The Truth Berries

XV

       A few days ago, Helen Sandoval was living her busy but normal life working as a librarian’s assistant while taking her masteral’s degree in History at the University of Washington when her best friend Nadia called her about something extraordinary. They were of the same age and they knew each other since their high school days back in their province until they got separated when she opted to pursue her studies in the States while Nadia took college in Manila. Still, they never lost contact and they kept both sides posted in everything that was happening with them.

       She was getting ready for her class when Nadia’s video call came in. Helen looked at her watch and learned she still had some minutes to spare before her class began so she took the call. Nadia was beaming when the screen went on.

       “Hey there, your Excellency! How’s life treating my bright sister up there?”

       “Come on, Nadia! Stop calling me that! I’m still the same person who kicked those bullies’ asses back in our old days.”

       “I know you are!”

       They laughed in unison for a minute.

       “What’s up, Nadia?”

       “I may have something that you know better than Miguel or I.”

       Nadia unwrapped the striped cloth covering the chest and put it in front of her for Helen to see. Helen gasped when she saw what it was and Nadia knew it was something that Helen had in her expertise.

       “Can you turn that around?”

       Nadia did and she saw Helen watched it intently.

       “Where did that come from?”

       “Miguel got it from a man he never met – a man who claimed to be from Egypt. It was sent to him two days ago and he thought it was a bomb from one of his vengeful ‘friends’. He even called his one–man bomb squad Alex to check on this, just to be sure. Funny thing is, Miguel doesn’t know any Yoel from Egypt, or anybody from there, at all. So –“, she shrugged.

       “That is quite . . . strange”, she said with a raised eyebrow.

       “Wait until you see what’s inside.”

      BHelen opened it and carefully unwrapped the seed and laid it side by side with the chest.

       “Is that papyrus?”, Helen asked with a pointing finger.

       “Papy . . . what?”

       “Papyrus, ancient paper used by early civilizations.”

       “I don’t know! You tell me.”

       Then, Helen shifted her attention to the lone seed.

       “That is a seed, I can tell that.”

       Nadia rolled her eyes.

       “I know it’s a seed but of what?”

       “I’m not sure and I can’t tell from here. But I might know somebody who could tell. Maybe you could send some pictures and I’ll show it to him, if you want.”

       “That’s good news, but I really think you could tell us more if you have it yourself.” Nadia smiled.

       “What do you mean?”

       “I’m sending this to you. You could do anything you deem necessary just to know what exactly it is. Then, you could send it back, right? You know I trust you so I’m sending it to you.”

       “That’s just . . . great! I’d appreciate it. But are you sure?”

       “Sisters, right?”

       Nadia smiled again before cutting the call abruptly, giving her no way to tell her no. Helen was left there looking blankly at the screen. It took her a few seconds before she could collect herself.

       “Sisters.”

       Later, she went to the university and tried to absorb what her professor was lecturing but she could not forget about their earlier conversation. She could not seem to remove from her head the memory of what she just saw. Plus the fact that Nadia gave her the privilege of inspecting it personally made her feel an unexplainable rush of excitement. She could feel her heart pumping and her blood coursing through her veins throughout her entire body. Still, she fulfilled her every task like it was one of her ordinary days. After class, she went directly to the city library to do her job and she did it with a renewed enthusiasm. That did e not go unnoticed for Mrs. Rebecca Lavern, the head librarian, watched her in awe as she dashed smoothly all across the room, wiped every table clean and picked every book left on the desks here and there in youthful vigor. At four in the afternoon, when everything was in its proper place, and Helen was ready to call it a day, Mrs. Lavern asked her what was wrong with her. She answered by giving her a puzzled look.

       “It’s just that I’ve never seen you do this job with such a big heart. Well, except maybe for your first week, of course. But today is just different. What is it, honey? What’s wrong with you?”, she asked worriedly.

       Helen chuckled.

       “It’s not what is wrong with me, Mrs. Becky. It’s what is right! I feel like I’m going to have my lucky find these coming days. I’m not just sure when.”

       She playfully pinched Mrs. Lavern cheeks before bidding her good day. She watched Helen bounced her way out into the city streets before she ran after her and waved her goodbye too.

       “Well, I just hope you find it soon.”

       At nine the next morning, the package her best friend sent came upon her door. She thanked the delivery man and went inside. She locked her door as she entered. Inside, she owned a minimal amount of furniture. There was a round plastic dining table with two matching chairs, a small fridge for her food storage, a tiny television set and two electric fans. The old but neat sofa was left by the old couple who rented the flat before her. According to the landlady, the old couple was too tired to carry the sofa with them so they chose to leave that behind. Thus, it became part of the flat ever since. At the far corner of the room was the bathroom, adjacent to it was the kitchen sink. Using two lengths of beige cotton curtains, she made herself a decent bedroom with her own workstation in it. She put the package on her desk and carefully unwrapped the chest.

       “Oh dear God!”

       She admired the rarest beauty before her eyes, running her fingers on every detail meticulously carved on it, like it was not done on pure, immaculate gold but sheer wood. She wondered at the amount of time selflessly spent in making such treasure but she knew she could really not fathom such love for its labor. Yet she knew the best way to glorify its very existence was to know what exactly it was and its origin along with the reason of its creation. So she started her work by taking photos of it - a shot to each of its four sides and each for its bottom and top cover.

       When she was done with the chest, she opened it and carefully picked the delicate papyrus nested inside. With her trembling fingers, she started unfolding it. Once it was spread into its actual size, she almost cried for she had never seen an ancient papyrus with its original cryptic writings in all her life. But she bit her lip to hold back her tears. She would not want even a drop of her tears to contaminate or destroy whatever the ancient sheet of paper had to tell. Then she took the strange seed at the heart of it and set it aside. Again, she took a photo of the papyrus with her phone. Ten she took a small zip lock bag from her pouch and put the seed inside it. She closed it tight then hid it at the bottom of her pouch. She was almost done. She carefully folded the paper as it was before then returned it to the chest before closing it.

       After making sure that it was securely wrapped again, she pulled out a small screwdriver from her desk drawer. Then, she moved the foot of her bed with her right leg to reveal a secret hiding place within the floor planks. Helen knelt down and began unscrewing the forty centimeter long cover which ingeniously hid a 35x35 centimeter secret storage place. It had a depth of roughly fifty centimeters and it would be the perfect hiding place for a treasure so rare. She took out two rolls of dollar bills and then she slowly laid down the chest to its new temporary haven. She returned the rolls of cash above it and started screwing back the cover of the storage. Then she pulled her bed back to its original place, hiding the metal screw head from anybody’s sight. She evaluated her work for a minute and was satisfied that no one would ever suspect there was something hidden down there.

       Now, it’s time to seek for expert help.