I nod, pointing at the left wall. “Bed was there. Dresser, nightstand, desk. And my closet.” I walk over to the sliding doors and push them open.
It’s overflowing with junk.
“Guess we found where they keep everything,” Stellan comments.
“Come on, let’s start looking.”
Wordlessly, we tear through the place. He knocks on boards and raps on the trim. I pull junk down from the closet and run my fingers along the back, searching for a seam. But after an hour of meticulous checking, we find nothing.
The process repeats in Gem’s old room. Now it’s a tiny little gym. I wonder what my sister would think, knowing some random people jog on a treadmill where her bed used to be. Stellan gets right to work, shifting all the heavy equipment so we can check all the little corners and cracks.
It takes forever. “I don’t even know what we’re looking for,” I complain as the frustration mounts. “These poor people are probably suffering in there.”
“Why do you care about them?”
“They’re innocent. They just had the bad luck to buy my old house.”
“They’ll be fine, but we won’t if we don’t find this key.” He grunts as he reaches into the closet. His frown deepens. “Hey, come here a second and feel this.”
“Now’s not the time to come on to me, Stellan.”
“Funny. Come on.”
I crawl over and he shows me a corner of the trim in the back of Gem’s closet. It’s wiggly and loose. When I tug, it pops off easily, which is a shock.
“Why would Gem have a hiding place?” I stare into the dark crevice. It was clearly cut into the drywall. I can just make out something inside. “She was little when we lived here.”
“Who says it was Gem?” Stellan reaches inside. I chew my lip, stomach twisting with nerves. He roots around for a second before pulling out a silver and gold jewelry box.
Another wave of nostalgia hits me. I stare at the box, mouth hanging open in surprise. “I remember that,” I say, breathless and shocked. “I can’t believe it’s in here.”
“What is it?” He frowns, turning it over to look at the bottom.
I take it from him gently. “My mom had this on her nightstand for years. She kept all her rings and necklaces in it. I remember wanting it so badly. It was like a real treasure chest to me back then.”
“How’d it end up in the wall?”
That’s a very good question.
With shaking hands, I flip the lid open. I’m not sure what to expect.
But it’s almost empty. Only a scrap of receipt paper, some old, cheap costume jewelry, and a faded picture of me when I was a baby.
I hold the photo up, eyes watering. “She must’ve loved us at some point, right?”
“Of course she did.”
“You didn’t know her, though. When Dad was alive, she kept it together. For a while after he passed, she was almost a decent mom. But then a switch flipped again, and she got hooked on the drugs. That stuff transformed her.”
Stellan gently takes the box from my shaking hands. “I’ve seen it a thousand times in my line of work. Drugs ruin people, change them in ways you don’t expect. They ruin them and kill them. But some come back.”
“Mom didn’t.” I slump back against the wall, tears welling in my eyes. “Gem took it hard when she left this last time. She didn’t admit it, but I could tell. And you know the worst part? By that point, it was obvious how smart Gem was and how much support she needed. But Mom didn’t care. She needed her fix and her shitty boyfriends, and that was that. She ran off and left me to pick up the pieces. I think it took Gem a while before she was herself again and was smiling all the time.”
“Your sister is pretty special, isn’t she?” Stellan murmurs, frowning as he pokes through the contents of the box.
“She’s very special. She’s everything.”
“You’re special too, Kira.” He tilts his head, looking up. Our eyes meet, and there’s a shiver of elation at the tips of my fingers. “You’ve been living for someone else for too long. You forgot about yourself.”
