The Hidden Treasure

“The Hidden Treasure” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Nivedh Sujith, Oakridge International School, Bangalore, India.

The Hidden Treasure

“Tring!” the alarm clock rings and wakes up little Tom. He is 8 years old and is a curious and an energetic boy. His elder brother, Michael is 16 years old and bullies his younger brother Tom all the time.

Tom also has an elder sister, Catherin she is 12 years and a younger brother who is 2 years old. His father is Mr. Ronald Spencer and his Mom is Mrs. Kate Spencer.

The Spencer family had a pet dog called Rorito.

During breakfast, Mom tells them to clean up the attic and then they can go play. Michael, Tom and Catherin are not happy at all. Whining and complaining they head to the attic. The attic is dirty, dusty and has lot of trash and old broken things lying around.

When they are cleaning Tom finds an old piece of paper and asks Catherine “What do you think this is?”. Catherine said, “It’s a Map!” Michael said, “Its not just a map, it is a Treasure Map!” Excitedly the three ran to the door, just when Michael was opening the door, Mom said, “You ain’t going anywhere till the attic is cleaned.” She then enters to see if they have cleaned the attic. Mom says “Come here and clean up the attic!” and locks the door and said “Until you clean up, you will not be going anywhere”!

Tom said, “Let’s jump out of the window.” Michael said,” No! It’s too high, we all will die”. Catherine said, “No we won’t, we have the ladder” Tom said “That is a broken ladder!” Michael said “It still works!” Tom gets down with the help of the ladder. Just when Catherine is going down, one rung of the ladder breaks. Catherine asked “Now how do we get down!” Michael said, “We will have to find another way.”

Mom comes out into the garden to water the plants, Tom then jumps in the bushes. Catherine and Michael think that Tom is down and throw the map and it lands on Mom’s head, “Thud”!

Mom looks surprised and said, “Kids don’t throw things from the attic”! Mom opened the map and said “What is this? I don’t even know what it is”? Then she threw it in the bushes and went back inside the house.

Tom got the map. Catherine and Michael took two old rakes and broke the attic door which made a loud noise, “Bang, bang bang”!!

Mom came running to see what happened. She saw that the attic door is broken down. She got angry and said “You are not going anywhere until you clean up the attic, and where is Tom?”

Michael and Catherine together stuttered “Um, um..um Tom is in the bathroom”. Mom angrily walked away.

Michael said “Now what do we do? We can’t get out of here till we clean up”. Catherine said “NO, we have a rope, we can tie it to the window. Tom can hold it from below and we can tie it up here to the window”.

Slowly Catherine went down the rope and suddenly Mom came out in the garden. Catherine and Tom again jumped in the bushes.

The rope got stuck to Tom’s foot and when he jumped in the bushes the rope broke. Michael was still stuck in the attic. Mom walked inside the house to have her tea.

Michael said “Now what do I do’? Tom said “I have an idea! Catherine and me can go inside the house and get the couch outside, you jump on the couch”.

The plan worked, Michael, Catherine and Tom were in the garden with the map. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew away the map. Three of them ran behind it and catched it. Michael asked “where are we?” Catherine said “We are lost!”. Tom looked at the map and said “We are in the right place, this is the way to the treasure”. The three of them started walking and then Tom says “I’m hungry”, “Me too” said Catherine. Michael said “I’m thirsty”. A deep voice came from the air, “This is the world of Imagination! Whatever you think will come true, Ha ha ha!”! Michael asked “Who are you?” The voice replied

“I’m Air, I’m invisible and Immortal” Tom asked “How about thinking about food?”

Tom and Catharine thought about delicious food and Michael thought about juice and water. When they opened their eyes, everything came true. Tom and Catherine were gobbling delicious food and Michael was drinking delicious lemonade.

Catherine said “Hey! Why don’t we think about the place where the treasure is, where the map leads to?” Tom said “Yes! We can do that”! Michael said “No! Where is the place?” Tom and Catherine said that Michael is right and they should follow the map.

After walking a big distance. They finally found the treasure hidden place. Michael said “Treasure is under the water”. Tom, said “No! It is impossible, it has to be hidden here, on the beach, under the sand” Michael said “ No! Look at the map!”. Catherine agreed with Michael and said, “We should listen to him, he knows where we are going.” Michael said “How do we go under water and get the treasure?”

Catherine said, “We don’t! The treasure box is floating there in the sea!”. Tom said, “How do we get there, all the way so far?” Three dolphins came out and the three children sat on the dolphins and swam towards the treasure box. Michael got the box and they come back to the shore. They walked back home. They open the door and Mom was standing at the door looking angry. She asked, “Why didn’t you all clean the attic?” Tom said, “We went on a treasure hunt and see, we got a treasure box! Inside the box there is gold”.

They opened the box and found old pair of shoes and pair of stinky socks! Mom said, “Now you’re grounded, you’ll have to clean up the attic!”