I Found It

Alia fumbled with her double knots on her new orange and purple sneakers. “Mom, I can’t undo the knots, help me!”

“Keep trying, you’ll get it,” encouraged Elraya Mom.

“No, I can’t, you do it for me,” Alia yelled back.

Elraya didn’t respond, she was busy mixing the purple and blue paints together. Her art class was tomorrow and she wanted to finish up her painting.

“Mom! Help me!” Alia yelled. “I can’t do it, help me.” She shot her mother a wicked impatient stare.

Elraya looked up over the canvas. “Don’t talk to me in your crabby, mean voice. Calm down, I’m sure you can do it.”

“No I can’t, no I can’t,” Alia whined louder.

“If you want my help, you’ll have to wait a bit. I’m in the middle of mixing these colors.”

Alia started to get really mad at her mom but she knew that yelling even louder at her mom wouldn’t get her anywhere so she decided to cry. The boo hoos let go and she thought she had put on a really convincing act but her mother was too entranced by her painting, this made Alia even madder. “Mom, your painting is ugly!” she declared.

Elraya looked at her daughter. She put her paints down and went to help her daughter take her sneakers off. “Now, young lady, time for bed. No book for you tonight, I don’t like the way you are acting. The world doesn’t revolve around you.”

“But you always read me a book.”

“Not tonight. Maybe tomorrow night if you are good tomorrow. I’m tired of the crabby Alia.”

Alia was pissed. She got under the covers. She was tired but couldn’t fall asleep. She wanted to feel happy instead but she didn’t want to let go of being mad either.

Her mom called out to her from the living room. “Can’t sleep? Why don’t you think about your secret and you will feel good again.”

“What secret, mom?” “I can’t remember, Mom”

“You can’t remember ?” Elraya was saddened to hear that her daughter Alia had forgotten the most important thing that wasn’t a thing at all – the secret about real happiness.

“Mom, what secret?”

“Well, young lady, you are going to have to find your lost treasure. Go to sleep, now.”

Alia tossed and turned in her bed for a long time. She heard a loud crashing noise coming from outside her window somewhere and it scared her. She listened to the noises of the night and they frightened her even more. She thought she heard footsteps coming to the door. She laid very still in her bed with the covers over her head. She felt that someone was standing by her bed, someone she didn’t know; someone that was really scary.

“You can’t hide from me, little missy. Get up, we got to find the treasure. Can’t do it without your help. I heard that you were one of the few little missies that knew where the real treasure lies. Get up! Get up!”

Alia held firm to her covers. She felt someone trying to pull them down. She held even tighter but it was no use. The really scary guy was stronger than her. She saw his face and wanted to scream. He held his hand over her mouth and said, “If you do want I say, all will go well for you my little missy. Don’t cry or scream.” And then he did a strange thing: he laughed and tickled her. She didn’t want to laugh but she couldn’t help it.

“Okay, that’s better. Hold on, here we go!”

They flew very fast so fast that the night turned into the day and the sun was shining and everything was a glow with its warmth. They landed by a river and the air smelled very sweet like after a rain, perhaps like after a shower of cinnamon candies.

“Alright, missy. I heard that you are a holder of the treasure so now I am asking ya, no telling ya, to dig it up and hand it over.” He handed her a girl’s size shovel.

Alia started to cry. “I don’t know where the treasure is.” She kicked the shovel with her brown dream boots. She got mad and yelled at the pirate and told him to find the treasure himself. She was going back to her warm bed, back to sleep.

“Ah, spirited, aren’t ya? There will be no sleeping on my watch. We got work to do, important work.”

“What? I don’t have to, I don’t want to work,” Alia exclaimed. “Anyways, there is no treasure, I don’t know where it is. That’s just something I used to pretend about when I was a little kid, I’m seven now. That was just baby stuff, I know better now.”

“What!” exclaimed the pirate. “Treasure is baby stuff!” He shook his head. “And don’t tell me that the one true secret is fake imaginary baby stuff too!”

Alia pouted and kicked at the shovel again. Her secret had always made her feel very happy and very special. She didn’t remember that she was already happy even when things didn’t go her way. She just felt mad at times and at other times sad when she didn’t get what she wanted. She doubted that she could even feel happy without getting her way when she wanted what she wanted. “I don’t know where the treasure is, I can’t feel the secret anymore,” Alia stared into the pirate's eyes. His eyes reminded her of someone, someone that had always made her happy but she couldn’t quite remember his face.