The Secret of the Porcelain Doll
Timothy Paterson
Copyright 2012
The cover image for this book has been provide royalty free by © Terax at Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos at https://www.stockfreeimages.com
Griffin and Chelsea were playing a video game when the man from the bank arrived to talk to their parents. They overheard him inform their parents that if they didn’t come up with one hundred thousand dollars within the next thirty days, the bank would foreclose on the mortgage and they would lose the old house.
It was a lot for the twins to deal with. First their grandmother had died, and now they might lose her house as well. Their grandmother had left everything, including the house to their mother. The house had been in the family for one hundred and twenty-five years.
Apparently, their grandmother had borrowed money from the bank and used the house as collateral. A few months later, some crooks had conned her out of most of her money. She was eighty-four years old when she died, and was showing early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.
The children could see that their parents were very worried. Even though they were only eleven years old, they knew what was going on. They knew that their parents did not have enough money to save the old house.
The next day, Griffin, Chelsea and their parents went to the old house to start going through their grandmother’s personal papers and belongings, hoping to find secret bank accounts, or valuable antiques that they could sell, so that they would not lose the house.
While she was going through some things in the attic, Chelsea came across a box that contained a very old porcelain doll. Chelsea had never seen such a beautiful doll. She guessed that it was over one hundred years old. When she picked up the doll, she found a letter underneath it. The letter was addressed to her mother, and was from Chelsea’s great grandfather. Chelsea carefully read the letter.
“Dear Nancy,
Happy 12th birthday. This doll belonged to your grandmother when she was a little girl. She always planned on giving it to you on your 12th birthday. Since she passed away last year, I am carrying out her last wishes. If you are ever in any kind of trouble, search deep within to find the solution to your problem. You will find the solution, if you search carefully.
All my love,
Grandpa”
Chelsea was mesmerized by the doll. She fell in love with it. When she showed it to her mother, she asked if she could keep it.
For a moment, her mother didn’t answer her. She was lost in thought, as she thought back to the day when her grandfather had given it to her, over thirty years earlier. After her grandmother had died, Nancy and her parents moved into her grandparent’s house to help take care of her grandfather. Two months later, her grandfather died and the house and the house became theirs. When Nancy’s mother died, the house became Nancy’s. Now it looked like the bank would become the new owner.
Nancy handed the doll to her daughter and told her that she could have it, if she promised to take very good care of it. Chelsea promised, and said that she would keep it on the shelf in her bedroom.
Over the next two weeks, the family slowly emptied the house of all of its contents. They sold what they could, and discarded or donated everything else. They found no secret savings or checking accounts. From the sale of the furniture, they were able to raise ten thousand dollars, but they still needed ninety thousand dollars more in two weeks or they would lose the house.
One evening, Chelsea and Griffin were talking about all of the great times they had in the old house, and were thinking of a way to raise the rest of the money. Chelsea suddenly thought about the doll, and she wondered if it was worth a lot of money. She took the box off of her shelf, and carefully read the letter again. When she read the message from her great grandfather at the end of the letter, she wondered if it had some special meaning. She read it out loud to Griffin.
“Maybe, he meant for Mom to search deep within the doll,” said Griffin. Maybe he hid some money inside the doll”. Both of them became very excited. Chelsea carefully took the clothing off of the doll, and began looking for an opening. On the back of the doll, there was a seam, and part of it was sewed up rather clumsily with a different color thread.
Griffin took out his pocketknife, and carefully cut through a dozen stitches. With his finger, he carefully searched around inside the doll. He found no money, but he discovered that part of the stuffing in the doll looked like a handkerchief. He carefully removed it, and when he opened it, they both saw writing. It was another letter from their great grandfather;
“Nancy,
If you have found this letter, it was either by accident, or you must be in some kind of trouble. I may be able to help you with that. In the cellar, there is an old pickle crock. Under the crock, is a loose stone in the floor. Pry up that stone and you will find a large black box, with all of my earthly treasures. I no longer need them, as I hope to soon be with your grandmother. As you are my only grandchild, I leave the contents in the box to you and to you alone. Use them wisely, and remember that I will always be watching over you.
All my love,
Grandpa”
Chelsea and Griffin agreed to keep the note a secret, until they discovered if the box was still buried in the basement. They decided to go to the old house the next morning.
Neither of the twins got much sleep that night, thinking of the buried treasure that might await them. Early the next morning, they asked their parents if they could walk over to the old house to say goodbye to it. They received permission and were out of the door as soon as they finished breakfast.
When they entered the old cellar, they went to the corner where the old pickle crock had been before their parents sold it. They found a loose stone and pried it up. As they removed the rock, they both held their breath. There, in the ground, beneath the large flat stone, was the black box that their great grandfather had hidden many years earlier. The box was eighteen inches long, sixteen inches wide and ten inches deep.
When Griffin opened the box, they saw that it was lined with red velvet. They surveyed the contents of the box. They found a bunch of official papers, which the put aside for the moment. There was also a beautiful old pocketknife, some gold and silver rings and the most beautiful necklace that Chelsea had ever seen. Next, they found an envelope full of hundred dollar bills. They counted it and came to just over twenty thousand dollars. All of the bills were at least forty years old.
The twins were excited when they found the money, but they knew that it was still not enough to save the house. They turned their attention to the official documents. The first one was a document signed by their great grandfather, and witnessed by three other people and notarized. The document stated that all of the contents of the box, and all of his possessions were given to his granddaughter Nancy.
Among the official papers were several savings bonds and stock certificates. They felt certain that they were enough to save the house. As Griffin closed the empty box, he heard something move inside it. He carefully opened the box and shook it. He felt something under the velvet lining. He pulled out a hidden document. As he and Chelsea read the document, they were in total shock. They realized that if the document was valid, then all of their family’s financial troubles were over.
With only a few days left before the bank took the house, they needed more time. Griffin and Chelsea wanted to surprise their parents, so they went to the bank to see if they could get an extension. The bank president told them that the law was the law and there would be no extensions. Their parents had three days to pay one hundred thousand dollars in full or they woul
d lose the house.
As they left the bank, Griffin remembered that a close friend of their parents was a lawyer with the biggest law firm in the city. They went to see him and told him the entire story. They told him that they wanted to surprise their parents and asked him if he could help them.
Roger Kelly agreed to help them, and refused any payment for his services. After making several calls, he discovered that the savings bonds and stocks were worth over a million dollars. When Griffin handed Mr. Kelly the last document, things began to get very interesting. Roger was so stunned, that he had to read it three times to make sure it was real. He asked a clerk to check with the courthouse to see if a copy of the document was on file there.
After checking with the senior partners of the law firm, the decision was anonymous. The document was valid and would stand up in any court. Mr. Kelly set up a meeting with the bank president and the bank’s board of directors for the following day.
An hour before the meeting, Griffin and Chelsea told their parents that they had a surprise for them. They all drove to the bank, where they met Mr. Kelly and two senior lawyers from the law firm. At two p.m. they were escorted into a large conference room. Already seated around a large table in the room, were the bank president and five other people who made up the board of directors.
Roger started the meeting by asking for a one month extension on the loan. The president told him the matter would be handled by the book. “If the money was received by the bank within two days, the bank would foreclose on the house.”
“In that case,” said Roger, “Here is a cashier’s check for one hundred thousand dollars made out to this bank. We would like a receipt please.”
Chelsea saw that her parents were very puzzled, so she explained about the note in the doll and the buried box. Griffin added, “Just wait. You ain’t seen nothing yet”
Mr. Kelly stood up and handed each of the gentlemen a copy of a document, and then began speaking. “Gentlemen, I would like to bring your attention to the document, which all of you have a copy of. This document has been proved valid and a copy of it was filed with the courthouse seventy-five years ago. As you can see, Nancy’s grandfather owned all of the land that the bank sits on, as well as several hundred acres that the bank currently leases out. Seventy-five years ago, he leased the land to this bank for one hundred dollars per year for seventy-five years. The bank paid him seven thousand five hundred dollars in advance. The legal document, signed by all parties involved, stated that at the end of the lease, the bank had the option of either paying full market value for all of the property, including buildings and improvements, or immediately vacating the property. Gentlemen, this lease expires in one week from today. We need your decision by five p.m. tomorrow. The current market value of the land is over thirty million dollars.”
The bank president was quite angry. “We need more than one week to look into the matter,” he said.
“If we are going by the book” said Roger, then the lease is up one week from today. My firm has agreed to represent my clients and I can assure you that if you choose to fight this, you will lose.”
Chelsea, Griffin, their parents and lawyers stood up, and walked out of the bank. They all went to lunch to celebrate their victory. Chelsea showed her parents the handkerchief letter, the pocketknife and the jewelry. They told Griffin that he could keep the knife, and they gave the jewelry to Chelsea, as it had belonged to her great grandmother.
The next day, after the bank’s lawyers told them that they could not win a court battle, the bank president wrote out a check to Nancy for thirty-three million dollars, and the bank became the owner of all of the land with the exception of the property that the old house sat on.
The next day, Nancy and her family moved into the family estate, and began extensive remodeling and restoration of the house. They set up trust funds for Griffin and Chelsea’s futures and invested the rest of the money.
That afternoon, Nancy went to the cemetery to visit the graves of her parents and her grandparents. She thanked her grandfather for watching over her and her family, and ensuring that they would live happily for the rest of their lives.
The End