dark hair and they way she tied it. I never really cared about what other people thought about me before. I was with my best friend throughout my school days and we would just play together. Summer vacation and we had the freedom to do what we wanted. Since I was a lot older, all that Kirsten and I would do was talk, for hours at a time, about anything. We went out one day and stopped by the park, which had a small pond. We sat by the rocks and looked out on the pond, not saying anything. It was a strange feeling, even though we weren?t talking, I knew what she was thinking. ?Will it always be like this?? That was her question. I took my silk ribbon from my hair and snapped it in two. I have one half of it to her and the smaller piece I kept. When the summer was over she would be moving to a different town and school, which put her in silent, thought most of the time. When the day finally came, we parted ways with promises to see each other again. But I have never gotten chance to ?see? her. I?ve only talked to her through letters and, sometimes, through the phone. I do miss her. But I know that we?ll see each other again someday.? She looked through her box one last time after putting down the torn piece of silk and pulled out a small piece of paper.


?Though, the person I will miss the most is my mother. This was a letter she wrote during another one of her trips far away. I was around nineteen years old.? She opened up the letter and started reading it.


?Dear Grace, I know that you?ve worked many long and hard years to get to where you are now and I know that I can count on you to be a responsible and mature girl. But now I have to leave you. I can?t tell you why or for how long but just know that I?ll always love you and I?ll be there in your heart wherever you go. I?ll support you in anyway I can but not in the way I used to as your mother. I?ll try to make my way back to you if I can. But chances are I won?t. I?ll miss you Grace.?




?I never understood what the message meant. I keep reading it every single day and, in my mind, I could never seem to understand at the time. But I finally understood when she never came back. She gave me everything, the house, the car, enough money. But all I wanted was to her to come home and be with me. But, as time passed, I learned how to live on my own because I was old enough. I also understood what the letter meant after all this time. My mother never wrote again, she?s still here with me, but only in my thoughts.? She set all her items back into the golden box and picked up her old doll and looked at it. The rain finally stopped and the sun began to shine. ?All better now. Well, it looks like I have to go.? She heard the doorbell ring. ?I wonder who that could be.? She put the doll into the box, closed it, and headed downstairs.
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