Chapter Text
As you were promenading around the park, you noticed that the soil underneath your feet felt a little less compact right next to an old willow tree. Giving the dirt a closer inspection, it seemed as though someone had dug up and upturned the soil around here then put it back, explaining the little mound of dirt with no grass growing on it.
Curious, you used a nearby stick to take a poke at the dirt.
It did turn out to be hollow, with two boxes neatly placed next to each other underneath the gnarled roots of the willow tree. The one on the left was a regular shoe box, the elements having eaten away at it so much that one could see the fiber poking out of where the cardboard had been decomposed; the one on the right was a varnished wooden box, having stood the test of time and looking quite more presentable after dusting the debris off. There were words painted on the case of the wood, sealed under the protective layer of the polish, yet the writing was of such a childish scrawl that you had trouble reading it.
T… Yi, “Yimc Coosale”?
You used the stick to prod the lid off of the wooden box, morbidly curious yet afraid it might have been some prank with thousands of little dead bugs inside. You tried not to picture that too much.
The insides of the box were coated in a soft fuzz of red velvet, an assortment of items packed neatly and all varnished over to be better protected against the earth.
You picked up the small metallic trinket, there seems to be a handle that you can turn and release. The metal pieces were cut roughly, and a little bit at the edge almost looked melted off, as if a young child weld them together. If a young child was allowed to wield those dangerous things.
A soft melody began playing after the handle was turned, quite out of tune. The pegs on the little music machine must have gotten shaken around and misplaced.
There was a leather coated notebook inside as well, each page painted with clear polish to keep the text immaculate. Unfortunately, you couldn’t bring yourself to try and decipher the scrawl like writing, especially more closely packed than the words on the cover of the box.
The last thing inside was a handkerchief, yellowed at the fringes and damp from yesternight’s rain. There was a purple flower sewed on it, but the stitches and patterns were too uneven for you to tell what kind of flower it really was.
How interesting, you muse to yourself as you reach for the other box.
The contents in the cardboard shoe box did not survive the weathering as well as its varnished wooden box counterpart, it looked like something you would want to bury your goldfish in in your backyard because you happened to overfeed the poor thing. Though, this box might be more interesting than a rotting fish.
The first thing that caught your eye was a bottle filled with paper stars, some flattened by the weight of others, an assortment of beads and some glitter. The glass bottle was rather brittle, cracks running across its surface from the years it spent underground. You opened the cap of the bottle, poured out a small amount of the fine green glitter sitting on top of the paper stars, and watched it shimmer in the light before putting it back in place.
An unused tea bag was propped up on the side of the box, there was a faint scent of lemon and freshly upturned dirt when you brought it to your nose to take a whiff. You wonder if it could still make tea, after all these years, and was tempted to rip out the bag to take a closer look at the leaves inside, but there was something that compelled you to leave the items be.
Lastly, in another smaller, more sturdy box that you could fit inside your palm, there was a ring made out of woven grass and a dried flower. You tried to take it out of its confines, but the petals crumbled into dust as you brushed against them. A sense of guilt washed over you as you hastily closed the lids of the boxes, and buried them back down into the dirt. In your haste, you may have knocked over some more fragile part of the home made music box, or may have broken the glass bottle that held white paper stars and green glitter, but it didn’t matter anymore.
Something about this place was sacred, and these boxes didn’t belong to you. You need to get out.