Chapter 18

"I think the top was a little rounder," said Jack.

Chloe sighed as she erased the top of the box she was drawing only to redraw it slightly rounder. "Like this?"

"Yeah, that looks right!" Lana said, excited.

Lana, Jack, and Jeremy were in Chloe's studio, watching her as she was recreating Lana's grandmother's box. Lana felt like she was at a police station, describing how the suspect looked to an artist, except this was just a small red box. Jeremy stood behind Chloe, giving her a back rub as if trying to make her 'focus'.

Occasionally, Chloe would get contradicting descriptions of the box, forcing her to pause and take a deep breath to prevent losing it.

"The bottom had an intricate, floral silver trim—"

"No, Jeremy!" Jack interrupted. "It was gold, and it wasn't intricate anything. Just a solid gold line."

"Yahuh!" Jeremy quickly grabbed a piece of scrap paper and one of Chloe's silver-colored pencils and attempted to draw the box with the lining pattern he remembered. But when he presented his drawing to the group, they all tilted their heads trying to understand it.

"What am I looking at?" Chloe asked. "Is that a coffin on fire?"

"It looks more like a square boat floating on water," Lana added. The group laughed at Jeremy's expense.

"No!" Jeremy said defensively as he pointed toward his drawing. "See—this is the top of the box, and down here is the silver floral trim!"

"Yeah..." said Lana. "Maybe we leave the art to Chloe... and besides, Jack's right. It was a solid golden line."

Jeremy shrugged, defeated, and continued massaging Chloe's shoulders.

"I wonder what will be inside of the box once we actually get it back," said Chloe as she grabbed a golden colored pencil, turned to her easel, and added the golden trim Jack had described.

"You can't open the box. I tried when I picked it up," said Jeremy.

Before Lana could say anything, Chloe responded, "Oh, that's because you didn't have the key."

"There's a key?" Jack asked.

Chloe stopped and turned around to face Lana. The eyebrow look she gave said, 'Oh shit, sorry. I didn't know you didn't say anything.'

Lana looked down at her chest, the necklace still there after wearing it for the past few days. "Yeah, I sort of got a key for it from my grandma a long time ago. Except we don't know for sure if it'll work."

Chloe added, "Yeah, well, I think it will! It seems to have the same print on it and have the same color."

"Do you know what's in it?" Jack asked.

"No, I don't. My grandmother didn't share much, and she died when I was young. All I remember are little moments here and there, like when she gave me this key."

Both Jeremy and Jack looked down at Lana's chest where the key was dangling around her neck.

"Oh my God, I'm so curious! What did your grandma say when she gave you the key? What if it's gold or diamonds or a big stack of cash?" said Jeremy.

"Jer! I was thinking that too! I think it's jewelry of some kind," said Chloe as she colored the edges of the box.

"Well, she didn't say much," said Lana, responding to Jeremy's question. "All she said was, 'You'll know when to use it when the time comes.' And I don't know; I just sort of felt like it could work when I picked up the box. But who knows? It could be just a note inside, or it could be empty."

Jack was silent, and this new piece of information seemed to change the air in the room substantially. Now the boys returned their attention to Chloe and were back to giving detailed descriptions of the box.

Finally, around nine o'clock, Chloe had produced a draft image that everyone seemed to agree on. There were still some disagreements, such as the slope of the corners or the shade of red it was, but it was settled, and they had something to upload.

"Okay, let's get this scanned and uploaded," said Chloe as she took out her phone. She took a picture of the drawing and went to her computer to search for the photo on Google. The group eagerly waited around her and held their breath as Chloe worked.

In an instant, images of red boxes filled the screen. Their experiment had worked and returned some results. There were about a hundred results showing boxes that looked similar to the one they uploaded but not quite the same.

There were a few that looked identical, but the group was unsure. Then, something caught Lana's eye. "Let's try that one," she said, pointing.

Chloe clicked on the image, and the browser redirected them to a page that was all in Arabic. "Scroll down to see if you can find any English," said Jack.

Chloe scrolled down the page with no luck. It wasn't a very clean-looking website and was filled with images of random objects. She finally got to the bottom only to see the words staring straight back at them: JMP Limited Co. All Rights Reserved.

"Oh my God, you guys! This is the box!" Chloe screamed. Lana's jaw fell open, and the guys were cheering.

"What is this website?" asked Lana, still in disbelief that they had found it.

"Here, let me see if there is a page translator," said Chloe. She found the button to translate the page to English and immediately the words on the screen changed.

Lana read the words aloud. "New addition: vintage American home goods now on display."

"Is this like a shop?" asked Jeremy.

Lana continued reading the page while Chloe scrolled. "See historical items for free! Visit Museum of the World today."

Lana looked at the group. "What? It looks like it's a museum, in—"

"Tangier, Morocco," said Jack.

Chloe gasped. "What? How did the box get all the way to Morocco?"

"Well, there's this amazing invention called the postal service—" Jeremy started but quickly stopped as Chloe playfully pinched his side.

He laughed and kissed her head. Lana smiled at the PDA Jeremy was already giving Chloe, but it quickly faded when reality sunk in again. For the hundredth time, this box was just not going to be in reach.

"How weird it's in Morocco! Lana, maybe a long-lost relative bought it!" Chloe was smiling like she had solved the case of a mystery book she was reading.

"What do you mean?" asked Jeremy.

"Lana's mom and grandmother are from Morocco!"

"Is there a number we can call?" asked Jack.

"Here is one at the bottom here. But you can't call them now. It's like the middle of the night there, right?" said Chloe.

"Hmm, I think it might be afternoon there, but we can double-check," said Jack. "But, okay, how about I call them later tonight or tomorrow morning? I'll see if anyone speaks English and can try getting a hold of a manager or owner. I'll text you guys what they say. I'm excited. This is promising. At least we know where to go in case we can't get a hold of anyone."

Lana laughed. "Yeah right, like you would go all the way to Morocco to get my box back?"

"I'm the one who started this mess, so it only seems right that yes, I would have to go. Plus, I've always wanted to go to Morocco, so it wouldn't be the end of the world."

Lana shook her head. That was just too much. She would need at least a year to plan for a trip that big, going all the way across the world to a place where the people likely didn't speak English. It all seemed so dramatic. Even if she did have some connection to the country through her family, her life was in the States.

"Okay, let's just hold our horses for a little bit. Let's all try calling the museum at some point in the next day or so and then go from there," said Lana.

While the rest of the evening was spent chatting, Lana couldn't escape the uneasy feeling growing inside her.

***

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