The Ladies of Horror
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Grandma’s Vintage Trunks  
by Terrie Leigh Relf

Gramma loved to collect tchotchkes from her various travels. Not that we were experts, but she also appeared to be a somewhat serious collector. We discovered this when my brother and I began to pack up her three-story house. Then there were her rather extensive gardens, complete with sheds overflowing with bulbs and pots, tools and bags of topsoil, and an odd assortment of various types of gloves and shears.

For the first few months, it was a bit overwhelming: What to keep? What to sell? What to donate . . . So we decided to postpone the estate sale indefinitely. After all, we had inherited the house, and considered the benefits of not selling it. In hindsight, along with a few other decisions, this was one of the best we made during “all this.”

There was no particular reason that we saved the formerly forbidden attic for last. Neither of us had been up there since we were caught snooping about as kids. Back then, all we had the time to see was dust, cobwebs, and a variety of old trunks. While Gramma had scolded us, no punishment was forthcoming. She was always a happy, gentle person, constantly humming to herself while she gardened and otherwise went about her day.

Now that we had the keys, the attic was no longer forbidden.

When we unlocked the first one, we coughed in unison at the odd scent emerging from the trunk. There was a stack of old letters bound with twine, a dried Zinnia tucked beneath the string. The time would come when we would read these letters and hopefully discover more about our Gramma’s curious life.

The second trunk held the same . . . and the third and the fourth . . . and so on. It was then that we realized the trunks were much too heavy to just hold stacks of letters, and so we carefully removed them from one trunk at a time, setting them to the side before lifting up layers of fabric to reveal what lay beneath.

Of course we hid the letters before the coroner came to retrieve all the trunks. It appears that Gramma did more than travel . . . She had quite the collection of old beaus hidden in the attic.

Fiction © Copyright Terrie Leigh Relf
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com 

More from author Terrie Leigh Relf:

The Sisterhood of the Blood Moon

For thousands of Earth years, the Transgalactic Consortium has had a quiet interest in this planet and its inhabitants, the Haurans. While the Sisterhood of the Blood Moon works together with the Consortium and Haurans to maintain balance in the universe, the Blood Moon is fast approaching. The power of this moon reveals untold secrets . . . including a sacred covenant with the Mora Spiders. There is an ancient pact that needs to be honored—but at what cost and for whose purpose? The world may come to an end. But will there be a chance for a new beginning?

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