The Brown Bag

Donna L. Zeller

donna.zeller@att.net

By the middle of August, we were hot, tired and bored with summer vacation. As we were trying to think of something to do, my mother called me on my cell phone. "Gabriell," she said, "you will never guess who is coming to visit?" No, she was right. I couldn’t guess nor did I want to. I just hoped that it wasn’t my overbearing but loving Aunt and Uncle.

I replied, "I don’t know, Mom. Why don’t you tell me?"

She laughed and then said, "It’s your Aunt and Uncle!"

I looked up at Brandon and gave him a look that said the conversation was definitely not what I wanted to hear. After taking a deep breath, I said, "Mom, that’s great! Where are they staying?"

"Well, of course, they will be staying with us. Why don’t you and Brandon come with me to do some food shopping for their arrival?"

Brandon had been holding his ear close enough to the cell phone so that he heard the whole conversation. Smiling sheepishly, he grabbed the phone from my hands and said, "Of course, Mrs. Kuller, we’ll be happy to come along."

With the same smile still plastered on his face, he handed the phone back to me. I had no alternative but to agree that it was a wonderful idea for us all to go shopping together.

"Brandon, I’ll get you for this," I yelled to him as he sprinted across the field toward my house.

I could see from where I was that my mother was already in the car waiting for us. There wasn’t much more that I could do but to join them. Brandon turned around once or twice to smile at me. I had already begun to think of ways to pay him back before I reached the driveway.

After we had finished the shopping and helped my mother put the food away, I asked Brandon to join me for a short hike to the creek. "Be careful," my mother called to us as we headed down the path. We turned and waved to her telling her that we would be back in time for dinner.

I hadn’t mentioned to Brandon that the real reason for asking him to go with me was that I had seen something strange. I had not been able to sleep the night before and sat at my bedroom window counting the stars. At first, I thought that I was just imagining something but then the light flashed again. I was sure that it was coming from nearby the creek.

I thought that it was best to confess my real reason for asking him to come with me. "Gabriell," he asked, "are you sure?"

"Positive," I replied.

"Well," Brandon said, "that sure does give us something to do. I wonder what it could have been."

"I don’t know. Do you think that it could be dangerous," I asked realizing suddenly that I may be placing us both at risk.

"No. Besides that, the creek isn’t that far from the new houses that are being built. We can always run to the construction workers if we need help," he added.

"Come to think of it, the flash of light may have been caused by light reflecting from the equipment," I said.

"Well, no need to wonder any longer. Here we are," said Brandon.

We looked around for quite a while. Disappointed that we hadn’t found or seen anything, we had to give up our search for the day. Brandon and I agreed to get together the following morning to pursue whatever it was that I had seen.

The next morning, I left to meet Brandon right after breakfast. "Mom," I called, "I’m leaving. We’ll be back in time for lunch."

"All right. Do you have your cell phone with you?"

"Yes," I replied.

Brandon was already waiting for me. This time, we also looked along the path as we walked toward the creek. "I’ll bet that we find whatever it was on that boulder over there. It is high enough so that a light reflection could be seen from your bedroom window," suggested Brandon.

We climbed the boulder and were able to view the surrounding area. Suddenly, Brandon shouted, "There! Look at that!"

I looked in the direction that he was pointing and saw a glimmer of light. It was exactly like the one that I had seen from my bedroom window.

We helped each other down off of the boulder then ran over to where it appeared to be coming from. At first, we didn’t see anything unusual so Brandon suggested that we sift through the leaves and branches on the ground. Our discovery was made when I tripped over something while trying to move some of the debris to one side. It was a large, brown leather bag with a huge, shiny buckle on it. We had not seen it at first because the color of the bag had blended with the ground.

Much as we would have liked to search the contents, we knew that giving it to the Police Chief was the right thing to do. "After all," I tried to sound convincing, "Chief Smith can do a much better job of contacting the real owner."

After showing my mother what we had found, she called the Chief for us. We waited as patiently as we could for his arrival.

Surprisingly, he arrived along with a State Police Trooper. We were really impressed. But, then, we began to wonder how a brown bag could be so important.

"Brandon, Gabriell," the Chief began, "if this bag is what we think it is, the two of you are about to become heroes."

We looked at each other, and then watched as they put on special gloves and opened the bag. The Chief smiled and said, "Yes, there it is. I can’t believe it. After all of these years, someone has found it."

While we wondered what "it" was, the Chief and the Trooper began to exchange information excitedly. Apparently, there had been a jewelry store heist a long time ago. The jewels that were in the bag were the ones that were stolen. To top that, they were priceless.

The Chief took his time asking us lots of questions then spoke with my mother. He told her that there was a huge reward for anyone who located the jewels. When my mother learned of this, she immediately called Brandon’s parents and my father.

The excitement continued as everyone arrived and grew when the local newspaper reporter showed up. "I can’t believe it," I whispered to Brandon, "we are almost like celebrities!"

Brandon replied, "Just when we thought that summer was getting to be a bore!"

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