November 4, 1970

Dear Mr Keon

After school I checked for the mail again. If you cannot write because you are on road trip to California that is okay. Just do your best. You can write on the air plane when you have time then you can mail to me when you get back.

Today father raked leaves while Jane jumped into the piles. I got to be alone because mother was not home yet from work. I thought about Rollie’s box and decided to get it before he got me. I got a bread knife from the kitchen downstairs and one of mother’s shoes for a hammer. The floor board was very tight and I could not put the knife in between the cracks. I banged on the knife. It kept slipping. Finally it stayed and banging made it go deeper .

Johnny? Mother opened the door. I jumped up and blocked her from seeing the knife that was still in the floor. She asked what I was doing with one of her shoes.

I told her I was practising juggling and reached for the other shoe.

See? I threw both shoes up and could juggle a couple of times before dropping them.

She shook her head. Help me make dinner. No time to play.

I left the knife sticking out of the floor and helped make dinner and prayed she did not go back to the room and see it. After I washed some vegetables and the rice mother let me go back upstairs. The knife was still in the floor. I dug around the edges and got it looser. It was like digging for treasure or finding evidence and was kind of fun. Finally I got the board loose enough and lifted it off. I saw something that was rectangular and lifted it out. It was a box made out of gray metal like I seen people put money in. I was right. Lots of money and diamonds had to be inside. I tried to open it but it was locked. I used the knife to break it open but could not. It was pretty light and I shook it around and one thing moved around and some loose things moved so maybe there was no gun but maybe jewels still. I heard mother calling me for dinner so I rushed to put the board back. I hid the box in the closet behind some building blocks that I don’t hardly play with no more and ran downstairs.

Your friend,

Johnny Wong