Jackpot

Jessie was shocked to read the court notice stuck on door of the house, she had just inherited it from her granny.  The house was being forfeited due to non-payment of the loan used for her granny’s geriatric care. She was both sad and angry at the same time, to walk into a space where she had made a lot of memories, only to find out she had a week to pay thirty lakhs to keep the house and the property it was on, 

The house was old, it had red oxide used for flooring, the thatched roof was replaced with the tiles only a few years ago. It even had a wooden attic, used for storing coconuts and doubled as a false ceiling to cover up the roof. 

She came back the next day with Roshan, and wanted to show him around. They explored the house, the veranda,  place where her grandfather sat for tea and paper, the living room where an old broken radio was kept, bedrooms, the kitchen that even had the stone grinders her mother had used. The house  was infested with spiders, ants and all the crawlies  imaginable. Roshan thought the plot was worth keeping and the house, in his opinion, had no value. 

Her eyes traced a crack on the wall that moved to the attic.  The attic! It was her most favorite place, accessed with a wooden ladder made of coconut trunk, now non-existing. She used to hide there while she played hide and seek with her cousins. She asked Roshan to find something to help her climb the attic. She wanted to see her hiding place one last time. 

Roshan borrowed a ladder from a coconut climber who was on a lunch break nearby. He set the ladder and climbed, while removing the cobwebs. The attic had a trap door that opened upward with one hard push. He secured the door open so it won’t fall back, and helped Jessie climb through the narrow square opening. The attic was lit with the light falling through the glass tiles strategically placed on the roof.  She saw a lot old vessels and earthern pots, framed paintings of her ancestors with muddy wasp nests. 

Roshan’s eyes fell on an earthen pot in the corner,  that had a slit for coins to pass through, he nudged Jessie to that direction. The wooden attic floor creaked on their weight, they stepped cautiously towards the pot. It was heavy and Roshan joked that it would have only worthless old paisas. Jessie argued that some may be rare and decided to take it home. 

She set the pot on the table, used a damp cloth to wipe it clean. Roshan was growing impatient and was ready with his Stanley hammer.  With a few gentle taps he knocked the pot open. It had gold coins and a note that read “Jessie, I knew you will find this!” Grandpa.