Chapter 3 The Attic
Makayla strolled into the house in a relatively good mood. She had just been at the mall with her best friend, Julia, and had found some great Christmas presents for her brothers. She had given the gifts to Marty at the gate so he could hide them until she could get them inside without anyone peeking. She loved shopping, finding it one of a few ways to be social without being forced into a room of shallow girls. She had never played with dolls, she didn’t care about the coolest boy band on the music charts, and she had no idea about any of the shows on cable. Makayla loved to pretend, imagine and create on her own. She was usually making up plays with her younger brothers, except Marshall, who couldn’t stop analyzing the plays and just go with the flow. She laughed, as she remembered one time when they played puppets and she was a purple dragon, sent to protect a princess in trouble. Marshall got upset because dragons don’t talk; they just breathe fire. It was all literal, black and white for him. In that regard, she found it difficult to relate to him. However, Makayla was no dummy. She was top in her class, especially in math. She hadn’t skipped any grades, like Marshall, but she was gifted when it came to numbers. This helped her and Marshall get along, and it became their common bond, providing something for them to do together.
Makayla looked around the foyer for any signs of life and found none. She shrugged her shoulders and hung up her coat and book bag. She started humming a Christmas carol, as shopping had really put her into the Christmas spirit, and she was a little surprised at how much she was looking forward to Christmas morning. She was very excited that her parents were coming home soon and had so much to tell them. She wanted to show them her class project, read to them her newest story and talk to her mom about getting braces. She frowned when she thought about the braces, not sure if she was excited or upset about the prospect. She thought about Sally Ann, a girl in her class, who kept coming back from the orthodontist with different colored bands on her clear brackets, making it look like food was stuck on her teeth. Makayla grimaced at the thought and decided that if she had to get braces, she would choose the normal, metal kind.
She raced up the stairs two at a time and skipped toward the playroom, where she peeked inside to see her brothers and Alice cleaning up.
“I’m home. I’m going to change and get ready for dinner.”
Alice looked up from the building blocks she was placing inside the bins. “OK, that’s fine. Sebastian is looking for you. How was the mall?”
“Oh, it was good. I found some good stuff that I want to show you later. Julia and her mom bought a ton of presents for Christmas, so I had to go into a lot of stores that were boring. But I got what I needed, so I guess it turned out all right.”
“Well, we’ll take a look later, when little eyes aren’t around to see.” Ethan perked up and swung his head from the computer screen. He had heard them talk about possible presents, and they now had his interest.
“What did you get me?” he inquired.
“Oh, so now you want to talk to me, huh?” Makayla teased.
“What? I was online in an intense battle of Warcraft. I couldn't just let the Horde overrun my homeland's castle. So, what did you get?”
“None of your beeswax, mister. I’ll be right back. I gotta go change. Where’s Sebastian anyways?”
“He’s with Marshall in the train room.”
“OK, I’ll see you guys in a few.”
Makayla headed to her room humming “Away in a Manger.” Her room was painted a sunny yellow color with big, bright flowers all over the walls. She had a simple white canopy bed and a white writing desk, which she sat at often. She loved to write. Her favorite was poetry. She often wrote in her journal, finding it was a great way to release her feelings. Sometimes she wrote about school or friends, maybe even a boy she thought was cute. However, she mostly wrote about her brothers and the funny things they did, or day dreams she conjured up of the exotic places her parents were always running to. She had recently finished a short story about two famous archeologists in search of missing treasure. She had even drawn a cover for the book and had it bound for her parents' Christmas present.
Makayla threw on her favorite sweatpants and sweatshirt, along with some house slippers and pulled her long blonde hair into a ponytail. She loved to hang out at home in her comfy clothes, not the stuffy uniform she had to wear to Preston Middle School. She was in the middle of her 7th grade year and could hardly wait to be at Preston Senior High. She thought the kids in her class were boring and shortsighted, except for Julia who was her very best friend. Julia was the kind of friend who would listen to one of her poems any time of the day, or see a movie and then stay up past midnight talking about the acting and plot. Sebastian was her other best friend, but he was also her brother which sometimes put a strain on their friendship. Not to mention, he was a boy.
Makayla went to find Marshall and Sebastian, who were still, of course, in the train room. Before entering the world of Lionel, she peered inside unnoticed. Marshall and Sebastian hovered over what appeared to be a new layout. Marshall was explaining the differences between the two steam engines on the table and how they functioned. She smiled and was humored by her older brother’s ability to pay attention to something as boring as train facts. But, she decided, maybe it was a boy thing.
“OK, guys, what’s all this?” Makayla questioned, smirking at her brothers.
“Hey, Makayla, I was just showing Sebastian my new layout. Want to see it?”
“Maybe later, Marshall. Dinner is ready and we need to get downstairs before cook gets mad. She tends to put more veggies on the plates of those who are late.”
Marshall scrunched up his nose, “Tell me about it. I hate vegetables. In fact, I hate most of what we’re served.”
“Well, you don’t know good food when you see it. You’re the pickiest eater I have ever known. A child who doesn’t like spaghetti is just plain strange.”
“Hey, who are you calling strange?” Marshall got up and sulked out of the room. He hated being teased, even the slightest bit. This irked Makayla, because he was always taking jabs at her.
“Go easy on him, will ya?” Sebastian demanded.
“Oh, you’re just a big softy when it comes to him. He needs to toughen up a bit or he is going to be target practice for Stevie Myers. He is his age, you know. Plus, if he can give, he should take it.”
Sebastian winced a bit, “Well, just consider yourself lucky there aren’t any Myers in your class. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be so funny.”
Makayla let it go and turned to go to dinner.
Dinner was, well, dinner. Scotty sat in his seat and made a mess while talking the entire time, Julian laughed and played with his food, Marshall fought with the cook about every bite, Ethan was quiet and kept to himself, Makayla talked to Alice the entire time about a new movie coming out and Sebastian stared off into space, managing to avoid any questions about his parents' return. When the dishes were cleared and dessert finished, Alice told the kids they had an hour to play before Sebastian led the story time. Makayla scowled a bit, but Alice ignored her. Alice excused herself and got ready to go out shopping.
“What are we going to play?” asked Julian, beaming up at Sebastian, who oddly found them staring at him. This was usually the time he made an escape to his room or out with Trevor and Brooke.
“How about Clue?” Sebastian suggested.
“That’s boring,” Marshall exclaimed. “What about constructing a suspension bridge out of Lincoln logs and Legos?”
“Well, genius, we don’t have any idea how to do that and have no desire to learn,” Makayla said laughing.
“I just want to play on the computer,” Ethan protested.
“You have been on the computer all day. I think we should play sardines.” Sebastian offered. Everyone agreed that would be fun, so Sebastian went over the rules, mainly to remind the little ones how not to cheat.
&n
bsp; “OK, one person goes to hide and the rest have to find him. When you find him, you are supposed to hide with him, until there is only one person left searching. The last person to find the group is the first person to hide the next round. Julian and Scotty will search together. Who wants to hide first?”
“I will. I think I found the perfect spot the other day,” Makayla said, beaming.
“OK, we will count to 50 and then come looking for you,” Sebastian said, shooing her out of the room.
Makayla took off running as soon as she heard her brothers starting to count. She had remembered finding a nook that was really hard to see in the back of the attic, when she was up there a few days ago, searching for costumes. Scotty and Julian had wanted to play pirates, and Makayla remembered some costume jewelry her parents had brought back from London a few years ago. It had made great treasure for their pirate adventure.
Makayla reached the door to the attic and bounded up the stairs, two at a time, heading straight toward the back of the room. She had to slow down, when she noticed that things were rearranged from when she was there the other day. “It’s probably Marshall, digging up stuff for his train layout,” she thought. Her thoughts were pulled back to the game when she noticed the nook. Making her way through a pile of boxes, she stopped when something caught her eye. There lying in the middle of the nook was a trunk. It wasn’t an ordinary trunk. This was an oval-shaped trunk that was longer than it was deep; it was yellow and had flowers painted all over it. In fact, it reminded her of her room. When she got closer, she could see that there were initials etched in gold on the front. There wasn’t a handle, nor were there any locks. Makayla didn’t remember ever seeing this trunk and was pretty sure it wasn’t there the other day. Grabbing the boxes of junk that were in front of her, she pushed them to the side, so she could get into the nook. There were cobwebs everywhere, and she swatted them down from all around her.
“Man, this attic is gross. It seems like no one has been up here in years,” she muttered to herself. She decided to pull the yellow trunk in front of her, trying to make it harder for her brothers to see her in the dim attic light. The trunk was covered in dust and was a little tattered on the edges, as if it had been dropped a few times along the road. “Well, this is disgusting,” she thought. She blew the dust off and brushed the trunk with her hands. Suddenly forgetting about the game, she tipped the trunk up so it was in better light and read the initials inscribed in front. “MDH. Those are my initials,” she thought. She reached down to open the trunk, when…
“Ah, ha, I found you!” Ethan shouted.
Makayla let out a scream. “You scared me half to death!”
“What are you doing?” Ethan questioned, peering over the top of the trunk.
“Look, I found this sitting here. I was just up here the other day getting play jewelry out, and I swear it wasn’t up here then. I remember because I looked at this nook and decided it was a great hiding spot for when I wanted to write. But look, it has the same initials as my name etched in gold.”
“I found you guys!” Marshall exclaimed bounding up the stairs.
“Hey, Marshall, come check out this trunk Makayla found. It has her initials on it.”
“What? Let me see!” Marshall went over to where they were sitting, knocking down cobwebs as he went. “Cool. Wait a minute. I was just up here yesterday digging out things for my layout. I don’t remember that being there.”
“Yeah, that is what I was telling Ethan. It wasn’t here a few days ago, when I was up here.”
They heard the door open to the attic and knew the rest were coming up to find them. Sebastian, Julian and Scotty came running up the stairs. “I couldn’t get them to stop following me,” Sebastian exclaimed. He turned to Julian and Scotty. “You aren’t supposed to look for them with me. You are supposed to search by yourselves.” Julian just laughed and Scotty tackled his leg. Sebastian shrugged his shoulders. “It’s hopeless. They’ll never play right.” Sebastian noticed the three of them huddled over something. “Hey, what are you three staring at over there?”
“Look at this trunk, Sebastian. I was just up here a couple of days ago, and I don’t remember seeing it. Marshall says it wasn’t up here when he got his stuff for the train layout yesterday. And, look, it has my initials etched on the front. What do you think it could be?” Makayla asked, looking at her older brother.
“Well, why don’t you open it and find out?” Sebastian said, his curiosity rising.
“Do you think I should? Maybe it’s something for Christmas and I wasn’t supposed to see it. Maybe Mom and Dad had it made and sent home early.”
Sebastian sighed, remembering that the letter said lots of “fun” things were being sent home for Christmas morning. This could be one of Makayla’s presents, and he didn’t want to ruin the surprise. But, then again, it had a thick layer of dust covering most of it, which made him doubt it was a special Christmas present.
Ethan perked up, hearing Makayla’s mention of Mom and Dad. “Yeah, when are they coming back anyways?”
Sebastian sat down on a box next to him and pulled out the letter. He looked up and saw Marshall looking down at the floor, digging his foot into the scuffed wood of the attic. Sebastian thought he might as well read them the letter now, since they were all together and wondering about Mom and Dad.
“Well, I was hoping to read this to you tonight during High/Low, but I guess now is as good a time as any.” He breathed out slowly and began by saying, “Mom and Dad aren’t going to make it home, again, this Christmas. Alice gave me this note yesterday, and it says that they’ve come across a possible site of priceless artifacts. They felt it was important enough to miss the holidays. Grandma and Grandpa Hanks have promised to come Christmas morning, but Mom and Dad won’t be home for a while.” Sebastian unfolded the letter and read it to them. When he was finished he looked up. No one returned his gaze. Everyone, including Scotty, had gotten quiet and was staring down trying not to catch the others eyes’. Makayla was sniffling, Ethan was drawing in the dust that covered the unopened trunk, and Marshall, now sitting, had begun rocking back and forth with his knees pulled to his chest. Finally, the silence broke when Scotty started to cry and crawled into Sebastian’s lap.
“I knew this would happen.” Makayla blurted out. “Everything was going too smoothly. That all this holiday cheer that you and the house staff have had for the last three weeks was just false hope for a normal Christmas. I hate Christmas and I hate the joy it represents! What could be more important than spending Christmas with us?”
“Back off, Makayla. I wasn’t running around here pretending to be happy just to make you believe a lie. I thought they were coming home too. I thought this year would be different. I was wanted the same thing as you. I thought it would be different. So, just back off and don’t you dare blame me for this.”
Sebastian took a deep breath as he realized he was unfairly putting his frustrations on his sister. When he looked down, Scotty was looking up at him with a big tear was rolling down his cheek.
“I don’t like it any more than everybody else. What we need is something to take our minds off it. Come on, guys, let’s go down and get ready for bed.”
“Wait, I want to see what’s inside that trunk!” Marshall had stopped rocking and was now looking curiously at the mysterious trunk.
“Yeah, let’s see what’s inside,” Julian piped up.
Sebastian sighed. Why not? It’s probably some old junk somebody left up here. Maybe it would be stuff they could find a use for tomorrow. It would help them get their minds off everything else.
“Sure, why not?” he answered. “Makayla, you found the trunk; why don’t you open it?”
Makayla wiped her eyes on her shirt sleeves and brushed her hands on her pants. She walked over to the trunk and sat in front of it. Brushing off the rest of the dust, she blew the last bit toward Sebastian’s face for sna
pping at her. She tilted the trunk, so that moonlight coming through the window allowed her to better see the trunk’s clasp. Comfortably situated, she opened the trunk and started to shuffle through its contents.
All of a sudden, she gasped, “What in the world, how can this be?”
Chapter 4 The Box