The brown box

Well I must say, in life sometimes, you don't need to look for trouble because trouble have a way of finding you. There I was, standing under the shade of the tree; waiting for my brother to pick me up from school. It was getting late and I kept on checking my watch, asking myself where on earth could he be. Still irritated and mumbling about how unfortunate it was, not have my own car; as if I had already own a driver's licence! I saw a boy who was running like he was being chased by wild dogs, he saw me and stopped. I could see he was trying to tell me something, it just that words couldn't come out right. All I could hear was, "please...they...they want to take...all of it. Please hide it...take it. Don't give it to anyone." Then he gave me a small brown box and continued to run. I was still confused about who he was, I tried to run after him, but he was too fast, I looked at that box and something didn't feel right about it, then within a few minutes, a black car pulled over right next to me, the window rolled down and a man wearing black shades asked. "Did you see any boy wearing a yellow jacket walking past here?" In my mind, a re-play of this boy giving me the brown box occurred and he was wearing a yellow jacket. But my answer was, "no, I haven't see anyone," then the car left. The next car pulled over next to me. Well, this time it was my brother Ziggy, I got inside the car and zipped my mouth. "What?! You are not going to say anything to me for fetching you late?" He asked. Well I would have yelled at him if the brown box incident didn't happen. At that time, I had so many things to worry about, than yelling at Ziggy. 

At home, I went straight into my room and gazed at the box. I got curious about what was so special about it. I tried to open it, but it was locked. And it seemed like the boy with a yellow jacket had the key with him. I slept and waited for another hectic school day. With exams around the corner, I could feel my body burning with pressure. I woke up the next morning and started my day the usual way. Ziggy was hooting outside. "Hey Joshua, come out already, do you want me to get a written warning at work or what?" I took my school bag and as I turned around, I saw the brown box. A part of me wanted to take it to school with me, but I also thought that leaving it at home would be safer, so I followed my second instinct, and left it next to the side lamp.

While I was at school, my sister called me. She wanted me to borrow her my laptop. But since she's super neat; she noticed how untidy my room was and decided to do a spring cleaning. She cleaned my room nicely but she also threw away my brown box too. I lost my mind! "Christina how could you? What to you mean you have thrown that box into trash?" I furously asked. "But Josh, I thought it was a useless box that needed to be cleared away." She answered. I had to find it. I ran from the trash box outside and started digging into it, but all I could find were wet papers, disgusting banana peels and rotten old food. No box at all. I knew I was in trouble, but I didn't know how deep it was until I read a Sunday morning newspaper.

"Breaking news, the police have currently arrested three men who where driving a black mercedece benz. These men were under arrest for multiple crime including the stealing of diamonds which they sell in a package that appears as a small brown box. It is believed that there are still more people out there who works with these men and the police are still searching for them. But if anyone had seen these men or the brown box, please report to the police station immediately, a reward of $25000 will be given to any person who assisted in solving this case" I threw away the news paper, I felt like a wanted crime suspect and all I had to do was to just run away, like crime suspects does. As I was busy packing in my room, there was a knock on door, which gave me cold feet. When I opened the door, my sister Christina flashed a smile on me and said. "I found it." I looked at her hands, " give it to me." I snatched the box off her hands and put it inside my bag. "Now where are you going?" She generously asked. "Non of your business." I angrily replied. I went outside the gate and used my jacket's hat to cover my head. All the people I was passing by on the street seemed like they were looking at me. But I kept walking not knowing where my direction was leading me to. Then I saw a tuck shop, I went inside to buy myself something to snack with. There we too many people there, so I thought it would be wise to just leave the box there and let the policemen deal with who ever that might find it. But I remembered the boy's words when he gave me the box, he said "don't give it to anyone." But what choice did I have? I had to give it up or else I was going to arrested for a crime I didn't commit. When I stepped outside, I saw two men holding a helpless boy who was pleading to them to let him go. It was dark but I could see that he was wearing a yellow jacket. I had to go back into the tuck shop to get the brown box for the boy, but when I got inside, the box was already gone. "Excuse me! Excuse me! I left my brown box here, if there is anyone who had found it, please, can you kindly bring it back to me?" I asked. "No!" Said a tall woman who was standing next to a man who seemed to be her bodyguard or something. "Please ma'am, someone's life depends on it." I pleaded. "Alright, firstly you need to entertain us, it been a while since we had someone who could dance for us here. So, can you do us an honour?" She asked. "You have got to be kidding me," I got ashamed. I had two left feet and now that lady wanted me to dance for them?! As I was busy break dancing, head spining, and moon walking. My brother Ziggy called me. "Joshua! What has gotten into you?" I turned around slowly with embarrassment and said. "I...I can explain."

 It seemed like I had too much explaination to do because Ziggy was with the policemen. My little sister had told them that I own the brown box, thinking that we would receive that $25000 reward, but instead, all I received was spending the night behind bars for a box that was just handed to me, I didn't even know what was inside before I read the newspaper. I never stole even a piece of cake in my entire life, but I was walking with a box full of diamonds. The next day, the policemen came to release me and said that I was free to go. "Do you want to know what was inside the box?" One of the policemen asked me. "No thank you." I answered firmly. "Ok then, we thought that maybe you are craving something sweet after spending the whole night in the cold cell. But if you would rather give it to us, we will eat them with pleasure, but you can keep the box." I turned around and asked. "What are you talking about?" "The seven cubes of chocolates. That what we found in the box." Answered another policemen. I couldn't believe my eyes, it was really the cubes of chocolates. This boy went to so much trouble being chased by cruel men for just a box of chocolate?! 

I took it home with me and later that day, the policemen did found the two other real suspects and the boy. The boy was badly injured and had to be rushed into the hospital, he explained that these men came to his home and stolen almost everything that his late father had worked hard for. "They wanted to take this box too, I couldn't give it to them, this box means a lot to me, my father used to keep chocolates inside it and give me one cube before reading me a bedtime story. I promised him that I will keep this box safe and fill it with chocolates as the reminder of the good times we shared together." The boy said with teary eyes.

So; those men thought that the boy was running with some diamonds because his box was similar to the boxes they used to sell stolen diamonds. But it was just special chocolates box from his late father. If only they knew, they wouldn't have wasted their time because surely they didn't even have a sweet tooth. "Joshua, thank you so much for keeping this box safe for me. But before you go, can you please do me one last favour?" The boy asked. From that moment, I looked at the exit door to see how far it was from the hospital bed I was standing next to. "Please let us eat this chocolate together, I might not handle all the sweetness on my own." I smiled and said. "With pleasure."

The end