TGS:Treasures in the Attic

The Grape Sisters

Treasures in the Attic

Lela was looking disappointingly out the window at the thunder and lightning.  

“Mom” called out Lela, “the grape sisters are going to be here soon, what can we do all day?  I can’t believe it’s thundering and lightning outside!  This ruins everything!”

Lela walked into her mom’s home office with tears trickling down her face. 

“Oh, my love,” said her mom.  “I know you were looking forward to a day in the pool with your friends, but think of it this way, they’ll just have to come over again another day for a pool day then!  OK?” 

“NO, it’s not OK, I wanted a pool party today!” she cried. 

Her mom frowned.  “I know love but the weather had different plans and no one can go swimming when it’s lightning outside.”

  “WHAT are we going to do today?” Lela continued to whine.  

“Well, you’re going to have to be creative,” said her mom.   “You have plenty of toys to play with and lots of games.  Maybe you can think of something to do with them.” 

“But we’ve played with all of those before, this was supposed to be a special play date,” Lela continued. 

“I know it’s a bummer but we can’t do anything about it so let’s put on our thinking caps and come up with something,” said her mom.   “Oh, I have an idea, why don’t you go up into the attic and see if there is anything interesting up there to bring down and play with.”

“The attic!!” said Lela in shock, “I’m not going in the attic.  It’s scary up there.”

Lela’s mom smiled, “It’s not scary up there.  I go up there all the time.  Our suitcases are up there, extra furniture, and many things from your grandparents’ old house.  There’s lots of interesting stuff up there.  If you use your imagination, I think you might find something fun up there!” 

“I don’t know about that,” replied Lela in a huff. 

“Well,” said her mother, “I have a few things to finish up in my office before your friends arrive, I’ll turn the light in the attic on for you and you can go up if you want to.” 

They walked over to the attic door and Lela’s mom turned the light on and walked back to her office.  Lela stood at the bottom of the steps looking up, contemplating whether or not she dared to go upstairs into the attic. She sat down on the bottom step to think over her options. 

“We could play house, we could play bank, we could play school, we could play restaurant.”  She shook her head, “Uh, but I don’t feel like playing any of those things”, she said to herself. “I wanted to go swimming! I’m so mad at the thunderstorm!” 

She turned and looked up the stairs to see if she had the courage to go up there.  She had only been up there a few times and always with her mom or dad. 

“Uh, I guess I could see what’s up there.”  She turned and slowing began to walk up the steps.  “If it’s too scary, I can just run down the steps and right to mom,” she said to herself.  

“Ok, how many steps would I have to run back down.”  As she nervously walked up the stairs, she counted each step.  “One, two, three, four, five, six” she stopped and looked up. “Halfway there,” she sighed.  “seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.”  She reached the top of the stairs and slowly walked into the attic. 

It was crowded on all sides with all sorts of boxes and furniture.  She saw her old baby crib and a box full of her old clothes was inside it.  A box of baby toys beside it.  Further on she saw an old chest of drawers.  She timidly pulled a drawer open and found some old photos of her mom and dad.  She found tables and chairs from her grandparents’ old house.  Then she came upon a very big and very old looking trunk.  The top was heavy but she slowly lifted it up and peered inside.  To her surprise, inside the trunk were hats, fancy scarves, elegant purses, and piles of folded clothes.  As she took the hats and clothes out of the trunk, she found there were books underneath and then to her amazement, there was big Jewelry box.  She carefully leaned into the trunk and picked up the jewelry box. 

“Wow” she said in disbelief at the size of this beautiful jewelry box.  She placed it on the floor and sat down to try to open it.  To her surprise, it was locked. “Oh, man!” she exclaimed in disappointment.   “Well,” she said to herself, “maybe the key is in the big trunk.”  So she stood back up and looked inside the trunk.  She looked at the inside of the trunk for a little pocket or something to hold the key but didn’t find one.  Next she shook out each piece of clothing hoping the key would just drop onto the floor.  No luck there either.  Then she took each book out of the trunk and opened it in hopes the key might be inside.  No luck.  But then just as she was beginning to think she’d never find the key, she took out the last item in the trunk, it was a diary with fancy cursive writing on the front.  She opened it with care and there tied to a ribbon was a key secretly hidden between the pages.  “YES!” exclaimed Lela. 

Then she laughed.  “OH, I hope this is the key for the jewelry box!”  She put the books and clothes back in the trunk and sat down on the floor with the jewelry box.  She made a little wish and put the key in the lock.  When she turned the key, she was elated to hear a “click” as the lock opened.  With excitement, she lifted the jewelry box lid. 

 

To her delight, inside she found old necklaces, bracelets, small boxes filled with earrings, drawers with rings and hair pins.  They were beautiful!  Before she could take everything out of the box, her mom yelled up the stairs, “Lela, your friends will be here soon.” 

“Mom,” Lela called back, “can you come up here please. I found something!” 

Her mom walked up the stairs and found her sitting on the floor in the back corner.  “What’s up?  What did you find?” she asked. 

“I found this old trunk,” she said pointing to it. “And inside I found clothes and hats and books and this jewelry box,” she continued as she lifted up the jewelry box. 

“Oh, yes,” replied her mom, “I forgot that this old trunk was up here.  It belonged to your great grandmother.  After we moved it out of your grandparents’ house, I never looked inside.  “Wow, look at all these beautiful items!” 

“Can we take the trunk and the jewelry box downstairs to play with?” asked Lela.  “Well,” said her mother, “the trunk is too big for me to carry down by myself but when your friends arrive you can carry all of its contents downstairs and play with them.” 

“OK,” replied Lela, “but I hope they won’t be too scared to come up here.” 

Her mother smiled, “I think you can show them that it’s not scary up here after all.” 

“Yah, I can lead them so they aren’t scared,” Lela agreed.                     

Just then the doorbell rang.  The girls had begun to arrive. Tasha and Ali arrived first followed by Penelope and Rania.  They all gathered in the kitchen as Lela’s mom poured them lemonade. 

“I know you are all disappointed that you can’t go swimming today,” her mom began, “I know it’s a bummer but we’ll just have to invite you back another day for a pool party.” 

“I wanted to swim,” said Ali. 

All the girls looked sad.

“Me, too,” said Lela but then my mom sent me upstairs to the attic to find something fun for us to do.  At first I was scared to go up but then when I did, I found some really cool stuff!”

“What did you find?” asked Rania. 

“I found a big old trunk full of my great grandmother’s old hats, clothes, scarves, books and jewelry!” she replied excitedly.  “My mom said we can bring it all down and play with it!  Come on follow me!”

She led the way to the attic door.  Just before going up, she turned to the other girls and said, “OK, it might seem scary at first but once you get upstairs it won’t be scary anymore.  Nervously the girls looked up the stairs. 

“I’ll lead,” announced Lela.  Then to herself she said, “it’s only 12 steps.”  As she led the way, she quietly counted the steps to herself.  As they reached the top, the girls looked around in amazement at all the stuff in the attic.  They followed Lela to the far corner to the big trunk.  “Wow,” said Penelope looking at the trunk full of treasures.  “OK, let’s start taking these things downstairs.  She gave each Grape Sister a hat to wear, threw some scarves around their necks, then draped some clothes over their shoulders and piled books into their arms.  Then, carrying the jewelry box, Lela led the way back downstairs and into the living room. 

With all the treasures from the trunk now strewn about the living room, Tasha suggested, “Why don’t we set up different stores and we can pretend to shop?” 

“Yah,” continued Penelope.  “We could have a bookstore, a clothing store, a scarf store, a hat store and a jewelry store!” 

“Great idea,” exclaimed Lela.  “I’ll get the fake money from the Monopoly Game and we can each put some in one of these purses!” 

They also grabbed some paper and markers and to create signs for each store.           

When they were all set up, each store was in a different part of the living room – the couch, the big chairs, the coffee table and the side tables.  Then the girls spent the afternoon trying on the clothes, hats, scarves, and jewelry and pretending to buy them.  They draped scarves over the heads, around their necks and over their shoulders.  Then they’d take it all off and go shopping again.  As the rain continued to fall outside, the Grape Sisters made their own fun indoors. 

 

Later that night after the clothes, hats, books and such had all been picked up and put back in the trunk in the attic for fun another day, Lela lay in her bed ready for sleep.  “I know it wasn’t the pool day you were hoping for but did you have fun anyway?” her mom asked. 

Sleepily, Lela responded, “Yah, it was a great day.  I’m glad I got up the courage to go into the attic.  It was a lot of fun to see all of great grandmother’s treasures. The Grape Sisters and I had a lot of fun today!” 

And off to sleep she went dreaming of trunks and treasures.     

 

 

Back of the Book Questions:

Do you have an attic or a basement? 

Have you been inside it? Is it scary?

What’s stored in your attic or basement?

Have you found any treasures there?

If you couldn’t play outside, what would you play with your friends?