November's Genre Creative Challenge:-......" Mystery Envelope. "

Hi All,

This is my first try at a tiny story that i called " Mystery Envelope.".Its fiction and  I thought through it yesterday .Marilyn [is looking for whatever there is. N.] has initiated me into writting this a few days back and i thank her for it.Here I am...Tell me how it is so Ican do better,

Thnx Sunil.

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Since I was ten I used to wait in anticipation for twenty sixth December every year. Today it was that BIG DAY and even at forty two years of age , this DAY would always make my heart pound with suspense. On this day, every year, I went to the safety locker box at the bank to open the box and collect the usual beautifully hand crafted envelope. This year’s envelope in the box  was one of the best hand crafted envelopes that I had received in all the last thirty two years. Heart still pounded with the suspense, I relaxed, took a deep Breathe and opened the Envelope. Two plane tickets to Switzerland was my “GIFT “this year. But there was a surprise addition “A letter in beautifully had crafted letter paper”. .the first letter ever in thirty two years,

I was a controlled man and my training in the army had made me to handle surprises very well...But this, was too much and I could feel the tension inside me. Never a communication in thirty two years and …. now …a letter...My fingers shaking as I opened it. It read, “My loving Dan....You must wonder who I am after all these years? Well, here are tickets for Pam and you for a holiday in Switzerland .All will be revealed there? “

In a hotel suite in Switzerland we found a bottle of Champagne and the familiar Beautiful Envelope on a Lovely Bouquet of pink roses. Hands trembling I opened it..."Join me for Lunch at the restaurant at one.”..it said. Pam and I were seated at the restaurants well in advance. Both of us quiet, no words to share .Suddenly a lovely woman, a few years younger to me joined us. As I stood up to greet her, she gave me a bear hug and a kiss.  Pam’s quizzical look at me made me a little uncomfortable.

“Dan, Pam I am Maze” she said. My thoughts went haywire...great name MAZE. Pam must think she was one of long lost invisable loves.  Her name “Maze” matched  the maze of surprise envelopes that I kept getting every year.I was jolted back from my thoughts  as  Maze continued, "I will make it very, very short so we can enjoy the next two weeks of our holiday here. Dan, my mother who died of cancer last month is your mother too.”  The glass of wine just slipped out of my hand and crashed on to the table...all that about being a trained army officer who could handle surprises just crashed to pieces.

Maze with a tear in her eye continued ,” Many years back mummy was in love with a boy who suddenly disappeared leaving her pregnant. Her love for the baby in her womb was so great that she decided to have the baby. Her parents were very supportive but counseled her to give it up for adoption. Dan, as luck would have it, another mother lost her baby boy at the same hospital on the same day and they adopted you.” The shock in my face was evident and Pam reached out and held my hand. My dad and Mum had never ever told me about me being adopted .Maze continued “Purity, thats our mother’s name, did not know the new family but was able trace the adoption records and find you only after 10 years. Every 26th of December, your Birthday, from your tenth birthday onwards, she sent you an Envelope with a gift. Dan, a gift she knew you wanted most”. I suddenly remembered on my tenth Birthday and the first envelope with a gift voucher that was delivered by a bank .The gift was my first bicycle.

Maze continued, “Mother told me about you, Dan, only about two years back when she was stricken with cancer. She told me to meet you after her death and give you this Envelope.” Another envelope...I thought and the maze, at last, seems to be coming out of the end. My thoughts went back to the envelopes I received over the years which gave me so much joy. There were gift coupons gifting me my first cycle, my first motor cycle, my first car, my first violin. Anything I wanted it was there delivered in the envelope. It was a Mystery Envelope that I could never find the sender and I did try too.

I was suddenly brought back to the present when the envelope slipped from my hand...Butter fingers. Pam picked it up and for the first time in my life I asked her to open it.  Pam gasped as she read it and slowly handed back to me with a shocked look .I  almost fell over as I read “ Hello Dan, my son,...I love you and have done so from the day God gave you to me in my womb. The terrible pain of not being able to hold you made me make these hand crafted Envelopes myself .I knew you would hold it and open it and so I filled it with my love and kisses and it gave me immense joy that my love and kisses would flow out of the envelope and engulf  you, my darling  son. Maze is your only sister and she has accepted my will that all my wealth and assets, be divided in half for both of my children. Maze is a darling and needs a darling Brother.”

 Tears welled into my eyes as I realized that I too was the only child of my adopted parents and had always wanted a sister. I held and kissed the Envelope engulfing my mother and reached out and like a baby and cried in arms of my sister, Maze. A sister who I found through …”This  ENVELOPE. “