Riley's Dreams

The War Chest

                                          RILEY

After class Mitch dropped by to try out a new game he was interested in buying himself. Handing him one of the controllers I walked him through the tutorial before setting up a private game.

As much as the game was interesting I felt guilty like something was out of order. As I heard the family car drive up the driveway I told Mitch," Well I guess we better stop for now my Mom will want me to get back on the History paper."

"You mean the one Lasky gave?"

"Yeah that one."

"That ain't due for another couple weeks. We got all the time in the world. Besides how can you fail ? Mr Lasky won't know if what you write is true or not."

"Maybe but I'm finding its a lot more interesting than I thought."

"What did you find out you've got royal blood in you?"

"No. Nothing like that. It's just that their lives were so different from today. It was tougher and there was more at stake."

"I don't know. I think college is pretty tough myself."

"It's nothing compared to the hardships they faced."

"Yeah like you would know."

"Well in my dreams..... well they are just dreams but they give me this insight. It's like I'm living it, I feel the pain, the fear. It's hard to explain."

Mitch is rolling his eyes at me and looking unconvinced.

"Whatever. It's all relative anyway." Mitch said.

The front door opened as Mom came in carrying a bag of groceries.

"Well Hello Mitch I wasn't expecting you here."

"Hi Mrs Breen! I was just on my way out. See you tomorrow Riley." he said waving backwards to me on his way out.

"Bye Mitch." Mom said as she began hanging her coat on the kitchen chair.

"Mitch didn't have to leave." Mom said.

"He was just here to try out a game. No biggie."

Dad came in carrying another bag of groceries. His appearance reminded me about the chest he'd mentioned earlier. Placing the controllers back on the shelf I walked over to the attic ladder and pulled it down with the rope and turned on the attic lights.

It was chilly and musty but I walked in hoping the open hatch door would draw eventually draw in heat from the house.

I had to dig through old cardboard boxes to reveal the old wooden chest. It was about 4 feet wide by 3 feet tall with the name Riley S Breen elaborately carved on the lid. I blew about a quarter inch of dust off it creating a ridiculously large cloud that threatened to engulf the entire room before I switched on the attic exhaust fan.

I stood back and let it settle down before opening the lid.

Inside I found all his old uniforms, a saber, a knife, a canteen and a poncho that was in terrible shape. In a  cardboard folder I found a few loose military forms, a marriage certificate and a few pictures.

One struck out to me. It was my grandfather in  uniform getting married  to his bride. Next to them was the brides parents. I recognized one of them. It was the old farmer from my dream. He was cleaned up but it was definitely the same face.

I found a bag and carried the items downstairs back to my room to investigate further with better lighting.

I got a text from a friend asking why I wasn't online yet. On my normal schedule I would've already been on, probably even hosting it.