Secrets From the Past

Jack Robertson was rummaging through his father’s closet. All of his clothes needed to be given away and all of his stuff had to be cleaned out. Jack didn’t want to give up his father’s stuff but his mother did. She said that everything would remind her of him and she couldn’t bear that. Jack didn’t want to be the one to go through his stuff but his mother rarely did anything now, all she would do now was lie on the couch and stare at the TV dumbfounded. Jack’s mother had decided only two days after his father’s death that they were leaving. She believed that there were terrible ghosts that haunted the place and honestly, Jack believed it too.

They might have stayed at the house if it was just that his father had passed as it was a nice house with a big backyard and every bedroom had two closets, but also Rose, his sister had passed away. It had already been a year but after that, Jack had never been the same. His sister was his best friend, they would tell each other everything and now when he was finally beginning to let the world in after putting up his walls for so long, his father died too. They had died different ways though. His father had passed from a heart attack, while his sister’s death was much worse. He remembered rushing home from school only to not hear her voice. He rushed up the stairs to check on her but he was too late. This memory he always tried to push down; it wasn’t a pleasant one.

Jack couldn’t bear any more deaths, he understood his mother’s pain but she never really got that he was feeling the same sadness as well. He never really talked much now, he just did what he was told and tried to keep his head down as much as possible.

The clothes were all off their hangers and now all Jack had to do was remove all the junk off the closet floor. His dad was never known to be a tidy person. His heart ached as he picked up the many different clothes and the random objects. He picked up a baseball cap off the ground and he felt warm tears running down his face, he couldn’t stop the tears even if he tried. The baseball cap didn’t have any words, it was just all black. This was his father’s cap back in the day, who knows it could have said something, Jack wouldn’t know. His father had given him the cap when he was six, it wasn’t even close to fitting him. It would cover his eyes and they had about a hundred photos of Jack in the cap with a big smile on his face and his father smiling down at him.

He wiped the tears away, if his mom came in, he couldn’t let her see him like this. He was supposed to be the man of the house, whatever the hell that meant. He threw the cap behind him, he was undecided if he wanted it or not. His mom just wanted to get rid of all of his dad’s stuff, but Jack wanted to keep some of it. He looked behind him, the cap lay on the ground and in that moment, Jack decided. He wanted to keep it. He grabbed the cap and put it on his head. Unlike nine years ago, it fit him now.

Jack realized he was crying again and he wiped the tears off of his cheeks. He always found it embarrassing to cry. He felt he should always act emotionless and unbothered, it didn’t matter how you felt on the inside but if people see that you look fine on the outside, they won't be bothered to check how you really feel.

Jack gave a soft grunt as he continued to look through the stuff. He didn’t like thinking, or more precisely, he didn’t like his thoughts, they were too dark and his mind was a scary place.

He had finally cleaned over half of the closet and what was left was just a pile of clothes in the corner. He reached over to pick up the clothes, but as he reached under the pile, he felt something hard instead. It was coils of what felt like a notebook. He dropped the clothes that he was holding in his other hand and reached for the notebook.

He pulled the notebook out from under the clothes. It was a small black notebook with his father’s name embroidered at the bottom. Jack had never seen this notebook in his life which only made him more curious about it.

He was about to open the notebook but out of the corner of his eye, he saw something. He dropped the notebook and reached out for it. It was a metal box that had a lock on it. Jack held it in his hands, What the hell is this? He thought. What could it be? The box was roughly the size of a large shoebox and weighed about five pounds.

Jack was never known to be patient and he decided that he was going to find out whatever was in the metal box. The notebook could wait. Jack carried the metal box and went to their garage where his father had kept all of the tools. His mother looked fast asleep on the couch and Jack didn’t even realise it was already night.

Jack finally found the tools and started going through them. In all honesty, he was never good in the construction department, but he would watch his father build stuff, and he always made it look so easy. Jack looked through the tools, none of them seemed like they could cut open the lock until he laid his eyes upon what he thought were bolt cutters.

With one swift movement the lock opened and fell on the table. Jack took a deep breath and put down the bolt cutters, Moment of truth. He slowly opened the metal box and he wasn’t expecting what he saw on the other side. It was money. There was lots of it, thousands of dollars. Jack slammed the box close. “How.” Was all he could manage to say. It was true that they were wealthy, but what was his father doing with this much money lying in a box? He had never mentioned it before.

Jack opened the box and grabbed the money. He shoved it in his hoodie pocket. Jack had a bad feeling, his stomach started to churn and he felt as if he was going to puke. He went back inside his house, his mother still fast asleep. He debated if he should wake her or not but in the end he decided he wouldn’t.

Jack went back to the closet. He sat back down, his face was pale white. He moved his foot and felt a hard object, it was the notebook. Jack no longer really cared what was inside, he was much more worried about the money. Should I keep it? No. Maybe…. Jack didn’t know what to do. He looked down at the notebook and without a second thought, he picked it up and opened it. Like the money, he didn’t expect what was going to be on the pages.

There were names. Hundreds of names. All crossed out. Jack flipped through all the pages, all had names and all were crossed out. He flipped through the pages until the names had stopped and there were just blank pages left until the last page where there was a list of names, unlike the others, these weren’t crossed out. The last name on the list was David Bloom, a name that Jack didn’t recognize. Beside the name was a check mark and a little message, they all had messages. His was,

Earned 20,000 dollars. February 2nd, 2021. That had only been a little less than a month ago.

Who were these people? Jack flipped back to the other pages where the names were all crossed out. Jack chose one of the random names and searched them up on his phone. It was a person, a dead one. It said that he had hung himself. He searched up another name and the same results came up. Jack skimmed through the pages frantically searching up name after name with the same results. This must just be one big coincidence… Right? Jack flipped open another page and gasped in shock.

His stomach dropped as he looked over the name, he looked over it again and again and he was sure that he was going to be sick. The name all in caps crossed out was none other than Rose Robertson. His sister.