Page 86 of As The Shifter World Turns

86

TREASURE HUNTING TIME

Martin

I was worse than Toby at Christmas. He would sneak out early in the morning and stare at the gifts hoping to… I don’t know... magically see through the wrapping or possibly get X-ray vision or something.

Only instead of gifts, I was staring at the treasure map, the one everyone else insisted wasn’t treasure and was instead the product of some kid's crazy imagination. And sure, there was the potential it was that, but my gut told me it was more.

The details were too specific and it was less of a map and more a trail of clues. No, this felt like an adult’s doing or possibly multiple adults.

But I couldn’t go anywhere. Not now. Neil was having a rough time, a really rough one, and he wasn’t up for leaving Sunshine Manor. Having his former boss threaten him had destroyed much of the progress he’d made over the last year.

“Maybe bring the map over to Neil’s and the two of you can figure out the clues.” Sometimes my boy saw more than he should. “It will be fun. I have homework though.” He scrunched up his little face. “Probably best I bring it and be sponsible.”

“You mean responsible?” I asked, not wanting to correct him while at the same time giving the opportunity for him to fix it if he wanted.

“Learned today that re is a prefix and it means again. And I was not sponsible with my work yesterday so doing it again isn’t an option.”

I will not laugh. I will not laugh, even if it is the most amusing thing I’ve heard all day .

“Pretty sure re is not the prefix here. We could look it up though.” His teacher was all about looking things up this year and Toby ran to his tablet.

I slid the map back into the huge envelope I’d gotten to keep it safe as he typed away on his device.

“Not a prefix.” He sighed. “No wonder I never heard anyone say sponsible before.”

“That’s a bummer.”

“It is. It so is.” He grabbed his backpack. “I guess I can go to Neil’s and be REsponsible.”

“Sounds like a plan. Let me call him and let him know we are on our way.” I phoned, not wanting to text.

“Hey Martin.” He picked up on the first ring, sounding much better than the last time I talked to him earlier in the day.

“I thought maybe Toby and I could come over. He has homework and I—I know it’s silly but I thought maybe you could help me with the map?”

“I’d love that. And thanks… for calling. I know it’s silly, but it’s better than you turning up at my door.” His confession warmed my heart at the same time it angered me to my core. I hated that someone made him feel that way, but was happy that he trusted me with his emotions.

“We’ll be right over.”

Toby settled down with his homework. He was excited about some writing assignment and I didn’t have to refocus him even once. For all his pretending he wasn’t consistently responsible, with school he kinda was, at least for a kid his age.

“Let’s see what you got.” Neil had the entire table cleared for us. I wanted to kiss him so badly, but the kiss I had in mind was far from appropriate with my son in the same apartment.

I wanted to kiss Neil until his knees gave out and he was begging for more.

That would definitely need to wait.

“We don’t know where this starts, that is the problem,” he said after walking around it a few times. “Once we figure out one of these locations, the rest will be easier.”

“But first we have to find the one.”

“Therein lies the rub.” He tapped his nose, circled the table again, and then took out his phone.

“Hey, Ivor, do you remember the name of that hardware store that closed on Fifth?”

I had no idea why he was asking but listened as the two chatted back and forth and finally hung up.

“Toby, what do you think about doing your work at Ivor’s?”

“Do you think I can hold the baby? I love babies.” I had to give it to Toby, on some things he was really flexible.

“I could only hear half that conversation.”

Neil picked up my envelope. “We are going to Ivor’s and I’m going to watch the baby and Toby and he can help you with the first clue.”

I bit my tongue, wanting to tell Neil that he was the one I wanted to help me. But that was pushing him past his comfort levels, at least for right now.

“Okay.”

Only it ended up not being the plan. When we arrived at Ivor’s, Archer was there dropping off Elune. Poor Neil had somehow ended up as the town babysitter. Not that he seemed to mind. If anything, he looked like he enjoyed it.

And that had me picturing him as a father… not a father, the father… the father of my baby. I squashed that thought down so quickly. We hadn’t even managed to get to the moving-in stage, the baby stage was many light years away.

“Dad, can I come with you?” Toby looked up at me pleadingly as we settled on what we were doing.

“How much homework do you have?” Not that he should have any, in my opinion. Kids should be allowed to be kids. But that was a fight I wasn’t going to win with the school so I never bothered starting the battle.

“I can get it done.” He stood up straight as if that strengthened his words.

I looked to Archer and Ivor and they both gave a tiny nod.

“We’d love you to come.”

“Bring me back treasure or a milkshake.” Neil was playing peek-a-boo with the baby and sing songing to us as he did.

“We will,” Toby promised. “Nutella?”

“With banana please.”

“With banana,” I assured him.

We all piled into the car and headed to where the old hardware store used to be. It was anticlimactic until Toby noticed the sun carved into the side of the building it once sat in. That had us at the next location, an insurance agency, but once again, it was an architectural detail that led us to the next place. One by one, we went from location to location, zig-zagging across the city.

Each stop got our hearts racing, as we got closer and closer to… to…

“This is the motel.” Archer blew out a long breath. “We traveled the entire city to come back to where we found the map.”

“Maybe we already missed it, like it was one of the other places.” Ivor rubbed the heel of his hand into his eye. “I bet we did the sequence wrong.”

“No, this is right or we wouldn't have made it all the way through.” Toby pointed to the clue. “See. We’re here and so is the treasure. They just wanted to make us work for it.”

“Or drive for it, as it were.” Ivor climbed out of the truck. “Might as well find this bad boy. They were all about architectural elements. Let’s hunt them down.”

Archer got out of the truck slowly, his pregnant belly preceding him and jingled his keys. “I think I know what it is. ”

We raced out to follow him and he took us into the courtyard. “See the fountain or where the fountain used to be?” He pointed to an overgrown corner I hadn’t really noticed the last time we were here. “It has a gargoyle on it. Like one from an old building. I bet that’s it.”

We ran over, all of us unsure what to do from there—all of us but Toby.

“I bet if we flip it over we will see something.”

It took two grown men—Archer had to watch because he was pregnant and couldn’t do any heavy lifting—to get it up and off, but on the pedestal where it stood was a hole and in that hole a tiny box.

“Can you grab that Toby?” I asked, not wanting any of us to let go of the statue.

He reached in and pulled it out, stepping back so we could resituate the statue.

“The treasure’s light.” He set it on the fountain. “Even if it were rubies, I bet it wouldn’t be worth much.”

“You do it.” Ivor gave my shoulder a light tap. “You’re the reason we’re here.”

I opened it, ever so slowly and inside was a rolled up piece of paper.

“More instructions?” Archer guessed.

I unrolled it and read it to myself before reading it to them. “Happiness is a direction, not a place. ~ Sydney J. Harris.” The treasure was an inspirational quote. I couldn’t help the laughter building inside me.

“I mean he’s not wrong.” Ivor joined in my laughter. Soon enough all four of us were cracking up.

“At least we get milkshakes,” Toby said when the laughter subsided.

“At least we get milkshakes.” I gave him a hug.