The Treasure of Aliban Farm

Took some effort on his part, but Aaron Lucas manages to open the slide door of the old barn of Aliban Farm. Aaron places his hands on his hips, feeling a mixture of pride for opening the rusty door, and nostalgia of the place and the memories that surface. His daughters, Julie and M.J., walk up next to him. While M.J. is in awe of the barn and the obstacles it presents to the playful girl, Julie on the other hand, keeps her face to her phone.

“Dad, can I play in here?” M.J. asks.

“Of course, Grandma and Grandpa gave us the okay to be here.” Aaron tells her with a smile.

“Yeah!” M.J. shouts as she charges in, commencing her playtime. Aaron walks in and turns his head to his older daughter, finding that she’s not following him but is still glued to her phone. He shakes his head at the site.

‘You would think with her going to college soon, she would grow out of that.’ He thought to himself. Aaron fully turns around to face Julie.

“Julie honey, come on in.” He says to her. Julie looks up from her phone.

“You mean you want me to go inside this rigidity barn? Which might fall apart at any moment? Yeah, no thanks Dad.” Julie tells him.

“Ah come on, I know it’s not exactly at its prime, but it’s not gonna break.” “Yeah, but I’m still not coming in.” Aaron was about to ask her to come in the barn again, but is interrupted by M.J.’s shout of pain. The father and daughter look over to their right and find M.J. coming out of a haystack, her face showing physical hurt. They run to with Julie putting her phone in her hoodie pocket.

“M.J., are you okay?” Aaron asks with concern for his youngest.

“I’m okay, I just jumped in the haystack and I landed on something hard. It hurt my butt.” Julie, upon hearing her sister’s comment, covers her mouth to keep her snickering from escaping. Aaron looks at the haystack and a thought comes to his mind, as though it was a key unlocking a memory.

“Wait, is that where?” Aaron asks himself as he digs through the hay. The girls are curious as to why their dad is going in the stack.

“It’s here, I can’t believe it’s still here.” Aaron says with happiness coating his voice.

“What? What is it?” M.J. asks. Aaron faces them with an old green box. It’s golden corners and lining rusting with time, in fact the only thing modern about it is the silver padlock with its brand engraved into it.

“This, sweetie, is the treasure of Aliban Farm.” Aaron tells her.

“Treasure?!” M.J. says with excitement.

“Treasure?” Julie says with skepticism.

“Treasure.” Aaron confirms as he walks over to an old tractor, he places it on the wheel covering and pulls out a key. He opens the padlock as the two girls come over to his sides satisfy their curiosity over the box’s contents. Aaron opens the box and his daughters look inside.

“That’s the treasure of Aliban Farm? A Barbie doll, A toy knight, An origami heart, and a ring box?” Julie asks her father “It’s just some junk in an old box.”

“I don’t think it’s junk Dad.” M.J. assures him while pulling out the knight.

“Of course, you don’t.” Her older sister says with an eye roll.

“I know they’re not much to look at, but these are indeed treasures, treasures of memory.”

“Treasures of memory? Dad, do you know how cheesy that sounds?”

“It’s true, for example that doll and knight, they were the toys my friend and I played with when we first met.”

“And let me guess, you played with the knight?” Julie asks expecting that to be the answer.

“Well…” Aaron says nervously while rubbing the back of his head, as though it’s something he’s not too proud to share. Julie then connects the pieces together.

“No way.” She says with a giggle “You played with the Barbie?”

“Not by choice.” Her father quickly says like his manhood depended on it. “We both wanted to play the knight and either of us were backing down. So, to decide which of us would get the knight we played Rock, Paper, Scissors. She beat my rock with her paper.”

“Man, what I wouldn’t give to hear you pulling off a girly voice.” Julie says.

“Wait, if you didn’t want the Barbie, why did you keep it in here?” M.J. asks.

“Because it along with the knight are to remind my friend and I became best friends.” Aaron answers “At first I couldn’t stand her, but after the game of pretend with the toys I grew to like her, it wasn’t until high school that I fell for her. Which was because of this.” Aaron then picks up the origami heart and looks at it with fondness. Julie looks at the heart, wondering what the story is behind it.

“Okay I’ll bite, how did a Valentine origami make you fall for your friend?”

“See for yourself.” Aaron says as he gives her the paper heart. Julie gets confused, but then gets an idea and starts to unfold it, revealing it as a hand-written note. She walks over to a hay bundle and sits on it, M.J., wanting to know what the note says too, jogs up to sit next to her and lean close to get a good read.

“To the boy who won me over.” Julie says reading the heart-shaped note “Whenever I see, my heart goes to overdrive like a race car, whenever I hear you, it’s like your voice is a flame melting my ears, and whenever I’m close to you, it causes my legs to shake like we’re experiencing an earthquake. But, please don’t interpret my love as a girl who saw you and think it’s love at first site, cause that’s not how it works. My love for you grew like a seed, from the time we spent together, I know of your kindness, your determination, and the way you don’t take-” Julie stops upon seeing a word that M.J. shouldn’t be repeating, so she decides to keep it PG by saying “crap from anyone. Everything about you just makes happy inside, and I wish I had the courage to tell you in person but I think is origami might help in expressing myself. You are incredible and I hope you feel the same. Sincerely, your secret admirer.”

“Aww!” M.J. coos finding the note to be sweet. Julie also find it adorable that her father had a secret admirer.

“Quite the ladies’ man Dad.” She says to her father. A thought then comes to M.J.

“But wait, if your friend was your secret admirer, where was Mom during all this?” She asks Aaron wanting to clear up her confusion.

“Who do think put it in the box?” He asks M.J. Realization then hit the girls like an out-of-control semi-truck.

“This is Mom’s box!” M.J. exclaims.

“Mom kept all this?” Julie asks her father. Aaron gives a confirming nod to his oldest.

“Yes.” He says reaffirming his answer.

“To anyone else, these are mere trinkets, but they were her crown jewels. Jewels that signify the important moments of her life.” Julie then looks inside the box and gives her attention to the little black ring box. She picks it up and along with M.J., look at it with intrigue. They give each other a look, thinking the same thing, they should open it. They turn to their father, non-verbally asking him if they can open it.

“Go ahead.” He says, “Your mother would want you to.” The girls turn back to the ring box. M.J. was jumping with anticipation, while Julie slowly opens it carefully like it’s a fragile glass case instead of a tiny leathery box. She opens it and is surprised by what’s inside. It’s a ring, a golden ring with five clear diamonds that form to make a flower.

“Wow!” M.J. says takes the box out of her older sister’s hands, who is so in shock that she couldn’t hold it tight.

“Dad!” she says turning to Aaron “That ring has got to be worth like a thousand and five-hundred dollars! Why the heck did she keep it here?”

“Well, it’s because, it’s because it’s the ring I used to propose to her.” Julie became more surprised and M.J. looks up with the similar feeling of surprise, perhaps even more.

“But, but I never saw her wear it. Did she say no to you?” Julie asks Aaron.

“No, in fact after I said ‘Mercy Aliban, will you marry me?’ she looked down at me for a moment and said ‘Yes, but you don’t need to give that ring. Because you already gave me a ring. Before we left for college we gave each other thread rings as a promise to each other. And as you can see I still have my ring, do you still have yours?’ I showed her my thread and she then said ‘Well, there you go.’”

“Was there a wedding?” M.J. asks.

“Nope.” Aaron answers “We just went to the court house with her parents and got married. No big party, no extravagant gifts, she just wanted it to be just us. It was quick, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

“Why did she keep the ring though?” Julie asks.

“For you.” Aaron says. Julie is taken back by that. “Like you said, that ring is worth quite a few bucks. Your mother wanted you to have that ring so you can use the money from it to pay your first college semester.” Julie looks at the ring and shakes her head.

“I can’t take it.”

“It’s okay Julie. She wants this for you.” Aaron says closing her hand with his to affirm his wife’s last wish. M.J. then starts cry, letting herself feel the weight of her mother’s absence.

“I miss Mom!” She cries, Julie then goes to her knees to wrap her arms around her sister. Aaron the goes down to bring them closer to him.

“I know sweetie, I know.” He says, he then pulls back to face his daughters. “Girls, you both are her greatest treasure. She made sure that I promised to take you to this barn so that you can be closer to her, even if she passed away. It’ll be rough, but she’s always with us.”

“How?” M.J. asks wiping her tears away and calming down for a moment.

“Much like how she kept her memories in the box, as long as we keep our memories of her close to us we’ll never forget her. Not her laugh, not her smile, and not the love she felt for us. By remembering her, she’ll never be gone.” The two girls smile at their father and as a family they continue their hug, being closer together because of a mother’s gift to them.