My friend asked me to stop by her house while she was out of town.
Her boyfriend’s family was coming to visit that weekend, and she was already nervous about it. She wanted the house to look clean, warm, and put together before they arrived.
“Please just check the guest room and the hallway cabinet,” she told me. “If anything looks messy, put it in a box. I’ll deal with it when I get back.”
So I went over that afternoon.
At first, everything was normal. I folded a few blankets, wiped the small table near the front window, and moved some old papers from the guest room. Then I opened the bottom drawer of an old wooden cabinet in the hallway.
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That was when I found it.
It was lying under a piece of folded cloth, almost like someone had put it there years ago and forgotten about it. The object was small, dark, and oddly shaped. One end was long and pointed. The other end was curved and worn smooth, like it had been held by many hands over many years.
I picked it up carefully.
