xChapter 50 - The Treasure Box

Several years back in the mid-late 90s, two high schoolers are laying on the roof of Starlight High in the middle of the night. One of them is a teen with black skin, brown eyes, and is wearing a blue '97 Starlight High varsity jacket along with a striped shirt underneath it and khakis. The other is a girl with short frizzy black hair, black skin, and green eyes. She's wearing a green '97 Seastar High varsity jacket over a black shirt, a red skirt, and black tennis shoes.

"So, why did you want me to come here?" The teenage girl asks.

"Well, I wanted to show you how beautiful the stars were Sally," The teenage boy replies before looking at the cloudy sky and adding, "But as usual, the weather is not on my side."

"Then maybe we could come back here, Reagan," the young Sally replies.

"Maybe," the young Reagan says before grabbing his nearby backpack and beginning to say, "Or maybe Miss Jones…"

The teenage Sally looks confused as the teenage Reagan pulls out a black Polaroid camera and says, "We could take a picture."

"You serious?"

"Completely," Reagan replies as he leans next to Sally as he takes a picture of the two of them together.

As the photo begins to be printed out of the Polaroid camera, Sally begins to ask, "Why would you need that? We didn't get to see those stars you wanted to."

"As if," Reagan says as he points towards Sally, "How could I be upset when I'm looking at the most beautiful star ever"

Sally begins to blush as Reagan continues, "You are incredible Sally don't let anyone tell you otherwise. And I hope my photographs can let you see how I see you."

The teenage Sally smiles as she grabs Reagan's hand tightly as she responds, "Thanks Reagan, for just being here for me."

"No problem," The teenage Reagan replies as the two continue to look out into the cloudy dark sky.

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Now in the present, the now adult Sally Everst is standing in her house looking at her son, Ronnie Everst as he asks, "Mom, can we talk about Dad?"

"Sure, what do you want to know?" Sally replies nonchalantly.

However, her demeanor changes as she notices Ronnie's eyes begin to spill tears as he answers, "I want to know who he was. Who he really was."

"Honey, what's wrong?" Misses Sally Everst asks.

"I barely know a thing about him! I don't know if he was as good as you say he is or if he was an awful person. For all I know he could've just run out on us-"

"Don't you dare say that about your father," Sally yells.

"I'm sorry Mom," Ronnie says, "I'm just confused… I want to know what he was like but… at the same time I don't."

Sally walks over and hugs her son as she says, "There there honey, listen I need to grab something so you sit right there."

"Okay…"

Sally walks into her bedroom and as she does so, Ronnie sits at the table and looks at all the photographs up on the wall. Most are either of when before he was born or after his father passed. There are only three pictures on the wall where the two of them are together, but he was so young at the time that he doesn't remember them. One thing he does notice is that in each of the pictures, Reagan Everst is smiling.

Sally Everst finally returns carrying a small toy wooden treasure chest with a note on it that reads 'open 01/23/2014'.

"What's this?" Ronnie asks.

"When you were a toddler, your father got you this hoping you would use it to store all your toys," Sally explains, "But you were so scared of it and kept crying that he had to hide it from you. So instead he made it into a time capsule."

"A time capsule?" Ronnie asks.

"He basically put a ton of stuff from the past and wanted to share it with you when you turned 16."

"Why now? What's in it?"

"I don't… I don't know Ronnie, he kept that a secret from me and told me that it should only be opened on that day," Sally says, "I know that wasn't exactly the answer you wanted to hear but that's the one I have."

"It's okay Mom," Ronnie says as he hugs her, "I'm just glad you told me, I can wait two days.

His mom, Mrs. Sally Everst, hugs Ronnie back before letting go and saying, "Now finish your diner before it gets too cold."

"I will I will," Ronnie remarks as he goes to sit back down at the table and finish eating.

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Eventually, day turns to night and Ronnie is sitting in his bedroom all by himself. As he lays in his bed, the blue moonlight washing his room, he can't fall asleep as despite telling his mom he can wait two days until his birthday, he still wants to know more about his dad. As he lays there thinking about it he stretches his arm only to bump it on the nightstand next to it, causing something to fall from it.

Curious, Ronnie glances down to see that it's one of the VHS tapes he got from storage about 'self-defense'. Ronnie grabs it, and figuring what else is gonna put him to sleep, puts the tape into the VHS player in his room and turns on the box TV to watch it.

The TV begins to play the tape as on screen is a young adult with long black hair, white skin, gray eyes, and a big black coat over his jean jacket which is over a pink t-shirt as well as some jeans to complete the look.

"Is this thing rolling?" The man on the TV asks.

"Yep," The person holding the camera replies.

"Okay good, hello there my name's James, James Lewis, and I'm going to teach you one neat trick you can use for self-defense," James Lewis, the man on TV says.

He then begins to punch the air as he explains, "If you ever get in a situation where a dude's just wailing on ya' there's one pretty simple way to turn the tide on them."

James Lewis stops punching and takes a step back, "If you allow them to rush towards you then you can use that momentum against them. You do this by bringing them closer to you and then down to the ground. Did you get all of that?"

"Uh yeah," The person holding the camera replies.

"Okay, now should we get a demonstration?" James Lewis asks as he glances toward the cameraman.

"You better not be-"

"C'mon Reagan please, it's for the tapes!"

"James," Reagan, the man behind the camera, responds, "If you move closer to me I am ending this recording."

James goes silent.

Reagan goes silent.

And then James Lewis makes a sudden dash toward Reagan, causing the tape to end.

Ronnie looks at the TV and turns it off as he looks at the tapes he managed to get from storage.

"Dad was the one who recorded these?" Ronnie thinks out loud to himself.

Curious to get to know a bit more about him, Ronnie puts in another tape and continues to watch well into the night.

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Sun shines into Ronnie's bedroom as Ronnie begins to wake up. As he rubs the sleep out of his eyes he takes a look at the clock to see that it's already 1 PM.

"....crap," Ronnie says before he gets up and tries to quickly get ready for the day.

After changing and putting on the varsity jacket, he heads into the bathroom where he quickly brushes his teeth, pushes his hair up, and grabs his backpack. He then runs down the stairs and to the kitchen where he puts two pieces of bread into the toaster.

"Mom's gonna kill me if she sees me," Ronnie murmurs as he grabs the toast and is about to leave for school.

However as he reaches the front door, he hears his mom in the living room say. "Glad to see you up."

Ronnie slowly walks over to the living room and begins to say, "Hey Mom, I was just going to-"

"It's a snow day today," Sally replies.

"Oh thank god," Ronnie sighs in relief as he sits on the couch.

As he sits there he notices he has a text from Marcus asking if he wants to hang out today, Ronnie responds with 'Sorry not in the mood today, perhaps some other time?'. As he sits on the couch pondering things he hears a knock from the front door.

"I got it," Mrs. Everst replies as she gets up to open the door.

As the front door opens Ronnie sees none other than his Uncle Ryan Everst, president of the MSA, enter the house.

"Hey there Ron'," Uncle Ryan says as he goes for a dap.

"H-hey there Uncle," Ronnie replies, still unsure what to make of his Uncle after learning all of the shady criminal activity they do underneath the surface.

"I'll go make you guys something," Sally says as she walks into the kitchen.

"Now I know your birthday is tomorrow but I have a business trip then so I decided to give you a gift now," Uncle Ryan explains.

Uncle Ryan hands him a check.

"Thanks," Ronnie says as he pockets it, "Say can I ask you a quick question?"

"Sure," Uncle Ryan responds.

"What was my dad like at my age," Ronnie asks.

Uncle Ryan chuckles, "Reagan? Man, we were inseparable back in the day. He was a bit cocky, a bit arrogant, but he always got shit done, even if it seemed impossible. Despite him being younger he was the one I got my strength from."

"I see, thanks Uncle Ryan," Ronnie replies.

"Don't mention it, I just told you a bit of the fun stuff," Uncle Ryan says as he stands up, "But I need to get going, business is as busy as ever."

As he walks towards the front door, Sally exits from the kitchen and asks, "You aren't staying for food?"

"I already ate," Ryan lies.

"Okay," Sally states.

With Uncle Ryan now gone, Ronnie sits in the living room waiting for tomorrow, the day when all of his questions would be answered.

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Finally, the day comes, Ronnie's 16th birthday. Ronnie sits down at the table next to his mom as he looks at the treasure box.

"So, I guess it's time to see what's inside huh," Ronnie says nervously.

"Go ahead," Mrs. Everst says.

Ronnie goes to grab the treasure box and with some hesitation, he opens it to see that the first thing in there is a VHS tape titled 'to my son'. Curious, Ronnie takes the VHS into the living room, puts it into the VHS player, and turns on the TV.

The tape begins to play as on screen is Reagan Everst. He's wearing a white t-shirt with several paint stains, ripped blue jeans, and has a full beard. He's sitting down in a newly painted bedroom in a chair as he looks at the camera.

"Okay hopefully the tripod doesn't break again," Reagan remarks as he clears his throat, "Hey son, it's me, your old man. Now I know you're probably wondering why I'm not just telling you this right now on your 16th birthday but instead doing it through this video. Truth be told, I would probably have forgotten why I made this time capsule by then."

Reagan chuckles to himself as he continues, "When I look at you, I see this- this fire in you. This passion and curiosity for the world and just this want to help lift people up. Hopefully, you're still that way now. The reason why I made this is because when I was 16, a lot of stuff happened to me. One of which being I met the love of my life, or as you know her, your mother. So hopefully seeing all this stuff can help inspire you to do great things when you're 16."

On the tape, Reagan looks over the door as he hears Sally yell, "Reagan did you finish painting the bedroom!"

"Just a second!" Reagan yells back as he turns to the camera and says, "Well it looks like I have to go. Bye, love ya~"

The tape ends and the tv turns off. Ronnie is sitting on the couch next to his mom, both are silent before Sally begins to speak.

"Your father always wanted to help his friends out, whether it was helping start a business or driving across the country for them, he always looked after others more than he did himself," Sally begins to say, "And now he's gone. To be honest Ronnie, I'm not much without your dad. If he could see me now I- I wonder if he'd notice just how much you two are alike. I wonder if he would be happy with the way I raised you."

Ronnie looks at his mom and realizes something. These past few days he's been so worked up about his dad that he forgot about someone just as important. Someone who's always been there for him. Someone who helped him become who he is today.

Ronnie hugs his mom as he says, "Well, I thought you did an amazing job."

Hearing those words, tears begin to seep from Sally's eyes as she hugs Ronnie back.

As the day goes on, the two continue looking into the treasure box seeing all the stuff that Reagan put in there for them. Ronnie pulls out a Tamagotchi causing Sally to laugh. Ronnie tries to use it but the batteries have long since died out.

The next thing in there is a green Seastar High varsity jacket, Sally looks at it shocked while Ronnie nudges her to try it on. However, on closer inspection, the two realize that it's too tiny to fit both of them, probably due to a mistake when laundry occurred.

As Sally tells Ronnie about all the stories behind each and every moment, they finally get to the two last things in the box. One is a copy of a movie that Sally was a fan of back in the day and the other is a photo. As Ronnie goes to the tv to put the movie on, Sally looks down and smiles at the photograph.

The photograph is a picture of when a teenage Reagan & Sally were sitting on top of a roof together, on a dark cloudy night, yet despite that, the two were smiling and happy together.

And despite that moment now forever being in the past and with Reagan no longer by her side, she's still able to look at that moment fondly.

As the movie begins to play, Sally gets an idea as she grabs her phone and takes a picture of both her and her son, Ronnie, sitting together.

See You Next Chapter!~