Lost and Found

Chapter 1

"Thank you so much sweetie for helping me do this"

"No problem ma, and besides, I don't mind, you really needed to clean out this attic years ago"

"I know, I just didn't know where to start"

"It's alright, I mean how long could it take?"

Six hours, as Kristoff soon found out, is how they spend cleaning the attic. Considering that he and his mother started the project at ten in the morning that was saying something.

"How can you keep all this stuff around ma?"

"Memories add up quickly, just look at all the photo albums we found of the thirteen year we've had you"

"I don't mean the photos, I'm talking about the boxes of toys up here, just look at this box: teddy bears and raddles and…..Ma, why in the world are there baby clothes at the bottom?"

"I've just had them in case, you know, you meet that special someone"

Kristoff blushed profusely as he tried to get out of the situation as quickly as possible, "that's never gonna happen"

"You never know for sure Kris, the right girl could come along any day"

Instead of pressing the unlikelihood of the subject, Kristoff turned his attention to a relatively large chest in the back of the room. It was an old chest, at least seventy years old but the looks of it and one he had never seen before. Wanting a closer look, he got up from where he was sitting on the floor and walked over to the chest. Upon a closer inspection and a little wipe of the hand to remove the dust he was able to make out initials curves on the top of the lid:

"M.E.R."

"What Kris?"

"The initials on this chest: M.E.R."

Bulda walked over to inspect the chest herself and, sure enough, there the letters were. "I wonder who that is"

"Don't you know, I mean we've lived here my whole life ma"

"I always know this was here but I had no reason to look inside before"

"Well, what are we waiting for, let's see what's inside"

Luckily there was no form of lock present, so opening the chest was easy. It was what was inside that caused Kristoff to do a double take in confusion, for the chest, when opened, did not have much in it: only a medium size box with some kind of a crest on it, one Kristoff could not help feeling he had seen somewhere before. Carefully he lifted the box out of the chest and set it on the floor. With a quick glance at his mom and one deep breath he lifted the lid off and gave a gasp of awe. Inside where letters, hundreds of letters, still with in envelopes, though they had been opened before.

Taking the first letter from the box, with somewhat trembling hands he turned the envelope over and read the name still visible on the front:

Miss Margret Elizabeth Rosett

"I guess we know who M.E.R. is now ma"

Placing the letter back in the box, Kristoff thumbed through the rest. He counted three hundred and sixty five, one for every day of the year. It was a letter towards the back of the box that caught his attention however, as it had a kiss make in red lipstick on it. He took the letter out of its envelope and read out loud:

February 14th 1943,

My Dearest Maggie,

I hope everything is going well on the home front, it has to be more entertaining than things over here. We've had little action as of late, which I suppose is a good thing, but when I lay on my bunk alone is when I miss you the most. I miss you constantly love, make no mistake, but it's worse when all I do is think. Oh god, I cannot tell you how much I think of you love, every day, no, every moment I think of you. You are by far the most beautiful woman I have ever met, inside and out. You care for everyone before yourself, and more than that you see the beauty in everyone, even if they cannot see it themselves. God knows I'm still trying to find what it is you see in me, but I swear to you I will never stop trying to be the man you deserve, even if I never will be, I will always keep trying. To me you are my angle, what I never thought I could have. But I promise you once this war is over we'll have life we always dreamed: I'll build us our own home, that's just ours and on one else's and I can carry over the threshold as my wife….oh how I have longed to call you that. I am counting the days until we are together again love, they can't go by fast enough.

Sending you all my love, (Lt.) Andy Rendelle

"Oh, that is beautiful," Bulda said while dabbing at the corners of her eyes, "To think that chest has been here for thirteen years and I never gave it a second glance, the family must miss these letters so much"

Kristoff continued to stare at the letter in an awed silence, he then glanced at the top of the letter at the date: 1943, more than…seventy years ago now. Moving his attention to the name at the bottom of the page, he turned the name over in his mind: Andy Rendelle. Rendelle, that name sounded familiar, he knew he had heard it before, though he couldn't place where.

"Why don't we bring these downstairs ma, we could bring the whole chest down, maybe we could do a little digging to see who the family is"

They proceeded to do just that. Once they had gotten the chest and letters down the stairs, they spread the letters out on the kitchen table for a better look. As it turned out, letters were not the only things in the box. In addition there was a draft notice, a wedding invitation and, most telling for them, were photographs: wedding photos, ones that were in front of their home, a whole life in pictures.

Kristoff looked through them over and over throughout the rest of the day and, by the time he went to bed, made up his mind to try and find the rightful owners of these priceless memories.

Ok, so this is my Valentine's day story for Anna and Kristoff. Originally intended for a one-shot, actually is going to be my first multi-chapter story. I have an basic idea of how the story will go from here, but I am open to any suggestions you may have. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter