by Janet Leigh
Chapter 2
Six years later and one week before my sixteenth birthday, there was a knock on the door.
“Eli, get the door,” yelled Mom. “I’m on the phone with Rachel Ray’s people.”
As I bent to pick up my book bag for school, I overheard the deliveryman tell Eli he had a package for Miss Jennifer Cloud.
“That’s me,” I answered, coming up behind Eli in the doorway. The deliveryman stated it was a pretty big package and asked us where we wanted him to unload it. Eli gave him directions to the back of the house and asked him to park under the carport. The deliveryman gave Eli a thumbs-up and turned to move his truck around back. I adjusted the backpack on my shoulder. Cool, who would be sending me a package? Maybe it was a car. Maybe Mom and Dad were surprising me with a new car. They said money was tight and I would have to wait until Eli graduated next spring, but maybe it was all just a plan to surprise me.
“Hooray, I’m getting a car!” I cried out as I ran past Eli.
“In your dreams,” Eli responded, running after me. But when we arrived out back, there was no car. Instead, there was a huge crate being unloaded by the deliveryman; his name tag read Frank. Apparently, Frank was the deliverer not of new cars but of large crates.
“Where do you want it?” Frank asked, scratching his large beer belly. The buttons down the front of his brown shirt looked like they were going to pop off at any second from the strain of holding his shirt closed.
“I guess you could put it in the backyard.” I pointed to the gate.
Frank gave a grunt as he wheeled the crate to the backyard. I signed the paperwork, and he said, “It’s all yours. Oh yeah, this also goes with it.” He handed me an envelope—one of the kind that are stuffed so the contents don’t get squashed during shipping. There was no return address. I figured it had my name on it, so what the heck. I tore open the envelope and read the letter inside.
Dear Miss Cloud,
Before the death of your great-aunt Elma Jean Cloud, she bequeathed the items below to you in her will.
1. Outhouse from her garden passed from several generations of Clouds
2. Antique necklace given to her by her mother
Regards,
Mr. Nolan Smythe, Executor
Eli was busy trying to pry the crate open with the back end of a hammer. “Got it,” he said, and all four sides of the crate fell down simultaneously, revealing the outhouse. “Whoa!” Eli said, jumping back out of the way. He regained his balance and slowly walked around until he was standing in front of the structure. “What’s that?”
“It’s an outhouse,” I answered matter-of-factly.
“Someone gave you a toilet?” Eli said with a mischievous grin spreading across his face.
My mom appeared in the back doorway holding her black binder she used to schedule her clients. “What is that?” she asked, waving her empty hand at the outhouse.
“Someone gave Jen a toilet.” Eli was now holding his sides and laughing hysterically.
“What on earth? Who would give you such a thing?”
“It’s all in the letter,” I said, handing my mom the letter from the deliveryman.
“Oh my goodness, I will have to let your father handle this one,” she said, pressing her lips together in a firm line. This usually meant she knew something but didn’t know if she should explain it to the children. I got this same look when I was younger and asked where babies came from and what happened to Cousin Trish’s second husband.
“Children, you go on to school.” My mom tucked the letter in her binder, turned back toward the house, and gave us a wave.
“What are you going to do with it?” Eli asked. “It smells weird.”
“Not any worse than your gym socks,” I responded. The thing kinda creeped me out. I walked around it trying to decide why Aint Elma wanted me to have the scary old outhouse. Maybe there is a treasure inside, my inner voice suggested. I am definitely not sharing the treasure with Eli. My inner voice agreed. I tried the door. It must have been nailed shut, because it wouldn’t budge.
“I think the outhouse looks rustic; maybe we could plant a garden around it.”
That freaked Eli out—this was the end of his junior year, and he had better things to do than help his little sister plant a garden around some old shed.
Eli paused at the door. “Sorry, Jen, I won’t have time to help. This is the last week of school before summer break, and I have to get ready for my senior year. I’m working at the store all summer. There will be football practice and SAT preparation and, um, everything else. My senior year is a real busy time, you know?”
Yes, I knew this, because he had told me at least a dozen times in the last week. “You don’t say,” I chided.
“I have to make good grades so I can get in medical school,” he said as he disappeared into the house to retrieve his backpack.
I had forgotten about the envelope still in my hands. I turned it upside down, and out fell the necklace Aint Elma had been wearing on her birthday. Well, at least I got some jewelry out of the deal. It was the moon hung on a silver chain. The medallion itself was made out of some kind of rock that was inlaid on metal. The crescent moon was engraved in the stone. Tiny stars inset with twinkling blue and white stones were dancing around the moon.
“Do you think these are real diamonds?” I asked no one in particular. The necklace was pretty but a little big for my taste.
“Get a move on, kids!” Mom yelled from the kitchen. I dropped the necklace in my book bag and headed off to school.
