Far and Away

 

The thing about being tucked away for safe keeping is remembering where (away) actually is.

  

As the story goes, by the time little Billy remembered he had buried his little box of treasures in the backyard, 52 years had passed.  He was Uncle William now and for some odd reason he just thought about that little box. 

He smiled, trying to remember what was so important.  What had he put inside of that box.  Then he thought about the years of rain soaking into the ground.  That old cigar box has probably completely dissolved by now.  It is most likely just mushy yuck. 

Suddenly he remembered what was so important at the time.  He remembered his autographed Micky Mantle baseball card.  He had it wrapped in Kleenex, then put it into a sandwich bag, and that was double wrapped in aluminum foil.  Just maybe that has survived 52 years of rain.  If it did, it would be a small fortune by now.

He remembered it was 10 years ago when they had thought about having a swimming pool put in the backyard.  He was glad now they had changed their minds.

You’d think that sometime in those 52 years of cutting the grass he would have remembered that box.  It was the massive Oak tree that had put the kibosh on the idea of a swimming pool.  Wait a minute…  It was our last house that had the big Oak tree.  It wasn’t even this yard where I buried that stupid box.  Yes, I remember that yard.  When I tried to bury that box, my shovel kept hitting the tree roots.  What a project that was, just to dig a hole.

        And no, it wasn’t a Mickey Mantle card, I had already traded that for…  I can’t remember, but it must have been something good.  I guess it could have been Megan the hamster we buried.  Gee, my memory has more holes in it than the backyard ever did.

 

 

 

 

 

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