One midsummer day, while Madeline was cleaning out her larder, she found something odd. A jar whose contents she could not identify. It was dark like tar, and when she held it to the light, she could see tiny yellow beads swimming inside. She checked the label, but it had already faded.

She asked her husband and her kids, but none of them recognized it. So, she called her mother and her sister to check if it was something she had taken by accident once, but they also did not recognize it. Her husband dismissed it as something she might have simply forgotten about, but Madeline insisted that it wasn’t one of hers. She hated jars with yellow lids, so it didn’t make sense that she used one. Also, even if she did, she would never place it behind the bigger jars in the corner. This jar was an intruder.

Attempting to pry it open was useless. She banged it against the counter, ran it under hot water, soaped it…it just wouldn’t budge. By the time Madeline was about to break it open, Mrs. Halbert dropped by. She spotted the jar on the counter, and it caught her attention. When Madeline explained how she found it, Mrs. Halbert’s expression was blank.

She asked if anyone else accessed her larder, like a maid or a relative, and Madeline said that lots of people do. She loved showing off her conserves and reserves, the rows of shelves, labeled and placed so neatly, like in a supermarket. 

Mrs. Halbert nodded and warned her not to open the jar. She told her stories about people she knew who, like her, found things in their homes they couldn’t explain. Mrs. Frederick’s daughter was left by her fiancé because she had worn a necklace she found at the bottom of her closet. Elizabeth, a distant cousin who rapidly lost her youth, health, and beauty, discovered a piece of paper containing scribbles taped to the back of her bathroom mirror.

stories from seven stories