Page 71 of Jake and Conner

I smiled to myself.

I had the perfect plan.

31

Jake

Iwoke up to the sound of my dog barking at nothing. "What's wrong, Bailey?" I asked, but my dog was looking at something on my nightstand instead of looking at me. Bleary-eyed, I glanced at my alarm. It was nearly 10AM, but I'd just come off a long shift the night before so I wouldn't have minded sleeping for another hour or so.

Bailey barked again.

I patted the empty sheets next to me. "Come here, girl."

Bailey jumped up on the mattress, but kept staring at the nightstand. And now I noticed what she was looking at too. Someone had placed a vase of flowers there. Lilies. The same kind I'd bought for Conner so often that it had taken me several seconds to realize that they were out of place in my bedroom.

Because I hadn't bought them.

Had Conner...?

But if he'd been here, why hadn't be woken me? Wait, was he still around?

"Conner?" I tried calling his name, but there was no response. Of course not. It was a weekday, he would be at work at this time.

I sat up and took a closer look at the vase. There was a note propped up to it, and a small key had been placed in front of it.

"Good morning," the note read. "If you'd like to find out what this key is for, you'll need to follow a series of hints.

Every hint is a description of a place or sentiment I connect with you and a certain location. If you go to this location, you'll find the next hint.

Have fun!

Also, enjoy your flowers.

Love,

Conner."

I read the note carefully three times. Conner wanted me to follow a series of hints? A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. What the hell. This could actually be fun. Totally weird, but fun.

I found the first hint on the back of the note. It was a single sentence reading, "You took me here to cool down and show me that it's okay to break the rules sometimes."

A place I took Conner to cool down? I squinted searching my memory. When had I shown Conner that it was okay to break the rules? What did he mean by cooling down?

I waved the paper in front of me as if that would help me come up with the solution. What if I failed this little test? Would Conner be mad at me that I didn't remember things exactly the way he did?

C'mon, Jake, think.

The town wasn't that large.

What if Conner was being literal about cooling down?

Of course.

The answer struck me like a bolt of lightning.

Conner was talking about the ice cream parlor. I'd made him skip class with me once and taken him for ice cream after some bully had written hateful slurs on his locker at school. I hadn't thought twice about 'breaking the rules', but to Conner, it had probably been a big deal.

Also, his little sister worked at the ice cream parlor, so it would be easy for him to hide a slip of paper there.