Treasure Hunt

When the events in this story were about to happen, Bo wondered what had gone wrong with his life plan; especially because everything was “fine”. He had a comfortable life and a healthy family, a good job and no debt. But the feeling that something was missing would not go away. Life was okay, but extremely boring. Nothing was wrong, yet his life felt dull. There was a constant pit in his stomach. Probably too much gluten, he thought.

He had known Angie for about fifteen years and they had been married for ten. They were happy and had a sweet boy, who was nine years old at the time. His name was Benji, and he was a smart, funny kid, who loved reading fantasy sagas and comic books, but wasn’t interested in much else. He did love the school field trips, but he spent the whole time reading on the bus, instead of interacting with other children, according to his teacher.

“He will grow out of it… at some point… Right?”, asked Angie one day, right after Benji excused himself from his birthday party to go to his room to read.

“I think so…” Bo genuinely believed he would.

They had taken Benji to a psychiatrist to check on the possibility of autism and other socialization issues, but everything had been ruled out. Benji was simply not interested, but was capable of interacting with people in a comprehensive manner and showed no signs of any psychological issues.

One day, while cleaning Benji’s backpack at the beginning of summer break, Bo found a little black book in his backpack. It had tons of what looked like random scribbles and doodles, little schemes and codes. It made no sense, but it was intriguing. And surprisingly nice to look at.

“Hey, bud, what’s this little notebook about?”, he asked while flipping through the pages.

“Oh, I’m trying to decode a secret message!”, Benji looked up from his book and proudly smiled.

“A secret message?” Bo was puzzled.

“Yeah! There are rumors of a secret message hidden in The Land Of The Lost saga… And I'm going to figure it out.”, he sounded determined.

“Oh, tell me all about it!” He was curious; slightly worried, but still curious. He sat down with Benji and listened to everything the boy had to say.

There was a rumor about a widely popular writer and ilustrator who hid a secret message and scattered hints inside the ten volumes of his best-selling fantasy saga. But that’s all it was: a rumor. There was no oficial announcement in any of the writer’s social media pages or website. The rumor had started on a forum, by an anonymous person and had gained traction only among a few devoted fans. It was a time consuming hobby. No wonder Benji didn't have the energy for anything else. It all started making sense.

“I think it might be an alternative end to the saga! The true end.” Benji guessed, based on an interview he had watched, where the author mentioned not being able to publish the end as he wanted, because the publishers didn’t approve it.

“I think this is a good guess. But do you think it’s worth it to pursue this? It’s just a rumor...”, asked Bo.

“Yeah! But it would be faster if you could help me.”, begged Benji, with his big green eyes.

Bo could never resist Benji’s little face. When he really wanted something, he would make that irresistible sad little face, just like the Puss in Boots from Shrek 2. It was also a huge opportunity to spend more time with his only child, he thought. With Benji spending so much time reading, he missed doing things together, bonding and making memories. It was a no-brainer. This could be a summer like no other: father and son, treasure hunting. Even if this really was a false rumor, it could be the most interesting event to happen that year. It wasn’t like any anything nearly as exciting was going on in their life…

“Okay, this could be our summer project! I will need to read the books. Can I borrow the first volume?” Bo asked with genuine excitment running through his body.

...

Angie was closing the bedroom door when she noticed the book on Bo's bedised table. “I guess I lost another soldier to the writer of The Land of the Lost saga…”, she said, wiggling a finger towards the side of the bed..

While getting ready for bed, Bo told Angie all about his conversation with Benji. And after listeing to it, she said she was happy to see him excited.

“It’s not about the saga itself." Bo clarified, "I’m excited to spend more time with Benji. You should have seen how excited he was when I agreed to join him in his treasure hunt.”

“Well, I am excited, too. My two favorite men in the world working together to find a treasure! I feel excluded though… But I’ll be okay.” She was not interested in reading a fantasy book, nor she wanted to hunt any treasures. She was a little bit jealous that they had their own thing going on without her, but chose not to rain on their parade.

“Oh, honey, it’s just not your cup of tea." Bo comforted her with a shoulder rub. "Nobody is excluding you. I don’t even think there is a treasure. I am just trying to connect with Benji and be more present.”, he smiled, while fluffing his pillows and getting into bed. He thought it would be fun if he were wrong.

…

For weeks, Bo read nothing but those books, taking notes and doodling. He wanted his notes to look like Benji's. In the mornings, they would go over the new hints together, during breakfast. At dinner, they did story commentary. They also got a white board, where they compiled clues, drawings and maps. It was a detailed, intricate work; the fusion of Benji’s childish curiosity and Bo’s skeptical approach was unexpectedly fruitful.

In one of their discussions about a clue, Bo asked Benji:

“Okay, bud, serious question now. It seems like we’re getting close. Why do you think that finding this treasure would be important to you?”

“Well, I am just a kid, but I want to know the truth. And the truth would be the end they didn’t want to publish.”, replied Benji in a very serious tone for such a little body. Bo thought it only made him more adorable.

“This a very honorable approach, buddy. I’m very proud of you.”

Bo hugged Benji and discreetly dropped a few happy tears all over Benji’s hair. How lucky am I to be this kid’s parent?, he thought. He realized, in that moment, what had been missing in his life: that kind of moment where he made memories with his son. He wanted to stay right there forever, but something else was missing. Angie. It would have been great if she were treasure hunting with them, but she wasn’t interested in that specifically. Movies were her thing, not books. So he had an idea.

“How do you feel about taking the night off to watch a movie as a family, bud? We can ask mom if she would like to join us.”, Bo suggested. And Benji was instantly excited.

That night, they watched three movies in a row and Bo felt like he was the luckiest man in the world. His heart was filled with joy and he realized that a meaningful life, to him, was a life where he got to be with the two people he loved the most. It felt stupid to have ignored that for so long. Never again, he told himself.

On the next day, they all slept in and skipped work and school, had a long breakfast, and went on to run errands together.

In the afternoon, they went back to the white board. Angie watched them from the kitchen island, while sipping on hot tea and flipping through a magazine which she wasn't looking at, because her attention was focused on her man and her boy across the room: they had gone over all of their notes and came to a final clue: “semper.fidelis”

“Well, I know that Semper fidelis is latin for always faithful…”, Bo reasoned and continued, “But it doesn’t make a lot of sense in this context. Like, there’s this dot in the middle: semper period fidelis. It's definitely part of it, because that’s how it appears several times in the books.”

“That looks like it could be a link for a website, they can have tons of different ends, not just the popular .com”, Angie suggested, startling them out of their little detective bubble.

After a few seconds, Benji had an insight:

“WHOA! That’s genius mom!”, Benji jumped with the insight, “He put the message in a place where anyone in the world could find it: the internet! It makes so much sense! I’ll go grab dad’s computer.”

While Benji ran upstairs to grab the laptop, Bo crossed the room into the kitchen and hugged Angie from behind.

“How did I end up marrying the smartest woman in the world?”, he kissed her neck.

“I’m not that smart… I was just looking from outside your little dad and son bubble…”, she turned around and hugged him back. They kissed passionately for a hot second, but got interrupted by Benji.

"Here it is!", Benji announced.

Bo freed Angie from his arms and started walking out of the kitchen.

“We’ll continue this in a minute, ma’am…”, and winked at her.

He grabbed his laptop from Benji's stumbly hands, typed “semper.fidelis” on the search bar of the browser, and hit enter. A white page opened, and a jumpy little play icon popped up, right in the middle. Hoping it wasn’t a virus, Bo clicked on it, and a self recorded video of Jon Netsua, author of The Land Of the Lost saga, appeared on full screen.

“Hello! If you got this far, I have to say, I'm so grateful to have you here. It means you are a true fan and that you listened to what I had to say, even though I have said it between the lines.”

Bo and Benji looked at each other in amazement. Jon continued:

“I've written many stories, and never felt like anyone was truly listening to me. But you did! So I want to tell you the original end that I wrote for The Land Of the Lost saga. This is a thank you present.”

Jon picked up a bundle of papers held together by a clip and showed it to the camera: it was the original manuscript of This is our land, which became the Land of the Lost. He flipped to the last few pages and read it out loud.

"Yes! THIS is the perfect ending!", Benji told Bo after hitting the space bar on the keyboard to pause the video.

"They really screwed it up! This is what they should have published!", Bo said to the screen, and pushed the space bar to resume.

“This is how the story truly ends, and if you have gotten to know it, it means you’ve proved to deserve it. I also want to give you a present. I have created a bank account where I have kept $20,000 for whoever found this video and it’s all yours. Thank you for being a true fan. A semper fidelis fan. You are all I ever needed to consider myself successful. If I’m still alive by the time you find this, send me an e-mail with the final clue that brought you here on the subject. I would love to meet you. Thanks again. Bye.”

Benji was over the moon. All he wanted to do was to play the video again and again. So he grabbed the computer and went over to the couch. He couldn’t believe it: “It’s the perfect end!”

He didn't even notice the part about getting a $20000 dolar prize.

...

Bo was back to Angie in the kitchen, when she asked: “Is it really that much better than the published version?” Angie asked Bo.

“I think so. But did you also hear the money part?”, he was still in shock. It was a real treasure after all.

“Yes, that’s crazy, and awesome!” She was happy for them and for having helped. She wished their lives had more of these days.

“Hey, bud, what are you gonna do with your prize?”, Bo asked Benji, who was watching the video for the fifth time.

“Hm… Can we go on a family adventure?”, he answered without looking up.

“I think we can. Where would we go?”, Bo looked at Angie, hoping she would have a good idea.

“Wherever there’s a treasure to be found for you and some wine for me?”, Angie suggested, not realizing this was the perfect end.

Remember the pit in the stomach? It had ceased for several days. It suddenly came back, this time it came back as pain, so sharp that it felt like a knife had perforated his abdomen and was being twisted. Bo fell to the floor, and curled up into fetal position. He passed out, and Angie called 911 while trying to keep Bo awake.

Benji watched the situation from the living room, making sure he wouldn't get in the way, but hoping his dad was ok. He could only think, in the back of his nine-year-old brain, that Bo's death was like the published end to the saga. Screwed up.