When he blew the dust off from on top of the box the debris had gracefully floated away. He wiped any remains of old dust and picked the box up to place it in the middle of the wooden room, isolating it away from the others materials they've kept up in the attic. He cleaned his hands off and went over to the small window opening it to let some light in. It wasn't much but it was better than the darkness from before. He heavily sighed looking around the room. Now, where was it?
"It's here somewhere,I just know it!" Eight-year-old Eleana said opening up another box and started looking through it. He hoped that she didn't get her white shirt and red plaid overalls dirty from all this rubbish. He watched her take stuff out and place them down, not bothering to check where she was placing them. Still, for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why all of the sudden his daughter had an interest in that. They were looking for Eleana's favorite bedtime story from a couple of years ago. "I don't know El maybe we could give it a rest for now and look for it again tomorrow or something," truth was he was getting bored. It felt like they've been at this for hours.
Eleana didn't seem to quite hear him but she had stopped looking through the box and now stared at something inside. "Hey what's this?" She curiously asked reaching in and pulling it out. "Yay! we found it! can we got now,?" He exclaimed, hopeful the search was over. "This isn't my book Daddy," She observed the book front and back. It was a small old purple notebook that contained a picture of a golden whistle in the middle. Then what was it? He wondered walking over to her and she handed him the book still sitting in front of him. Once he had felt the weight and texture of the book he remembered exactly what it was. He carefully held it in front of him with both hands and then he started becoming overburden with emotion.
There was a reason he kept it up here along with all their forgotten belongings but he'd never truly forgotten it existed.
"Well, what is it?" Eleana asked from the floor tucking both sides of her thick curly hair behind her ear, smiling up at him. He didn't know what to ty say but he cleared his throat and tried to sound natural., "Its-um, it belonged to so one really special,". He brought the book down and stared into space remembering. "Really?!" El got up excited understand who the special person was. He made eye contact with the overjoyed little girl in front of him. "Yeah, it was actually her favorite story," he went on. Eleana was glad to hear this, he didn't talk much about her so she really didn't know much as she wanted to."Can you read it to me?" She hopefully asked him. He was ready to say no. However when he saw how thrilled Eleana was about this discovery he couldn't. Also, he didn't have a good reason not to read it to her other than his own selfishness.
"I'd love to, why don't you get ready for bed and I'll be right over," He softly smiled at her. She squealed, hugged him then skipped away. Once she was out of sight he gently started tracing the golden whistle. He had asked once if he could read it and she said no, that when the time came she would let him. Back then, he didn't understand what the big deal was, it was just a book after all. Her favorite book, which he himself has still never read.
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"Hurry up!" Eleana insisted, getting into bed in her pajamas. How he loved hearing her laugh. He carried the book in his hand still not sure he was ready to read it just yet. Nevertheless, he had already said yes to her. "Make room then," He teased wiggling himself onto her bed. Eleana made room and once her Dad was settled, she curled herself up next to him, and he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. He put the book out in front of them, "Ready?" he asked. She nodded excitedly. He was actually talking to himself but he didn't say anything.
He opened the book for the first time and he noticed that this wasn't like any other books he's read. It had no table of context, nor author, nor a dedication section, just a simple 7-word description. He flipped to the first chapter, titled 'Hello From Maui'. Odd choice, he thought. He mentally prepared himself and started reading the first line.
"This is where our story begins...."
As he kept reading to Eleana, the more familiar the story started to be. He wondered if he's actually read it before. He couldn't believe that he didn't know this story, it was a classic.
And that's when he realized why this was her favorite book.
