Randonauting

" Hey, guys" Jess said to her friends Sally, Alex and Matt while opening the door. 

"Hey," they all say it in unison.

We all get together at Alex's Grandma's place on Fridays for dinner and movies.

Grandma Sofia, is at Bingo at the social club.

Alex has been in the kitchen for hours, he is in the second year of culinary school, so he  surprises us with restaurant quality meals. 

Jess, heads over to sit on the couch opposite Matt. "What are you looking at"? She asks  " there's this app, people are going crazy about, called Randonautica." 

"Oh, yeah, what is it about,"? "sounds interesting" Jess said. 

 Matt said, "It coordinates a pin point to the intent you  manifest."

"Mana. what"? Alex says as he is coming in and out of the kitchen.  

 'Manifest your intent' , Matt says it out loud, "you think it," "the app will generate a location and you go out exploring." 

"It look's fun," Jess says. 

"Guys, dinners ready" Alex calls out. 

We all have our meal, chatting and laughing. We all grew up in the same neighborhood. 

Our parents have been friends for ages, Jess moved here with  her mom, about 5 years ago, after her dad met Suzanne. 

Matt's 19, Alex and Jess are 17 and Sally's 16.

  Jess and Sally help clean up, and the other's are searching on  Netflix for movies. 

"Hey, how about we try out the random thingy," Alex suggests. 

"It is called Randonautica" Matt says 

"Yeah, I am in," Jess shouts, from the kitchen. 

All decide to go in Matt's car,  they drove around the corner of Jackson Av and parked. 

Matt loads the app up on his phone, they begin with Sally's first intent, 'puppy', everyone blurted into laughter. 

Following the directions,  Rando bought them outside a dog shelter.   Looking at each other, Alex says " wow, that is unbelievable. " 

A

"No way man" Matt adds

It was Alex's turn, driving to the next location, it sent then to a private property, it was a bust. 

 Matt's intent was 'secret', driving through these back streets, looked creepy at night.

 Arriving, they began searching around, Sally shouts "Hey,  guys come over here. "

It is a small satchel, and it feels  heavy,  "there is something inside it" Sally says. 

 We opened it in the car, it was way too dark to see anything, the only lights they had was from their phones.

   "A little black book,"? " Hey wait, it's a Bible. " Sally says also a  wooden Crucifix. "There are several  secrets there. " Matt says

  It was Jess's turn,  she thought of something wild,  'cold hard cash.' she says

They are all staring, "what" ? while shrugging her shoulders "why, not,"? Jess says smiling. 

Driving down a creepy road, Jess sees something, alerting the others.

"Stop, stop" she shouts out, "go back, there's something in those bushes." 

Matt turned the car around, a couple of miles down the road,  parked on  the  foot path. 

We got  out of the car, with our phones and began searching the area. 

"Here" Alex calls out,  he's at the bottom of the hill. 

A black duffle bag is  among the shrubs, the boys cart it up to the car. 

Walking toward the car, there is  a loud bang.! 

 Someone's firing at us!

Bolting toward the car, Sally slipped on the grass behind her,  turning around to help her, Jess shouted "quickly, think someone is coming." 

 Reaching the car, everyone gets in, Matt starts the car, "No one is following us" Sally says  her eyes glued to the back rear  window. 

My heart is pounding with adrenaline, "you think that it was their stash?" Jess asks, still breathless. 

"I do not know, says Matt" I think we should drive around, in case we get followed. " Matt adds

After driving for 20 min, no sign of anyone following, they call it a night. 

Back at Alex's place, Matt carried the bag inside.

" That was dope," bro  Alex says to Matt as they make their way over to the couch. 

 "Open it open it," shouts Sally,  excitedly jumping in her seat.

Jess sits on the floor,  pulls the bag over, brushing off the  debris on the bag, she pulls at the zipper, " ohh, gosh it's stuck."  

Matt goes over  to help, they simultaneously pull.  

 "Woah, is this illegal?" Sally asks peeking inside it. 

 Matt, Alex and Jess are lost for words,  "It is surely fake" says Alex. 

  Four plastic bags, looks like a large amount of money. 

Matt helps Jess  count it, each bag contained at least $20,000.

 "Can we keep it"? Jess asks 

"Heck yeah" , Alex pipes up, "we found it, outside!" 

 "OK, we should lay low for a few weeks,  in case we hear anything. " Matt says

It had been months since the money was found. No body heard anything on social media, the paper or TV. 

So,  Dinner on Fridays, was at

Alex's Restaurant.