Amber's Treasure

Story written for "The Writer's Cramp" 

Amber peered into the lost and found box to see what was new today. She always looked on Friday, it was part of her routine as she cleaned the library. She loved books, and she dreamed of going to college someday when she had saved enough money. For now she was earning it cleaning for local businesses and the library.

It looked just like last week.; a single mitten that had been there for months, some coins, a key chain with a little dog charm, a toy car. She was always amazed by the variety of things people would lose and subsequently come looking for. Sometimes she was more surprised that someone would even bother to look for some things that she had seen in the box, like the old bookmark with the frayed ribbon an elderly lady seemed so grateful to have returned to her. She said it had sentimental value.

Wait a minute, this is different, she thought as she reached into the small wooden box and pulled out a worn photograph. It was a wallet-size picture like you get in school every year, but this one seemed like it was old. She smiled at the young girl grinning back at her. She looked like a happy and mischievous teenager with blonde pigtails and a green frocked dress. Amber placed the picture carefully back into the box and put it away.

A few weeks passed, and Amber continued to check the box. Things came and went, but the picture and the mitten never changed. She became more fascinated by the picture as time passed. It seemed to call her like an old friend to come and look at it again, just to share some company. She began to wonder about the picture and who might have lost it. Was she someone’s school sweetheart? Someone’s mom, maybe? Amber began to think she’d never find out, as no one had come to ask about it for over two months now.

The next week, while Amber was cleaning again, an older lady came into the library and asked the librarian about a photograph she’d lost. Amber was thrilled. She hurried to where the woman waited for the librarian to bring out the lost and found box.

“Is the picture you’re looking for of your daughter?” Amber asked the lady, sure she knew the answer. The girl resembled her.

“Why yes, dear, how did you know? I’ve been looking for it for months.” the lady said.

“I always check the box we keep lost things in, it’s sort of my hobby.” Amber replied, a little embarrassed.

The lady laughed, and said. “ Sometimes one’s lost castoff can be another’s treasure.” She had a rich pleasant laugh.

“Oh, I never take anything, I just like to imagine who the things belong to and wonder what stories they have.” Amber said quickly.

“It’s good to have an active imagination. What is your name?”

“I’m Amber. I’m glad I was here when you came. I like the picture.”

The woman smiled at Amber and said, “I am Evelyn, it’s nice to meet you. You look a bit like her, my daughter, Penelope. She passed away at a young age. She was twenty and was about to have her first child when she became ill, it was so sad when she lost the child at birth. She died soon after of her illness. That was a long time ago.”

The librarian came out and placed the box on the table. Amber reached into it and took out the picture. She smiled at it and handed it to the lady, who stopped with her hand just poised to take it from her.

She said sharply, “Child, how old are you, and who is your mother?”

Amber stepped back at the woman’s suddenly abrupt manner and was confused. She opened her mouth a couple of times before she could speak. She said, “I will be twenty on my birthday next month. Why?”

“Next month is July. And your mother?”

“She died of cancer when I was twelve, but I was adopted.”

“Oh my word.” The lady exclaimed and covered her mouth with her hand.

“Please, what is the matter?” Amber asked. “Are you okay?”

The woman shook her head and said. “When you smiled, you looked exactly like Penelope. And you say you are adopted? I never dreamed it could be possible until now. Do you know your biological mother by any chance?”

Amber frowned. She said, “No, I never met her. My mother said she didn’t know anything about her. I never really looked into it.” She gasped as realization of what the lady was thinking set in.

The lady said, “My name is Evelyn Sparks. I would like to find out if you are my granddaughter I thought was stillborn. Would you be interested in finding out as well?”

Amber stared at her. She said slowly, “I guess that would be all right. I don’t really have any family…”

That week they researched her adoption. The lines for father and mother’s name simply said ‘Unknown’. Her birth date was right, so they did DNA tests. Amber was indeed the granddaughter of Evelyn Sparks. She had been taken away at birth and adopted out without her family’s knowledge. Mrs. Sparks was outraged and intended to have the matter fully investigated.

Amber was thrilled to have a whole new family, since her father had died two years ago in a car accident, and she had no other relatives still living of her adopted parents’ families. Even better, her new family was a quite wealthy one, so now she could go to college like she had always wanted to but could not afford. She wanted to be a librarian, and she knew she would always have a special place in her heart for the ‘Lost and Found’ box.


Word count: 979