Tags

Related Posts

Share This

Those Little Girls

Those Little Girls have names that are consistent with the names of our four Grand-daughters, who have now grown-up to be wonderful adults. These little girls are much younger and have different parents, so in spite of the names, Ashley, Libby, Mackenna & Kelly (some of my favorite names), do not let them confuse you.  Thank you…  Gramma Bev.

CHAPTERS:

THE FIND

TOO MANY BOXES

THE STUDIO

TOO MANY HELICOPTERS

THE FIND

It seemed to the parents of those girls that their children had involved them in almost everything, possible to raise money for their activities.   Lemonade stands from the kitchens to the front sidewalks and dozens of boxes of Cookies for the Girl Scouts. It was too bad that the cookies had dropped in sales.  People now declined to buy them, because they said they were on a diet and didn’t want cookies sitting in the house where they might be tempted to eat them.  

In fact door to door selling was now even a failure as Avon Cosmetics eventually figured out, because fewer people answered the door anymore.  Housewives were out shopping and working women were… well, working.  

The children’s own mothers had sternly warned them against the creepy people who opened the door wide with a smile and invited them in.  

Church bake sales had ended by law as the sellers could not prove they had been baked in sanitary conditions.  Oh my, if it wasn’t one problem, it was another! What would they come up with next?

Today the four young cousins sat on beach towels on the sand at the beach in front of their grandparent’s house, just talking.

These four girls appreciated this rare occurrence as all of the other cousins were boys.  There were six of them and only four girls, so they were glad that all four girls were visiting on the same day. Some of the boys were okay, but mostly they were after all… boys!  And to make matters worse when they were all here together they were…  impossible!

Today would be unusually quiet without the guys.  All four had been allowed to come down alone to that dangerous Ocean’s edge, if they would be responsible for Kelly the youngest.  So they sat on their beach towels with a variety of beach toys in the sand beside them, in case they got the urge to dig or chase a Frisbee, but they just talked… girl talk.

Ashley was 8 nearly 9 and so the other girls  thought she was almost an adult, then came Libby at 7 and her sister Mackenna, 5, followed by, Kelly, the youngest, who was 3, though she insisted she was nearly four, which she demonstrated with her open hand and a folded in thumb..  But no matter they all got along very well and had much in common.

For one they were all blonde and most people took one look and decided they were sisters.   That was alright.  Cousins were the next best thing.

Enjoying the Pacific Ocean water and the warm beach sand was a great leveler.  Adults, their parents, all felt and acted younger  out on the wide sand, wearing scanty bathing suits splashing in the cool water.  The rapidly growing youngsters all felt older and without the boys to taunt them, more mature. 

An airplane passing high above them drew their attention to the sky.

“That long white line behind it is a Con trail.”  Libby told them.  Their Father was a pilot, so Mackenna nodded her agreement.

“Is that stuff coming out of the airplane?”   Ashley asked.

“No it just forms in the air behind it.”  Libby replied . “…something to do with the altitude.”

“Look it’s falling!”  Mackenna said in alarm.

“The Airplane?”  Kelly asked, looking up at once,

“No silly some of the con trail broke off.”  Mackenna told her.

Then they watched as a piece of the long thin con trail right behind the plane, seemed to break loose and began to slowly drop away below toward them.  It grew larger as  it swirled downward,  circling in their general direction.  The plane continued on though as if nothing happened, making more con trail as it flew out of sight down the coast.

“I didn’t k now the con-trail was breakable!” Libby commented, “I must ask my Dad about that.”

All eyes remained glued to the hunk of con trail still falling toward them.  

“Ooh!” Mackenna screamed,  “Look it broke again!”  Now two or maybe three pieces were descending rapidly down close together.. 

 After a very short time they girls saw a hunk of something land deep into the soft dry sand down at the far end of the beach with a heavy, loud, thump.  

A smaller chunk, followed carefully by Ashley, went into the ocean just beyond the calm waves, while at the same time there was a big splash further out.  Ashley waded a little deeper toward the nearest one and watched as it disappeared into the water, then bobbed up to the top again to float toward her.  Each swell brought it closer, so she watched as it drifted in. It seemed to be wrapped in paper which soaked up water and began to peel off. 

Then unwrapped,  it began to break  into small neat rectangles of paper.  Ashley quickly began to gather the soggy papers into her fists by the hand full and stuffed them into her shorts pockets.  They looked very much like paper money, but none she had ever seen before.

The three other girls stood in a circle around the shoe-box size case on the sand, not sure if they should touch it…  or not. 

Ashley walked ashore with her fists and pockets dripping full of the strange bills.  The others met her with curiosity.

“It looks like some kind of foreign money.”  She told them. Then she sat on her beach towel and began to lay them out to dry.

“Hey! Shoo!”  She shouted at a cocky sea gull who had walked right up  and boldly taken one in his beak and flew off. Two more Gulls strutted nearby watching for a chance to make off with something that seemed to be food.  So   Ashley stood up, announcing that she would take this stuff up to the house and put them into the clothes drier , before the sea gulls ate them all up.  

Libby carried the other box by its handle and Mackenna took Kelly’s hand to follow them up the stairs to the house.

No one in the house was surprised that the first stop was the laundry room and the start-up of the drier.  That was what almost always occurred as wet people arrived at the back door.

What was different was that Ashley’s wet clothes were spinning around in the drier with several large wads of foreign paper money, while she stood by wrapped in her beach towel lifting out the dry bills one at a time and smoothing them on the hot drier top.

Jack, Ashley’s Dad, came in and did a double take at the two rows of flat open bills.

“Where did you get Korean Won?”  He asked her, puzzled at the sight of all of that familiar South Korean cash from his days in Viet Nam.

“They fell into the ocean.”  She explained.  “I’m drying them.”

Her Dad picked one up to examine it.  “It looks like the real thing.  How did they get in the ocean?”  He asked, not expecting her to know the answer.

“I think they fell from an airplane.”  Ashley answered.  I took these out  of the water but this landed on the sand.”  She touched the small, carefully cleaned case sitting on top of the closed washing machine. “ We haven’t been able to open this thing yet.” 

The girls gathered close around as Ashley’s Dad lifted it up and began to look at the lock.   Could there be more money in there and would it be real, that is… United States dollars.?  Actually there was a tiny key tied under the handle, which no one had noticed as they hosed the sand off.

After untying it, Uncle Jack put it into the lock and turned it.  Three little people held their breath. They already knew it was heavy and that it didn’t rattle, so what was in there?  Then there it was. A flat, smooth piece of stiff white foam that filled the box perfectly.  Ashley leaned in as her Dad lifted the cover piece carefully.

A smaller green metal case was nestled in the center of a matching piece of fitted white plastic foam.  The outside case was no larger than a shoe box and this one looked more like a pound or more of butter, but they saw, as Uncle Jack removed it and let it be passed around, it was much heavier.  

He tried the small first key but it was too large. A close search of the inside of the box did not turn up another key.  So to everyone’s great disappointment Uncle Jack put it back into its proper place and closed it. 

He turned to Ashley.  “Perhaps the key was with the stuff you found.  Did you get it all?””  he asked.

“I… don’t know.  I only took out the stuff that was floating around me. Something could be on the bottom or further out where there was a big splash.”

“Do you think you could take me close to where it hit the water?”

“Pretty sure.”   was Ashley’s answer.  She opened the drier again and took out her formerly wet shorts and top..

Gramma peeked in and said, “Lunch is on the table, girls.” 

“ Okay” Jack told her, “Go ahead and feed the little girls while Ashley and I go down to the beach to look for something.”   

Gramma just shrugged, “Come on girls.  What got lost?”

Libby replied.  “Something with a key in it… I hope.”  They left the Korean bills and case on the machines and went to lunch. 

Mackenna paused at the big window to watch the two go across the sand to the place where the case had thumped down, and run a rake through the sand several times before wading into the water to where Ashley had stood gathering the floating bills.  Mackenna thought it would be easier to take a hammer to the little case and just knock it open.  

 Once they began raking the bottom sand under the water near where Ashley had been , Mac lost interest and went to lunch. 

   The rake was of no use in the many places filled with clumps of rocks so Jack put on a mask and went under to look first hand.  His eye caught something shiny wedged between two small boulders.  It was too shiny to have been there very long, so he worked it loose and brought it up.

The silver case opened easily with a twist of the wrist. And inside a very tiny key lay flat in the same white plastic foam used for the big case. 

“Did you say there was a big splash further out?”   Her Dad asked, as they stood holding the small silver key box. Ashley pointed past Splash Rock, in the direction she had heard it.  

“But I was busy picking up the bills here and besides the water there is too deep for me.” 

“How far past Splash rock?”  He inquired.  Ashley looked again but was uncertain, so she just shrugged and admitted, “I didn’t actually see that one.”

“Okay, you take the silver box with you and get dry again for your lunch.  I’ll just patrol around a bit and see if anything else turns up.  I’ll have a better chance of finding it now than later after the sand has time to shift again.”

With his under- water mask back in place, Jack slowly swam on top looking down.  Only going down to the bottom to inspect suspicious lumps in the sand. 

Up in the laundry room Ashley looked at the key she held in the silver box and decided to try it in the green box.  

Wrong size.  Too bad.  Maybe Dad will find the right box for it out there… and the key for this green  one,  she mentally added, as she replaced it and went to her back pack to get dry clothes for lunch.

TOO MANY BOXES

WHEN Jack finally came back in the house he was carrying a box that was more like a wooden packing crate.  It was too heavy to allow the wood to float it to the top.  It was half buried in the sand just beyond the heavy concentration of huge large black lava rocks known as Splash Rock.  They got that name due to the way the above water formation was located so every building wave must crash over it, throwing white foam high in the air, as it heads for the shore. 

The wood was actually a help as he tugged the thing toward shore, but once on the sand Jack had to lift it and carry it upstairs, a much more difficult but doable job for him.  He left this one outside the back door.  Gramma would not appreciate one more thing on her washer- drier, especially one this large.

“Did you find it?”   the girls all shouted.  They were now involved in a four way Parcheesi game. 

“I found something.  But I have no way of knowing when it arrived behind Splash Rock.  The Rocks had snagged it, preventing it from rolling ashore with the current..  The crate was old and maybe just recently reused by someone who packed it to go on the plane.  So many local divers swim the Rocks that it would have been taken ashore by someone else by now… unless it just arrived by air.   So to speak.“

“yea !”   the girls shouted.  “Let’s go see what it is.”  The game was abandoned as they all marched out to see this new box.  If the Korean money  silver box key didn’t fit the green box then it must fit this one. And somewhere there was another key for the green box.

Jack stopped to get some tools to pry this crate open.  The girls closed in to try to see everything at once.

“Hey! Back up and give me some room to pry it without hurting a kid.”  Jack said, as he worked the crow bar under a cross board.

The crate came open easily and revealed a cardboard box not intended for underwater delivery.   The soaked cardboard peeled back easily and Jack lifted out a metal suit case.  Hopefully water tight.  

My goodness,” Libby said, “These things are certainly complicated.”

“complis..scated…”  Kelly tried the new word.  It didn’t matter what it meant.  

“Bring the silver box key, Ashley”  Her Dad said. And she scurried away to bring it back…box and all.

Jack removed the key and knew at once that it was too small for this case.  But he tried it anyway to prove to the watchers that it was not the right key.

“Then what will it open?”  Libby asked.  

“Just pry it open with the crowbar.”  Mackenna suggested.

“Patience, dear, “  Jack said to her.  “We have too many boxes and too many keys.  Something will fit together sooner or later.”  He told them.

Mackenna turned to rummage through the messy wet cardboard box. That had held the suit case.   She found what seemed to be a very soggy little cardboard box in the mess of wet packing paper.  

“Maybe this is it!”  She announced, proudly, holding up the limp package tied with wet string..”

Libby passed it to Uncle Jack. A key ring loaded down with several keys fell loose into his fingers.

“Now that is more like it.  This ring must carry duplicates of every needed key.   First he found one that opened the most near-by suitcase.  

At first it was a disappointment as nothing was in view. It was packed with different sizes of  blue and gold jewelry boxes, that when opened one at a time seemed to have everything necessary to outfit a Queen… or a little girl playing dress-up.  Each piece was more elaborate that the last.  Sparkle and more sparkle of different colors, appeared as they opened the boxes and set the pieces on top of the empty crate.

‘”Talk about Bling!”  Jack remarked to deaf ears for the little girls’ eyes were glowing with desire to touch and try on the precious sparkling items.

Gramma peeked out to see what was happening. 

“Oh wow!  Have you guys hit the Jack Pot? Or what?”   she remarked.  “Come on let’s take everything inside.”

Jack began to put them back into their own padded boxes while he could still tell which was which.  

Gramma. Libby, Mackenna, Ashley and Kelly all carried as many as they could into the large table, where Gramma said they could keep for now.  

 Jack put all of the large, wet packing materials into the crate to keep until needed, and left it right next to the trash can, taking the key ring with him inside.  

Sure enough the keys on the ring were also in the two boxes, so he took those boxes with him to where Gramma and the girls were already opening the little boxes and putting the piece from inside on the top of their own beautiful blue and gold box. 

They just had to be able to look at them again.   Definitely a girl thing.

Jack was more curious about the green box and began searching for its small key.  

“Anyone want to see this?”  He called as he found the right key and turned it..  All of the females appeared at his side.  

So Jack opened the green box to reveal a small gold and silver Chess set with tiny jewels set where appropriate, all snuggly sitting in neat rows with gold foot stands to silver foot stands gleaming richly out at the awed spectators..

  A Chess Set fit for a King, only in need of a suitable board.

  Now they only had to try to figure out just exactly for which King and Queen these rich things were intended.  Could the Korean money be a clue?”

Jack was now wondering how he could learn from which Airplane they had fallen.  So many flew that route from John Wayne Airport to go East to almost anywhere in the U.S. or sometimes South West to Pacific Islands.  The choices were just too many. 

The girls were wondering if “Finders Keepers was A Law.” 

And Gramma was trying to decide if these things were real gold and silver with genuine jewels or merely, wonderful, replicas.  She and Jack seemed to agree on one thing…  Someone had lost them accidently. So how could they notify the owner?

Kelly reached for the pretty sparkling Tiara, to try it on.

“No Kelly.”  Ashley told her.  “We don’t know who owns it, so until we try to find out, I don’t think we had better play with them…Okay?”

‘I have my own at home anyway.”  Kelly told her to try to not be disappointed.  Hers was pretty sparkly,  but not quite like this one, she thought, as she continued to admire it.  But it puzzled her that if they found them, why didn’t they own them?

Jack went out to look through the trash he had stuffed into the crate to hunt for some sort of identification.  Only on the inside of one of the crate slats did he see the words, property of …………  first ………… Studios .  It had been scribbled over with black marking pen but only that much was almost visible after the ocean had taken its toll.  “Something first something Studios.” What could that be?  He looked in a phone book yellow pages until he came to Studios  and immediately saw Twenty-first Century Studios.  That had to be it.  At least they had once used that crate  

He picked up the phone and tried to call them anyway.  He listened to the message that they were away on location but to please leave a phone number to be called back.  Jack left his Cell Phone number and a message. That said,  “If you have recently lost some possessions from an airplane please call and identify them so I may learn if we have found them.”

Having found no other clues, except the Korean money,  but who would one call about that?  Jack had now only to wait and see if he was on the right trail.  Meanwhile the biggest problem was to try to explain why they did not own these things by right of finding them.  Or as the girls put it, “Finders keepers, losers weepers.”  Rhyming it did not make it so.

Libby and Mackenna’s parents arrived for the supper Gramma had prepared and they got to see and hear the whole story from both of their daughters.  It wasn’t over though until Ashley and Kelly each gave their point of view.

Then Ashley’s Mom arrived and the stories began again.  They were all getting pretty good at retelling the adventure from watching the Airplane Con trail to seeing it break off and begin to fall… which was followed, of course, by the actual viewing of the wonderful things.  Kelly used the story to get to model the Tiara, her favorite.

Kelly’s parents were on a business trip so she was spending the whole week-end.  The other three girls were begging to get to stay as long as Kelly was here.  Ashley explained,  “It is much easier for Gramma if we are here too, because then we can all go to the beach together.  Kelly is too young to go alone by herself.  

Kelly didn’t argue that even though she kind of wanted to, because she wanted them to stay.  Gramma nodded her approval, so it was granted.

Jack’s wife Mary arrived from work and the story telling began once more.  Never had they had such a willing audience so the girls gave it their all.

Who could even imagine in advance that the “Show” would be even more interesting than the “Tell”.

The women were all very certain that the gold and silver and every single gem was the real thing.  No, there was no fooling these ladies with fake stuff.

However, the men felt that as they seemed to be props for a play or movie, they had to be just very good reproductions of something, somewhere in a museum.

The door bell rang and Grampa answered it, then ushered in two men, both wearing suits, but one showing a badge from the F.B.I.  They were here to speak to Jack, who had left a message with The Twenty First Century Studio.

Mr. Forman had received the phone call and rather than return the call he had tracked down where it had come from and hurried right over to find out if he was correct about what he thought they had found on the Beach.

Jack agreed that all present could hear the conversation so they all sat in the living room for the discussion. Of course everyone in the room had already seen the things they had found, so Jack held back his side to hear what the guests expected, although the F.B.I. presence said he knew they were probably in the right place.  

Mr. Forman began.  

“We were in the Burbank Studio finishing our up-coming Motion Picture, which once it was finished shooting, though not completed with the editing, we carefully boxed up certain valuable props to be returned promptly to their home in Korea.

I won’t bother you with the plot just now, but only tell you the important part concerning the once Royal Family who lent us their very valuable property to be used in the Picture as necessary, when they fit into the plot.  

We flew there to photograph them to have copies made.  But they suggested that as it would be very expensive to do them justice with copies, they offered to lend us the originals for the important scenes, which we would complete in a week and return to them by air.

  Of course we had to pay for the insurance as a safety measure.  The insurance only agreed if an agent of the F.B.I would be with them at all times for that week and personally bring them home.

The four girls listened wide eyed.  This man was talking about those pretty things they found.

“Does this mean we don’t get to keep them?” Ashley asked.

“If they are in fact the ones we have lost, I’m afraid you don’t.”  The man answered with an understanding  smile.  

“However we certainly know that you are entitled to a reward for finding them.  Tell me, how did you come to find them?”  

The girls all had gotten very good at the telling and they turned to Libby who started it by commenting on the Con trail.  So she told her version first. Then they all looked to Mackenna who was the first to say,  

“Look at that con trail!  It just broke up, See?”  Then they all watched the pieces coming down. 

Ashley’s turn explained how she waded out and was trying to get one that she saw falling into the water and later took her Dad down to show him where two pieces had landed in the ocean, so he could dive for more.  Jack just smiled and nodded his agreement.  

Kelly told the men very seriously that… “It was very compliscated to get the right keys to open the boxes, cause there were way too many”  She paused,   “Do you want me to show them all to you?”

“I would like to see them, yes,”  He smiled at the serious little three year old. 

Mr. Forman handed a list to Jack.  You made the call, so of course you would like to know we are, well, if not the owners, the responsible ones.  So here is the list the Insurance Company made of everything.

Jack read it carefully to determine if he had,  after all, found everything they had lost.  It seemed that they had, so he turned to the children.  

“I’m afraid the things you found do belong to them, so you may lead them in to see them.” 

And there they all sat on the table, gleaming like a Jewelry Story display each on top of each beautiful box for the showing, and with the tiny gold and silver jeweled, Chess Set lined up in two rows.   It was a magnificent sight.  Especially to the two men who thought they had lost them perhaps forever.  

The little girls guessed that this would be the last time they would get to show them off.

“I can model the Tiara for you if you like, “ Kelly announced.  

“That would be very nice.” Mr. Forman told her.  Although Jack noticed the F.B.I. guy flinch a bit. As her tiny fingers carefully lifted the Tiara from the box lid and set it gently on her pretty blonde head, then turning around with a smile to show it off.  Then just as she always did, she removed it and put it in its proper place.  

“Thank  you little lady that was a very good showing.”  He turned to Jack and the others to ask,

“May I have Mr. Samuals, here,”  He tapped the F.B.I. man on the shoulder, “ repack everything and see that the count is correct, then he will give you an official receipt.”   I can tell you that he is the most relieved of us all as they disappeared on his watch.”  Mr. Samuals nodded grimly.  Then suddenly asked Jack,

“How did you know to call the Studio?”

“I didn’t really.  I looked everything over carefully and found nothing at all to identify them as belonging to anyone.”

“I’m going to have to remedy that,” Mr. Samuals interrupted, “I thought just keeping the things in my sight was good enough.”  

Jack continued to explain,  “The Korean money was a clue but not much help.  Then I found the crate had been used before and on the inside of a slat it said,  Something illegible , then FIRST, another  illegible, that seemed to be blotted out with a marking pen, then, CENTURY STUDIO.  I looked in the phone book at Studio and saw Twenty First Century Studio, so I took a chance and called it… you.    If you didn’t reply I would have to try something else.”

“I can only thank you Jack and I am sure the Insurance Company will figure out a suitable reward.  So we will be talking again.  “I thought that once they were on the plane I could relax.  No one could steal them at thirty thousand feet, so I sat with a cup of coffee, while they were, I don’t know, just tossed out, or hidden someplace for later that was unsafe and they accidently fell out.”  He shook his head in disbelief.  “I may never know which or who or why.  But we are working on it.  Just seeing them all lined up here is hard to believe.”  

“ Now I had better get started packing them back into their boxes.  I see the cases on the floor, thanks to you,”

“And the girls.”

“Right and those bright little girls.”

They walked back to the front room to wait until the beautiful, real gems, just as the woman said, with gold and silver were packed by the F.B.I. Guy.

As they waited Mr. Forman suggested that the girls might really enjoy a tour of their Studio.  How about this Sunday?  Any of you who wish to come will be welcome at say ten A.M.  I’ll give you the tour myself and we can show the girls how the Jewelry was used in the Movie.”

THE STUDIO

Ashley’s parents Jack and Mary volunteered to take the girls to the Studio tour. So they left the Beach a little before nine to get to the Studio by Ten. 

Mr. Forman was waiting for them with some refreshments after the long drive.  Like most people they were surprised at how simple the Studio was.   The various stages were enormous but bare, with miles of cables and hundreds of lights, giant wind machines and other stuff that did what they could not even guess. The “in use” Stage might have a very little set at one end almost inconspicuous.  After all, the cameras did mostly close ups of people’s heads and the vast outdoor scenery was shot where they found it… outdoors.

They looked at a picture of a very ornate gold and marble Palace Room with a King and Queen wearing some of the Jewelry they had at their house just a couple of days ago.  Then they saw the set and were surprised that the marble was painted paper and the gold pillars were just paint on bumpy cardboard..  How could they ever look at a movie again and not see how fake it was?  

Then they sat in a tiny movie room for a couple of scenes from the movie and it looked so real! All except the real Jewelry.  It looked fabulous!

The ate lunch with some stars who had to work today, even though it was Sunday,  They had a nice lunch, but the best part was there was a very bright, sparkly, Tiara  each one ornately different, at each place for those four little girls.  

After lunch they sat before a Movie Camera and stood up to tell their favorite story one more time, starting with Libby as always.  Then said all of their  thank-you’s and goodbye’s, before leaving for home exhausted and slept on the long ride home.

Jack drove each girl to her own home as directed, for tomorrow was Monday a school day.

TOO MANY HELICOPTERS 

    With the children gone and only the two of them there on Monday, Gramma and Grampa should have had a nice quiet day.  But for some reason a helicopter came by several times and hovered over the water just beyond their sand.  As usual when something interesting is going on, they took their book or other task to the table by the big window to work and watch together.  

Something interesting was very often the case and the advantage of living here beside the Pacific Ocean..  It was never boring,   If it wasn’t the launching of kayaks and their exciting return by people who had no experience with the ocean, or that new invention the Stand Up Paddle or S.U.P. that arrived by the dozens as they appeared to simply walk on the ocean.  Vacationers with Frisbees or Volley Balls and an occasional pair tossing Horse Shoes, kept the view changing regularly.  A lovely Wedding or a formal Birthday Party happened monthly.

Today, for awhile, it was fun watching a man or men hanging out of the Helicopter with some kind of new Equipment seeming to search for something.  

Then it occurred to them just exactly what they hunted for, using a Ground Position System, but never seemed to find.  Because only last week their Grand children had watched some packages fall from an airplane and had even located the owners of the contents and returned them.

Could these be the men who had tossed those things from the plane? With all of that just hovering and leaving and coming back and hovering some more, it must have been frustrating for them if that was true.

However before Grampa could phone the F.B.I with that idea, the door bell rang and it was Mr. Samuals of that same Federal Bureau to watch with Gramma and Grampa from the big window, as another helicopter flown by the F.B.I. themselves, which had been on the trail of the men suspects, after following their antics as they searched the area, and even stood by as they made several dives trying to locate their loot. Once it was found to the surprise of the Grandparents and hefted aboard their Chopper, they were followed home and arrested.   Mr. Samuals explained.

They gave themselves away when that decoy package, made to look exactly like the one that had been tossed from the plane was eventually picked up and carried away by the same men who tossed it.  Thinking they now had the real thing, they had tried to hide it, rather than be caught red handed with the valuable lost Jewelry.  And finally, in desperation they decided to try to explain them away, as being found by them, for the reward.  It was offered by the Movie Studio and posted only in the shipping department of the Airline as part of the effort to catch those thieves.  In their vain attempt to prove it, they offered to show the prize Jewelry to the Officers who came to arrest them.  Maybe even share it?  

The Grandparents of those little girls and Mr. Samuals had a laugh just imagining it.  The decoy box was packed with other stolen merchandise those two had taken while working their job at the Airline. All recovered with a search warrant of their homes.  They would be out of that business for a very long time, now.  Thanks to those observant little girls. Besides sharing in the actual reward, each of them was given a Scholarship to the College of their choice.

The name of the Movie was changed to, “Those Royal Jewels” and opened with a scene showing the girls each telling her own part of the story about finding them.   They will also receive their share of Royalties of the Movie for their part in making it such a big success at the box office.  

THE END

Beverly Mosier   May 2014