Alyssa Polito was my cousin’s neighbour and below her house she had a basement

full of wonders. When our brothers were at my cousin’s home, we would rummage

through the basement to search and showoff our treasures to each other. The first time I

went down I found a make-up compact and a dusty lipstick container. Alyssa found a pair

of big rubber boots. Years later I would find out they were popular footwear called

‘galoshes’ and most of the things in the basement came from the early 1900s from

Alyssa’s paternal grandparents. But what we hunted for most was the big Hot Wheels

collection Alyssa’s dad had left down there.

          He was an avid collector when he was younger and we would find this model, or

that limited edition of some car we never heard of, or ever cared for, but they were still in

their original box, all shiny unlike the casing. By the second year we knew each other, we

had collected over fifty cars. Alyssa’s dad once said to us that we were not even close to

his full collection. But his words did not stop us from continuing the search.

It turned into a sort of competition and in the living room we would put up the

cars we found and hang any cars we found up on to the wall. Alyssa had the right side and

I had the left side. There would always be (over ten) more on her side than mine.

On the third summer I knew her we found something else from the usual toy cars

and funny looking clothes. We found a rocking horse.

          First, we brought it outside into the backyard and dusted it off with our hands. We

were dirty already and it did not help much. We got sponges from the kitchen and we

scrubbed it down until it shined white under the sun.

          “Where did it come from?” I said.

          Alyssa scratched her head.

          “I don’t know. I guess it is one of my grandparent’s…maybe,” she said.

          The rocking horse stood there, white and paintless, due to our cleaning or age, I

did not know.

           Buffy, the Politos’ cat, was sniffing one of the horse’s legs.

          “We should paint it,” I said. “All your dad’s toy cars still have paint on them. I

don’t see why this should not.”

          All summer we saved our allowances to buy paint and any other necessary

materials. During that time we looked at pictures of rocking horses in books and the

internet. After some planning and Tic Tac Toe matches we decided how we were going to

paint it. All through August we were in the backyard with our paint, the naked rocking

horse, and sometimes Buffy. There were also these younger kids beside my cousin’s

house who played outside all day with nothing else than themselves and sticks for swords

or spears.

          “Arr! Prepare to die!” One would say, waving their stick.

          “You can’t kill me, I’m Superman!” one of his friends would say.

           Or they would argue over a controversial issue.

          “Unicorns DO exist!” One said.

          “No they do not!” Another, a pair, or the whole group would say to the first

speaker. “They’re extinct. They didn’t go on to Noah’s Ark because they liked to play in

the rain and then they all drowned. So there, we (or I) win!”

           And under all that I would said to Alyssa, “Can you pass the glue?” And she

would hand it to me for the rubies.

          But there was one time where we, I specifically, could not handle them.

It was in the middle of July and the temperature was in the mid twenties. We had

umbrellas for the sunlight but that did not protect us from the humid weather. The group

of kids were complaining about the weather and around the afternoon they decided to

throw dried bits of dirt at each other.

          “Maybe we should stop for today,” said Alyssa.

          “I want the fur done by the end of the week,” I said, wiping sweat off my

forehead.

          When I finished my sentence this big godforsaken piece of dried dirt flew from

out of nowhere and broke into bits when it hit the rocking horse. Those kids were still

laughing. I wiped the dirt off of my face and I walked over to the fence.

          “Hey!” They all stopped and looked at me. “Would you’ve cared if the piece of

dirt, as hard as a stone, hit one of us? Now we have to start over again because of all of

you!”

          The last sentence hit me the hardest. We would have to start it again. Alyssa and I

got new paint from our brothers’ money and I noticed all the kids stayed away from us

since I yelled at them.

          Near the end of August, in the late afternoon, we showed it to our brothers who

were both named Nicholas and my cousins. The horse’s body was painted yellow, it’s

mane white, and the reins were decorated with fake rubies chipped in the shape of a

diamond (thanks to Alyssa’s dad for the help and suggestion).

          “It’s beautiful isn’t it?” I stood high and proud. “We spent all summer making

this.”

          “I bet this is what it looked like when Grandma or Grandpa first bought it,”

Nicholas Politio, Alyssa’s brother said.

          I looked at my youngest cousin, Dan.

          “Do you want to ride it?” He was eight that summer, just beginning to learn the

world of us grown up kids. But that did not mean he could not ride it. Besides, Alyssa,

our brothers, my oldest cousin, and I were too big. Our weight would crush the rocking

horse Alyssa and I had been working so hard on all summer.

          Dan looked past my shoulders, over the short fences. My cousin’s neighbours had

gathered, staring at the horse with wide eyes and hanging jaws.

          Alyssa nudged me and I understood. I nodded and opened my mouth along with

her own.

          “Do you want to ride on it?” We said in unison.

          They all jumped over the fence, squealing. Dan did not say anything. I think he

gave a sigh of relief in the corner of my eye. One boy climbed up on to the saddle of the

rocking horse and he rocked back and forth, saying he was a cowboy, and the rest of his

friends joined in, pretending to be the police. There was a never ending supply of

laughter.

          The fake rubies glittered under the sun as the horse swayed and I could not help

but smile. I did not know any of their names and they did set Alyssa and I back a week or

two, yet all the same I was glad to make these children so happy. It was the greatest

treasure I found that summer.