Godspeed

“You have to —” Jack stopped mid-sentence to lick his cracked lips. He tasted a bit of dry blood and cursed, “You have to honor a woman’s dying wish.” He finally slurred out and stumbled over a pile of rocks. “I didn’t want the boy. I mean, he ain’t a bad kid. He’s just bad for me.” He sat on the ground, stirring a pile of dust.

The guide peered at the boy at his side. He was a strange one. The boy’s face looked younger than his 14 years, but the way his shoulders hung and his eyes scanned everything in front of him reminded the guide of the ageless cowboys that still made their way through these parts from time to time.

“Men say crazy things when they’re drunk, Keith,” the guide said. As if on cue, Jack let out a loud hiccup and laughed to himself, “And the desert makes men’s brains boil a bit.”

The boy kicked at a rock on the ground, “I know, sir.” Keith let out a sigh, “His brain was boiled before we came out here, though.”

The guide laughed, and the corner of the boy’s mouth lifted slightly.

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They should be in some shade, resting. But Jack and his stepson, Keith, seemed determined to find the fabled treasure. An archeologist who settled in a small, nearby desert town after years of exploring the world left a note to be published in the local newspaper upon his death. The letter said he had no kin and no great friends, so he left directions to some artifacts and gold bars to the townspeople who had embraced him.

Word spread throughout the state, then the country about treasure buried in the Nevada desert. Most people thought it was a hoax. And, yet, the guide had taken people out to the desert a few times a year for the past eight years to try and decipher the archeologist’s directions. Unfortunately, they read like an old pirate map. They said things like, “Walk five paces past the rock tower surrounded by cacti,” and, “You’ll know you’ve found the treasure when the ground hums beneath your feet.”

No one had found the treasure. A few had even died going places the guide warned them were unsafe or from dehydration.

Even though it was Jack who had dragged the boy out on what was now a five-day hunt, it was clear that Keith didn’t mind. And he was unusually bright. The guide didn’t believe there was treasure, but the boy had made sense of a lot of the archeologist's riddles that made most folks pack up their gear and head back to town.

Jack was a con. The guide picked up on that right away. Always looking for easy money and an even easier target. Fate had thrown Jack and Keith together after Keith’s mom took up with Jack and they got married. A few months later, she died in a car accident, and they were stuck together.

***********************************************************************

“Wait. Do you see that?” Keith tugged on the guide’s sleeve and pointed at Jack, who was now mumbling on the ground, lying spread-eagle.

As Keith started tugging on the guide’s shirt, the hair on the back of the guide’s neck stood up. He pushed the boy behind him, “Stay put.”

“But the treas —”

“Stay behind me,” the guide said firmly as he squinted his eyes in the sun and looked at Jack. It looked like the small rocks that surrounded Jack were shaking.

Jack seemed oblivious to the movement. But, then, they all heard it, and Jack shot up to a seated position.

“What the fuck is that noise?” Jack yelled, angrily.

“It sounds like something’s buzzing,” Keith yelled back at him.

The guide kept his eyes on the rocks moving around Jack. “It’s not a buzz,” he said. Something in his voice made them hold their breath.

“That’s a hissing noise,” the guide said as he surveyed the ground. As if on command, one snake, then two, then several more emerged from underneath the rocks around Jack.

Anticipating Jack’s next move, the guide yelled at him calmly, “Don’t move, Jack.”

But Jack was already standing and ready to run toward the guide and Keith. “What am I supposed to do, then?”

“Just stay calm and don’t move. It looks like we have all manner of snakes here, so let’s just see if they’ll settle.”

Jack ignored him and stomped on a few small snakes. Keith watched from behind the guide. “Jack, don’t. You’ll make them angry!” The boy yelled.

“This is your damn fault,” Jack yelled back at Keith. “Shoulda never come out here with you. You’ve always been a heap of bad luck.”

The guide heard another sound over Jack and Keith’s argument. A rattle. Just as he was getting ready to warn Jack that a rattlesnake was nearby, Jack screamed. The rattlesnake had latched on to Jack’s ankle.

Keith clung closer to the guide and pointed to the sky, “Look! We’ve got another problem.” The guide could hear the fear in Keith’s voice and moved closer to him.

The guide looked up and saw four or five birds circling above them, and they were getting closer. “Those are hawks. And they couldn’t have come at a better time,” the guide said with relief.

Jack’s screams had caused most of the snakes to scatter, and a few burrowed back into the ground before the hawks could get to them. As a hawk flew close to the men’s heads, the rattle finally released Jack’s ankle and slithered away. Jack fell to the ground, whimpering.

The guide turned to Keith and bent down to look him in the eye. “You stay here. I’m going to check on Jack and radio for help, but I need you not to move. You understand?”

Keith nodded.

The guide gingerly made his way over to Jack and said a silent thank you to the hawks that were still circling above them.“I’ve called medics, Jack. They said they’d be able to get to us soon, so sit tight.”

Jack weakly raised a hand in acknowledgment.

“What’s THAT!” Keith yelled as he ran up to the guide and Jack.

“I thought I told you to stay put,” said the guide.

“I thought you may need help,” Keith said as he stared and cringed at Jack’s swollen leg. But next to Jack’s head was a glint of metal.

“Do you see that?” Keith asked the guide as he pointed to the object. Despite trying to keep Jack and Keith calm and focused on what had become a rescue mission, he bent down to inspect it.

Jack was straining to sit up, even as the world spun around him.

“You oughta lay back down, Jack,”

“Is that it? Is that really it?!” Jack said. The guide shook his head in disbelief, and recalled the archeologist’s letter: “The treasure can be found where the ground hums beneath your feet.”

“The snakes were hiding the treasure!” Keith said, excitedly

The guide bent down and swept some of the dust from the corner of the buried object. The ground around it was loose. He scooped both of his hands and started to move more of the dirt.

He found a handle and pulled on it. After a brief struggle, he unearthed a big suitcase. Keith’s heart sank a little. He was expecting a treasure chest.

“Well, open it!” Jack demanded. Keith may be disappointed, but Jack seemed reinvigorated by greed.

The guide looked at two locks at the top of the suitcase. He was hoping he’d find keyholes or something to input a code. Even though he was curious, he wasn’t too keen on rummaging through another man’s belongings. But with a couple of clicks, the suitcase fell open. All three men stood, mouths opened, as gold coins poured out of the suitcase.

Jack laughed wildly, and Keith jumped up and down. “We actually found it!” When Keith bent down to pick up the coins, he saw a beautiful red and blue silk cloth. He reached for it and saw that it was wrapped around a box.

“What is it, Keith?” The guide asked, trying to hide his interest.

Keith gently unwrapped it and discovered a glass box that held bones. “Wow,” Keith whispered.

“Forget those old bones. What else is in there?” Jack yelled from his spot on the ground.

The guide pulled out a plastic bag heavy with cash out of the suitcase. There was a label on the bag that read, “$20,000.” The guide shook his head, “I’ll be damned,” he said as he eyed the large bills.

“Now, that’s mine! I took a rattlesnake bite for all this,” Jack said angrily, even as he laid on the ground working hard to stay awake.

Keith pulled out other artifacts and more gold coins. As he reached the bottom of the suitcase, he saw something neatly tucked under all the goods. He lifted a small, black notebook from the suitcase and almost reverently rubbed the front, then the back.

“Look, guys, I found a —”

The guide cleared his throat and interrupted Keith. Keith looked at him, and the guide shook his head and put a finger to his mouth. It was subtle, but Keith understood the message and put the small notebook in the back pocket of his pants.

“Whatdya find, boy?” Jack slurred and tried to lift his head.

Before Keith could think of a reply, they heard the sound of a helicopter. The guide directed them to a clearing while yelling directions in the radio. It landed just as Jack had passed out from the pain, clutching the bag of $20,000 to his chest.

***********************************************************************

Once the helicopter was in the air and Keith was assured that Jack was asleep, he snuck the book out of his pocket and opened it up. The pages were full of notes and unknown symbols. But there was one page that didn’t have writing on it. Keith turned the page over and back a few times, looking for any clue, any scratch of a letter. He didn’t find anything, so he reluctantly closed the book and held it in his lap. As he sat enjoying the refreshing wind on his face, he felt the guide sit next to him.

“Anything in that notebook?” the guide asked.

Keith lifted up the book, “I don’t think so.”

“May I?” The guide asked as he held out his hand. Keith handed the notebook to the guide, looking over at Jack to make sure he was still sleeping.

The guide slowly leafed through the pages of the notebook while also looking up at Jack. “I have to be honest with you, Keith. Jack’s in a bad way. Is there anyone you can call when we land?”

“Nope,” Keith said quietly. The guide noticed how Keith didn’t react to the bad news. “Oh, yeah,” Keith said, changing the subject. “I forgot. There’s one page that doesn’t have writing on it. Maybe the pages got stuck together or something.”

The guide found the page and examined it closely. “I’m not so sure. This man seems smart and careful about everything he does. Don’t you think?”

“I guess that’s true,” Keith said as he moved closer to the guide to inspect the page again.

The guide ran his fingers over the page. After a few seconds he lifted the notebook so that the page faced the sun. Slowly, brown letters appeared. A letter here, a phrase there. The guide held the page up higher so that the sunlight touched every corner. He looked at Keith, whose eyes were as large as the sun at high noon.

The guide handed the notebook to Keith. “Go ahead. Read it, son.”

Keith’s eyes adjusted to the faint, cursive letters.

You’ve found the first prize —

Not an easy task.

If you translate the hieroglyphics,

you’ll realize this isn’t the last.

Godspeed, fellow explorer.