Prank Masters

8: The Box

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.