Unboxed

Night One

The howl of the wind consumed the night as it partially silenced the chirps of grasshoppers and the croaking chorus of toads. When a break in the wind occurred sporadically, the inharmonic sounds of wind chimes could be heard serenading the outdoors in the distance. Damascus, Virginia was a small town of 600 where everyone knew each other. Declan, nicknamed Dec for short, loathed Damascus. Dec and his mother, Iris, had just moved into a small cottage not too far from the Virginia Creeper Trail. As Dec stared out of his bedroom window peering at the dancing tree branches under the moon’s spotlight, he was deep in thought about how much his life had changed in such a short amount of time. Every thought kept revisiting the moment his parents announced their divorce.

Understanding evaded him as he tried to find answers. Iris would never give Dec a clear explanation each of the numerous times he inquired about it asking her, “What happened to you and Dad, Mom?” Dec was unable to question his father, Devin, because he had seemingly vanished shortly after the split. Dec never really had a tight bond with his father since he had a very demanding job that he dedicated most of himself to instead of his family. Fighting a losing battle of his thoughts and unanswered questions, Dec decided to retreat to his bed to get some much-needed rest. Dec and Iris had a ton of unpacking to do as labeled moving boxes crowded every room suffocating the little to no space there was in their new house.

Day One

As the night turned into day, Iris lay in her bed dreading the tasks ahead to make their new house feel like home again. Iris arose from her bed and headed to the kitchen two prepare bowls of cereal for herself and Dec. To wake Dec up, Iris does “the knock” which was a unique tune exclusive to the duo that signaled it is time to get up. Quietly, they ate their breakfast until Dec broke the silence by asking Iris the infamous question again, “What happened to you and Dad, Mom? Seemingly frustrated, Iris reluctantly answered, “We grew out of love Dec!” Confused, Dec raised his eyebrows and asked, “How Mom?” “You are too young to understand Dec!”, she exclaimed. “I’m 10 years old Mom, you can tell me the truth!”, Dec responded. “He left us; he left our family for another family Dec! He has another child and soon to be wife! Ok? That is the truth!”, Iris fired back. Speechless, Dec got up from the makeshift table and chair made of boxes and stormed off to his room. Shortly after the exchange, sounds of tape being peeled and boxes being open could be heard throughout the house while Dec was unpacking his room and Iris began unpacking the kitchenware.

After a couple hours escape them, Iris decides to break the ice by bringing Dec a soda and asked, “How do you like your room so far?” “It’s Ok.”, Dec stated in an unconvincing tone. “How about you take a break and check out the outside?”, Iris asked. “Umm, ok!”, Dec responded trying to suppress the excitement in his voice. After putting on his tennis shoes and grabbing his soccer ball, Dec headed outside to explore. Besides the thick woods that surrounded the cottage, there was not much to be amazed by. There were other quaint cottages in the near distances on either side of his, but it did not look like it was children his age around with the absence of toys and other signs of children. So, Dec decided to kick his ball around through a clearing in the woods and see where it would take him.

Continuing to kick the ball, Dec suddenly realized he was quite a distance from his house. He decided to give the ball a few more kicks further but this time, the ball hit an object. Curious, Dec asked allowed, “What was that?” Lightly jogging toward where the ball stopped, Dec noticed a box. It was a small box that looked like a gift. Accept it was not wrapped in a bright and appealing wrapping paper like one would expect. It was wrapped in brown paper with a then rope crossed lengthwise and widthwise into a tied bow. It also looked like it had been there a little while as it was brushed with dirt and the paper was water stained from the rain. Dec was puzzled as he stared at the mysterious “gift box.” Pondering about what his next move should be, Dec was going back and forth with himself on whether to turn around and head home to check in with his mother or discover what is inside the box. “Dec! Dec, where are you?”, Iris’s voice called out faintly from a distance. “I’m coming Mom!”, he replied as loud as he could. Dec immediately picked up his ball and ran through the clearing to get home.

Night Two

After arriving home, Dec noticed how much progress his mother had made in the kitchen. Although it looked different from his previous home it felt like a familiar space. Iris and Dec continued to unpack, breaking for lunch then resuming into the early evening. “Let’s call it quits Dec.”, Iris announced. Laying back on his bed waiting on the large pizza his mother ordered, Dec kept thinking about what could possibly be inside the package he came upon earlier that day. Will someone come back for it? -Dec asked himself. The pizza arrived and Iris had managed to put their small wooden dining table together that afternoon. While eating, Iris asked Dec how his outing went. Without meaning to, Dec briefly responded, “It was ok, lots of woods.” “Oh, okay. Did you run into any kids?”-Iris inquired curiously. “Nope, just woods.”-Dec vaguely responded. “I did find something though Mom. It was a small brown package.”-Dec stated. “A package out in the woods?”-Iris confusingly questioned. “Yes! I want to know what’s inside Mom. It looks like a gift.”-Dec responded. “Hmm, well maybe if it is still there in a few days, you can bring it home and we can open it together!”-Iris suggested. Dec was surprised, he did not expect his mother to say that. With that, a few days went by and as each day passed, Dec grew more and more excited about opening the “gift box.”

Day Six

It was 8 o’ clock in the morning and Dec was wide awake. The sun was smothered by blankets of clouds making the day ominous and dreary. The weather did not discourage Dec from locating the package, however. Barely stopping to chew and taste his breakfast, Dec quickly placed his bowl of what was once fruity pebbles into the sink and was putting his tennis shoes on to go outside. “Hurry Dec, it looks like the sky is about to break open!”, Iris yelled as Dec took off into the woods. Out of breath, Dec made it to the package and noticed it was exactly as he left it days before. Just as hurriedly as Dec made it to the package was just as fast as he made it back home. Sweaty, Dec ran to the table, took a seat then yelled out, “Mom!” Iris rushed to the table to join him and excitedly looked on as Dec pulled rope bow tied around the brown paper wrapped package. Carefully removing the box inside the brown paper, Dec admired the unique markings on the box, yet he was confused. The markings looked like poorly drawn shapes and squiggly lines. They were very hard to distinguished. It was six of them but spread all other the top of the box. Dec decided to give the box a slight rattle to see if he could hear its contents. There was no sound.

Dec lifted the top off the box. There tightly fitted into a dirt and leafy debris mold that was the shape of the box, a purplish-blue gem. Dec and Iris’s eyes grew large like four silver dollars. They stared at it thinking they won the lottery. The gem was the size of a nickel and upon examining it further, was flawed with scuffs, scratches and was disfigured in shape. “What do you think this is Mom?”, Dec asked curiously. “I have no idea, let’s try to look it up.”, Iris replied. After typing in “purple diamond” into the search box on google using her cellular, Iris thumbs through the images as Dec helped her compare their find to what was on the phone screen. Exhaustedly, they looked at image after image until finally, they found the one. The caption under the image read “The Hope Diamond.”

Night Six

All throughout the day, Dec and Iris wondered where this hope diamond came from and why it was packaged as a gift and left in the woods. They had made through lunch and dinner still discussing the diamond. It was time to remove it from its makeshift mold. Dec grabbed a butter knife from the kitchen drawer and began to carve around it. It was now in the palm of his hand as he gave it a look over and handed it to Iris and she began to admire its beauty too. It was late and time to retire to bed. Dec placed the hope diamond back in its mold. Resting on the nightstand, Dec fell fast asleep as he wanted to find the truth behind this mystery hope diamond and the numbers on the box.

Day Seven

The sun decided to reveal its lovely grace and there was not a cloud in the sky. Dec was still asleep until suddenly, something hit his bedroom window. Startled, Dec opened his eyes and stared at his window. Heartbeat racing, Dec slowly moved toward his window and drew back the curtains to check out what it was that hit his window. It was a large black crow, it was dead. Its neck was noticeably broken. Before Dec could attempt to make any sense of it, another bird came crashing into his window. This time, Dec witnessed the impact. This was no coincidence. Dec ran to his mom’s room to discover that she was looking out her window too, as he walked up behind her to discover what she was looking at on the ground, he seen three dead crows. Each neck was broken. “Mom, what going on?”, Dec asked. “I don’t know Dec.”, Iris frantically answered. “There’s dead crows outside my window too.”, Dec exclaimed. “What?”, Iris stated but not expected an answer from Dec.

Iris made her way into the living room and Dec followed. Several crows could be heard crashing into the living room windows now. Scared, Iris grabbed her phone to call 911, she had no service. The sound of glass shattering made them both jump as hundreds of crows flew into the cottage. Screaming, Iris and Dec tried to run to safety, but they could find any. Crows landed on them and attacked them by pecking until blood was drawn. They both wailed their arms erratically attempting to fight them off to know avail. Iris let out a blood curdling scream of pain. A crow had pecked her in the eye. She fell to her knees clutching her face in agony as she yelled for Dec to run. It was too late; Dec was lying on his back in his room as crows were pecking at the flesh of his neck. Iris tried making her way to Dec, but the crows were still viscously attacking her all over. Trying to fight the crows off Dec and barely being able to see, Iris knocked into the nightstand and knocked the hope diamond and box to the floor. The lid landed sitting upright against the nightstand. Iris looked at the shapes on the lid and could make out, 06/06/06. The same days date.