A Family Podcast (english)

Chapter 28

Taylor

"Are you okay?" I asked, leaning through the attic hatch to help Susan up.

Susan nodded and pulled herself up the last bit. I hadn't been up here in ages. It wasn't very spacious, but boxes were stacked against the slanted walls. An old wardrobe stood on one side, and a pile of loose papers and clothing was scattered on the floor.

"So" I gestured broadly "somewhere around here should be the camera."

Susan had to make a video project for school. I had offered to film some parts with my phone, but Susan wanted her own camera. I had rarely seen my sister so excited, so we ventured up to the old attic to find our old camera. It was ancient, I had no idea if it still worked properly, but Susan's eyes lit up when I told her about it, so we had to find the thing, whether it worked or not.

Susan, who was still crouched closely behind me, tugged at my sweater.

"What?"

"It's like Narnia" she whispered, pointing to the large wardrobe. It took me a moment to understand what she meant. The wardrobe did bear some resemblance to the magical wardrobe from the old film.

"Do you want to see if there's a magic portal in our wardrobe too?" I asked, grinning.

Susan seemed to think about it for a moment before nodding slowly.

"But don't go away" she clarified, and I nodded.

"I'll wait right here, I promise" It's not like there's much room up here to move around anyway.

Susan walked slowly towards the wardrobe, examining it critically. Meanwhile, I quietly took out my phone from my pocket and activated the camera function. This was just too cute.

Susan cautiously reached for the handle and opened the creaking wardrobe door.

She glanced at me questioningly, and I nodded encouragingly. So, she took a deep breath and climbed into the wardrobe. For me, the scene felt less like Narnia and more like one of those horror movies, but I certainly wouldn't tell Susan that.

"Taylor, look!" Susan called out. Just as I stood up, the wardrobe door suddenly slammed shut with a loud bang. Susan screamed in fright, and I nearly dropped my phone out of shock. Quickly, I opened the door again, and Susan climbed onto my lap so fast that it made me laugh.

My sister took a moment to recover from the shock, then she took my hand and climbed back into the wardrobe, still not letting go.

Without releasing me, she pointed to the top shelf, just above her head.

"Look"

Indeed, the wardrobe had been adorned with numerous glow-in-the-dark stars. Upon closer inspection, there were also several children's drawings.

"This used to be Mom's wardrobe when she was a child" I explained, and Susan gently ran her fingers over the glow-in-the-dark stars.

"It's beautiful" she murmured, and I nodded. Susan plopped down on the floor of the wardrobe and began examining the drawings closely.

Carefully, I released my hand from hers and placed a bucket in front of the wardrobe door to prevent it from closing again.

Then I started rummaging through the old boxes while Susan scrutinized every inch of the wardrobe.

It took me an eternity to find the camera, and we started making our way back down. I had another box under my arm, thinking that its contents might interest Coulder, given everything that had happened in the past few days.