Treasure Box
By Mandy Wood
Inspired & dedicated to: Barb Hermie & Lynn Kasun

It was just a small crocheted box, in the shape of a treasure chest, big enough only to fit a small treasure in; perhaps a pair of earrings, or something simpler, something meaningful, or perhaps a joke between friends. As long as it meant something to the giver and receiver you could put anything you wanted in it. She first came by the treasure box at a garage sale, where she saw it sitting neatly on a table costing only one dollar, she didn’t know what she was going to use it for, but felt that she should buy it anyway, and so she did. It sat on a shelf for nearly a year before the idea came to her, and that night she placed a little plastic rose in it and left it on the porch of her dearest friend’s house.

In the morning as she bent to get the morning paper on her own porch she saw that the little box was waiting for her on lowest step. She picked it up and opened it, inside was a small note and a marble dog knick-knack, opening the note she read, “I only guessed that this was from you, who else would leave a treasure chest on my porch.” She smiled and took the treasure box and marble dog into her home and placed them both on her knick-knack shelf.

When she and her friend had lunch that afternoon, neither mentioned the treasure box, instead they talked of normal, everyday things and then parted in the early evening. As she had done the day before, she looked through her home to find something else she could put in the treasure box, finally settling on a small ceramic coffee cup, just small enough to place in the treasure box with a note. “Tomorrow, noon, the old place,” she wrote, she folded the paper into the box and again placed it on her friend’s porch, hoping of course that she would understand its meaning.

This tradition of leaving small tokens in the treasure box for each other went on through many years. It was through the treasure box that she had first learned her friend was getting married, when one bright morning she found the box to hold a plastic set of wedding rings. At the wedding she gave the box to her friend holding a golden charm on a chain comprised of two wedding bells with the names of the bride and groom engraved upon them as well as the date. When her friend spotted the box on the table along with the other gifts she opened it first while no one was looking. And from their spots on opposite sides of the room the two women looked at each other and the bride cried quietly much to the dismay of her new husband as he helped her put the necklace around her neck.

It was through the treasure box that she had told that very friend about having her first child two years after she had married her husband. She had placed a pair of tiny pink and blue booties with a note that read, “Which one?” When the box was returned to her the pair of pink booties rested neatly inside. Neither of the women ever shared the secret of the treasure box with anyone, and they continued to use it well into their golden years.

Then one day as she stepped onto the porch to get her small gift, she found the lowest step, where it had always been placed empty. She waited most of the day, expecting that her friend hadn’t known what to put in the box this time. When she hadn’t heard from her all day she decided to call her friend whose daughter answered the phone, “Hello,” she said with tears behind her voice.

“Emily,” asked the woman, “What’s wrong dear?” For awhile there was no answer, just quiet sobbing and then the daughter’s voice came back over the phone.
“Mom is dead,” she answered, “She passed away a few hours ago, I’m sorry.” The woman felt her heart sink, her mind snapping back to the empty porch step that morning. “She started slipping last night,” the daughter continued.

“Do you want me to come over,” the woman asked, wanting to help her friend’s little girl, she knew she’d have wanted her daughter taken care of by a good friend at a time like this.

“If you feel up to it, I could use some company,” the daughter answered.

“Of course dear, I’ll be right over.” She hung up the phone and went to her friend’s house, she saw as she entered that the treasure box was still waiting where she had left it the day before with her gift still inside. She picked it up and slipped it into her purse, at the funeral while everyone was paying their respects she added two more things to the treasure box, a small plastic rose and a note that said, “We’ll see each other soon,” and this she slipped into the casket with her dearest friend.

That's quite a nice story.

Thank you, I was starting to think that people thought it was awful because no one was posting. It need work, granted, but I think the concept is quite good.

Yes, quite good. I think you might use it as a start for a several-page story that you might try to sell to a magazine by putting in some more events and work on the dialog.