Under the Floor Board

By: Emily

It was a sunny, humid, morning in Charleston, South Carolina when I received the usual phone call from my Aunt Sally. She wanted to make sure that we were ready to leave to go to the Hermitage Café for brunch. My brother, Aunt Sally, Uncle Jenks, and I go every spring during our break from school to catch up on things. Max and I attend the same school, so our spring break schedule is the same.

            When the telephone rang later that morning, I knew it was Aunt Sally. She always calls at 10:45am after her check up call. I don’t know why, it just became a routine.

“Hello?”

“Well howdy Julie! Jenks just started the car he will be there shortly. OK?” She replied in her country accent.

“OK Sally.” I answered.

“Now you tell Jenks to be on his best behavior you hear? He left the house so fast I couldn’t remind him! Ha! Ha! Ha!” She chuckled.

“OK. Uh here he is I guess I will talk to you later Sally! Bye!”

“Bye sug-“I only heard half of what she said because Jenks was honking his horn for us.

“MAAXX!” I yelled down the hallway, “He’s here!”

“OK” he yelled back.

 We grabbed our coats and headed to the door. Then I closed and locked the handle. Max and I walked down the jagged driveway to Jenks’s big red truck. We hopped in and he asked us, “So who’s ready for cheese grits?”

Max and I replied at the same time, “I am!”

Luckily this time we were seated quickly and I, as always, ordered the biggest thing on the menu. Even though I only weighed 79 pounds, breakfast is my favorite and most important meal of the day, and I was planning on licking my plate clean! I ordered three pancakes, two eggs sunny-side up, hash browns, and the famous cheese grits with orange juice to drink. We waited for about 15 minutes for the food, and then I saw it; coming out of the kitchen door was the biggest plate of food I had ever seen. Just the thought of those warm pancakes smothered in syrup running down my throat made my mouth water. 

After we had finished our meal, Uncle Jenks started to cough. It started out as just a little cough, but then it became more vicious. I thought at first that he was fooling around because he was the kind of person that plays jokes all the time. I asked him if he was alright, but he couldn’t stop coughing. He was on the floor rolling around like a log.

“Help me! My uncle is dieing! Please someone help me!” I screamed.

            I was crying because just the thought of Jenks dieing made my stomach shrivel up like a raisin. I couldn’t imagine life without him. He was like another father figure to my brother and me. How could this happen on such a beautiful day?

            On March 14, 1999 Howard Taylor, “Uncle Jenks” passed away from a severe heart attack. I couldn’t believe it, why did we have to lose him now? I blamed it on myself for the first couple of weeks after that horrid day. Then Max and I started to visit Sally more often to keep her company while we were getting used to life without our favorite uncle.

            Sally had to make the arrangements for the funeral. The funeral was very emotional. Everywhere I looked there was someone or a group of people who were in tears. Sometimes laughter would erupt but it was mostly the mournful sound of people crying.

             It was two weeks before I finally realized that Uncle Jenks wouldn’t want me to be sad; he just wouldn’t want it that way. This is when I decided to see the brighter side of things, and think off all the good times that I had with him.

            A year later, Aunt Sally, Max and I were cleaning out some of Jenks’s clothing when we saw a piece of paper sticking out of his favorite red and black plaid shirt. It looked to be really old by the shape and the color of the paper. The paper was a pale yellow and it also looked like it had been washed a time or two because it was ripped in places. When we opened the note Sally’s mouth dropped open and Max’s head tilted with confusion. I just sat there glaring at the paper that was unfolded in Sally’s hands. The paper read:

“Below a board is a treasure. But you have to find it. I will give you a clue: A dresser.”

            This mystery note confused us so much we didn’t know what to do. What could this “treasure” be? We didn’t really know whether to go and look for the treasure or if this was just a joke. As much as I thought that this might be a joke, my intuition said otherwise. But Aunt Sally thought that it was one of Uncle Jenks’s pranks so we laughed it off and I took the paper for safe keeping.

            Weeks turned to months and then years passed since the day that we found that message. After 10 years I had almost completely forgotten about that old note I had taken away. In the winter of 2010 that the message was found again by Max. It was still in the old cedar box of keepsakes in my bottom drawer of my dresser.

            That is where Max found the message. I had taken it from Sally the day that we found it because I was so ready to go find that treasure. He opened the folded piece of paper not knowing what he was actually reading, and then he sat down on the couch and looked off into space.

“What’s wrong Max? What did you find?” I questioned him.

            He didn’t reply back so I sat beside him on the couch and took the paper away from him and slowly began to read the same message I had read years ago. Then it hit me like a crane knocking down a building.

“Max did we ever find that board and looked in it?” I asked him.

 He answered back, “Umm… not that I remember. But I do remember that we had an idea of where it was….. Let me think.”

There was a long pause. I opened my mouth to say something but Max beat me to it.

“Oh yes I remember now. It was near the end table next to the dresser in the spare bed room.”

“Now I remember!” I told him.

             The next morning Max and I went to Aunt Sally’s house to find the board and this time look in it. Of course, Sally insisted that we eat some chili that she had made before we go “treasure hunting.” When we reached the spare bedroom, we noticed that one of the floor boards was loose next to the dresser.

            “There it is!” I squealed.

Neither one of us could get to the board fast enough. When we got to where the board was, we just stood there and looked at it in silence. Max pulled his trusty pocket knife from his back pocket and began to gently pry the board upward. I held the board with my fingers so that he could easily pull the board off. This was not an easy thing to do. Max kept on grunting with frustration until the board finally set free. He put his hand down in the dark hole and pulled out a small box labeled: “Jenks.” When Max and I opened the box it contained a hand written letter. Max read it aloud; his voice quivering:

“My Dear Family,

I love you all so much and I just wanted to leave you with this. This is a check for 25 thousand dollars.  I know that it seems like a lot but you did so much for me and this is the only way that I could think of to thank you for all that you did for me. So thank you again. I love you and we will hopefully meet again.

                                                         With all my love,

                                                                Uncle Jenks

            After we had finished reading the letter and we noticed he had left his will inside too. We just sat there looking at each other in amazement. Max yelled,

“AUNT SALLY! YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT WE FOUND!!”