A Valentine's Day Gift

[Nikolai Allen]

There were places where being sneaky was nearly impossible! That was why he'd taken so many precautions today. Here though it was proving to be very difficult. Sure, he'd stuffed the jewelry box into his backpack, and pretended it was just another book taking a ride from school, to home, to the penthouse on top of the Golden Pearl. It was kind of book shaped, right? There was a great deal of feinting that needed to happen when trying to be subversive at Uncle Eddie and Aunt Tahlia's. He was working on one of those now, heading for the kitchen as if he was really thirsty. He even pulled down a glass and filled it up with water, because every good boy drinks water. On his return he enquired about were there any pop tarts that he could eat, because it had been hours since lunch, and he'd left home before supper. He was using every sure fire trick to his trade to get Aunt Tahlia to disappear for a while so he could run to her room, put the jewelry box on her pillow. He was panting when he returned, covering that by taking a loooong drink from his glass of good boy water. He fixed Tahlia with one of his brilliant, sparkle eyed looks when she returned. Just Niko being normal, nothing to see here.

The handmade wooden jewelry box contained a decorative hair comb, adorned with brightly colored Phoenix Down feathers, and a note stating...

Love you Aunt Tahlia!