I always noticed that my mum used to go up-stairs in the attic and spend hours there, and when she returned she had a glee on her face with some pret¬ty clothes in her hands. Sometimes she took something there and re-turned empty-handed.
It was a mystery for for me and my twin sister for we were never allowed to go there and my mum possessed the only key of the attic. Once she had gone on a business trip with dad and was not expected to get back till very late at night. So I thought it was the best time to get to the most prohibi¬ted place of the house. There were three of us at home — me, my twin sister and an old maid who used to doze off most of the time while sit¬ting. We had nothing much to do and felt pretty bored.
“Let’s go to the attic,” I suggested. “That’s a great idea!” exclaimed my sister.
We looked at our maid who was snoring with her head leaning against the wall, then we sneaked upstairs. As we reached the first landing, my sister said in a shaky voice, “Let’s go back, I don’t think it’s much fun.”
“Don’t be such a coward!” I said. “Do you think there are ghosts up here? If so, let me tell you one thing, there is no such thing as ghosts! Understand?”
It was very dark there and the steps leading to the attic were narrow. The on¬ly source of light was a small ventilator in the wall from
where a bit of light was coming inside. Reaching the door-step of the attic, I saw that the han¬dle was a very an¬tique one, like the one that was com¬monly used to open a draw-bridge of a castle.
“Let’s try to open it,” I said with ex¬citement and pulled the knob. A small door, hardly enough to let in a grownup person, opened. Inside, it was as dark as a cave. I turned my torch on. An old rusty trunk, big enough to fit a body in it, was lying in one corner of the room. “Could it be a treasure?” I thought, “Or the dead body of an unfaithful servant or a business rival of my father?”
“Let’s go back,” whispered my sister. Coming back to my senses I went on, “Don’t be a chicken, mum and dad will never let us know this se¬cret. It’s a golden chance.” I persua¬ded her to stay on as I didn’t have the courage to investi¬gate the place on my own. Reluctantly she stepped forward and felt better when we found a light switch and turned on the bulb. Slowly, we struggled together to open the lid.
Golden, red, shock¬ing pink, emerald green, silver, blue… inside the trunk were many beautiful dres¬ses of my mom which she must have got for her wedding, along
with precious jewel¬lery. My mother must have kept them with love and care, and she must be filling the trunk with more and more precious things.
As she had a lot of interest in dresses and jewellery, my sister was in no mood to leave them lying upstairs.
She started trying them on one af¬ter the other. I came back downstairs, satisfied to have solved the mystery of the locked attic door, and sat down to watch sports on the TV