Contest Entries

Weekend of Purses

For one year, Aphra loved purses. She would go out to the mall every week just so she could buy a brand new purse. In some of these purses she bought, she hid gold. Others were filled with either sapphire, ruby, emerald, or diamond. Which would be expected to hold the most valuable collections? She deliberately picked on either the silver or gold purses to hide either diamonds or gold. She kept placing these purses in a cabinet, hidden from view of others, she thought nobody will find. One day, they disappeared without a trace...

"Hello, would you like to help me clean out My large closet?" Aphra asked her friend.

"Especially since it's the week to clean the closet- certainly. I'll come over right now," Mara replied.

As Aphra slowly opened the door to her huge closet in the hallway she noticed the top filled with junk threatened to topple over and the coats and jackets inside appeared to be covered in dust in the light. The closet alone was going to be a challenge to open, let alone clean. Then she went over to the living room and sat down. Some ropes were going to be needed because she didn't want the junk at the top of the closet to fall over anyone's head.

"Here I am!" Mara announced when she walked in the door.

Standing up, Aphra went to work on helping on her plan to open the closet safely first. The doors weren't shut tight so they worked fast. Suddenly the doors swung open on their own and the junk on the top came crashing down. Bits and pieces of glass lay scattered all over the floor. Quickly Aphra dashed for the broom and dust pan while her friend worked on taking all the coats and jackets so that they could be washed.

When everything was picked off the floor and the coats and jackets were in the laundry room Aphra decided to address the top part of the closet. Using a grabbing stick, she started to pull out one purse after another, most of them feeling very heavy. Then a piece of paper fell down to the ground. Her friend picked it up to read it.

"Dear Aphra, I know you love to collect purses and stuff them inside of that hidden cabinet behind the bookshelf, but I thought that was too obvious a place to look for robbers. So I cleaned out that cabinet and moved your collection of purses into this closet. May the stones bring great wealth to you one day. Your son, Loki."

"Oh, so that's where all my purses disappeared one day! I thought I would never see them again! I better call the police and report that I found them while cleaning out my closet. After all these years, my efforts weren't in vain after all!"

Quickly, Mara dialed Loki's number. After a few minutes Loki picked up his phone and Mara spoke first. "Loki! I think your mother would like to speak with you right now. Remember how devastated she was when she couldn't find her collection of purses?"

"Oh, her purses! They are so heavy I could barely lift some of them. Yes, now I remember. I was just a child when I discovered this cabinet full of them. I don't know where my dad had put them, but I thought that they don't belong in a cabinet anytime soon. I was just little back then. Dad's not here so there's been no way I could retrieve them after April 1."

Aphra came over and spoke into the phone. "Why, your handwriting and name is on this note. You and your father's April fool prank has caused me a lot of tears and heartache. I really enjoyed all the purses I brought home from the mall too. Now that you are tall enough, why not come on over right now and take all my purses down so that I can enjoy them again? My friend Mara here deserves to have a silver and gold purse too since she loves collecting things."

"Yes, mom. Coming over right away. So that is where dad put them the night before he disappeared. I wonder if we'll ever be able to see him again. Heard he went running off with a gang in a nearby country recently and so there's hope he's still alive and well. I don't know what to expect from these rumors."

"Oh, I have an idea. Maybe we could fake selling rubies since rubies are high in demand right now. The sparkling red color of rubies is your dad's favorite and he won't be able to resist showing his face at the idea of buying a red ruby. How's that?"

Length: 793 words
Prompt: Clean out the closet and find something intriguing
Contest: "Holiday Short Story Contest - closed"