Trunks of Ages: The Seven Seals

by Mary Beth Frank

“What’s in there? Come on, Makayla, let us see!” Marshall was almost on top of her with curiosity.

  “Get off me, Marshall. I don’t know what all this is, but it’s about me. Look, here is a picture of me at some fancy banquet accepting some kind of award. And, here is another picture of me with children sitting all around me. I only know it’s me, because my name is mentioned under the photos. But, there’s no date on the papers. Sebastian, look at this. I must be over 30 years old!”

  “What are you talking about?” Sebastian went over to look at the photos, when he tripped over another trunk. Julian happened to be sitting right there, so Sebastian thought he must have pushed it in front of him, because he would have sworn it wasn’t there a second ago.

  “Julian, are you trying to kill me? Why did you push that trunk in front of me?”

  “I didn’t do it! I was sitting here the whole time!” Julian pleaded.

  “Well, where did that trunk come from?” Sebastian questioned.

  Marshall walked over to the new trunk and brushed the dust off it. This trunk was similar in shape to the yellow one, but it was painted with brown, green and tan camouflage.

  “Sebastian, you need to check this out. Look there are initials on the front of this one too. But this one has a lock.” Marshall tried to open the lid to the trunk. “It won’t budge.” He tilted the trunk on its end, so he could have better light. “This one has gold etching too. The initials are SJH.”

  “SJH? Wait, Scotty James Hanks. Those are Scotty’s initials. There must be some old relatives with the same initials as Makayla and Scotty,” Sebastian murmured.

  Marshall got a curious look on his face and wandered off to the other side of the attic. Sebastian walked over to Makayla, where Ethan had joined her in searching through the trunk. He picked up the photos she had set down and started looking them over.

  “What is this?” Ethan had pulled a small gold box out of the trunk. It was the size of a small girl’s jewelry box. The entire box was intricately engraved. The top was covered with a crest of some sort bearing a picture of a lion holding a shield and spear. There were streaks coming out of his body, fading out to the edges of the lid. On the sides, there were small knights holding swords and leaping over flames on horseback. It was the most beautiful, but strangest box Ethan had ever seen. It was very heavy, and he figured it was probably made of gold, although he really had no idea how to tell. He tried to open it but couldn’t. He looked on the front for a place to put a key but found none. He turned the box over and examined the bottom. There were more carvings of knights, and he noticed a small hole in one of the shields. It was hardly noticeable, but it was there.

  “That’s weird,” Ethan muttered.

  “What’s weird?” Makayla asked.

  “This box I was trying to show you. It’s locked, but there isn’t a place for a key. There’s only this tiny hole in the bottom. There’s no way that would fit a key.”

  “You’re right. That couldn’t be for a key. I wonder what this box is for. It’s really weird looking.”

  Sebastian set down the photos with a frightened look on his face. “So, what do you think all this stuff could be?” He looked at Makayla. “I mean, how can photos and articles of your future be here, let alone in some old, dusty trunk as if it sat here for 50 years?”

  “I don’t know,” Makayla whispered. “I’ve never seen it up here before, and I don’t know how anyone could have put it up here without any of us knowing about it.”

  “I think we need to pack all this back up and get downstairs. It’s creeping me out.” Sebastian started to pack up the photos and other nostalgia they had pulled out of the trunk.

  “Um, Sebastian, you need to see this.” Marshall’s voice came from the other side of the attic. He came out of the shadows, face white and eyes wide.

  “Marshall, what happened? What’s going on?” Sebastian was starting to get freaked out.

  “I've found trunks for you, me and Julian, or at least three trunks that have our initials on the front. The only person I haven’t found a trunk for is Ethan.” Marshall started to pull a trunk out from behind him.

  “Look,” he pointed, “the initials SDH are etched here in gold. Sebastian Dean Hanks.”

  “OK, that’s it.” Sebastian couldn’t get out of there fast enough. “Everyone downstairs now!”

  “Oh, come on, Sebastian. It’s not like some ghost put these up here. It’s just got to be a coincidence. Maybe I’m named after some long-lost relative who just happened to look like me.” Makayla wasn’t ready to stop digging through her trunk.

  “Look at the pictures, Makayla. There is no doubt that’s you! Besides, the people in the photos aren’t dressed right to be some long-lost relative. Plus, the captions all say ‘Makayla Hanks.’ There is no way this is a coincidence. Now, pack up the trunk and let’s get out of here.”

  “Hey, guys, what’s this?” Ethan was holding up a piece of paper.

  “Ethan, will you stop finding more stuff in there? Just leave it be!” Sebastian was desperate to get them all downstairs where familiar surroundings could help him think clearly. He had a feeling that there was more in this attic than they could see.

  “Look, it’s some kind of map,” Ethan said after examining the paper closer.

  “Let me see that,” Makayla said snatching the paper out of his hand.

  “Watch it, Makayla! You’re going to rip it. Besides I had it first!”

  “Oh, grow up. Look, it’s obviously a map from our town to somewhere in Massachusetts. Somewhere inside of Boston,” Makayla said, pointing to the paper.

  Sebastian sighed, walked over to Scotty and picked him up. “Talk about it all you want. But will you please do it downstairs? Come on, Julian, let’s go get ready for bed.”

  “But I want to stay up here!” Julian started to whine.

  “Come on, everyone, we are going downstairs now!” Sebastian was starting to lose his temper. He couldn’t say why, but he thought he would suffocate if he had to be in the attic one more second.

  They all started to get up and walk toward the stairs, when they heard Marshall shout, “Of course!”

  “What now, Marshall?” Sebastian asked, turning toward the other side of the attic.

  “The missing trunk! It must be one of the ones I drug downstairs for my layout. I wonder why I didn’t notice all these other trunks then?” Marshall bolted toward the stairs.

  “Wait, Marshall, slow down. We will all go get ready for bed, and then see if the missing trunk is in the train room,” Sebastian insisted.

  “Fine. But I am going to check it out before anything else.”

  “Whatever,” Sebastian said, giving in.

  Lurking in the shadows in the hallway downstairs, Alice stepped into one of the bedrooms, so she would not be seen.