Love is the Sunshine novel Chapter 68

Carla cautiously opened the little box. On top of everything, a black and white photo caught her attention. The edge of the photo had turned yellow and seemed aged. She could tell from the photo that it was taken when her mom and dad were very young. Beneath it, there were two colored photos of the day that they got married. The pictures were not so clear and colors weren't that saturated which indicated the age of the photograph, yet again.

Carla felt sad as she stared at the happy smiles on their faces. 'They were so young at that time, so beautiful as well, ' Carla drowned herself in deep sorrows and tears started streaming down her cheeks.

Over the past few years after Marian passed away, Carla hadn't allowed herself to recall the good old days when her mother used to be around. She knew herself so well that once she started thinking of her mother, she would become weak and would want to escape from the reality. She was just a little girl when she lost her mother but she had to bear all the responsibilities that were left behind--their home, and Sean.

Therefore, she refrained herself. She had to be strong for her brother and bring him up on her own.

Continuous stream of tears blurred her eyes. Carla took a deep breath and flipped her parent's photos to the back. Then she started to explore the inside of the box. While she was trying to sort things out, something hard and cold touched her finger. She picked it up gently and patiently.

It was a ring.

Carla took a close look at it and reckoned that the stone on that ring was emerald in a size of a fingernail.

Under the soft glow of the lamp, the emerald was glowing in crisp green light. The emerald was so transparent that Carla could effortlessly see through it. It looked ageless. 'When had mom bought this beautiful ring?' Carla wondered.

She had never seen her mother wearing this ring. 'It looked garish for mom since she preferred plain colors over bright colors, ' Carla mumbled from within.

She rolled the ring over and noticed a couple of letters carved onto the ring itself. She wiped her tears away with the back of her hand and took a close look at the letters. But they were too small for her eyes to see. She gave up soon enough.

Then she tried it on her fingers. Strangely, it fitted perfectly on the ring finger of her right hand.

At this moment, she felt intrigued and puzzled. She used to try on Marian's rings but none of them fitted her since her fingers were slightly thinner than Marian's. She could now confirm that this ring didn't belong to her mother. 'But... Who's ring is this then?' Carla furrowed her brows and guessed, 'Maybe it was a ring that had been passed over from generation to generation? Maybe it belonged to my great grandma or great great grandma, who knows?' Carla put aside her questions and continued her exploration.

Although many of the things seemed familiar to her, some of them were definitely a novelty to her eyes. Marian seldom took this box out in public so Carla didn't really know what else had been stored inside.

"Wait... What is this? Why is my date of birth inscribed on it?"

A piece of paper caught Carla's attention. The texture and overall condition of the paper did convey the message that it was indeed a relic.

The whole paper was blank except for Carla's birth date and time.

Carla was confused beyond description. 'Maybe, mom had written it down just in case that she forgot?' Carla guessed.

She put down the paper and continued to go through the rest of the things. She found their marriage certificate in faded red color and two letters addressed to Marian. 'Oh! Letters that father wrote to her!' Carla was surprised.

She opened the letter and read it in her heart. Instantly, the wave of sadness that had been haunting her for the whole night was swept away right after she got to the initial half page of it. 'Dad was so romantic at that time...' Carla went on reading the rest of the letter and sighed. She loved the way how her dad loved her mom. The whole letter contained his passion and love towards her mother which was extremely valuable for her right now.

This matched the image of her parent in her memories. They were always so clingy and cuddly around the house. They had taken very good care of Carla and Sean, but the affection they had for each other exceeded everything else.

Carla put the letter in front of her chest and smiled uncontrollably for a moment. She closed her eye and the long string of memories began to flash inside her head. After a long while, she opened her eyes and withdrew herself from her dreams. She the opened a drawer and took out a new metal box that she just bought yesterday. Since tomorrow was Marian's memorial day, she decided to replace the burned box with a new one and take it with her to Marian's grave.

She carefully arranged everything in the box and took them out piece by piece.

Suddenly, her nails slightly hit on the bottom of the metal box and an unusual sound reached her ears. The sound was stuffy compared to the crisp metal sound when she knocked on the body of the box. She extended her hand inside and felt a clip. She pressed it very lightly and the bottom split opened from the middle abruptly. 'Wow, what is this?' Carla seemed surprised to find that there was a secret hole hiding at the bottom. She picked whatever she could lay her hands on outside the box. It was an envelope.

'Another letter hidden at the bottom?' Carla curiously opened the envelope. She scanned through the cover looking to find who this letter was addressed to but she failed.