Previously Loved Treasures (Serendipity #2)(76)

It was a perfectly plain brown envelope. No markings, no name, no return address. Nothing. Thinking back Caroline remembered Peter’s words: This was intended for your grandma, and now you’re the one who should have it. Slowly and tentatively she lifted the flap and slid out the contents.

U.S. Railroad bond certificates. Ten of them. Each one with a face value of one hundred thousand dollars.

“Good grief!” Caroline exclaimed. If she had found a fifty-dollar bill she’d have been happy. If she’d found a one hundred-dollar bill, she would have been ecstatic, but a million dollars’ worth of bonds was too unbelievable.

“There’s got to be a mistake,” she mumbled. Opening the envelope she looked inside again. Nothing. It was empty. There was no note, no explanation. The envelope contained nothing but the bonds.

“Impossible,” she said and stood there staring at the stack. A dozen different scenarios ran through her head. Perhaps they were payment of a debt someone owed to Ida or maybe to Big Jim. Possibly someone in Ida’s past, her parents or a lover, had intended the bonds as a gift. But who? It saddened Caroline to think that as much as she’d loved her grandma, she knew little about her life. She had no knowledge of where Ida came from or why somebody would want her to have a million dollars in bonds.

This was intended for your grandma, and now you’re the one who should have it. Peter Pennington’s words. He had the answer. Caroline knew he alone could explain why this gift was intended for Ida and, ultimately, her.

For a long while Caroline sat there looking through the bonds, looking at each one carefully, turning it over in her hands, and searching for some small clue: initials written in the corner, a secret message, a meaningful mark. After nearly an hour she had found nothing.

Setting the bonds aside, she cleared away the remaining pieces of glass and lifted the photograph that for weeks had been smiling down on her. “Who are you?” she asked. The photograph offered nothing more than a male version of the Mona Lisa smile. There was no mark on the photograph, no studio name, no date taken, no inscription, nothing. It was as void of clues as the envelope had been.

“Impossible,” Caroline repeated. Logic warned that it was a mistake. Perhaps Peter didn’t know the bonds were behind the picture. Perhaps they were intended for someone else. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. She could find a million reasons why such a gift wasn’t intended for her but not a single rationale for why it was.

And yet…

Holding bonds of such great value in her hands did something to Caroline. It sent a shiver of excitement up her spine and ignited the spark of possibility in her mind. Although she was willing herself not to, Caroline began to think of things like buying a new washing machine and replacing Wilbur’s gold pocket watch.

When those thoughts came, she tried to draw back. “Impossible,” she repeated over and over again. The logic of some unknown benefactor giving either Ida or her those bonds was too overwhelming. It was simply not a thing that could be real. In the wee hours of the morning she slid the bonds back into the envelope and decided that tomorrow she would take the picture and the bonds and go back to Previously Loved Treasures. This time Peter Pennington had obviously made a mistake.

Caroline cleaned up the remaining bits of glass, then showered, pulled on a pair of pajamas, and climbed into bed. Given the long day of work, she should have been tired. She should have closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep seconds later. Were it not for that envelope she might have, but now sleep was impossible to come by. Lying in bed she tried to find a reason, a logical, explainable reason to justify her right to the bonds, but there was none. Every scenario she imagined was offset by an even more valid point proving this had to be some kind of crazy mistake.

The argument with herself was one Caroline could neither lose or win. Either was impossible because both sides knew what the other was thinking. If only Wilbur were here, she thought. He’d know what to do.

The night seemed a thousand hours long. When the first ray of dawn creased the sky, Caroline climbed out of bed and got dressed. She gathered the picture, the broken frame, and the bonds and tucked them into a tote bag.

First she would stop by the hospital and check on Wilbur. Then she’d visit the Previously Loved Treasures store.

Peter Pennington would be able to provide an explanation





Previously Loved Treasures





As soon as the breakfast dishes were dried and put away, Caroline left the house with the tote bag. She drove to the hospital and went directly to Wilbur’s room, even though it was a full hour before visitors were allowed.

Breezing through the door, she said, “I’ve got to talk to you.”

“You’re early today,” Wilbur said with a smile. “It must be something important.”

“It is.” Caroline pulled the brown envelope from her tote and handed it to Wilbur. “What do you think of this?”

Wilbur slid the contents out, leafed through the bonds, then gave a long low whistle. “Where’d you get these?”

“They were behind the picture.”

“Picture?”

She nodded. “The picture Peter Pennington gave me.” Caroline explained how Peter said the picture was originally intended for Ida, and since Ida was gone she was meant to have it.

“Did he say there was something behind the picture?”