Anabelle's Dreams

Once the dust cloud settled, the man dressed in dark red overalls took a closer look at the mantel piece he had just taken out. Struggling, he lifted the heavy wood piece and leaned it against the wall. He mumbled with a satisfied pitch seeing that it was in very good condition. This would allow him to sell it for at least three hundred dollars. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and started taking pictures. Taking two steps closer to capture the details, his left foot hit something on the floor. It was a small zip bag, full of dust. Realizing that it was hidden behind the mantel, he picked it up and opened it carefully. Inside he saw an envelope and a small black notebook.

The first thing he pulled out was the envelope. There were two sheets of paper in it. He took them out and unfolded them only to see they were two treasury bonds, each worth $10,000! Their maturity date was some five years earlier, but he knew he could claim the money any time. Wow! Twenty thousand dollars! That was sheer luck. He took a deep breath to calm down his heartbeats, took a second look at the bonds and then he folded them very carefully and put them back in the envelope.

He directed his attention now towards the black book. What surprise was waiting for him now? On the first page there was only one word, Anabelle, written calligraphically. Turning the pages, it was the same hand writing, only much smaller. The dim light made reading it very challenging for a man in his late forties, so he closed the book and put it in his back pocket.

His next thought was to call his wife, Andrea, but he changed his mind thinking it was much better to tell her in person what he has found, when he’d get back home. He wanted to see her face and her eyes when he showed her the treasury bonds.

There were several large holes in the walls that appeared to be made by a large caliber shotgun. Wondering who had made those holes, but most importantly why, he grabbed the heavy toolbox and went to the nearest one. There was a lot of work to be done, and definitely those holes will not repair by themselves.

***

He arrived home just before the nightfall. The smell of the food made him realize how hungry he was. He sniffed the flavor and asked his wife what she was cooking.

“Pasta” answered the petite brunette with green eyes. “I just came home some half an hour ago and I did not have time to cook something else” she added.

“Well, I love pasta. I will go take a shower and change my clothes. Ten minutes will be enough?” He kissed her gently and headed to the bedroom.

“Tell Sophie to come for dinner” she shouted behind him.

***

Sophie was the only one talking during dinner, almost ceaselessly. A lot of things happened at school, and now she felt the urge to update her parents with all the details.

“How was your day?” Andrea managed to ask eventually.

“Hmmm. Dusty. I started working at that big gig I told you about. Remember, that colonial style mansion?”

“Yes, I remember. Anything particular about it?”

“Rich people house. The entire project is over one hundred thousand.”

“Well, that ain’t bad, right? 10% your cut, that makes ten grand for you, right?”

“Kind of. It is a lot of work, anyway. Plus the little perks, look here. What do you think?” He pulled out the phone and showed her the pictures of the mantel piece.

“Wow, nice! Do you plan to sell it? Send me the pictures and I’ll upload them on Market Place. How much should I ask for it?”

“Let’s try 300. If it doesn’t sell in a month, we’ll lower it to 250.”

He then headed to the little cabinet where the drinks were, and took out a bottle of champagne. Andrea looked at him puzzled.

“Are we... celebrating something?”

“Yes, we are... This! Ta-da!” said Nick taking the envelope with the bonds out of his pocket.

Not sure what to believe, Andrea opened the envelope and reached for the papers inside. Meanwhile, Nick was opening the bottle.

“I found them behind that mantel piece, when I took it out.”

“So, these are... they’re for real?”

“Well, I have no reason to think that someone would hide behind a fireplace some counterfeit treasury bonds. I’m pretty sure you’re holding twenty grand in your hands.”

They were making decent money, but twenty thousand dollars out of the blue definitely meant something.

“What would you want to do with it?” she whispered.

“I’d say we put half in our IRA accounts, five grand for Sophie’s education and the remaining five thousand we spend for a nice and well deserved vacation after I finish the job. How about that?”

“You think it is OK to keep it? I mean... do we have to declare it, give it back, something like that?”

“Finders' keepers' my dear. Look. The house has been sold three times in the past four years. It is owned now by an investment firm, and they’ll flip it once the renovation is completed. There’s no way for us to know who these bonds belong to, OK? It’s our money.”

“Are you sure about that? I mean, there will be no consequences? Nobody will ask us anything ever? I don’t know what to say...”

“I’d say you should start looking for a vacation package, OK?” Nick took her in his arms and kissed her delicately. Andrea sighed deeply.

“What’s that? What did you find? Show me!” Sophie wanted to know.

“Oh, and there was one more thing, a little black book. I think it belonged to a girl” replied Nick, turning towards his daughter.

“A girl? What girl?”

“A girl named Anabelle, who, unlike yourself, knew how to write very nicely.” He touched the tip of her nose playfully, and Sophie replied, grimacing at him.

“How do you know that?”

“I’ll show you after you help mom clean the table, OK?”

***

Fifteen minutes later, Nick was sitting in the armchair in the living room browsing the TV channels, the champagne glass next to him. Sophie came quietly from behind and covered his eyes with her little hands.

“Booo!” she shouted. “You show me now?” She cuddled next to him. Nick pulled out the notebook, but before anything, Sophie grabbed it.

“A-n-a-b-e-l-l-e...” she spelled. “She writes really nicely. For sure she wasn’t in the third grade, like me. She must have been older, because we haven’t learned to write like this.”

“Or maybe it was written a long time ago, when kids your age were actually writing calligraphically” he mocked her.

Without saying anything else, Sophie turned the first page and started reading.

“Last night I dreamt of a big tree with silver leaves. I don’t know if they were actually silver, but the wind made them sound like metal. It was not a mere rustling; it was rather like a voice from a mystic realm. The branches carry large blue flowers, big as an open palm. I feel a scent like incense. I also see some butterflies that seem to be made of copper. The fluttering of their wings makes a sound like a crystal glass hit gently on the rim.”

„Daddy, daddy, you’re asleep.”

„Hmmm... what?”

„You were sleeping. I heard you snoring. Why don’t you go in the bedroom?”

“Yeah, you’re right. I worked very hard today and I feel really tired.”

***

The phone’s alarm rung precisely at 6:30 a.m. and the whole family woke up. They started moving around in silence, everyone following the morning routine. Andrea headed to the kitchen to prepare the breakfast, Nick went to the bathroom and Sophie was getting dressed to go to school. Ten minutes later, the father and the daughter entered the kitchen.

“Morning”

“Morning”

“Let’s see what mommy has prepared for us... Yummy...” Nick grabbed the sandwich with ham and cheese and took a bite.

“Daddy, do you know what I dreamt last night?”

“You can tell me on the way to school. In the morning the time passes by very fast, you know that. Finish your breakfast.”

“I dreamed that tree with silver leaves” Sophie continued, undisturbed by her father’s words.

“Uh-oh. What tree? What leaves?” The very next second, Nick realized he should not have answered her. Once engaged in the conversation, Sophie stopped eating and kept talking.

“The tree Anabelle dreamed about, you already forgot?”

He nodded slowly, focusing on the ham in his plate. He was starting to remember the previous night, about the little black book and Anabelle with the beautiful handwriting.

“Last night I read all she wrote. Her dreams, you know? Kind of creepy.”

“How come?”

“She was dreaming of a strange world, with all kind of creatures. It was like a wedding, in a forest, and besides people, there were insects too. You know, like in the cartoon movies? A talking cricket? Or a bumble bee dressed in black velvet? And those insects were as big as the humans.”

“Or maybe the humans were as small as the insects...” Nick giggled.

“Nope. The insects were the size of humans, not the other way around. I’m positive” she replied seriously.

“OK, finish what you’re eating, or you’ll be late for school. I will go out to warm up the car until you’re ready. You’ve got precisely five minutes, yes?”

***

“Whatta...” Nick’s eyes were wide open and eyebrows arched, staring at the tree grown overnight in the front yard.

He did not notice it when he had come out through the garage door, but only after the turned the truck in the driveway. The dawn was shedding just enough light for him to see a tree twice as tall as the house, with an iron-like trunk and branches and silver leaves. There was a mild scent of incense in the air coming from its blue flowers.

“Oh my God! Oh my God! Daddy, this is the tree I dreamed about last night. Daddy, I’m scared!”

“OK, listen. This is indeed something very... unusual, awkward even, but I don’t think there’s a reason for you to be afraid, OK? After all, nobody in our neighborhood has such a tree in front of their house, right? It’s actually cool.”

“Daddy, you don’t understand...” her speech interrupted by crying hiccups. “You know those giant insects I told you about? They were not actually invited to the wedding, and that's why they went there very angrily. Anabelle did not write in that notebook about her dreams. It was about her nightmares.”