Ola!

I hope your day has been amazingly wonderful, because mine has! No more gym! No more gym! No more gym! YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!

I am one to avoid physical activity at school, because I always end up being trampled.

Thanks to Kitten Kisses for her review!

Read on!

…

Treasure

Florina tiredly walked up the stairs of her porch. It had been a very long day, and now she could hardly keep her eyes open, even with the uncharacteristically long five hours of sleep she had managed to get the previous night. Farina and Fiora both had things after school, so she had had to ride the bus home alone. Not that she wasn't used to it. She wasn't involved in many after-school clubs and Fiora and Farina…were.

She was fumbling in her backpack for the key to the front door, when a pattern of stones in the garden caught her attention. She had noticed them before of course, but they had always been concealed under a scattering of dirt. Today however, they were clear, and Florina noticed they were in the shape of an X.

Farina, having loved pirates in her younger days, had always told her about marvelous adventures for treasure and on every map she mentioned, there was always an X where the treasure was supposed to be. Florina remembered how she had been enraptured by the tales until Fiora come in to switch off the lights and reprimand them for being awake. So maybe it was because of her half-forgotten memories that she gently placed her backpack down and went to look at it. Or maybe she was just more tired than she thought.

They weren't actually in the shape of a perfect X; some stones were missing and the pebbles weren't aligned right. It was more like a squiggle that could have once resembled the letter. Nonetheless, Florina found herself kneeling down in the dirt and digging, not caring what Fiora would say if she saw her ruining her garden like an overenthusiastic dog.

For a while there was nothing, and Florina was considering giving up, patting the dirt back into place, and going inside to wash her hands. Right as she was about to do just that, her knuckles scraped on something sharp, making a tiny bleeding cut on her pointer finger. Pulling her injured hand back, she peered closer to see the corner of something metal. It seemed like there really was something there.

She began digging with renewed vigor, all thoughts of giving up put aside and forgotten. She was careful of the sharp corners this time and thankfully did not sustain anymore cuts. After around half an hour more, she was able to yank it from its place in the ground, although the force of her tugging sent her tumbling back.

It was a metal box. There was no decoration or design on it besides an engraving across the top of her last name. The letters were in impossible careful spirals, creating a beautiful effect that took her breath away. She suddenly had a burning desire to look inside and scrambled to find the latch, only to see there was a lock on it.

She stared helplessly at it for a minute, racking her mind for anyone she knew that might be able to pick locks. Farina, but she wasn't here and Florina wasn't quite ready to share this with her. Then there was Matthew, but he probably wouldn't be in the best of moods, and she couldn't invite a boy over to her house. She shuddered a little bit at the thought. That would be a terrible experience.

Finally resolving that she could call no one, she started to examine the lock herself. It was a combination lock with a keyhole at the bottom, which she presumed was for when you couldn't remember the combination. That key would have been real helpful right about now.

Then there was a tiny note on the back on a piece of weathered paper protected by a thin piece of plastic. Florina didn't know how it had managed to survive like that, but if she squinted just right she could still read it.

"The first is the day my first angel was born, her wings already spreading. The second is the number of letters in my sweet bird's first word; she'll have a beautiful voice when she grows up. And the third is that of my girl who doesn't need wings to fly, so how many does she have?"

Florina gaped at the cryptic clues. She didn't have a clue! But maybe if she assumed it was her and her sisters she could try it.

The first one would have to be Fiora, although Florina didn't understand what the words meant about her having wings. Fiora was the most grounded person she knew, and if she had any sort of wings, she kept them tightly folded up at all times. But she was born on the 12th of May. Florina put it in with a sigh.

With Fiora accounted for, Farina would have to be the next one since Florina couldn't sing a note without someone wincing. Florina actually had misty memories of a sweet clear voice, but she had not thought it to be Farina until now. Her speaking voice was loud and brutish, nothing like the wonderful notes of her memory. Still, she recalled Fiora saying that her first word was "pretty" which Florina hadn't really understood. Why "pretty" of all things. However, she turned it to five.

Last must be her and the easiest of the clues so far. It didn't mean she agreed with it though. She might not have wings, but she sure couldn't fly either. 0.

She gazed at the box, praying and hoping beyond hope that it would open. She closed her eyes, sent up a last plea to whatever god was listening, and pulled on the lock.

It made a click as it opened.

Florina opened her eyes again and looked down to see the contents. It wasn't treasure exactly, not the kind that Farina had raved about so many years ago. There were many objects and pieces of paper crammed into it, completely unorganized in a way that would have made Fiora crazy. But right on top was a picture of a beautiful young woman with hair that was the exact same shade as Fiora and Farina's, but the exact same flowing waves of hers. Her eyes were laughing and her dress fanned around her like she had just finished a twirl. Florina's breath caught in her throat because she knew without a shadow of a doubt, the same way she knew her own name, that this woman was her mother.

She had never seen her mother before. There weren't any pictures of her or her father in the house, merely ones of them, three sisters. It was as if they had merely sprung into existence from thin air, and Florina hadn't bothered to wonder past that.

Now she could feel tears filling her eyes as she stared at her beautiful mother. Why hadn't Fiora let her see her before? Why hadn't Farina mentioned her? She knew they had at least foggy memories of which she had none. She could remember her father's face though, grizzled and with an edge of cold. She lifted the first picture and was struck again with the one under it. Her father with an arm around her mother, grinning, a young Fiora on his shoulders, who was reaching for the sky with an almost awestruck face, Farina cradled in his arms, a mischievous grin she hadn't lost planted on her face. And in her mother's arms, who looked the same as in the previous photo only more tired, was a little baby her with a happy, clueless smile on her face. And that's when Florina really lost it.

She didn't know how long she sat there, clutching the pictures to her chest, crying, but it only seemed like a few minutes passed before dark fell and running footsteps were heard behind her.

"Florina? Florina!? Are you okay?" That was Farina, sounding more worried than anytime Florina had heard her before. Then, arms wrapped around her shoulders, Fiora this time.

"What is it sweetie?" she asked, and Florina's hands loosened their grip on the photographs, letting them tumble to the ground. She heard Farina's intake of breath and Fiora's "Oh, sweetie…" But that didn't matter. She was talking now, rambling on about she didn't even know.

"This day started out awful you know, with those transfer students who people think killed Leila coming in. I don't think they killed her, but Matthew obviously did, he looked like hell all day. And then I came home barely able to keep me eyes open because I only got five hours of sleep last night," she started, not even knowing why she felt the need to say this. Farina was hugging her and Fiora now, crying silently in their hair. "And I saw some stones that looked like an X, and I remembered how Farina used to love pirates, you'd tell me all those stories about treasure. So I dug, and I dug, and I dug and this came up."

She's resting a hand on the box now, gazing at the lock as well as she can with her blurry eyes. "I couldn't figure out the combination at first, but there were clues on the back and I managed to open it. And there were these. And I can't remember us being like this, but I want to. I want to be those girls in the photograph again!!!" The last sentence she shrieked, not remembering the last time she had raised her voice so loud. Fiora and Farina looked shell-shocked, so she tried to calm herself down.

"Farina?" she asked quietly, after a few minutes pass. Her sister tightens her arms around her to let Florina know she is listening. "Could you sing for me?"

Farina seemed put off-guard for a minute, but then softly kissed her forehead. "Of course, sis."

And she stood and breathed in, before letting out the beautiful sound from her memories. Although it was merely a children's lullaby, she thought that nothing could be better

Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree top

When the wind blows, the cradle will rock

When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall

And down will come baby, cradle and all.

Florina felt herself start to drift off, as Farina started in on the second verse.

Baby is drowsing, cozy and fair

Mother sits near, in her rocking chair

Forward and back…

And she drifted off to sleep.

…

Am I the only one who can picture Farina being a singer? Probably right? Yeah. Thought so.

I do not own Rock-a-bye Baby and YES there is a second verse. Else I imagined it when we were doing it in music class last year (I do not lie, we sang that) which is actually pretty likely. Huh.

Drop in a review please!

Adeus!