True Treasures

It had been a scorcher that summer, the summer of 1953. But the eleven year old twins had loved every minute of their vacation away from the dreaded confines of school in their small town. They were free as far as they were concerned and felt totally alive.

The boys were always up with the sun, ate their breakfast of oatmeal and toast, hurriedly did any chores their mother had in store for them, and then they were off like the light on their bikes. Every day was a new adventure. Most days were spent fishing at the local pond, but today their plan was to plunder in the junkyard. After all, there were countless treasures to find. Unless they got caught by Old Man Carruthers who ran the place. He had a new "shipment" of trash in which he had collected.

As they rocked in the swing on their front porch the evening before, Luke and Jake had heard the truck go by before they had seen the eyesore...a dilapidated, rusty heap of metal piled high with artifacts of other's leftovers and refuse. Anything that the crusty old man thought of worth had once been crudely sorted, but awaited further inspection at the "yard."

There were countless old appliances, car parts, old toys, broken toys, wood pieces, string, newspapers, letters, and old clothes, too. Carruthers made his living from these things. He was a mechanical genius, but the whole town was disgusted by him and his foraging. But if they wanted a re-made and cheaper product, he was the man to see. They put their haughtiness away when they bought from him, but often did it in secret.

The boys would be careful to wait until they saw the weathered old guy go into his shop and they heard the ever-flowing cussing and the loud banging and clanging of tools as he worked to make the trash come alive and be of worth again. Only then it would be safe for them to plunder a bit, too.

They had a hand-built fort they had put together from pieces in the scrapyard. It was their own private palace, hidden in the woods of their backyard. The walls were decorated with old comic books that had been thrown out. They had made a table and brought back crates to sit on. They painted them a bright green with leftover paint from their own garage...which surely meant a good whooping if their Pa ever found out.

There were trinkets and flashlights and their latest find was an old small chest hidden under a pile of clothes. It had a metal lock that they couldn't open. Today, they would "shop" for a tool to use to open it. What they were hoping for was a key to fit, but knowing that was a shot in the dark, they were on the search for bolt cutters. They could always come up with a new lock they had reasoned.

That day, the search was futile. No keys to be found. But nonetheless, desperate times called for desperate measures. They would have to wait to sneak into the Old Man's shop. He usually took lunch around noon. Their hearts pounded with trepidation. They had been in the shop before...legally with their mother. She had even bought a few household items. The boys had been shocked when they saw how nice and friendly the weathered man had been to their petite, shy mother, Molly. Of course, who wouldn't love her. She was an angel. They did think it strange that their mother's deep brown eyes misted when she spoke to the old man. She had told the boys on their way home that she had always had a fond place in her heart for him and she couldn't even understand why she felt that way. Girls were like that, the twins imagined.

As planned, they nabbed a bolt cutter from one of the tool shelves that the old man had arranged neatly and then hurriedly escaped without notice. Strangely, they both felt a deep regret as to the fact that they had to "borrow" the tool and swore they would quickly return it the next day. But today, their curiosity was too keen. That darned chest begged to be opened. They were convinced of gold treasure finds.

Safely in their hideaway, they rushed to get to the unopened box which had caused them all this trouble. They each took turns with the bolt cutters. It was too big and too bulky and the chest lock not so big. They both looked like two monkeys fighting over a coconut. They had even broken out into a frenzied sweat over the struggle. They stayed at it all afternoon. It just wasn't going to happen. And now it was too late to go back to the junkyard for new ideas. It would have to wait until tomorrow.

The next morning their mother had foiled their plans because she was having them accompany her to town. That meant the grocery store and post office and hopefully back home and not to the department store. Jake had suggested to their mother that they could run up to the post office and be back in time to help load the groceries. Luke did a quick second to that suggestion, all well-knowing that time was of the essence. So, Molly relented. She liked spending time with the boys, though because she saw them growing up too quickly before her eyes. But she also knew they were fiercely independent. So, she gave them the key ring for the post office box and off they scurried.

As they fiddled with the keys at their town's post office, their heart about jumped into their throats as they saw Old Man Carruthers himself round the corner to the row of metal boxes set in the huge wall. They wished they could climb into one of those parcel bins and hide, but it was too late for that. Then the unimaginable happened! Seeing their struggle, he took the keys straight from Luke's hand and began to educate them on "keys." "Now this key is a house key because it is heavy and a bit longer than the others. These two are the car keys...one is for the trunk, of course. And this one looks like a lock key and this shiny crooked one here is your postal key." The wrinkled old guy smiled as he gave them back to Luke and tussled his hair and then went about checking his own box. Jake would have laughed out loud at the sight of Luke's paled face if he had not been equally as frightened. But what did the old man say? A lock key? Why had they not thought of that themselves they wondered.

After the boys helped their mother bring the groceries in, they had run off to their hidden palace. They both had conveniently forgotten to hand her back the keys once the front door of their home was opened with the same key Old Man Carruthers had pointed out as the "house key." Somehow, she hadn't noticed. The trick was going to be getting it back into her purse without a big to do whoop-la. Their fingers were crossed that the key would work.

Jake put the key in and gave it a turn. They couldn't believe it...it worked! As they opened the chest, they saw some old pictures, letters, and a large envelope with the word, "important" written on the front. No gold treasure! They were sorely disappointed. Not even any jewelry. It was a bust! Luke said he wanted to throw the chest away so that Old Man Carruthers could "find" it again.

But they had come this far, so they took their booty to the best light to look closer at the pictures. The photos were in black and white. One was a picture of a young man in uniform. It had to be a WWI uniform because it didn't look like the one their father had worn in his picture. And then there was a young woman...very pretty and she reminded them of their mother somehow. And then...well, it couldn't be...was that Old Man Carruthers (not so old) standing with the young woman and beside them were two older people? They flipped the photos over because oftentimes, names, ages, or dates would be on the back.

The uniformed man's photo read, "To Margot with love, Private John Sullivan, 19 years old." The woman's image read, "Margot Carruthers, age 17." On the back of the last photo was, "Mom, Pop, Margot, Phillip."

Putting the pictures aside, the nervously opened the large envelope. "How important could plain old papers be anyways," they both thought. The envelope held six items. A birth certificate, a little black notebook, an old letter which was addressed to Miss Margot Carruthers with a small key taped to it, a death certificate, and adoption papers.

Luke reached for the little black book while Jake grabbed the letter. The book was a type of ledger that they use at banks to keep records. Inside, the last recorded amount was $20,000! In his handwriting, it read, "safety deposit key" to box number 1088 was the one to look for when Margot gets his letter. The letter would explain it all.

Luke and Jake almost passed out. That was the day they both learned the importance and value of "papers." For blissfully sweet moments, they both tried to imagine how to spend all that money. Then their hopes and dreams came crashing down because they both realized it was not theirs to spend. But somehow, they would devise a plan to get it to the rightful owner. "Who knows," they reasoned....there might be a small reward.

Jake read the letter out loud to Luke. John Sullivan had written it to Margot Carruthers while he was stationed overseas during that great war. They skipped over all the gushy parts as often as they could, but the gist of it all was that his parents weren't going to allow their marriage, that John being from a wealthy family and Margot being from a poor one was the reason. It wasn't "proper" enough and he would have to return to college, that there would be other girls much more "suitable." But that he, John, was going to marry his Margot anyways because he had undying love for her, he confessed wholeheartedly. Nothing else and nobody else mattered. He was over the moon about their baby coming in the months to come the letter said, and that he sent instructions for Margot to go ahead and start planning and preparing for their life together. The ledger was enclosed and the key was their new beginning.

The death certificate was that of John Sullivan's. He had died only three weeks later after the letter to Margot from war wounds he had incurred. The birth certificate was of Baby Girl Carruthers, born three months after John's death. On this document, it listed the baby's mother dying from childbirth complications. The boys were both in tears by now. This was the saddest thing they had ever heard.

Was Phillip really Old Man Carruthers? Was Margot his sister? And what happened to the baby girl, the precious little orphan girl? They hurriedly reached for the adoption paper. Little did they know they were stepping out of their carefree lives into the shadows of adulthood over their treasure hunt.

The baby girl, born June 17, 1919 who never had another name besides Baby Girl Carruthers, now was donned, Molly Agnes Ledbetter and had the parents, Doctor Andrew & Mrs. Florence Ledbetter! Wait!!!! That was their mother and those had been their grandparents! Oh my God! Their mother had never mentioned being adopted! This was a nightmare. They couldn't let her know. Not ever.

It took them two days to muster the courage to approach Old Man Carruthers with the chest, its content, and the bolt cutter they had "borrowed." At first, he thought them impudent and shrugged them off, but their insistence and the fact that they were in tears, caused him to bring them inside his home to discuss it all "like men." The first thing the boys saw on his living room wall was a picture of his beloved sister, Margot. It dawned on them that they were looking at their true grandmother. No wonder she had looked familiar.

As the story unfolded, the three of them figured out that the chest had come from the old Sullivan place. There had been an estate sale and the proceeds had gone to charity, but the junk had been collected by Phillip. Phillip, their great-uncle. He told the rest of the story...that Margot had never received that letter and knew nothing of the money. All John's belongings must have been shipped home and the huffy Sullivan family had never reached out to her even though there had been rumors about the baby. The Ledbetter family socialized frequently with the "Sullivans." It was all conveniently hushed. The Carruthers family was too old and too poor to care for the infant and Phillip had been called away for service to his country, as well. Phillip said his parents never discussed the baby...just that they had both died...his sister and his niece. Small towns and larger than life dramas.

They had decided it best that Phillip talk to their parents about the whole situation. The twins prayed that the news wouldn't devastate their mother's world, so Phillip met with their father, John Lucas first. He, in turn, broke the whole sad story to Molly. She took it well. She said she had gained an uncle that she had always loved anyways. She stared a long time at the pictures and took flowers to the graves of her mother and father and Carruthers grandparents...and even to the Sullivan grandparents and to the graves of the parents who had raised her since birth. That was who Molly was. The boys were so proud of her and in awe of her compassion. She was "created in love" she had told them, so she would "show it accordingly."

Now, the bank deposit box held more questions. Had it been spent? Was it still hers? Molly soon found herself $20,000 richer. The boys were going to have a fantastic higher education one day thanks to John Sullivan, her father. Summer was almost over and for now, well for now, the twins looked forward to going back to the mundane routine of school.