"Jon... Jon... JON!" his mom shouted, tugging him awake from a dreamless slumber. "It's bad enough that you fell asleep when your friend Karyn was here, but I'm not going to let you sleep all morning, especially since you promised to help me with the garage sale today."
Jon s shook his head, clearing the cobwebs in his head, sitting up to make sense of everything. After making the wish last night, the one that freed him of the stone, it was like the first time he could relax since Karyn's foolhardy wish to be more like Sarah. The glee he felt at his newfound liberation spread across his face with a goofy smile.
"Are you even listening? You're really starting to worry me Jon, you haven't been the same this whole summer. I know it's been difficulty with your grandfather passing, but you've been completely detached from everyone, me, your sister, your little brother, and the way you so rudely ignored Karyn last night... She's such a sweet girl, she was begging me to let you sleep, she seemed so concerned. So what's really been going on? You're not on drugs are you?"
"What?! No!"
"Because you better tell me if you are. I just rather know about it than you doing it behind my back."
"Mom-"
"You know the pot they have nowadays isn't like the pot when I was a kid. I saw on the news they're putting all sorts of oils and Fentanyl in it. I don't want you getting mixed up in all that. I’d prefer you didn’t use any drugs but if you really feel the need to I’d rather you tell me than running around and pulling Karyn into something bad-“
“MOM! I’m not doing drugs, okay. I was just going through a rough patch, but it’s better now. You’ll see. I’m feeling better today than ever.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Linda relaxed, seeing that her son had lost the glazed, glassy eyed look which had become common over the last few weeks and was somewhat back to his old self. “Well, I’m glad to see you got your beauty sleep. We’ll really need your help today with the sale. I’m really hoping we can do enough de-junking to make the attic usable again. Did you ever go through your grandfather’s things and sort out what you wanted to keep and what you wanted to sell?”
“Uh…. No, I kinda forgot about it. Had something a bit bigger on my plate,” the stone of course being a three course meal that dwarfed whatever other appetizers his grandfather had left the family.
“Jon, I gave you all summer to sort through it. No matter, you’ll just have to do it today. Bring all the boxes down from the attic and I’ll set up a little table for you. Go through it then, sell what you want to sell, and keep what you want to keep. Just get rid of some if okay? Not everything is some memento, my father was quite the pack rat and there’s no need to hold onto all his junk.
After putting on a fresh pair of clothes and taking a middle school shower, Jon trudged up the attic to find nearly a dozen boxes labeled ‘Dad’s Stuff.’ He opened the first one just to peak and found his mom was right. Most of the stuff in there, an old blender, a percolator, an old calendar of pin up posters, two baby shoes, never worn, and a cassette player among the less noticeable things.
But there was also some rather unique things buried amongst the miscellaneous- some shrunken heads, a rolled up, hand drawn map of some unknown location, full of cartographer’s notes, a hand worked leather satchel full of what felt like marbles, and all sorts of books with worn covers and pages folded on the inside. And this was just one box among many.
“Jon!” his mother hollered from downstairs. “Stop dawdling and scoot! People are arriving and I want to get rid of that stuff! Sort it on the lawn.”
So Jon began the Sisyphean task of moving the antiques from one location, to haggle over whether something was worth 5 dollars or 7, and most likely just haul it back up and place it in the same spot at the end of the day. Just like last year. And the year before that.
He had the final box in his arms and laid it in his little section of the lawn, eager to see what relics from his adventures had grandfather had come into over his many years. He could hear his mom commanding the suburban market from her folding table and tin cash box, already in a lively mood debating with some other forty something bargain hunter. Zoe was here, with her weird friend Athena, looking through some records and probably hoping to find some gothy looking garb among the clutter. Mikey was playing with action figures he hadn’t seen in years, finding himself suddenly nostalgic and attached to his old toys. And mulling about the rest of the front yard were dozens of people from town, all eager shoppers attracted by the oh so enticing cardboard signs that had been set up.
Jon took out his phone and texted Karyn, “Hey, sorry about last night. Just felt like a big weight was lifted without the stone. First real sleep I’ve had in forever. Doing my mom’s stupid garage sale today. Wanna come over and make fun of all the people picking through our junk?”
He quickly got the three dots and a return message, “No worries. Happy you’re feeling better. I’ll head over in 15.”
While looking at his phone, he didn’t realize that one of his acquaintances had dug through his grandfather’s stash, eager to find a treasure among the stash, finding a relic amongst the trash that neither knew the true value of the magically touched object in their hands.
“How much for this?” asked…
