The Box – Part 2

Hey, even though it’s summer, what better way to enjoy it than being inside and reading a good story. Here’s Part 2 of The Box.

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By Charlene Elder
© 2018

Another warm day allowed Susan to enjoy a break from school. She was thankful their school wasn’t on the year-around schedule. She spent as much time as possible to catch up on her reading—the reading she liked, not the required school reading. After helping her grandmother with the morning chores, she grabbed her mystery book and headed outside. She settled in the backyard hammock ready to enjoy another mystery by her favorite author.

Totally engrossed in the storyline, Susan anticipated she’d find out ‘who dun it’ in the next few pages when a statement made by one of the characters jumped off the page and stalled her reading. She blinked and then reread the sentence. “Oh, come on, Bill. Sometimes you don’t know everything, but you’ve got to have faith because it’ll take you through all this mess.”

There it was again. That word. Faith. What her grandfather said many times echoed again in her mind. “Don’t lose faith.”

She tried to read the rest of the chapter but she was stuck on ‘you’ve got to have faith’. Closing the book, she slide out of the hammock. I gotta talk to Grandma.

She found her grandmother sitting in her favorite chair reading by the front window. She hated to interrupt her, so she sat down on the couch next to her.

Her grandmother smiled. “How is your book?”

Susan stared at the book cover. “It’s good, but something one of the characters said bothers me.”

“Oh?” her grandmother patted her arm. “What was it, Sweetie?”

Susan heard the debate going on in her mind. Do I tell Grandma I heard Grandpa tell me not to lose faith? She didn’t want to upset her grandmother by telling her about that, but she needed to understand why having faith was so important.

Finally Susan took a deep breath a blurted out her answer. “Grandma, why is faith so important? I know Grandpa always told me that.”

Her grandmother patted her arm again. “Faith connects you to God. Without faith and believing God is with you and that He is good, you’re empty. It’s not a physical empty when you get hungry and your stomach growls. It’s a spiritual empty when you don’t connect with God. You connect with him through faith.” She smiled at Susan. “It’s simply believing God loves you and trusting Him.”

The wheels began to turn in Susan’s mind. “Oh, I think I get it. You believe in God and Grandpa did, too, and you have faith, don’t you?

Her grandmother nodded and smiled. “God is always looking out for us and loves us—loves you so much—even more than I do.”

A small tear formed in Susan’s eye. “Well, if he loves me MORE than you do, that’s a LOT.”

“Don’t ever forget that Susan, no matter what goes on in your life. Okay?”

“Okay, Grandma. I love you, and…I…sure…miss…Grandpa.”

The next thing Susan felt was a totaling enveloping hug but it had greater warmth to it than a normal Grandma hug. Susan smiled. I think God just hugged me, too.

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Several days later while Susan and her grandmother chopped vegetables in the kitchen the old cutting board they used fell off the counter and split into pieces.

“Oh, dear,” her grandmother sighed. “Well, Susan, there’s another one somewhere in the attic I know. This one was really old. I’ll clean all this up and you can dig around and find it upstairs. Okay?”

“Sure, Grandma. I’ll go get it now.”

Susan walked by the sunroom quickly checking on her mom and brother and then headed to the attic. After pulling down the ladder she made her way up.

Pulling the light cord illuminated the attic and she was surprised at what she saw. Wow. There’s a lot of stuff up here. I wonder if Mom remembers that there’s so many things up here.

Susan rummaged through several boxes not finding the cutting board and decided to look at boxes on the other side but only found more boxes of mementos, doilies, stuffed animals her brother wanted to keep, and even some old family pictures.

She continued looking around. Hmmm, if I were a cutting board, where would I be?

Finally, under an old blanket she found a box marked ‘kitchen’. It was taped and took her a few minutes to undo the tape. She pulled several items out and there, on the bottom, was the cutting board. “Yay” she declared holding it up like a trophy.

As Susan put her foot on the ladder she heard two words echo across the attic. The Box. She paused just briefly because her grandmother was waiting, but she knew what she heard.

“I finally found it, Grandma,” Susan said rushing into the kitchen, nearly out of breath. She gave her grandmother a hug and they continued chopping vegetables for a big pot of their famous vegetable soup. Susan knew what she heard upstairs. She couldn’t tell anyone yet. She’d have to visit the attic again and find the box.

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(Part 3 continues next month)