When I went home last Christmas, my mom gave me a bag full of old letters, drawings, and various school assignments. I shared some of the more nostalgic finds on Instagram but the piece de resistance is a short story I wrote in the early 90s. I was likely in 4th or 5th grade and clearly read a lot of Nancy Drew mysteries.

For your enjoyment and so you may appreciate my original artwork, I present to you in unedited form:

TREASURE CAN BE FOUND IN WALLS

By Leigh Kramer

My friend Samantha and I, Karen, were going to search my Aunt Nancy's house for what my great, great, great grandma had hidden in this very old house that she had lived in herself. I brought my duffle bag along with a few hammers and some pliers and anything else we might need. Ding dong. "I'll get it. It's probably Samantha." I yelled to my mom who was upstairs doing something. As I had predicted it was Samantha. We walked down to my Aunt Nancy's house. I rang the doorbell and waited for my Aunt to answer it. After a while we were upstairs tapping and poking around trying not to knock anything down.

Tap, tap, tap THUD. "Hey Sam" I said to Samantha. "Can you bring the hammer to me. I think I just found the treasure but I'm not sure..." my voice trailed off. "Sure thing, Karen!" Samantha answered.

"I sure hope you found it!" she added.

"So do I, so do I, Samantha" I answered.

Carefully I opened the panel from the wall. There was a very old antique jewelry box. It was studded with emeralds and ruby's, and other kinds of beautiful gems. "WOW! That must be my great, great, great grandmothers! We had better show this to Aunt Nancy." "Look what we found, Aunt Nany! Isn't it pretty?" "Yes, it is PRETTY! As a reward you can keep it, Karen and for Samantha...didn't you say, Sam, that you liked biographies on people?" my aunt inquired. "Oh yes I do I collect biographies!" Samantha answered.

"Then you may pick three biographies from my collection to keep so you can add them to your collection." "Thank you very much" Samantha and I answered in unison.

"But don't you want you're great, great grandmother's jewelry Aunt Nancy?" I asked her. "No, that's part of your reward, KAREN! You can split it up with Samantha, O.K.?" my Aunt Nancy told us.

"O.K.!" we answered together.

Then Samantha went to choose her or the soon to be hers' biographies.

While I was sorting through the very old jewelry Everything was still and silent followed by an occasional squeak or scream from Samantha.

I was murmuring to myself about how beautiful all the jewelry was when I saw a note it said,

Whoever receives my things do not sell nor give it away

keep it and cherish it and remember me.

Sincerely yours,

Karen

I gasped  that was my name! Then I noticed a locket I opened it up and saw Karen's face. With tears in my eyes I showed it to my aunt. And that just proces that treasure can be found in walls.

THE END

The joys of writing with a typewriter, amiright?!

A star and a rave review from my teacher: "Good work, Leigh- This shows your interest in books!"

Thus, a writer was born.