Where Your Treasure Is

“Okay, Ma! Show me the money! I know you're up in Heaven just waiting for us to start this hunt, so give me a sign," yells Lizzie as she slams the front door. Ruth rushes to save the picture that falls from the wall, but the glass front shatters.

“It’s just the glass, “she says as she examines it. “The embroidery wasn’t damaged at all.”

Lizzie comes closer and looks at it, shrugging.

“Mama did such beautiful work,” says Ruth. “This was one of her favorites.” Even though it’s only been a week since her mother died, she already misses her terribly.

“Well, there’s no money in fancy embroidery,” says Lizzie, reading the verse. “’Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be’. Who thinks up stuff like that anyway?”

“Um, it’s from the Bible” says Ruth, looking for a distraction. She already knows better than to engage her sister in a conversation about organized religion. She spots what she is looking for on the table next to her mother’s favorite chair.

“When Mama was in the hospital she told me that the treasure hunt clues would be in here,” says Ruth, picking up the small, elegant notebook. The shiny leather cover seems out of place in the shabby room.

Lizzie grabs for the notebook and starts shaking it upside down but nothing falls out. She thumbs through the pages and shakes her head.

“It’s just lists of her embroidery notes. Names of all the pictures she did. And there sure are a lot of them.”

Well, the notebook is where she told me to look,” says Ruth. She picks up the picture again. “She put such care into these! Framed them herself and even put cardboard on the back.”

“Yeah, she wouldn’t want anyone seeing her mistakes,” Lizzie sniggers. “Never wanted anyone to even think of her making a mistake. I think we’re wasting time examining that notebook. We need to start a real search. I’ll take the upstairs and you take the downstairs. If Ma left anything of value in this house, that’s how we’ll find it.” She throws her black cashmere coat on the chair and heads upstairs.

Four hours later, Ruth sits down for a break. She has searched under and behind every piece of furniture and emptied every drawer but with no success. Upstairs, she can hear Lizzie’s cell phone ringing and her muffled voice as she talks cheerfully to someone. Ruth is just about to get up and search the kitchen cabinets again when she hears Lizzie coming down the stairs.

“Ruth, you just won’t believe it!” says Lizzie. “I mean, you absolutely will not.”

“Lizzie! You found the treasure!” Ruth beams with happiness. Her mother had told her to wait for Lizzie so they could look together and now she is glad she did.

“I found something even better, someone I forgot I lost! I found Binky Blankenship!” announces Lizzie.

“Binky Blakenship? The car dealer? And you lost him before? I don’t get it,” says Ruth.

“Binky and I dated a few times in high school," says Lizzie. “He saw Ma’s obituary in the paper and looked me up online. Of course, with my real estate agency, it was easy to find my number, so he called me. Did you know he actually owns two dealerships now? There’s money there, for sure!”

“I thought Binky was married,” says Ruth. “I think his wife was in one of his commercials holding a baby. It’s nice he called you, though.”

“Not only called me! He wants to meet me for dinner tonight” Lizzie says with an enormous smile. “And after dinner, who knows what could develop between old friends.”

“Well, good for you,” says Ruth. “I was hoping you could join Cal and me for the fundraiser at church tonight. We’re trying to raise money for a New Shoe Ministry, to send all the children back to school with a pair of new shoes, but it sounds like you’re really looking forward to seeing Binky. Now what about upstairs? Did you find anything?”

“Oh, well I did look some,” says Lizzie. “But all I really found was Ma’s diamond earrings, some smaller pieces of jewelry, things I knew she’d want me to have. I just tucked them away in my purse. No need to bother you. And now, I’m done! Time to go back to the hotel and start glamorizing for Binky.”

Ruth is astonished at what she is hearing. Mama neve told her anything about wanting Lizzie to have her jewelry.

“I thought we would split everything once we found the money Mama said she hid,” Ruth says in a small voice. “I know it’s here. She would never have lied to me.”

“Sorry, Sis, but I’m done! Don only has the kid for one more night and then it’s back home for me,” says Lizzie. “If I can land someone like Binky, think of all the problems it would solve for me, No more single parenting, no more worrying about the divorce settlement, no more worries about money! I’ll take that over searching for Ma’s pittance any day. You know, she never had much. Who knows how much she thought of as a treasure?”

“But Mama wanted us to work together,” Ruth pleads.

“Here’s what I’m going to do,” Lizzie says. “Hand me your phone.”

Puzzled, Ruth hands her phone to Lizzie who hunts for the camera feature, then points it towards herself and begins recording.

“I, Elizabeth Ryerson Lane, do hearby state that I am withdrawing any claim I have to any property in my mother’s house at 2112 Great Lakes Circle, provided that my sister Ruth empties the entire house of its contents before the end of the month so that it can be properly staged and sold,” Lizzie proclaims, holding the phone steady in her hand. She flips it off and hands it to Lizzie.

“You don’t want anything else?” Ruth says, puzzled. “But what if I find something? What about the treasure?”

“It’s all yours,” says Lizzie. “Every broken chair, every lumpy mattress. All the treasure your little heart desires. Now, I really do have to get going. Do you think I have time for a manicure?”.

“I don’t really need any of Mama’s things,” Ruth replies. I’ll probably just give them to people I know from church. There are so many children that don’t even have beds. And cooking supplies are really needed these days.”

Before she is finished speaking, Lizzie is out the door, slamming it and knocking another picture to the floor. This time the frame shatters and Ruth scurries to pick up the pieces. The backing has come off the frame and Ruth is surprised to find that it’s actually two pieces of cardboard. As she picks them up, she spies something green! Two five-hundred-dollar bills!

Ruth grabs the notebook and notices the number two next to the name of the picture. She pulls Amazing Grace off the wall and carefully opens the backing. Four five-hundred-dollar bills! And there it is, the number four written in the notebook. She tears out a blank piece of paper and starts adding the numbers. Twenty thousand dollars! Mama really did leave a treasure! She thinks of all the children who will have new shoes for school and all the other ways she will be able to help people. She closes the notebook and holds it to her heart.

“Thank you, Mama,” she says. “Thank you, Mama for everything.”