Poor Mom Removes Wallpaper Her Kid Painted, Finds Old Treasure Map Drawn under It – Story of the Day

When Nina gets a new job as a lighthouse keeper and has to pack up and move with her sons to a little house on the beach, she has no clue what’s in store for her. A treasure map hidden in the wallpaper of the house holds secrets that would change Nina's life forever.

Nina started unpacking the final boxes for the kitchen. They didn't have much, and everything they did have was passed down from her grandmother to her mother and finally to her. The new house was smaller than the flat they lived in, but she was grateful it came with the job. At least this way, they didn't have to look for a new house and school, all while getting used to the new place.

"Mommy, do you need help?" Marko asked her from the kitchen doorway.

"No, thank you, my boy," she said. "How's your unpacking going?"

"I'm done. I only have socks left to put away, but I still need to figure out where to put them. And Will is asleep on our bed already."

"It's okay, I'll help you soon. Do you like the house?" she asked him.

"It's a little smaller than the other house. But what job will you have here?" Marko asked and sat down at the table with her.

"I'll be the lighthouse keeper," she said.

"What will you do?"

"I'll tidy the lighthouse every day and make sure that the glass lens itself is clean. Then, at night, I'll have to make sure that the light is on at all times. It's not used very often, but there are still ships carrying cargo, so it's very important for them to see the light and know their way."

"Wow, Mom, this is a really important job! I'll help, too, whenever you need it. Does this mean that you'll be in the lighthouse at night?"

"No, not really. I'll keep an eye from here, but I'll have to go and check on everything from time to time. You and Will can come with me sometimes," she said.

Marko nodded. He seemed satisfied by the explanation of her new job. He also seemed a little more settled, and there was something more childlike to both her boys since they moved in two days ago. Nina chalked it up to them being so close to the beach – where they spoke about playing in the water and having picnics on Sunday afternoons.

Maybe it was just the change of scenery, as she thought, or perhaps it was the fact that she had finally gotten a job and that her boys knew their struggles were over.

Nina remembered the day she saw the advertisement for the lighthouse keeper's position in the library behind their old flat. She had made it a habit to take the boys there after school to do their homework while she looked through the noticeboards or read a book.

When Nina told the boys she would apply for the job, even if it meant they would have to leave the flat and possibly change schools, Will nodded, and Marko hugged her.

She knew then that they were ready for a new adventure, too.

Nina spent the next few days making the little house a home. She wanted her boys to feel completely moved in before they started at the new school. Marko was ready to tackle anything. Will, on the other hand, seemed a bit more reserved. He had been coloring away at the kitchen table most nights, always ready to add another 'painting' to the walls.

On the first day of school, Nina scrambled eggs and made hot buttered toast for her boys – this was their comfort meal for as long as she could remember.

Will came into the kitchen first, dragging his schoolbag along with him.

"Mom, if it's scary, will you pick me up?" he asked.

"Oh, you bet, honey. But I don't think it will be scary at all. It will be new and different, but not scary."

"And I'll be there," Marko said, sitting at the table. Marko placed a slice of toast on Will's plate and helped steady Will's arm when he tried to spoon the eggs. Nina always knew he would be the best big brother.

Thirty minutes later, the school bus had pulled into the beach's parking lot, all ready to cart the boys off to school.

Nina had been to the lighthouse earlier that morning before the boys woke up, so she had taken care of most of the chores. She decided to focus on the house for the next hour — to clean up the boys' room and try to patch up the one window in the living room that seemed to let the cold beach wind in at night.

She went into the boys' room and dusted off the duvet and blanket before neatly making the bed and fluffing up the pillows. As she was putting away their toys from the middle of the carpet, she saw that one of the boys had painted across the wallpaper in the corner of the room. Nina looked around the room and sighed.

"I bet it was Will," she said to herself.

It was just watercolors, and the wallpaper was dreary anyway, she thought.

"Maybe I should just remove it. It dulls the room anyway," she mumbled.

Nina ran her fingers across the wallpaper, looking for a tear to start the process. When she found one, she began to pull at it – after a while, she got into momentum and discovered the right amount of force she needed to get the wallpaper section off in one swift movement.

After a while, when Nina pulled a piece of wallpaper out, an old, folded piece of paper came away from the wall. She crumpled the wallpaper she was holding and tossed it into the hallway.

She picked up the folded paper and sat down on the bed. When Nina opened it, she saw that it was an old drawn treasure map that had been altered with a red pen at certain parts. Nina sniffed at the paper. It smelled old and timeless, like memories stored away in dust. She sneezed, the dust in the room getting the better of her.

Nina took the map to the kitchen and laid it flat on the table. The map looked important, like in movies where a person got lucky just by holding it. She felt a little foolish, but she wanted to try and make sense of it – and if she couldn't, who knew? Maybe she could use the map and the hiding spot to create a fun weekend treasure hunt for the boys.

She got a glass of water and decided to phone her brother.

"Steven, hi," she said into the phone.

"Hi, Sis! How are you? Enjoying the new home?" he asked.

"It's great! It still feels very new, and we've decided to look at it as a new adventure. Will thinks that we'll run into a bunch of pirates on the beach one of these days."

Her brother let out a deep, throaty laugh.

"So, I called because I found an old treasure map hidden in the wallpaper in the boys' room. Should I follow it?" she asked, and told him a little more about her find.

"You've got to follow it! Why not? Maybe look for it soon before Will's pirates come for it."

Nina smiled. She knew she could count on him to excite her ideas.

"And remember that N stands for North on the compass," he laughed again. "Good luck, Sis. Let me know what you find!" he said, cutting the call.

It took Nina a moment to get her bearings in terms of direction. But when she did, the map appeared to start from the front door. What confused her was that the newer red lines altered the course of the original map. She decided to follow the red lines – they were also easier to decipher in any case.

Nina wore her black boots and pulled a shawl around her shoulders before heading out the door. She followed the red lines from the front door to around the side of the house. The map had an image of a lantern, and this was circled in red. She shielded her eyes from the sun and saw a similar-looking lantern on top of a long street pole just below the little cliff at the house's edge.

She descended the old creaky stairs, worn from the elements, and walked to the lantern. When she was there, Nina stood right before it, calculating where to go next. It seemed that the red lines were leading her to the lighthouse.

Nina made her way to the lighthouse, wondering again whether she was being foolish.

But come on, what do we have to lose? she asked herself.

Nina entered the lighthouse and climbed the stairs to the top. She figured that if she tried to find something in the lighthouse, she should comb it thoroughly from top to bottom.

She ran her hands against the walls, listened for hollow sounds in the floorboards, and even searched beneath the light for any sign of a hideaway. When she was satisfied that there was nothing, she moved to the second floor.

Something about the second floor gave her goosebumps, and maybe it was the scratches on the wall above the single bed that lay pushed up against the wall, jutting out at different angles. Or the broken mirror next to the window. Or maybe it was the loose railing at the center of the room, and she wondered if anybody had fallen through.

Nina knelt by the bed, running her hands beneath it for some sign, but came up empty-handed. She removed the bed covers and searched through the mattress – maybe there would be another map.

There was nothing.

She went onto the first floor, where there was a plain desk with no drawers and an old heavy armchair that was worn and dusty.

She figured that the 'treasure' — if there even was one — could be beneath the armchair or the desk if something were here. Once she pushed the chair, beads of sweat collecting on her forehead, she got onto her knees and began to feel around.

"Come on, Nina. Let's find something here," she mumbled.

She ran her hands on the dusty floorboard and found a little hook that you'd find on a trapdoor.

Nina pulled at the trapdoor, and after a few minutes, it finally gave way. The space beneath the trapdoor was tiny, like a hiding place for a package rather than a person to fit into.

Nina reached into the space and pulled out whatever she could feel. Out came two heavy dark blue bags with thick zips. She picked up the bags and ran back to the house.

When Nina opened the bags on the kitchen table, one was a bagful of money – this surprised Nina because despite the bag looking old, the notes were crisp and were in circulation. The second bag had a set of antique hairbrushes, two vintage-looking mirrors, and a few heavy brooches studded with big stones.

"It's...it's an actual treasure!" Nina gasped.

Later that day...

"Mommy, we're home!" Will yelled as he opened the door and bounced into the house.

"How was school?" she asked and hugged him.

"Good! I made friends, and Marko walked me to my class," he said as Marko walked in.

"That's great, honey! How was your day, Marko?

"It was good, mom. It's different, but good-different, you know?"

Later that night, Nina lay in bed, deciding what to do about the treasures she found. On the one hand, she was over the moon – there was more than enough money in the bag for her and the boys to set off again. To begin in a suburb, even in a new state. The boys could easily be enrolled in the best of schools. She would probably be fine not working for a few years, too.

And if they needed more, she could pawn the antiques – they were probably worth as much as the money in the first bag.

But was this new start the right start?

This question tormented her for months. She would spend nights dreaming up her new life that the treasure could afford her, and spend the following day talking herself out of it.

As the days passed, as her whole life until then kept playing before her eyes, and as she watched how bright and kind her children were, the choice became easier.

A few months later, Nina and the boys moved to the next town.

Nina enrolled them both in a private school, and they were flourishing in their new roles, growing into themselves. They lived in a comfortable three-bedroom house in the suburbs, and she could cook a fresh meal daily for her sweet boys – there was no need to stretch the leftovers again.

Nina pawned off all the antiques, except the set of hairbrushes, because she decided they could be the family heirloom – something to pass down along the generations to come.

"Mom, do you miss the lighthouse?" Marko asked one morning as she was flipping pancakes on the stove.

"I do, but the lighthouse has given us everything we have now. So, while I may miss it, I am grateful for it all."

"How did we get all the money?" he asked earnestly.

"It was a gift...from an older lighthouse keeper," she smiled at him, looking at the heavens, thanking the Lighthouse Keeper up there, beyond the clouds, who had watched over her and the kids.

Nina did not regret anything. She could have left the bags right there – and continued to live her life as though she had never found the treasure map. Instead, she took this as an opportunity to give her children the best possible outcome for their future – securing their education meant everything to her, even if it meant living in a new town without knowing anybody.

And to remind her of her decision, the folded map lay stuck beneath her mattress, something she would look at from time to time.

A new start was a new start.

She looked at it with gratitude when she finally had enough to buy her own home a few years later. She did the same when she started a business from the ground up, and when, years later, she made enough wealth to buy her own humble home.

After turning a business she built from scratch into a multi-million-dollar enterprise, she bought a yacht and decided to see the world, now that her boys were all grown up and well-settled.

That first night in her own yacht, being softly rocked by the waves and lulled to sleep by the dark starry night, she knew her Lighthouse Keeper was sending her a sign.

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If you enjoyed this story, here's another one: Young couple, Kara and Aaron, are cleaning out the old house they purchased for a suspiciously low price when they discover a strange door in the basement. This find should have solved all their problems. However, they realize how wrong they were when someone breaks into their house. Read the full story here.

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