HIDDEN MEMORIES
"Lora, hurry dear. It's almost lunch time. Aren't you finished yet? Do you need my help?," my mother's voice suddenly called out from the room where I was quietly sorting things.
"I'm still sorting things Mom. Give me a few more minutes okay?" I suddenly shouted back as I hurriedly placed all the small items that I had gathered from my grandmother's old drawer.
Today will be the last day that we will be staying in my grandmother's house. She passed away a few days ago and we decided to tidy up the place before we return to the city.
I was almost finished when I suddenly dropped the plastic bag that I was carrying. All the its contents immediately scattered all over the floor.
I sighed. "Oh, come on. Give me a break! I am hungry already," I moaned in irritation. I quickly tried to scoop up all the items into the plastic bag as fast I could. Then as I was about to pick up the last item on the floor, I suddenly looked at the direction of my grandmother's bed.
My grandmother was a very organized person. Some people might even call her a neat freak, since she loves arranging her things by color. She also loved collecting things, from stamps to figurines to old coins.
Excited, I quickly moved to the side of the bed and carefully lifted up the heavy and long bed sheet. It was then that I found a small and old suitcase already covered in dust.
"Oh, I wonder what's inside," I suddenly thought as I pulled out the suitcase and tried to clean the dust from the poor thing. My grandmother must have stored it there many years ago and had forgotten about it, I thought.
Carefully I opened the mysterious suitcase, my imagination already growing wild with various ideas. "Maybe it contains some jewelries that she's trying to hid away from her children, or maybe she's saving money just like what old folks usually do, or maybe it contains a last will and testament," I thought as my heart started to pound continuously.
But as soon as the suitcase was opened, my mouth instantly dropped in shock and disappointment. "What the…" I uttered in dismay.
The mysterious suitcase didn't have jewelries nor money or any kind of valuable that I was thinking of. "Just junk," I said as I picked up the old towel that was carefully folded and placed inside a plastic. Judging by its look, it must be as old as my grandmother. It must have been white but due to the years that have passed by, it had already turned a bit yellowish. "Strange," I said again as I carefully placed the towel back into the suitcase. I know my granny loved storing things but … a towel? I shook my head in disbelief and laughed. I continued to search the entire suitcase but found nothing important, except for a piece of crossword puzzle. It must have been cut out from an old magazine or newspaper.
I let out a sigh. I knew I was just wasting time. My stomach was already growling from hunger.
"Lora, we're eating already," my mother called out again.
It was then that I quickly stood up with the piece of crossword puzzle still in my hand. I rushed out and went straight to the kitchen.
"Hey mom, did you know that Grandma stored an old suitcase under her bed. And guess what it contains," I asked as I happily munched on the crispy chicken nuggets that my mother prepared.
"What?" my younger sister asked with her eyes round with curiosity. "Valuables? Money?" she started to guess.
I laughed. "Nope. Just an old towel and this piece of crossword puzzle," I answered as I took out the paper from my pocket.
"Hey, the least you could have done is put that away together with her stuff. Look at that paper, it's already crumpled," my mother said.
My younger sister laughed. "Hmm, Mom's being nostalgic. It's just a piece of crossword puzzle Mom. Look…" she said as she took the paper and showed it to my mother.
As my mother looked carefully at the piece of paper that my sister was waving at her, it was then her expression changed. She quickly grabbed the piece of paper from my sister and gazed at it as tears were slowly filling her eyes.
"Mom? What's wrong?" both my sister and I asked with concern.
"She kept it… After so many years…" my mom uttered with tears trailing down her cheeks. "This was my gift to her when I was just six years old. During those times, we were very poor. We didn't have any money to buy things. It was her birthday. And I wanted to give her something, but I was just a kid and even my father didn't have any money to buy her a gift. And so I just went to our neighbor and asked for an old newspaper and I cut out the crossword puzzle. As you can see, it isn't nicely cut out too. I could barely hold the big scissors in my hand," she lightly laughed as she reminisced. "I remember she caught me using the big scissors and she became so mad. She immediately took it from me and then she hit me hard. I cried. And then while I was crying, she embraced me. She told me that I should never play with the scissors and that I might get hurt because of it. I then explained to her that I only did it because I wanted to cut out the crossword puzzle. It was my gift for her birthday. After that she cried too and asked for my forgiveness. I remember she wiped away my tears with a small white towel and then after that I took the towel from her and wiped her tears as well. It was kinda funny. Imagine we were both crying in each other's arms and wiping each other's tears away," my mom continued to recall as tears flowed from her eyes.
My heart suddenly felt heavy. I don't know if it was because of happiness, sadness or admiration. I quickly went back to my grandmother's room and took the suitcase. And as I entered the kitchen, I carefully handed the suitcase to my mother.
"Mom," I uttered. "I think Grandma would be happy if you took care of this now. She carefully stored it away. And now after hearing your story… now I finally realized that this suitcase really does contain something valuable… something more valuable than money or jewelries… it contains hidden memories filled with love. A love of a mother for her daughter... I hope someday we can also make our own memories and store it away in this so that we can pass it to our grandchildren too. "
My mother quickly took me into her arms and gave me the warmest and longest embrace that we have ever shared….
"We can create our memory right now," she uttered with the sweetest voice.