A Father's Treasure

I knew this place once. Though now I can only recall it from my memory. I have not seen it for nearly 23 years. Back then I was known through the whole county as Lady Lucy Clarke. My father was a very wealthy earl. I spent many years of my childhood living on this farm. I grew up playing on that tire swing, and learning to ride a horse. Though the most vivid of my memories is of the grand, beautiful red barn that cast it's presence onto the estate.

Growing up my father was a very agreeable man of massive wealth. He was calm and generous. There was only two rules to be followed. We must never play with the sons in town, and we must never step foot into the barn. We never knew why, but it was a rule that we followed very well. Neither myself nor any of my sisters acted as though the barn existed at all. Even into my mischievous teenage years I never looked at the barn for long, and never step foot inside.

Today, the house as been very well maintained. The white marble of the house is still intact. If I didn't know any better there would still be souls living inside. I do no better, and have known that the house has not been lived in since the death of my father 5 years ago. A maid comes to tend to the house every few months. It was to be lived in by my eldest sister when she got married, but only a month ago did she become overwhelmed by the flu, and thus died in her bed. Now the estate is to be passed onto me. The youngest of the family, and the only living relative left alive.

I walked all over the grounds. The marble mansion was still standing in all it's glory. The grass has still been mended to perfectly. Even the field where usually there would be horses to graze, the fencing was kept perfect and even though horses no longer live on the estate, the grass is kept. In fact, the only thing on the estate that still lives in the past, is the old barn.

On such beautiful grounds, the barn stands there like a monster from the past. Towering two stories up into the sky. It used to be a gorgeous red barn, large enough for two girls to play hide and seek, although we never did. The roof was painted a deep, dark black. Now the boards of the walls are coming loose, and rain seeps into the barn from the dilapidated rooftop. It no longer looks as majestic as it did in the past. Now it is a horrid reminder of the dead. A women in her forties has absolutely no business inside the ruins, but my feet can not help themselves as they walk towards the wooden doors, that now lay hanging open and ready for any prey to walk inside.

I cannot recall from memory what it would have looked like inside so many years ago. Although we did have this barn the horses were left outside except in the winter. We only ever had two horses, one for me and one for my sister. No horse needed that much space inside of a barn. I expected hay to be covering the grounds, a couple of empty stables and nothing more, much like my husbands barn on his own estate. Yet what my eyes beheld was like nothing I could possibly have come up in my mind.

There were only two stables inside, as I had suspected. They were tons of hay inside and water troughs outside the stables. The barn however was not filled to the brim with hay. Instead the floor was completely clean of any sign that anyone had actually ever been in there. The steps that lead up to the second story of the barn looked completely intact, as though no one had ever walked in there before. I was astonished. If the barn was not being used for the horses, then why in the world did we not just build a couple inside stables and tear this barn down. It seemed to me for there to be no reason to have such a thing on the grounds. I shook my head in disbelief. Is this what my sister and I have avoided for so many years? What was it's purpose.

I shook my head and turned it down a bit to look at my shoes on the ground. I couldn't quite possibly believe that there was any reason for my sister and I to never have come in here. When I looked back up I stared up at the second landing just above my head. There didn't seem to be anything up here. The only thing that I could think could possibly have happened was that there was something here once and the servants just cleaned it out after my father's passing. However, even as children even the servants weren't aloud to ever step foot in here. The reason only known by my father and mother who are both deceased.

I took a trepid few steps towards the stairs that lead to the second landing. I reached my hand out and touched the wooden railed next to the steps. The wood was perfectly stable to my surprise. After so many years I imagined the steps would be falling apart at only a touch. Admittedly I was scared to go upstairs. The wind was whistling through the holds in the walls and roof that one would expect a ghost to live inside here. I felt as though going up would lead to something I did not want to see. All the longing to know changed the moment my hands touched the railing. Still, I wanted to see.

I took my first steps onto the stairs and was greeted by a loud creaking. It could have nearly shattered my eardrums as the screaming took over the whistling of the wind. I stopped moving. Wondering if my foot would fall through the boards, but they did not. I took a couple more steps, and then a few more. Each step creaked with such loudness it was as though the barn was screaming at me. I did not know if it was screaming for me to run away or to continue up the stairs. Either way I continued to walk up the steps until I was nearly at the landing. The last few steps were taking with much worry in my eyes. What will I actually find at the top of the stairs? What will be there? What was so important to my father that he forbade us from entering this place. I did not know, but I wanted to find out.

I took the last few steps and I was suddenly on the landing. The hem of my dress was absolutely covered in dust almost a while two inches up my hem. I was shaking with anticipation as I looked around. However, I was extremely disappointed. There was nothing up here except for a pile of dirt. I let out a exasperated sigh and leaned against the railing. It held incredibly well. The pile of dirt much have been two feet high and slanted. It was completely out of place, but I didn't think much of it except for a pile of old dirt. I walked over to it and angrily kicked at the bottom of dirt. There was no reason for me to have been afraid to go up the stairs now, and it was rather irritating that I spent the last 15 minutes inside this rotting barn when absolutely nothing existed in here except dust and proof of time passing.

I turned away to go back down the stairs and head back into town to meet my husband. The plan was to come here to assess if the estate could be sold and in my mind, I would like nothing less than to sell this place. My father must have been laughing in the afterlife for pulling such a long prank. However, when I turned to leave something glinting in the dirt crossed my vision. I turned back to the pile and squinted my eyes to see if I really saw that slight vision of what looked like gold to me. To my surprise there was something, a little bit of gold that was sticking out.

I reached out and begrudgingly wiped some of the dirt away. There was just a plain golden slit underneath the dirt. I pulled back and for a second wondered if I really wanted to uncover whatever it was. I didn't want to mess up my dress with more dust, but my curiosity got the best of me. I sunk down to my knees and heard the boards creaking with the weight. I started to move the dirt out of the way until I saw more gold, and eventually I found a emerald gem, but it wasn't on it's own. It was attached to something. Whatever it was, it was a large object. My husband would not approve, but I continued to move the pile out of the way. Dirt was flying from all sides as I attempted to uncover whatever it was that my father hid up in this haunted place.

It took awhile, but eventually there were dirt piles on either side of me. My hands and my dress were absolutely covered, but I finally unveiled what as hidden. It was a large, golden chest. The sides of the chest were remarkably decorated in real emerald gems. The finding was absolutely stunning. If I hadn't been breathing so heavily and coughing because of the dirt I undoubtedly swallowed, it would have taken my breath away. My father was truly hiding an absolute treasure.

I moved the last of the dust off the chest and ran my hands over the golden encasing. I searched for a way to open it. It was so large that I could only assume that treasures were inside, miraculous treasures. I reached down and there was a brass dragon holding the chest together. I tried to pry it open but I couldn't. It was shut extremely tight. The dragon looked like it was the lock, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't open it. I sat back and stared at the lock for the longest time, but couldn't figure out how to open it.

For a bit it seemed as though there was no way to open the lock. I fiddled with it for a second until I noticed that the tail of the dragon was slightly loose. I wiped the sweat and mud off my hands onto my dress and fiddled with the tail of the dragon. It was tough, but eventually I pushed the tail down. A series of locks inside the chest started to click as though they were unlocking. With seconds the top of the chest flew open and the contents were finally revealed to me.

I thought it might be old jewelry from my mother, or even stacks of cash. My father was wealthy after all. However, what was inside was nothing I could have expected. Inside the chest, from the bottom to the very very top, was filled with golden bars. This did in fact take my breath away. I almost couldn't believe exactly what I was seeing. This chest alone held enough gold bars to set me up for a couple of lifetimes. This was a lot more money than I ever remember my father having. He had the treasure and he never used it once. The question was... where in the world did this money come from?

I do remember, back when I was a little girl, there were a string of robberies at a couple of the banks in different surrounding towns. The thieves where meant to have been caught. I couldn't imagine that my father was a criminal. After all, he was very laid back to the best of my recollection. He held parties here but they were very civilized parties. I never knew my father to be capable of any such activities... but yet, here they were. Hundreds of gold bars.

A smile drew across my lips and I reached down to gently touch one of the golden bars. However, before I could touch it, I heard the motor of a car approaching outside. I looked out the window that was besides me and realized that it was already soon to be sundown. My thoughts raced at what to do. Surely if my husband knew about this he would want to immediately report it. He was a good man in that way. I couldn't let that happen.

"Lucy! Darling where are you?!" I heard Nicholas call from outside.

I immediately did the only thing I could think of. I closed the chest, locked it, and swiftly covered it with dirt once more. He could not find it. When I stood up I wiped the dirt from my hands and as much off of my skirt as I could manage. I ran down the steps and out of the barn just as my husband, reached the doors of the barn. I was running so quickly that I nearly ran into him.

"Oh my dear, what happened to you? Why are you so dirty?" Nicholas asked as he waved his walking stick around my dress. Luckily the dust was around just my skirt.

"My apologies Nicholas. It's very dirty inside the barn. I came as soon as I heard you calling." I tried to make my voice as eased as I could.

"I talked with Mr. Williams, he said we could catch a pretty penny for the estate, what do you think?" Nicholas looked around the grounds and smiled satisfied. I could see in his eyes that he was hoping to sell the grounds and make some money from it.

"Well actually my love, my families estate is quite larger than yours yes? It would be a great place to raise children as my parents once did I think." I smiled softly and wrapped my arm around his. "Besides, it meant a lot to my father. I just wouldn't feel right selling it."

At first he looked at me rather confused. I had every intention of selling the place when I first got here. However, now discovering the treasures that the old barn holds, I simply can't let it go. After a few minutes his questionable eyes turned to pride and a smile graced his lips. He needn't say more, but he did anyways.

"Of course darling. Besides, who knows what treasures such an estate may hold."

"Right.... who knows?" I smiled back.

We walked back to the car to go back into town. While we walked Nicholas listed off a few ideas he had for the house and the grounds. I wasn't listening, though I shook my head as to pretend that I was. Only I knew the true treasure that was on the grounds, and I will always be the only one.