Chapter 8: The Box
4 July 2017
Even though it was dim like the world had
just lost its sun, the two words, ‘My Stuff’ grabbed my attention. I made my
way to the box and looked carefully at the words. It was bold and dark, written
quite largely on the side of the box. The font of the words looked as though it
was written by a kid. But it wasn’t messy to the point where I couldn’t read
the words.
I dusted the lid and opened the box. I
couldn’t see much, especially in this dim room. It made me wonder how I spotted
the aprons in the first place.
Then just as I was scanning around for
some kind of better light source, I found a torch by the side of my shoes. It would’ve been better if I saw this earlier.
It could’ve helped me from tripping through the tennis rackets and fishing
lines.
I switched the flashlight on with a click.
Glad that this old-looking thing still works, made me wonder how long these
batteries do really last for.
Anyhow, continuing my discovery of the
cardboard container, I found a thick photo album along with some old toys in
the box. Well, the toys weren’t that
old, but it seemed like something kids at the age of seven would play, like the
green yo-yo that was in my hand.
I smiled and tried it out, releasing
energy from my fingers and pushing the yo-yo forward. The small green yo-yo
spun out and as my eyes watched it spun, my hand naturally reacted to withdraw
it back in.
My eyes widened.
It was as though I’d played this yo-yo
before.
I then glanced down and observed the photo
album. I blew the white dust off the album like winter snowflakes falling down
from the sky.
Opening the photo album, I flipped through
the pages and realised that the photo album was burnt. But more importantly,
there wasn’t a single photo in the sleeves. I closed the album and left it at
the side my shoes. Looking a little deeper into the box, I found some kind of
shiny coin. But as I looked closer, it wasn’t money. I scrubbed the surface of
the silver coin and studied the pattern.
There was a simple leaf with detailed
veins. The leaf was carved on the coin in an elegant way where it looked like
it was flying across the parallel winds in the sky, while the veins on the leaf
look so realistic it could jump out of the coin any moment. I flipped to the
other side of the coin; there was a phrase: ‘Under the oak tree’.
I questioned myself, “Oak tree?” I
wondered, “But there are billions of oak trees in the world. Where on earth
would I find this oak tree? Some genius this person was.”
But for some reason, as I looked at the
coin again, it felt like I’ve seen it somewhere before. I shined the flashlight
on it and it twinkled in a way that told me to take care of it as though it was
a lucky charm. I decided to keep it.
Slipping it into my back pocket, I then
shined the torch into the box again. There were still a lot of items to be
discovered. I can seriously just sit here for another hour. But knowing that I
wouldn’t finish, I decided to put all the items back into the box.
In goes the little green yo-yo, and when I
picked up the photo album something fell out.
A single photo.
Well, the photo wasn’t too old that it
looked black and white. It was a coloured photo. The only problem was this
photo was ripped and burnt on the top. So whoever was on it, I couldn’t see
their appearances except for their shoes.
I examined the photo more closely, looking
for finer details. I noticed that the shoes were quite small, so I guess the
photo had two children on it. One was wearing blue shorts, long to the knees,
in which I’m assuming that the child was a boy because of his train socks and
the other was a girl because of her red dress with flowering patterns on it.
They were standing quite closely too—almost like they were holding hands. In the
background, there was a house. I stared at the picture closer, actually two
houses—like twin houses. But because the top of
the photo wasn’t there, I couldn’t confirm if they were twin houses.
“What’s taking you so long?”
I jumped with a fright.
I glanced over my shoulder to recognise
who the voice belonged to. Seeing his face, I wasn’t surprised.
“Nothing,” I said to Ice Pack Stealer.
“Why are you down here?”
Looking at him, I could see signs of black
charcoal on his clothes. He must’ve
finished setting up the barbeque. I stood up and glared at him.
“Let me guess,” I paused, “you’re down
here because you’re bored?”
He grinned as he folded his arms and leant
against the door frame.
“Nice guess,” he replied. “But no. Your mum
told me to go check up on you because you’re taking too long in the basement.
She was afraid that you might have fallen down and hurt yourself.”
“Ha ha,” I laughed, sarcastically. “Very
funny.”
I rolled my eyes at him and placed the
photo album back inside the box.
“Believe what you want,” he said. “But I’m
just stating the truth.”
Closing the lid, I lifted the box and
tried to squeeze out through the other stacks of boxes. Almost forgetting about
the aprons, the main purpose why I was here, I lowered down and reached for
them.
“Need some help?” Ice Pack Stealer asked.
“No thanks,” I replied. “I’m good.”
“Are you sure?” he asked again.
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure, sure?”
“Yes.”
“Are you absolutely sure?
I stared daggers at him, “Could you quit
with the questions? It’s seriously starting to annoy me.” I said louder, as I
concentrate on picking up the aprons with one
hand while holding the box with the other. I wanted to put the box down
but there really wasn’t a place to put it.
I heard him chuckled, and at the corner of
my eye, I saw him guiding himself into the towers of boxes.
“I told you, I don’t need your help.”
“Well,” he continued moving closer, “your
mouth says that, but your actions are telling me that you do.”
“Just stand there, okay? And don’t move a
muscle.” I glared at him, “I can deal with it myself.”
He continued to dive into the towers of
boxes. Looks like he won’t listen to me. So
I ignored him and continued my quest to pick up the aprons.
But as I moved my feet a bit and shuffled
a little bit more to reach the aprons, I slipped over a piece of paper on the
floor and lost my grip. That made the box jump into the air, while my body was
going in the opposite direction like a fallen tree.
However, within that second, my hand was
grabbed by the wrist and this stopped me from falling down hard—or so I thought. The box was flying, but luckily, the
lid was still closed so there wasn’t anything coming out. But as I was staring
at the words ‘My Stuff’, I realised that it stopped flying in the air and it
was caught in his hand. I gasped, wondering how on earth he could grab my wrist
with one hand while catching a large box
with the other. Thinking that he could have saved me from falling, I was wrong.
We both fell down to the ground, quite
hard.
There was a definite crash as we stumbled
into the towers of boxes and things started jumping out. I landed on my back first while his body moved in a
similar way. In the end, we were in the awkward position. The position where
his body was on top of mine.
He placed the box down and my eyes widened
as I realised how little space our lips were. I stared upwards and just
happened to meet his sky blue eyes—my
favourite colour since I was young. Then looking to one side, I noticed that
his left arm was pressing against the floor, in which kept him from falling on
top of me.
I looked up again, expecting him to grin
or something. But he, too, had his eyes widened looking back at me. The awkward
silence fell over the two of us as I struggled to breathe in the weird air around
us.
I reacted and I pushed him. He rolled over
and landed on his back.
I gave a quick sigh and sat up. When I
gazed over to him, I could see him closing his eyes with one hand covering his
forehead; the other was still holding on to my wrist. I wondered why he was closing his eyes until I noticed
that his cheeks were still red. Wait, is
the mark from the punch still there? But I remembered that I only punched his
left cheek.
Don’t tell me
he’s blushing?
Breaking the silence, I spoke, “Could you
let go of my hand now?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he tilted his head a little and looked down at my right
hand. I was expecting him to say something. But he didn’t. He lifted my hand
and stared at my pinkie. Assuming that he was studying my hand, I soon realised
that he was looking at my silver ring.
His eyes widened.
I quickly withdrew my hand and hid it
behind my back.
“Where did you get that ring?” he sat up
and asked me quietly.
His cheeks
were not red anymore.
I blinked a few times. “None of your
business,” I paused. “Besides, why do you want to know?”
“Just answer my question.”
“No. Why do I have to answer a question
from an ice pack stealer like you?”
“It’s because…” he sat there thinking.
Looking at his expression, it didn’t look like he wanted to tell me what was
going on in his mind.
“Forget it,”
I said. “Forget, I asked.”
“Juliet! Is everything fine down there?” I
heard Mum calling for me.
“Everything is perfectly fine!” I called
back.
“Then what was that loud crash before?”
“It was nothing!” I replied trying to keep
my voice even.
“Okay, dear! I hope it was nothing too!”
With that,
I heard my mum’s footsteps disappear into the distance. I glanced back at Ice
Pack Stealer and saw the look on his face. For some reason, he was still shocked over something. I headed towards his
direction and picked up the box.
“Here, give these aprons to my mum,” I said firmly as I threw the three aprons
to him. I stood up and stared at him. “I’m going to put this box in my room,” I said with a soft voice—a voice in which I was trying not to rage at him.
“And you,”
I paused, “next time, don’t help me.”
I ended my sentence and didn’t look back.
Carrying the box, I headed upstairs.
Romeo
Sitting there, the three aprons landed on
the ground next to me. I looked at my hand—the hand in which was able to hold hers.
Could it be
that… I lowered my head and the flashback of her forest green eyes staring
back at me appeared in my mind. I laughed
to myself.
I shook my head again and sighed. “No way,
she’s her.”
“Their personalities are completely
different,” I paused. “Then again, their names are the same.”
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