Inktober 2024 - 7 - Passport

"Hey, Mom. Any idea what this is?"

After her grandmother's passing, a few weeks ago, Adélaïde and her Mom had taken it upon themselves to empty out her house. Her brother hadn't been able to take time off from school beyond the funeral, and her father felt disrespectful going through his late mother-in-law's stuff. The whole endeavour had been quite a walk down memory lane, and they were almost done, when the young woman came back from the bedroom with a metal box.

"I've never seen it before. Where did you find it?" asked her mother.

"Under Grandma's bed. Must have been important."

After having wiped some dust off her hands, the older woman traced the intricate designs carved on the sides of the object.

"It's beautiful. What's inside it?"

"I don't know; it's locked."

"That's odd. I've never known Mom to lock anything but the front door."

"She did always have a key on her…"

Adélaïde lifted up the necklace she inherited from her grandmother from under her shirt, a tiny silver key.

"It's jewellery," reasoned her mother, unconvinced.

"Worth a try."

Taking the pendant off, Adélaïde carefully inserted it into the keyhole, turned, and it unlocked!

"Voilà! Wait. Is this Grandpa?"

The first item inside the box was a photograph of a dapper young man. She flipped it so her mother could see.

"I have never seen this picture before, but yes. I wonder why your Grandma kept it under lock and key."

"Maybe Grandpa didn't like reminiscing about his time in the army," suggested Adélaïde, browsing through other similar images beneath the first one.

Her mother chuckled.

"You did not get to know your grandfather much, but he was an even bigger pacifist than your Dad is; he never would have served."

"This looks a lot like a military uniform, though. And he wasn't at a costume party, because there are dozens of these. Grandma wore one, too."

"What? Let me see."

Grabbing the pack of photographs handed to her, Adélaïde's mother started going through them, the frown on her face growing more pronounced with each. Meanwhile, her daughter kept digging through the treasure box, not as distraught by the discovery. So, her grandparents had a life before having a child? That happened. She found what she assumed were medals, although she could not really identify what they were for. Some coins and rectangular pieces of papers, she took to be currency from a foreign country. And at the very bottom, two passports, one for her grandmother, and one for her grandfather. It was all very strange to keep all of this in a secret box, especially considering she wore the key to it around her neck at all times.

"Did Grandma travel a lot?"

"Never. Why? What did you find?"

"Passports."

"Passports?"

Again, Adélaïde handed what she had found to her mother. She opened the tiny booklets and went pale.

"What is it, Mom?"

"These passports have a planet of birth on them…"