MEMORIES OF A GREEN BOX by: Karol Barriuso, Tea Horvatiฤ and Rosa Delia del Pino Suรกrez
It was an autumn noon. A slow and silent rain was covering the city as Eileen was staring at the window.
She was not looking at anything in particular, just lost in thought. Pensive. A green box was within her wrinkled hands.
She opened it and she found the things she put inside many, many years ago. It started bringing memories of her last days in Chile.
There was a photo of her last trip where it appeared a seal resting on a rock.
It was the same day she received a diamond ring from her lover.
Just after lunch, she still had a silver spoon from the dessert in her hand.
While she was observing the wrinkles on her hands, she couldn’t believe her eyes, how the years passed so quickly. She thought about her ring. She didn’t understand how he could pay for that ring since he was a poor fisherman.
He was a charming man, Roberto, even in his sixties, he still made her heart skip a beat. She remembered all his fishing trip stories he told her so many times. Her favourite story was when he set off the south coast of Chile.
The sun was setting and the sky was purple orange. As the boat was sailing, they saw a seal. It swam so gracefully along the peaceful waves. Suddenly it jumped aboard and looked at the crew with its sweet eyes.
To make the sight more unusual, in its mouth there was a beautiful silver shell. The most special kind he has ever seen. The seal dropped the shell before Roberto’s feet and jumped back to the sea, never to be seen again.
Still impressed, he took it as a token of good luck and carried it ever since in his pocket. Indeed the shell helped him in many times. In bad times they both used it for good luck. Eileen was packing her bag to go for a surgery to hospital.
As she was using her favourite hairbrush, she tried to keep good memories of their time together. When her suitcase was almost packed, she took the shell with her and put it in her handbag. It somehow made her feel secure.
“You can wake up now, Ms. Gomez�. - she heard the nurse say. She was happy to see her face. She knew that the surgery had gone successfully. However she felt like she needed the painkillers desperately. The pain spread through her body and she shook her had to make it go away.
As her gaze turned right, she saw the special shell upon her nightstand. She inhaled deeply and felt better immediately. She was happy to know that she was coming back to her husband soon.
THE END