Nadia’s family bought an old house in the spring. It was big and cheap, but it needed a lot of work. Every weekend, Nadia and her dad something: a door, a window, the stairs.
One Saturday in June, they were taking down an old kitchen wall. Dad hit the wall with a , and a small piece fell. Behind it, there was a hole. And in the hole, there was a yellow .
Nadia took it out . It was dirty and old. On the front, someone wrote: “For Annie. 1962.”
“Should we open it?” Nadia asked.
Dad thought for a moment. “It isn’t ours,” he said. “But maybe it can help us find Annie.”
Nadia opened it. Inside, there was a short letter and a black-and-white photo of a young man next to a bicycle.
“Dear Annie,” the letter said. “I’m leaving for Canada tomorrow. I’m hiding this letter here because your father reads your post. I will come back for you in two years. Please wait for me. Love, Tom.”
“That’s so romantic,” said Nadia. “Did she ever find it?”
That evening, they started a . Nadia looked online, and Dad went to the town library. The old showed that a family called Brooks lived in their house in the 1960s. They had a daughter, Ann.
A week later, Nadia found an Ann Brooks on a local history website. She was eighty-one years old and lived in a care home twenty minutes away.
On Sunday, they visited her. Nadia was . She gave the old woman the envelope. Ann read the letter twice. Her hands were shaking.
“Tom came back,” she said quietly. “In 1964. I didn’t know about this letter, but I waited anyway.” She smiled and showed them the ring on her finger. “We were married for fifty years.”
Words from the Story
- repair verb A2
- to fix something that is broken or old
- hammer noun B1
- a tool with a heavy metal head for hitting things
- envelope noun A2
- a paper cover that you put a letter in
- record noun A2
- written information about something in the past, kept for a long time
- search verb A2
- when you look carefully for someone or something
- careful adjective A1
- thinking about what you do so that you do not break or damage anything
- nervous adjective A2
- a little afraid or worried about what will happen
Check Your Understanding
- Where did they find the envelope?
- Why did Tom hide the letter?
- How did they find out about the Brooks family?
- Where did Ann live when they found her?
- What happened between Ann and Tom?