The house we had bought was big; pale wood cabinet structure has made the place appear bigger, Ash white walls were empty, the big bright lights were lit to their maximum potential, and the corridor and living area were almost empty. We had to fill the house with our stuff. We had hired one from local moving companies to transport our stuff. Our belongings were due to arrive in two days. The stuff was in storage because we had to get the exterior painted.
So the day we came, we just came with the bag of essential clothing and some food items. I thought we’ll order good home delivery for two days or will dine out. Because we had to vacate the old house on a said date, we had to live in the new house even when the basic things weren’t there.
Basic Arrangement of Things:
The first day went into cleaning and basic arrangement of things; I dusted the entire house from the inside, cleaned kitchen and bathroom cabinets and sprayed everything with sanitizers. Though the wood was in good condition, some areas were extremely dusty and it took me hours to get every particle of dirt out. In the close corners, I could see the minute holes where the termites would’ve had lived. The idea of having termites in a house where everything was made of wood frightened me so I wanted to get rid of them even if the presence was little. I drove to a nearby store and bought three cans of termite resistant spray, a sanitizing spray and a few cans of glass and wood cleaner.
Cleaned the Room and Cupboards:
My husband took care of the upper portion where our kids’ bedrooms were about to be set. He cleaned the room and cupboards from inside as well. He also was frightened about the termite issue, so we had to take every drawer out to spray the structure from inside. It was very time taking, given that we wanted to clean every nook and corner of the house; we knew it would take longer for the whole house to be done.
When I shifted to the half Elmira under the staircase, it was about the afternoon, and we were extremely hungry. So my husband called a pizza delivery service which the painter who was working on exterior walls had suggested. We had to wait for an hour for the food, so I resumed the dusting and cleaning. While I was taking the drawer lining out, my fingers found something cold and mentally. I grabbed the little object and pulled my hand back from the drawer casing, and in my hand, a pearl was dangling underneath a zircon heart. The white of the pearl has faded, and the zircon has lost its shine but as soon as I rubbed my finger onto it, the zircon underneath shined brighter than anything.
I called my husband and showed him the earing, and he suggested me that I should call the previous owner, so we rang his number a few times. No one picked. As righteous as I may be, I was a human, and though my husband was willing to return the earring to the rightful owner, I wanted to show it to a jeweler to have the value checked. In clear words, I wanted to keep the earring.
“Why would you even look at the thing twice, call them and as soon as they come, hand the thing over to them. I don’t want to discuss it any further”. My husband said grinding his teeth at me when I was trying to convince him to keep taking it to a jeweler.
“I just want to know” I had nothing in my defense, so I proposed a lame reason.
“Why?” He looked at me for an answer, and when I couldn’t come up with anything, he took the earring from my hand.
“Look, I know what’s going on in your mind but really, this isn’t our, and the previous owners may still be looking for it. Just return the thing”.
“But,” I swallowed a word, and he stopped me.” It is the right thing to do honey”, I couldn’t say anything more. Since both of us had to take care of a lot of affected wood, the spray I bought wasn’t enough, and we ran out of cans. The day was passing so I thought I should get more cans so that the work can be completed in a day. We needed a termite free house before the furniture arrives, so I drove back to the store and bought more spray and came back. When I entered my driveway, I saw another car parked in our garage. It was the same blue mustang the previous owner of the house drove. “So they came for the earring,” I thought in mind, I was rather disappointed to see him here because in my brain I had plans with the money I was going to get from reselling that piece of jewelry. Ours was the best in the long distance moving companies, and I knew they would arrive on time, so we had to clear the earing mess before that. When I entered the house, Eric, the previous owner was standing in the hallway talking to my husband. Eric looked a little worried when I greeted him.
“We’ll let you know as soon as we find anything.” My husband shook Eric’s hand he nodded at me.
Well, see you later, I smiled.
“Sure,” he shook my hand and withdrew. My husband looked at me and smiled, and I knew he didn’t mention about the earring.
