You realize your chances
of finding anything helpful at the Goodwill store is slim to nothing, but
you can't help but hope. You go in, looking for an old 1960's looking
shirt or pants with a pocket that hasn't been checked. You also check
through the furniture. Sadly, there is no old trunk filled with a
stack of information.
You thumb through some old
books, finding one or two that you'd like to have, even though the musty
smell assures you that they've been here for a long time. Nothing
else seems to interest you, and you shrug, figuring you'll not find any
clues here.
Before you give up, you
notice what appears to be a large jewelry box. You check inside the
box, but it's empty. As you set it down, something (was there a hollow
sound it made or just a hunch?) made you pick it back up again. You
check the inside more carefully, and notice the bottom doesn't appear to
go as deep as it should. Does it have a false bottom? A hidden
drawer?
You check the bottom, and
as you run your had across, you feel a small knob. It appears to
have been broken, but with some fiddling, you manage to move it, and a
drawer pops out. Inside, you find what you dared not hope for.
It is a piece of paper that appears to be from a diary. You quickly
pocket the paper, close the drawer, and take the box along with the books,
up to the register.
As the woman checks your
merchandise, she nods at the box. She tells you it came in just yesterday.
She appears to be a kind gossipy type of woman, and tells you of how it
was brought in with several other things found in the attic of an old house.
It seems the old lady who owned the house for years, recently died, and
many of the things in her attic were cleaned out and brought to this store.
Once you're outside with
your bundle, you rush to your car where you can look at your treasure in
private. You pull the paper out of your pocket, and attempt to read
it. Between the smudges and rough edges, you read what you can.
…I can not believe this has happened… My car broke down, and Charley can't fix it. I've always depended on… We can't afford this!As you read, you realize this is nothing but a teen age girl's diary, and holds no more clues than you'd find in your own wallet. Disappointed, you decide to glance through the books that you bought. Upon opening one of them, you thumb through the pages, enjoying the fact that you found such a nice book. Just as you're about to close the book, you notice some handwriting in the back on the blank pages. To your growing amazement, you realize you've found a real treasure!
Tomorrow, I'm walking with the rest of… … protest against … I've always hated fighting and war, but… … and I don't know if… But no matter what, I know my heart. I know I should…
I saw Kenny yesterday. He's such a dream. I can't… and he knows… someday.
I know if I don't write this down, I'll always wonder if I just imagined it. Watching the Sheriff kneeling there in prayer in the face of that gun was just… well, there are just no words to describe it! We've all been told not to mention any of it again, and we're all quite happy to oblige. Most of us would be quite happy to forget the whole thing. But as awful as the bad was, the good was great! I was a borderline Christian until I saw that, and now I've given everything up to serve God. Sheriff Branch may never know how many lives he affected that night, but I know mine will never be the same! Lead on, God, I'll follow!Astonished at your find, you sit back and try to imagine exactly what might have happened that night. Was this the bravery for which he received all those honors? Was this situation the reason they named the town after him?