“Seems like the little guy does not want to be caught.”

“Little? That snake was not little!”

I looked up to where the snake catcher stood in the middle of the ladder, his upper body lost in the darkness of the ceiling manhole. All I could see of him was his black boots and hairy legs.

Chuckling, he climbed up another couple of rungs, putting himself further into the stifling roof and sending flecks of dust falling to the ground. They were captured in the rays of light trickling through the stain-glassed door at the end of the hallway, tickling my nose and making me want to sneeze. But I didn’t move away from where I had my feet wedged against the bottom of the ladder to keep it secure. Several loud scrapes came from above, and I imagined the snake catcher pushing heavy boxes aside while he searched with his torch.

The door at the end of the hallway opened. Wiping away a trickle of sweat from the side of my face, I turned and breathed in as a blast of cold air hit me. I wanted nothing more than to return to the air-conditioning in the loungeroom where my brother and our friends were hiding.

I both loved and hated my grandparents’ old Queenslander home. Its entire second floor had a wide veranda that encircled the whole house that made you feel as if you were sitting amongst the branches of the trees. I would sit outside in the evening in a hammock swinging lazily in the evening breeze and listen to the rainbow lorikeets as they said goodbye to the day. But the oppressive heat that was captured within its walls during the middle of the day, sucked the life out of your soul and made you limp and weak. There wasn’t even the luxury of a ceiling fan where I was standing.

“Has he found it yet, Jaliyah?”

I eyed my older brother, Shane, walking towards me, apple in hand, his olive-skinned cheeks full. I shook my head at his best friend, Nate, who followed close behind.

“Now you decide to join me,” I said. “What have you been doing back there?” I flicked my head in the direction of the loungeroom.

Shane opened his mouth to answer but sent speckles of juice flying from his mouth and onto my arm instead.

“Gross!” I glared into brown eyes that were identical to my own. Only a year older than me, we shared the same chocolate brown hair, skin tone and dark-coloured eyes. If he grew his hair out, I was sure we would look like twins.

I went to wipe my arm on his shirt, but he whipped his hand up and blocked me. I moved my arm again, only to have him obstruct me once more. Three years of self-defence training and I was still defenseless against him.

“You should have let us go up there to get it,” Nate said, ignoring our sibling rivalry. Shane and I both stopped and looked back up at the snake catcher’s black boots.

“She’s the one who wants to be a vet,” Shane answered before I could. “She found it, she should go up and get it.

“Are you serious? I’m not going to go all ‘Irwin’,” I said, shaking my head. “Two years of university and you’ve both already used all your brain cells. What if it’s an Eastern Brown?”

“I don’t even know why you went up there on such a hot day in the first place,” Nate said, wiping his hand over his sweaty brow and pushing his sandy brown locks back. “It would be easily over forty degrees up there.”

I reached up and pulled at my simple ponytail, tightening its hold on my brown hair. “I saw my grandmother put boxes up there when I was little and she always told me it was boring, old junk.” I shrugged. “I’ve always been curious.”

Shane took another large bite from the apple and scratched his head, clearly bored with our conversation.

“Ah ha! Found him!”

We all looked up again.

“He’s found it?” a voice called from the living room.

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I poked my head past Shane and Nate. Arina, my closest friend, was cowering around the end of the hallway, her long red curls hanging over her shoulder. I gave her a thumbs up.

The snake catcher, whose name I had completely forgotten, climbed up another couple of rungs and then disappeared completely into the roof. Louder scrapes, followed by bangs, reached our ears. I cringed. I didn’t want him to fall through the thin plasterboard on top of us with the snake in tow.

“Do you think he’s all right?” I whispered to Shane.

“It’s his job,” he said. “He does this every day. I think he knows what he is doing.”

The man’s feet suddenly appeared again, and after repositioning himself on the ladder, he started to climb back down. In his left hand, he held a wriggling, medium sized cream mesh bag, a pole with a hook, and under the same arm, a small brown box.

I took a tentative step back from the bag, relinquishing my hold on the ladder.

He had been up in the roof for so long, I had also forgotten what the man looked like. Smiling politely, I took in his bushy black hair and blue eyes. Sweat soaked through his khaki uniform so it stuck to his roundish middle. The material at his armpits were soddened and a waft of his body odor quickly filled the space around me. My gaze fell to his nametag, faded and yellow, to read ‘Matt’ from Ipswich Animal and Pest Control.

“Can I get you a drink?” I asked.

“Nah,” Matt responded, his bushy eyebrows bobbing up and down as he spoke. “Got an esky in the back of my ute. What were you guys even doing up there?” he asked.

“She was bored apparently,” Nate stated, and gave me a nudge with his elbow.

“What was it?” Arina called.

“Eastern Brown,” Matt answered.

I gave Shane and Nate a pointed look.

“You’re gonna have to tell your parents they’ve got a hole in the roof.”

“Grandparents,” I corrected. “Folks are overseas.” It was a lie I often used, and I avoided Shane’s dramatic eye roll. I didn’t need to explain my parents’ non-existent presence in my life to every stranger I met.

“Aah, right. Well anyway,” Matt continued, “they might want to get it fixed so they don’t get any more of these guys or possums. I don’t know which is worse. Oh, I almost forgot.” He reached for the box under his arm with his free hand and held it out in my direction. “Found this near the hole as well. Looks fancy. I brought it down so it doesn’t get damaged, you know, if we get a storm.”

Shane and I both stepped towards him and leaned over the brown box. It was similar to my grandmother’s rosewood carved jewelry case but cut to mirror a miniature chest. It was about thirty centimeters long and twenty centimeters deep. Carefully, I took it into my hands.

Arina’s flowery perfume wafted up to my nose, a fresh change amongst all the male bodies. Curiosity must have overcome her fear of the snake.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered.

“Thanks,” I said, looking back at Matt. “My grandmother’s probably forgotten about it over the years.”

“What do you think it is?” he asked. “Korean? Chinese?”

I ran my hands over the rough, carved surface. Covered in intricate pictures, I judged its weight. It wasn’t heavy, but when I shook it gently, there was a soft thud indicating the possibility of an object inside. “It’s most likely Chinese,” I told him. “The whole family is of Chinese heritage.”

“Ah, right,” he said. “The family’s been in Southeast Queensland a while then?”

Shane answered for me. “The Chinese side of the family came here around 1860 during Queensland’s ill-fated gold rush.” I glanced up in time to see his gaze drop to the bag. “So, what are you going to do with the snake?” he asked.

My concentration shifted completely to the box, and I sank to the ground to explore it further as Shane and Nate’s voices started to drift away as they guided Matt and his poisonous snake to the front door. Disregarding their chatter, I focused on following the carved story on the outside of the chest.

Arina settled on the floor beside me as well.

We both ignored the sound of the front door slamming closed. I tugged on the lid of the chest, but it didn’t move.

“How do you think you open it?” Arina asked, turning her head from left to right to examine it from different angles.

“I don’t know.”

My fingers traced over the top, twisting and turning the chest, letting my eyes determine the story that was depicted on its surface. On one side, two women filled a vase. They wore heavy long-sleeved shirts that covered skirts long enough to reach their ankles. There were two daggers on either ends, their blades long and curved. The pommels and grip were decorated with patterns and what could have been stones if they had been real.

“Press something,” Arina said. “Maybe it has a hidden latch.”

The skin on my forehead tightened as I concentrated. There were no obvious clips or buttons to pull or press. I pushed different parts of the carved pictures but nothing happened. Sighing, I rested my head on the wall and squeezed the box in frustration. A click reached my ears.

My head jolted up, and I looked at Arina and smiled.

“What did you do?” she asked.

“I pushed both of the daggers in opposite directions.”

Suddenly feeling hesitant, I looked up and down the hallway. Were we about to look at something private that grandmother had hidden away for years? I doubted it. My grandparents had always lived uneventful, simple lives. Mumbled voices began to come from the living room. Assuming the snake catcher had left, Shane and Nate must had chosen to walk around the verandah and reentered the house through the sliding door that opened directly into the loungeroom.

We were alone. I glanced back down at the chest. It was a simple, small box probably containing a forgotten piece of junk. Slowly, and with gentle hands, I lifted the lid.

“Wow!” I whispered.