The Dresser

It was another sweltering Arizona summer day and I could not stand the heat anymore. The thrift store I was passing looked inviting enough for me to stop in for a bit and possibly find that new desk for my writing room. Pulling into the parking lot it looked like a slow day for them, which worked out great for me, Fewer people meant it would be cooler inside. I parked my truck and wiggled my way out, being pregnant in this heat was torture at times but this little guy was going to be worth everything I have to endure.

Inside was so nice and refreshing. I waddled around just glancing at what inventory was available in case something just jumped out at me as a must have. Of course, I am never that lucky. I must have been in there for 20 minutes before I saw the dresser hiding just in the back of the shop. Curious I asked the sales person if it was for sale or not but she was unsure if it had been added into inventory yet or not. When she returned, she said I could look at it but it was not yet in inventory but if I really liked it, I could talk with her manager about a price and make a deal.

Looking over the dresser it was very old possibly 150 years or more. The design was beautiful, not something you see anymore with intricate carvings and solid oak drawers I just had to have it. After making a deal with the manager they had a young gentleman named Toby load it into my truck for me, there was no way I could lift it, the thing had to weigh close to 200 pounds!

Slightly depressed about not finding the desk I was after; it was still amazing to have found a dresser so beautifully historic. Pulling up to my driveway my husband met me outside to get the dresser inside for me. After grunting for 20 minutes and dealing with the dolly trying to finagle it through our front door it was in the back room where I could work on restoring it back to its original beauty. It’s not like it was in poor condition, especially for its age, it just needed a little TLC.

When all the drawers came out and were lightly sanded ready for a new light coat of polyurethane when I noticed something in a brown envelope taped to the inside back of the dresser. Of course, my curiosity was peaked, reaching in I got ahold of a corner and pulled out the envelope feeling something small inside, maybe a book? I couldn’t wait and carefully peeled open the envelope to find there was indeed a small black book inside. Great I thought, some 19th century man’s book of lady callers. Ever curious, I took a peek inside, but what I found was not a book of woman, instead what I read was the following:

Dear reader,

If you have found this you are in for a mighty surprise. My bounty is hidden where the true founder lies. Twenty feet in the ground surrounded by pitch lies a small wooden box that may make you rich. Take precautions to search for this is not an easy dig. Good luck in your hunt. Remember, not all is as it seems.

Your friend

MEM

January 1873

Who is MEM? What do they mean “The true founder”? Not quelling my curiosity at all I now need to find out what this meant if anything at all. Waddling into the living room I showed my husband what the little black book had written in it. Piquing his curiosity as well he asked if I wanted to try and search for the treasure. “Dig a 20-foot hole? Don’t you think that is a bit excessive? I mean what if we do dig and there’s nothing there? Plus, who is the true founder? Where was this written? We have a lot of research to do first, all we have is 3 initials and a date to go buy.” He pondered for a moment and turned back to me and said “It will be an adventure, possibly the last one we get for a little while with Axel on his way”. He wasn’t wrong. We only had a little over a month left before our lives would be consumed with baby activities. “You know what” I said “Let’s do it”!

We traveled to the library to dig through archives to see who the true founder of our small town was. Disappointingly the initials did not match up. Could this just be a ruse? Someone’s idea of a sick joke? After 3 hours of dead ends, we decided to go home and eat some dinner. On our way we saw a small old cemetery that looked as if it had been abandoned for a very long time. Glancing at each other we decided to stop and take a peek, who knows maybe there was an old grave marked with the initials MEM.

While walking through the old graveyard I could not believe my eyes when I looked down and saw and old faded tombstone with faded initials that read MEM. “Baby” I yelled, my husband ran over to see what was going on and his look soon mimicked mine when he read those 3 initials on that old faded tombstone.

Now that we had a destination, we had to gather what we needed to get 20 feet below that grave. What permissions would we need? I was pretty sure tomb raiding is frowned upon anywhere you go. This Cemetery was neglected for so long though did anyone even remember it was here? I’m sure there was no longer any family around, none of these graves had been tended in a very long time. What do we do? Can we legally just dig? Well since we needed equipment either way first, we went home and decided to do a little research online.

While my husband gathered what we needed to dig I scoured the internet just trying to find the little cemetery we had found in the public records. I found absolutely nothing. How is this even possible? There are at least 30 graves there and nothing on the property at all? Not even a parcel number for information on who owns it. I continued searching to see if maybe we could legally dig with there being no known owner for the property, what I turned up was pleasantly surprising.

“We have a green light honey” I told my husband as I walked into the living room where he was sitting with his buddy Tom who owns an excavator to make the dig a whole lot easier on us, quicker too. “Hi Tom” I said as I sat on the couch next to my husband. “are you sure we have a greenlight?” Tom asked. “According to the records I found online its not owned by the town or a private owner, It’s just vacant land. As far as the town is concerned, we have every right to dig there.” “What a relief” Replied my husband. Tom turned and said “Well I guess I should go get everything ready for the morning. How’s 7:30am sound to you two?” My husband turned to face Tom and told him 7:30am sounds perfect.

When 7:30 came around we were up and ready to find our little treasure. We had decided to go 50/50 with Tom since it was his equipment and he was nice enough to take his time to help. “watch its going to be a 50-cent piece inside a little box” I joked. As my husband rolled his eyes, he poured me some orange juice and got the rest of the things we needed ready for the day.

Digging went far faster than I had thought it would. They slowed when then got near to 6 feet believing there was going to be a coffin at that point we would need to carefully exhume, but there was nothing. Discouraging us even further we debated on continuing the dig. By this point we all had to know; why was there a tombstone with no body? Continuing the dig, we hit something hard at 20 feet. Exchanging curious glances, we all got very excited. Tom cleared the top of the box as best he could with the excavator and we dropped a rope ladder down into the hole to get a closer look.

The box looked eerily like a casket; but what was it doing at this depth? Was there a body inside? We carefully cleaned off the remainder of the dirt by hand and strapped some heavy-duty ratchet straps to the box and gently hoisted it out of the hole. This was the moment of truth what could possibly be inside. So far, the book had been accurate about the depth and the initials matched, but still we couldn’t help but think it was some elaborate hoax. Slowly lifting the lid, I couldn’t help myself and peered inside. It looked empty. I was so discouraged; but when the lid was completely off there in the middle was a smaller box.

My excitement returned in full force as we pulled the small box out of the casket and saw it bore the same three initials; MEM. With shaky hands I opened the box and couldn’t believe my eyes as shiny gold coins were glinting back at me from within. Unable to contain my excitement I yelled “Were rich.” My husband and Tom both stood around me disbelief on there faces mirroring my own we all laughed so hard we cried.

After putting the large box back in the ground and carefully filling the whole back up we immediately went into town to the small gold and jewelry appraisal building to find out how much we had in our tiny box. The jeweler looked at the pieces in disbelief. There may not have been a ton of them but the value of these coins was $40,000! I couldn’t believe my ears! After sharing half with Tom, we still walked away with an amazing $20,000 small fortune.

Still in shock when we got home, we thought of all the things we could now afford for our baby who would arrive in a few short weeks. Thanks to a hand me down dresser and a little black book, all the worries we had just yesterday were now gone. Thanks MEM whoever you are, you don’t know it but you saved our family when we needed it most.

The End