Chapter 1
The Chest
It was a hot day couldn’t seem to get cool, even with the aircondishner going full blast. She was sitting on the porch trying not to think about the heat, drinking a glass of Green Tea. When she, heard her name being called. From the inside the house” Sara Sara come quick” I want to show you something I found in the chest in the basement, Sara went to see what Bobbie Sue was talking about.
Now Bobbie Sue was Sara’s younger sister, but they didn’t look anything alike for she took after her daddy and Sara took after mother. Sara with her long blonde hair and the longest eyes lashes, you have ever seen on a person and they weren’t false, and dark green eyes. Where as Bobbie Sue look much prettier to Sara than she did for she had black hair and the lightest blue green eyes. With the fairest skin, in some way she looked like a doll. Although they had the same features, so that you could tell they were sisters.
When she got there she was surprise to see all these pictures spread out every where on the floor. Didn’t have any ideal whom they were, but you could tell that they were really old pictures. As she began looking at them, she forgot about it being so hot. Some were so old they looked like they may have been made on cardboard. The people looked so stiff it in the pictures, it was as if they had a board behind them holding them still, There was one that look like her daddy, when he was alive but knew that it could not be him for this picture was dated on the back in the 1800, but not sure exactly when because the writing was kind of faded. In the bottom of the chest there was a big black book, which looked to be made of leather. It had some really strange writing on it. And the writing in it was not one that she knew. It was a very very old book, and it was hand written. The writing in it was very pretty she knew that. But there was something about this book that gave her the creeps. Didn’t know if it was because it smelled, very stinky or what. There was one picture in the book that really got her attention, and that was of a man he was a really good looking man,” that was to be sure”. He looked so refined like a real gentleman. He had black hair you could tell that even with the picture being so old. He also had light eyes. In the picture he looked to be about 25 or so in age. When you looked at him it was though you could get lost in his eyes. Of course this could all be because Sara had just broken up with her boyfriend, and was feeling a wee bet lonely. Bobbie Sue looks at her, and said “Sara to earth “and laughed at her. Then they both laughed at them selves. Sara told Bobbie Sue that she would take the book to a friend of her’s, and see if she could tell her anything about it.
The next day she went to see Lucy, to see what she could tell her about the book. Now Lucy was a really short person, with red hair that looked like it was on fire, and with the biggest blue eyes. And she was a little on the heavy side, but they have been friend sense grade school.
Lucy said that it looks like old Latin, but she could not be sure. Ask if she could keep the book and see what she could find out for her. Sara agrees and left, Days went by and she had almost forgotten about the whole thing when, Lucy called on the phone and was really excited about what she had found out. So they made a lunch date to get together, and talk about it when Sara got there. Lucy had already ordered for them, and asked if that was ok. Which it was, Lucy began talking so fast that Sara could not understand a word she was saying. Sara had to tell her to slow down. To which she did, she said well you see it is this man, in the picture that is what the book is about. He was some kind of royalty. Not sure what, and he was “beheaded” right here in the United States. Can you believe that? Sara are you kidding?” No I am not”! .It was over this woman that the book is talking about. Sara “Wow” that is really the strangest, I didn’t know that they ever did stuff like that here in the States. Lucy they don’t, that what make this so creepy. It was about that time when there was a loud boom. It seems that somewhere down the road there was a car wreck. Well any way Sara had to get back home and check on her Mother who had been sick for the past few months. So she made plans to get together later that night at Sara’s house, to go through the chest again. To see is they could find out anymore on this...
Sara’s Mother was not really and overly old woman she was only about 56 years old .she still had pretty blonde hair with not much gray in it, and was still the same size that she was in high school, which was about a size 10.which is who Sara took after.
Well it was about 7 pm when Sara heard a car door outside, and not to long after that a knock at the door. It was Lucy; she had brought some chicken for them to snack on.
Lucy went by Sara’s mother room to tell her hello. Lucy could not believe how really old that Mrs. April looked; she such a really good looking woman. But now been that she was sick it was really begin to making her show her age.
Lucy and Sara brought the chest up to Sara’s room from the basement. They would be able to see things more clearly, In the light of her room, instead of the basement. It was and really old chest made out of wood, and it had leather straps. It had compartments in it. The first was filled with pictures, and the second was filled with papers. Which looked to be old letters and deeds? And in the bottom of it there were little boxes. Some had old pieces of jewelry for men and women. There was one which had velvet in it and this funny looking key. So they decide to put all that a side and read the papers and see if they could find out any more on the man in the picture. One of the deeds that which was in there showed that there family, was supposed to own land. Further back in the country than they already were, Sara love living in the country for it was so quite and peaceful. She told Lucy that she was going to check on that. Lucy said that it was probably not right, for that was so long ago, that the land and stuff had more than likely been sold, or the taxes and taken it a long time ago. Sara said she didn’t care she still was going to see what she could find out. Well it was getting late and Lucy wanted to get back home before it got too late. So they said that they would get together again, later next week.
Which was ok with her because she needed to get her mother fed .And help her sister with some work that she had to do for school. It was late when she got to bed. But is seems like all night that she dreams about all the stuff that she has found.
Well she woke up early and decides that this was the day that she was going to get that basement clean up, and ready for the men to come in and work. On get it fixed up for her sister to kind of like have a place of her own. Which all young people want when they are going away for school, but since she was stay close to home because of her mother being sick this was the next best thing that she could do for her. So after she got her self and everyone fed, and her sister was off to school for the day.
Down to the basement she went, she was going to start at the back of it and work her way to the stairs. Sara never knew there was so much junk down there. But thought to her self it will make a nice garage sale.
And maybe even enough for her sister to get some more clothes. With her job she had not had much time to get this place cleaned up. But since she works from home now, she had all of time she needed to do what she needed to do.
As she cleaned the back near the door that her sister would be using as and way in and out she notice that there was something strange, about the floor plan that it seem to be smaller than it was suppose to be. But didn’t think about it too much because there was so much to do. Well she had been working about two hours, when she went up to check on her mother and get her what ever she might need, taking a small break from the work and drinking a cup of Tea.
It was about that time that the girls that had said that they would come and help were beginning to arrive. There was Becky who was a skinny blonde, but had a really great since of humor. And of course there was Lucy, And Rachel who was just and everyday good person. Brandy who was a little strange, because she was always telling people that she could since things. She was still a great person though, when she was not scaring the hell out of you with her gift as she called it. Well they all sat and drank a cup of tea and try to make some kind of plans, as how they were going to do all this work. They did agree on one thing though, that was that they would have a garage sale on all the junk. This would help out with the bills and stuff they needed. The plan was to turn the basement into a place for Bobbie Sue, and the attic into a small apartment for someone to rent.
Even though her mother thought she just had a cold, Sara knew that it was something else and that was going in the long run take her mother’s life. So she was trying to get everything that she could to help out with the bills, that she knew would be coming in the days ahead. She had been waiting two weeks now for the results from her mother’s tests. So that she would know for a fact the name of what her mother had. But until then they were just going to let her mother, think that she had the flu. So that she would not get upset until she had to be.
Sara had been made her mother’s power of attorney years ago, after she had that small stroke. Even though at that time Sara didn’t think, that was needed. But her mother would not have it any other way. It was as though, her mother knew something that she didn’t.
Sara and Lucy had not said anything to any of the other girls about the chest. That had been found in the basement earlier; they both thought they would keep that to them selves. Till, they knew more about it, and what it contents may be about.
They had all been working for about and hour or two. When Brandy started saying how she just didn’t feel that this was a good place to be, that she felt like there was something really bad down there. Well they try to tell her that it was just because of the smelly of old things. But she said no, that it was not that, and that she was going to have to leave it was just too much for her. Well everyone just thought too them selves that she was just tired and wanted to go home. Even though she was a great person, she was not one for much work.
Well they work really hard it was being to get late. So they all went up and plan for the next day of how some of them, would start the cleaning of the junk and getting prices on it so that they would be able to know just what they would be able to sell. When would be a good time to have the sell, and plus if it would even be worth the trouble of trying to have a sell in the first place.
After that they all went there own ways, except for Lucy she stayed so that, she and Sara could talk about the chest more. Because she had some stuff that was out in her car. It was stuff that she had found out on the internet, about the man in the picture. For she was right the man had been royalty, and that he had left his country to follow the woman, that was in the other picture they had found. The problem had been that she had been promised to someone else to marry. Which lead to the man in the picture and the man she was to marry, getting into a fight. That led them into having a duel. To which the man she was to marry was killed. This was to no end because her father just arranged another marriage to someone else. This made the man in the picture go crazy, and he end up killing the woman, so no one else could have her. But was founded in the act, before he was able to take his own life. So the woman father had his head cut off. With in two weeks of that the woman father died strangely. He was found in his study, with a look on his face they said that was as if had been scared to death.
Which put the whole family in a real mess, because he had hidden all there money some where in the house. Because he didn’t believe in banks he wanted to take care of his own money. And the Place only made enough money just to get by on. All this was like out of some story book they had read. Instead of being real life which this was. It was getting to be about nine o’clock and Lucy needed to get home, so she and Sara decide that they would talk more about this later.
Well the girls work hard all week, but they at last got everything out of the basement. It was cleaned, well, was as clean as they were going to clean it with men coming to do construction work. So they planed to have the sale that weekend, they had gotten a lot of stuff together so it was going to be a big big sale, that is for sure that’s why they want the whole weekend to do it. They thought with it being on the weekend they would get more people to come out to it too. They even put an add the in the news paper, so that it would have the whole week to run. They even added a little map to it, so that people would be able to find it easily.
So all that was left, to do was get everything priced for the sale. They were going to sale cokes and cookies too.
After every thing was cleaned up, there was some really good stuff that they had founded to. Sara had almost thought about keeping some of it. But then decide that she didn’t really need it, and that she could more than likely get more money from it. Than just having it just collect dust in the house. They did and inventory of all the stuff, so that they would be able to keep up with what they sold. Plus they could estimate about how much money they would get from the sale. With all that done they figure that they would get, even if they sold just half of the stuff about $500. This would help out a lot with all the bills that were going to be coming. Sara had told the girls that they could each have one thing for them selves out of all the stuff. With having it this coming weekend, it would still let Sara have about a week left of her vacation time, left to just relax and recuperate.
This would also give her and Lucy a week to do some more with the stuff in the chest that she had found. With everything that had been going on, they had not had much time to think about it. Cause with getting everything for the sale done, and trying to find some one that would come and be with her mother while she was working, didn’t leave much time for anything else. Even if she was now working out of her home now.
The girls had all just sat down for a quick lunch, when the man from the contractor company was at the door to go over plans for the basement and the attic. She opens the door to this really good looking man. He introduces him self as Tom Brown he was at least six foot tall, with brown hair and green eyes and really build great. Sara was almost speechless for a few seconds. When he said he had the plans for her to look over and ask if this was a good time for her. To which she said yes, that it was a good time and smile at him. He spread out the plans on the table in the hall and they look really good not overly done, simple in fact but good she was please with that. Plus the cost was going to be within what she had put aside for all the work and stuff to be done. He said that they would be ready to start the job with in the next 3 week, if that would be ok with her. Sara said that would be great and told him that if he needed her just call her on her cell phone. After he had left all the girls went on about how good looking he was. But decided that, being that good looking he was more than likely already married. All in all it had been a good day, and tomorrow would be a day that she would be able to just rest before the weekend for it was going to be a busy one.
Well the weekend was here and Sara thought they would have a lot of people, but she was totally amazed at all these people that had come, it looked like there were people here from two counties away
To the point she was wondering if she was going to have enough stuff for them to sale. At last it was over and they sold everything but four glasses and a desk set. To which she decide that she her self, she would use to make and office for her self at home, In Bobbie Sue room after the basement had been turn into her place. All in all they have made just about $800 with the sale this weekend. This was a whole lot more than she had expected to make. This would cover a lot of bills. After taking a few days to recuperate, Sara and Lucy got together to go though the chest again. And as they were going through the chest, Lucy notices that there was a false bottom in it. When they got it open they just sat there with there months hang open for a few seconds. For in the bottom was what look’s like to be lots and lots of gold coins. Neither one of them could say any thing for a few seconds. Till Lucy said you think they are real? Sara just looks and said I don’t know. How could we find out? Would we take them to a coin collector or a jeweler? Lucy said either one I guess. This chest was becoming more and more entrancing, with each compartment that they find in it. Just as they think, they have got to the bottom of it; they find that there is more to it. Sara said that she would go the very next day to find out about these coins.
Well Sara did, as she said she would and went to a store down town. To find about the coins that they had founded, and to her surprise she found that they were real. Plus they were wroth quiet a lot of money, as in the weight of them for a gold price was up.
They were wroth even more as collector pieces. So this was getting to be a really good chest, to her with all this she would be able to take care of her mother for a really long time. This way she would not have to worry, about may be not have enough money to do what might be needed in the care of her mother. When she call Lucy and told her that the coins were real you could hear her squeal a block away. Lucy asks her have you had a change to check on the deed? That we found in the chest yet. To which Sara said no not yet, that she was going to have to go to the hall of records, to look in the archives to find something that old. This was going to take a lot of time to look up, which right now she didn’t have with trying to get everything done, for Bobbie Sue and her mother. But that she would get to it as soon as she could. So they would know what that was all about.
Later that day, Tom the contractor calls her and asks if he could come by and take some more measurement of the basement to see if he was going to have to change some of the plans to make everything fit the way that she wanted it to be fixed, Sara told him that would be just fine, And wanted to know if they would be starting sooner than they had planed since they had got all the junk out of the basement. To which he said that they could talk about that when he got there. He told her that he would be there in about two hours, if that would be ok with her. Sara said that would be just fine, thinking to her self that would give her time to look a little better, than she did when he first saw her. For she want to look nice for him. Even if he was married he was so good looking. And who knows there might be a change, that he was not married smiling to her self. So didn’t hurt to make a good impression, with him. Little did she know that Tom was not married, and the he just wanted to come by and see her again. For he thought to him self that she was a really fine looking woman too. Just as soon, as Sara had hung up from talking to Tom. The phone rings again this time it was Brandy, and she was all upset, telling Sara that there was something really wrong, and that she needs to be really careful, That she felt like there was something from the past, that was trying to come in to the present, and that would be some bad trouble.. Well Sara thought to her self great just what I need right now is some of Brandy’s mess, but she was nice and said well thank you Brandy, I will sure keep that in mind. And ending, her call with her, as soon as she could so that she would have time to clean up a little before Tom got there.
She changed her clothes and fed her mother so all that would be out of the way, when Tom got there. So that there would be no other matters, to get in the way of them being able to talk when he got there... She was acting like some kind of school girl waiting for a date, Instead of a grown woman with a high paying job. But such is life, the door bell rings and she went to answer it and there he was in all his glory, she laughs to her self. He had all the drawing for her to look at. . What he show her really looked great and that was a fact. For the price that he was giving her to complete all the work that was in the plans. So they agree on the plans, And He told her that he would be getting the persons to come out and see what she would be needing in permits for the job. And he would let her know. It was then that he asks her where the clock, was that was making that loud ticking noise. She had not ever noticed it before, but now that he had said something about it she did hear it. But did not have any ideal what it might be. So just passes it off as the house settling or some of the pipes. After all, old houses made noise of some kind or another so she didn’t really give it another thought.
While sitting and drinking a cup of tea, thinking about Tom and how he really did good work. Even though, he had not even done any work yet. When the phone rang and it was a Mrs. Borden she was and old lady, that Lucy had call about some of the papers that was in the chest. She was telling Sara that even though the papers were really old. That she did not have any information on them, but that she might be able to find out something from the history of the land, and on who may have own it at the time., Sara thank her and hung up the phone, was getting close to time for her to fix supper for her family. Her mother has wanted to have some kind of soup, so Sara had some stew meat laying out thought she would make some beef veggie soup. For her mother did love that so.
After supper Lucy calls and asks if she knew of any other building on her land. To which Sara said” no .Why?” Lucy then went on about how in the papers there was suppose to be another small cottage on her land; Sara said that she didn’t know anything about that. But most of her land was grown up in woods now except for the part that they were living on now. And there was no telling what could be out in them woods, but she was not going looking for it either. With all the snakes and stuff that could be out there. Well Lucy said that she would do some more looking and see what see could find out. Sara was tired and just wanted to take a bath and think about Tom. And hope that they would be able to get the project on the house started soon. Her sister was doing really well in school, so that one thing that she would not worried about.
The next morning, Tom calls to ask if they could start taking out all the old cabinets and stuff in the basement. To which she said that would be great. That Mrs Lynn would be there to let them in. Now Mrs. Lynn was the lady that came and stay with there mother, when there was no one who could be at home. She was a really kind hearted lady, which was her mother’s good friend from when they were younger. Sara left Mrs. Lynn a note about the men coming, and what they would be doing. For she was running late, to get to the store to buy food for the month, Bobbie Sue would be leaving for school as soon as she got there.
It was not to long till the men got there, and they started take out all the shelves and cabinets out of the basement. It was going to be a long job because there were shelves all around the walls, and some that were build stand in the floor which made shelve walls. They had been used to divide the space. Sara had figure that they had used them for can goods, for she had found a whole mess of canning supplies. The men had work till almost one a clock in the afternoon, when they broke for lunch. They had taken out so much that the trash, that the trash thing they had bought with them was full. But it didn’t even look as if they had put a dent in all the shelves that were down there. This was going to be a lot longer job then anyone would have thought it would be. Even Tom was surprise at all the work that was going to have to be done, on getting all this stuff tore out. Well the men went back to work and were just about calling it a day, when Sara got home. She could not believe all that they had done and how much was still left to do. What they had thought was going to be a two or three day jobs were going to wind up being a lot more. Well this went on for a few days. And it was beginning to really get on her mother ever lasting nerve, so Sara ask, Tom if they could take a break from all of it, and let her mother of recoup from it. To which he said why sure no problem.
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