Memories of a green box

MEMORIES OF A GREEN BOXby: Karol Barriuso, Tea Horvatić and Rosa Delia del Pino Suárez

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