I began this story on   Sunday, October 9, 2011 1:19 PM



The Jewel Box ~ A Graduation and A Wedding
By Ora Lea Harrison



      Katie looked down at her watch for the hundredth time and wished the graduation ceremony was over with.   She wanted to be out from under so she could actually begin the life that she’d waited so long for.
      This class of 1904 was small so they all sat on the platform during the exercises.   She looked out at the audience and knew that she was well represented.   Momma, Poppa, Grandma Bridgett, Grandpa Campbell and Grandma Hope were there along with Chloe and Charley.
      She tried to relax and listen, knowing how important this was to her family that she graduate.
      She’d wanted to leave school and marry Dustin ever since last year but had promised her parents that she wouldn’t make any wedding plans until after high school graduation.
      How could she not do this for them, possibly the last thing that she would have to do, after they’d adopted her and Chloe when their parents died and had taken such good care of them.
      They’d had a life that they’d never have had with their own parents, they knew.
      She was glad that she hadn’t been chosen for any special honors where she would have to get up and give a speech.   Her parents had been hopeful that she would, she knew.   She didn’t like being a disappointment to them but enough was enough as far as she was concerned.
      She ‘d wanted to go live with Grandma Hope in her and Chloe’s house after graduation but after seeing the wistful look on Barbara’s face when she mentioned it, she knew that she had to stay until after the wedding so that her Momma could share her wedding plans with her.
      Katie was a straight forward person and didn’t particularly want a circus wedding, which is what she thought of large weddings.   She did allow that they could have the minister perform a ceremony in their parlor with a reception in the back garden.
      Chloe would make it up to Barbara with her large wedding, she figured.   Chloe was the romantic, not her.
     
      She begged off the class party, saying she had other plans, only to get back home and find the family had made one for her there.
      When she walked into the front door, she saw that while she had been away, they had decorated the house with streamers and there were refreshments on the dining table and a pile of gifts on the table in the parlor.
      When she realized the love for her that had prompted this, she was almost overwhelmed.
      “You people, you’re just the best,”   she finally got out, not really knowing what to say.
      Poppa came over to her, planted a kiss on her cheek and said,   “Katie, we didn’t want to embarrass you, we know how you feel about a lot of fuss but this is a huge milestone in your life and we want to celebrate it with you.”
      “Oh, Poppa, thank you so much.   I could never repay you and Momma for all you’ve done for Chloe and me.”
      “Nor would we want you to, we were selfish in our motives in taking you in.   We wanted a couple of kids and the two of you fit the bill perfectly.”
      After the party and the guests had gone home, Barbara took Katie upstairs to her room and said,   “I have a couple of special gifts for you Katie.”
      She handed her a rather large flat package and Katie opened it, wondering.   It was a framed, embroidered picture with the words, ‘Savor the Moments, Katie’   written on it.
      She looked at Barbara and Barbara said,   “Katie, I want you to put this in a prominent place in your new home where you can see it often.   Sweetheart, you’ve always wanted everything yesterday, you’ve never wanted to wait on anything.   I want you to learn to savor the moments, these moments are life, not something in some far off tomorrow.   Never wish today away, look for and catch the joys that today holds for you.”
      Katie had been hearing this all of her life from Barbara.   She didn’t know why she was the way she was, always reaching out for a better tomorrow.   She wondered if it had anything to do with her Momma and Poppa dying when she and Chloe were small.  
      She had had to take care of Chloe while they had been too sick to.   When she finally decided to go someplace to get help for them, things had gotten better for her and Chloe.
      Barbara’s own grandparents, Zoe and Charley, had put the children’s parents in Poppa Darren’s clinic and taken her and Chloe in until Barbara and Darren had decided to keep them.
     
      She brought herself back to the present hearing Barbara’s voice saying,   “I have another gift that I was saving for your wedding day but I’m thinking that now would be a more appropriate time to give it to you.”
      She reached over to her dresser and picking up her jewel box, she held it out to Katie and said,   “It’s time for you to take up the guardianship of the jewel box, Katie.”
      Katie looked puzzled at her words, what did she mean, take up the guardianship of the jewel box?   This was just an old box that Barbara kept her jewelry in, wasn’t it?   She looked at it, realizing that she’d actually never even looked in it before.   What was this?
      “Katie, turn the box over,”   Barbara told her.  
      Katie turned the box over and read, ‘To Zoe, 14 years, Father, Wm. W. Duncan, June 3, 1841‘.
      “Great Grandmomma,”   she breathed.
      “Yes, Great Grandmomma.”   Barbara repeated back to her.   “I want to tell you a story, Katie.”
      She proceeded to tell Katie the magnificent history of her family.   About how they had come from Scotland where they had to escape because the English had taken over the country and were getting rid of the chieftains of the clans.   Jacobite’s they were called, people who were trying to reclaim their own land and people.
      Their own ancestor was an Earl, David Duncan was his name, a proud name.
      He had a large amount of wealth that had been passed to him, including jewels, some of which he used to help himself and his family and friends to escape.   His clan had come to America and tried to keep to themselves so that they wouldn’t be found out over here.
      “Katie, you and Chloe aren’t just my adopted daughters, you’re also my cousins.   Zoe’s father, Great Grandfather William Duncan was a brother to your Grandmother Hope’s, Grandfather, Donavan Duncan.   This box is supposed to stay in the family and be passed on to the child most suited for protecting it.   What I‘m about to tell you is just between you and me, can you understand?”
      Katie nodded her head.
      “Gently turn the little key, Katie.”   She motioned towards the old timey key that was in a carved out area in the bottom of the box.
      After Katie had started the key, Barbara turned the box over and the lid began to slowly rise while the box played a tune.
      “It’s a music box!”   Katie exclaimed.
      Barbara smiled,   “It’s much more than that, Katie.”
      They both looked at the old jewelry that had belonged to Zoe as a young lady.
      “Watch what I’m about to do, Katie,”   Barbara told her then she emptied the jewelry on the bed and pressed on the bottom of the of the inner lining.   The bottom raised a little.
      “Katie, none of us have ever seen what’s beneath this secret floor.   It has valuable jewels in it that belonged to the Earl.   This is what your job is, to protect the jewels.   My own Mother told me that I could open it and have the jewels made into jewelry if I so desired, as they belong to the person who has it in their possession.   So far, no one has done that.   That would be up to you as to what you do with them.   Your husband, Dustin, should be told but not even Hope knows, Chloe nor Charley will never know unless something happens to you and Chloe has to take over the guardianship.”
      Katie sat in a sort of stupor, it had been a long day and now this.
      She began,   “Oh Momma, I don’t know that I could do something like that...”
      “Don’t worry, it’s easy, I felt the same way you do when it was passed on to me.   Grandmother Zoe wouldn’t even pass them on to my own mother until I was fourteen because it had been such a burden on her.   You can do it.   I felt that I should do this today because it is such a momentous occasion, you’ve graduated high school and you’re about to be married.   If I had waited for your wedding day as I had planned, you really may have had a hard time comprehending what I‘ve been telling you.   Now, that‘s going to be an overwhelming day!”
      Katie sat still for a moment while Barbara put the jewelry back into the box.
      “Momma, we’ve had some truly great ancestors, haven’t we?”   she said.   I’m so proud that we’re really kin to each other, it makes it better, doesn’t it?   When can we tell Chloe and Charley?”
      “Anytime you want to, it’s not a secret, it just needs to be told to ears that can understand.   Okay?”
     
      Katie chose June third for her wedding date, in honor of Zoe.   It was close behind graduation but she was in a hurry to get started as a new wife and she wanted it to be on Zoe’s day, the one who had started all of this.
      She was more excited about the wedding than she had supposed she would be but was glad that it was to be a small one.   She didn’t think that she could have handled the stress that a large wedding would have caused.
      Barbara was even more excited about the whole thing.   For a woman, a daughter’s wedding is almost everything and she did what she was allowed to make it elegant.
      Not wanting to be tied up in the kitchen any time before the wedding, itself, she hired a catering service.   She used the same one that the country club used when they had a special occasion.
      They came early on the wedding day to set up the reception in the back garden.   When Barbara saw the table cloths that they were using, she ran to her own stock and got her beautiful damask cloths that she used for special occasions.
      Her personal maid, Eloise, ironed the cloths and laid them out.
      Barbara made sure that the traditional things were done, as well.   For something old, Barbara counted her own wedding dress that Katie would wear; something new was Katie’s new shoes; something borrowed was a string of pearls that belonged to Hope and something blue was the sapphire ring and bracelet set from Zoe’s jewel box.
      Eloise had brought her sisters to help on this momentous day and they placed chairs in the parlor for the guests and arranged the flowers in the vases that had been cut from the garden and set them around the house.
      Chloe was coming along nicely, as was Darren but everyone was working with Charley to get him looking nice.
      The minister arrived on time, the guest came and were seated and before she knew it, Katie was standing at the top of the staircase, on Darren’s arm.   Katie was so lovely and she looked so incomparable with her Father, Barbara had to fight back tears.
      Dustin looked handsome in his afternoon tails as he stood next to the minister in front of the bay window facing the side gardens; his Father at his side.
      After the sacred vows were given and received, Barbara breathed a sigh of relief.
      The photographer took the traditional pictures for the wedding album and the family joined the party in the back garden where the reception had already begun.
      Grandma Hope had already put her suitcase in Katie’s bedroom.   She would be letting the young couple have as long as they needed to get accustomed to their new life together before she moved back home.  
      She had wanted to let the children have the house and find herself another but they insisted on sharing the home that she had lived in to save for them.   Everybody knew that a house unlived in, just falls.   Besides, this had been Hope’s own home that she had grown up in and she’d let James and Priscilla have it when she married for the second time and moved away.   “Grandma, I’ll be needing you to teach me how to be a good wife, this is all new to me and you’ve done it before.”   Katie had told Hope.
      After the reception Katie purposely threw the bouquet to Chloe.   It wasn’t for a soon marriage, she told her, but a keepsake, as she was going to live in their own childhood home with her new husband.
      Chloe hugged her and said,   “Don’t worry, Charley’ll keep me company and I’ll help Momma and Poppa around the house and in the office.”
      Such a sweet child, thought Katie, thank goodness I’m leaving her in good hands.   I wouldn’t be able to go, otherwise.
      Katie and Dustin had taken their things to their new home earlier in the week so they were able to run, in the midst of raining rice, to his carriage that the family had decorated.
      Looking at each other, for the first time since they had exchanged vows, they smiled and Dustin put his free arm around Katie.   She put her hand on his hand and he made the horse get up.
      Barbara had tears in her eyes but holding Darren’s hand and Chloe by her side, she bravely went back to her guests and household.  
      Chloe held on to her, saying,   “You still have me and Charley, Momma.”
      Barbara told herself,   ‘Savor the moment, Barbara‘.

The End

Finished: Monday, October 10, 2011   8:54 AM



      The background music is 'Eriskay Love Lilt, a pretty melody.
I'd love your feedback on my stories.   You can email me at ora.lea @ gmail.com   Thank You
These stories have been written by me, Ora Lea Harrison.

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