I wasn’t quite finished with the story I was telling by the time 2025 ended and so decided to continue it until it reached an ending point. Then I will start a new one. Besides, I kind of want to see where Penelope ends up. And so we have…
Day 177: She sighed and then got an idea.
She sighed and then got an idea. Penelope turned around and opened the drawer. It was filled with larger kitchen utensils. “Wrong drawer.”
She opened the one below. “That’s what I want.” She took out one of the folded kitchen towels and closed the drawer. She turned back to the kitchen counter and laid the towel over the marble. With the towel in place she thought it might prevent any of the items from sliding off the edge of the counter onto the floor.
“Corralling the metal bits,” she told herself as she upended the box onto the towel. She placed the box upside down on the towel and gave the bottom a good thump to get the last of the items out. She then lifted the box leaving the mound of charms behind.
As she lifted the box out of the way she felt something shift slightly inside the box. Penelope frowned and looked to see if anything as stuck to the bottom. The box was empty. She held the box in midair and shifted it from side to side. There was something still inside. She could feel it move slightly when she shifted the box. It didn’t move a lot, but it did move somewhat, letting her know something was inside.
Penelope set the box back on the counter and looked inside again. It looked empty. She turned away and reopened the drawer with the kitchen utensils. Next to the ladles and spatulas, she saw a small emergency flash light. It was the size of a travel perfume bottle, but she thought it should work to peer into the depths of the box.
“If the batteries work.” She pressed the rubberized button and blinded herself as the flashlight was pointed directly at her face. Penelope tilted the flash light to the side and blinked away the after images.
“Note to self,” she said as the spots faded from her vision. “Don’t look into the flashlight when turning it on.”
Penelope wasn’t sure what sort of battery was powering the flashlight but it was quite powerful. She brought it back to the box on the kitchen counter and used the light to look into the bottom of the box. She swept the beam across the bottom looking for any sort of thing that might be stuck in the bottom. There was nothing.
“I know I felt something shift.” Even though the box was only about four inches wide she looked again, trying to find what she was missing. Finally at the right edge she saw it. A thin curved groove in the wooden bottom of the box. It was small and looked like it could have been just a scratch in the wood. It was about the width of her fingernail on her index finger so she stuck her hand in and used that finger to pull.
The bottom of the box shifted. It didn’t shift much as the sliding mechanism was stiff. Penelope turned the box, bracing it against her stomach and then tugged at the bottom of the box again.
Ten til Midnight 