Adventures of A Six Year Old

When I was a child, my best friend Monica and I used to have our adventures mostly on the way home from school. I think back to when I was around five or six years old and realize I had way more freedom than my grandchildren do now. I used to ride public transit to my grade one class with my friends, and I don't ever remember being afraid. I also remember giving Monica's brother the slip after school many times, so that we could walk home at our leisure; or we'd take the bus halfway home then get off and walk the rest of the way.

Sometimes we would take the alleyways and check out "cool" finds we saw along the way. We had a second hand shop on my block and so that was a favourite stop of ours for finding various treasures such as these ball earrings for my mother and hers on Mother's Day. Let's just say those earrings were in the alley for a reason, but as children, we thought they were beautiful and what lucky mom wouldn't be proud to wear them!

We also liked to go through the neighbourhood and play with our friends along the way home. Or sometimes we'd walk along the river which we were told not to do for more reasons than one. As with many children we didn't remember those warnings when we were out, and so one day we walked along the river where the grass was high. Monica had a stick and was moving it around in the grass trying to see if there was any hidden treasure.

Well what we ran into were some men who were sleeping in the high grass, and we had just disturbed their sleep. One jumped up yelling at us, and we both ran screaming in the opposite direction. It was scary but at the same time we felt excited that we had gotten away. I still remember the way my heart was beating and the fear running through me as we ran. I also remember the relief when we turned to look back and saw three more men sitting up in the grass looking at us, and the one who yelled at us was standing up, but not chasing us. We went home but didn't tell our parents of that encounter. I think we both knew inside we'd be in big trouble and probably our little wings would be clipped since one we disobeyed our parents and two it could have been a dangerous situation although now thinking back on it, they were probably just mad we had awakened them.

We hadn't gone walking by the river for a bit after our last alarming walk there, but we eventually did return. We always liked to look for treasures and usually found one, two or more. This particular day we were on the hunt again. As we walked through the grass we'd spot animals, discarded clothing, empty bottles which we'd bring in to trade for candy; and today well we found a briefcase. We were so thrilled because we'd never found anything like that before, and we knew that it was somewhat important, so we brought it to Monica's house and showed the briefcase to her mother. Monica lived closer to the river than I did so that seemed to be the safest place to go. We didn't see anyone around at all, so we're not sure who left it there or why. Monica's mother phoned the police and told them what we had found. When they arrived, we opened it up and there was a little black book that looked rather worn and a large brown envelope. The police took the briefcase and its contents, and said they'd contact us if no one claimed it because then it would revert to us.

I admit as a child I forgot about the briefcase almost as fast as we found it. We had too much going on all the time. There were giant snakes living in our puddles after large downpours, dancing skeletons that made snow angels while we slept and giant worms living on the side of the house, so we couldn't slow down. There was just too much going on. The world did not stop because we found a briefcase, a notebook and an envelope. For one thing we couldn't read well yet, so the black book couldn't hold any treasures we'd be interested in. And the brown envelope didn't look too interesting either, so they were forgotten and newer adventures and treasurers took their place quickly.

Much later, in my childhood memories anyhow, Monica's mom phoned the police service to ask about the briefcase, but she had to wait for a phone call back. To our surprise, no one had claimed the mysterious briefcase, nor its contents; so we were eventually called down to the police station for a meeting. My friend Monica, myself, her mother and my mother all sat in a small office, and the police officer who met us had the briefcase with him. He talked to our mothers about the black book that was in the briefcase as well, and told us that they were not able to trace back the items to whom it belonged. He said the black book just contained many notes on travels throughout the United States, Europe and even Asia. Now maybe that would have been more interesting to us if we were older and could read much better than at that time. In any even, he said that the briefcase was ours as no one had claimed it in what seemed so many years, but in fact was probably less than a year.

I'm not going to lie and say I didn't want to get out of that office. There didn't seem to be any treasure hunting spirit in there at all. It felt dry and uninteresting. It felt like going to the doctor's or the dentist's office - something you had to do but didn't necessarily want to do. Monica and I were fidgeting and our moms were telling us to be quiet and sit still. We'd just about had enough of the sitting and talking when the police officer was rustling the envelope which caught our attention. He pulled out money from the envelope, and it looked like lots of it because it wouldn't all fit in my dad's wallet. He said there was $20,000 in the envelope that was for us. Our moms just had to sign some paperwork before we left. I wished I had paid more attention to what they were talking about instead of playing around. As a kid $20,000 was like $20 or even $10. We really only got half of that as Monica's family and mine split it. I remember my mom phoning my dad at work when she got home, and everyone was in a very good mood for quite some time. I don't actually know what the money was spent on or used for, but my dad always worked hard; so I know it would have been put to good use. I guess you never can tell what you'll find when hunting for treasure!