A Surprise for Christine: And other lighthearted short stories by Eileen Thornton

Author:Eileen Thornton [Thornton, Eileen]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Creativia
Published: 2015-02-12T05:00:00+00:00

The Suitcase

Lucy glanced at her watch and was surprised to find it was almost five o'clock. Sorting through her grandparents' cottage was proving to be more difficult than she had first thought. She was spending too long gazing at the various pieces of nostalgia Gran had kept down the years, but they brought back such happy memories.

Sadly, they had both died within a short space of time, leaving her mother unable to face clearing their home. Therefore Lucy, her husband Alan, and her elder sister Alice, had offered to do it. But then quite suddenly, Alice caught a rather nasty cold and Alan was called away on business, leaving Lucy to cope on her own.

Despite making a start on Friday evening after work, it was now late Saturday afternoon and she still hadn't finished downstairs. Nevertheless, she would have to leave soon. Alan would be arriving home shortly and she wanted to be there to greet him. Lucy was on the point of leaving for the day, when she felt a sudden urge to look in the cupboard under the stairs.

Peering inside, long forgotten memories flooded her mind. She remembered how Gran had always favoured her over Alice, often sharing a secret with her or hiding a small gift for her to find.

Lucy giggled. Gran had always used this very cupboard as a hiding place, mainly because Alice never ventured in here. Like their mother, Alice was terrified of the large, black spiders that lurked in the darkness. Strangely, Lucy had never had that problem.

She sighed, as she glanced around the cupboard. There wasn't much to see, how odd that she had felt the need to look in here. She was about to close the door, when she heard a rustling sound and moved forward to take a better look. It was then that she saw a battered suitcase poking out from between some newspapers. Brushing aside two spiders, she pulled out the case.

Looking closely, she saw that there were some initials on the lid. Though they had faded over the years, she could still make out the letters J.B. – Jane Beaumont, her grandmother's maiden name.

Lucy tried to open the case, but found it was locked. Obviously the case must hold a few items of jewellery that had been precious to Gran. However, she recalled finding several keys in an old vase that afternoon; it was possible that one of them might open it. Lucy decided to take the case home and look at the contents there.

Back home, she slipped a casserole into the oven to warm through, before attempting to open the case. Her fingers trembled as she tried each of the keys in turn, until at last the latch sprang open.

Inside there were bundles of letters and at the top was a picture of her grandparents on their wedding day. Lucy traced her fingers around the two figures in the photograph. Over the years, she had learned that since their marriage after the war ended, they had never once been apart.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.