The Padlocked Chest

I sneaked into the old abandoned house at the end of the street. I was surprised to find a small, padlocked treasure chest on a dresser in an upstairs bedroom. There was a note that said, “ Do not open . EVER!” I also found a small key hanging on the wall. I tried the key in the padlock. It was a perfect fit. I could not believe it, it was everything so strange that I could not realise  what was happening, just before I could open the chest I thought about what I was doing,  if it was worth doing it or not, about what would happen if something went wrong. But I decided not to feel any fear, just to turn the key and open the chest and see what happen. It was the good decision I think. But when I saw what was inside, I realised that the one who had written what was inside was not a stupid man. It was not treasure there, just a map, a map of somewhere else. I became amazed at the first moment, a plan, something exciting, but one minute after the feelings of happiness I had turned out to feelings of fear, I became very afraid of the place where the treasure was hidden. I could not solve the map and what was more frightening was that I didn’t know where I had to go and if someone would be waiting for me.

I decided to come back home, take a breath and try to know whether looking for that place was a good decision or not.  Finally I decided to take it easy, to continue with my life and let that issue for later, when I could devote my time there.

The time passed and two months after that decision I got unemployed, so I just decided to carry on with that issue I had left out before. I decided to investigate where the place I had to go could be and well, I started to look for places that could be related with the picture I had found in the chest. This was not a very difficult thing to do, I realised what  place it was as soon as I saw the photo,  the Aran islands, in Ireland. The inconvenient was the place where the camera was pointing when taking the photo, the ground of the most impressive cliffs all over the world, the Cliffs of Moher.

This is when I got really afraid, who could be so twisted as to put anything in such an inaccessible place. Then I started to think that the good point of this was that I could see easily if someone was waiting for me there but at the same time I noticed that it was easy to reach that place but it was impossible to leave it because climbing while I was wearing wet clothes the cliffs of moher meant to die.

After that, I started to search for the person who could have left the chest there to see if it was feasible to go to the cliffs or if the person was just a killer or someone dangerous. But this search became too difficult, so I just gave up, I knew I had to make a decision with the information I had and the decision was to fight, to reach whatever that was in the cliffs even I knew I was putting my life in danger.

  So the following day I decided to travel to Galway and start the most dangerous journey of my life.  When I arrived there I hired a boat to go below the cliffs with some other tourists. And, when I arrived there, I decided to dive into the sea and I started to swim along the ocean, trying to get to my goal.

The sailor was fascinated with me and he started to shout at me, trying to stop me, but in that moment, no one and nobody could stop me, I knew I was reaching it, it was so close, all the cliffs crowded, all the foreigners cheering ( they might have thought it was a competition), it was such a sweet scenery that I had to fight.

Finally I could arrive at the shore even I was exhausted. It wasn’t difficult to get to the treasure, in fact I can’t understand why nobody had tried to get to there before. When I got the treasure, I realised that it was opened so I just picked up everything I could and that was when I started to wonder how I could get back.  I decided to wait, it was the only option because swimming to the Aran islands was impossible, in fact was a record that had never been beaten before. I just waited until I could see a boat. In fact, I knew I was in Eire, the most savage Eire, where the sun sets is at 11 pm. But it was 7 pm and I felt really afraid, I had to make a decision, the boats stopped going through the cliffs and I didn’t know what to do : spent the whole night there or swimming up to the other side of the shore.  I decided to take the second decision and started to swim, with the jewerelly on my feet and I just did my best.

I think it was the craziest decision I have ever made in my life and it was the correct one, 3 hours later, I don’ know how, I arrived at the Aran islands, I was a record and a rich man. Luckily there were some houses next to the beach and I could get there and sleep well.

The next day I caught a flight and I came back to Galway, a little bit more rich but all in all, with more experience and having had the greatest experience of my life because of opening a padlocked chest.