Cipher

The metronomic click of my turning signal didn’t seem to register in my dulled senses. It was only when I looked at the time and realized that I had been sitting in the car for 10 minutes did the sound re-enter into my consciousness. I don’t want to be here. If it weren’t for my mother telling me that my grandfather would have wanted me to be here I wouldn’t have. I would have felt closer to his memory at his small fishing hut near the river, where we would spend the afternoon when I was just a child. He used to call me “Chipmunk” on account of my red hair, prominent front teeth, and round face that I had as a child. He would tell me stories and answer all of my childish questions with more consideration than they deserved. He would often confide in me things that I didn’t realize the importance of until I grew older.

“What’s it like being rich grandpa?”

This question made him uncomfortable.

“Well… you don’t feel very different, I always thought that it would since I grew up poor. I don’t always feel like I deserve it, I always hoped my son Matthew would be a better man than me and I would feel comfortable giving it to him. And your mother was never very interested, she always wanted to do things her way.“He would pause for a second. “And remember not to repeat a word of what I say to you.” I solemnly nodded.

“How did you get rich grandpa?”

This question he never answered. He acted like he never heard it. I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t answer but I knew even as a child not to ask it again, to this day it’s still a mystery to me.

I had to go inside at some point so I might as well go in now. I entered my grandpa’s house, it was an impressive property that he always left criminally under decorated according to my Aunt who was thrilled to be inheriting it along with her husband, my Uncle Matt, the oldest of my grandpa’s children. It was her idea to bring everyone here “in his memory” but really she wanted to show off. Everyone had expected at least of hundreds of thousands but with no one receiving anything close to that. Even though I only received “a valuable personal possession. “It’s a shame we only received a pittance huh? We sent him a Christmas card every year, we deserve more than this right?” They would say to me as if I could relieve their frustrations. “Uh huh ,yeah it’s weird.” I would say hoping they would leave me alone. I happened to glance out the window towards the far off river and saw the fishing hut that I remembered so fondly.

This was becoming annoying.

I quietly walked away from the crowd and into the dining room where my Uncle Matthew was sitting. He was flipping through a small black notebook at the corner of the dining table. His serious and quiet demeanor stood in polar contrast to the small talk and chatter of the people milling about in the other rooms. He looks up at me.

“Elena, this is yours.” He holds the book up and then gently places it on the table. “And only that. This is what was left for you.” He points to the book and shakes his head. “The old man must have been losing it, he’s never been to Denmark.”

“To where?”

He waves his hand at the notebook. “It’s a bunch of nonsense that he wrote in the book, and it was the only thing he left you. I hop you don't mind but I was just looking through to make see if there was anything related to the 20k.”

This was so much at once, what was he talking about. I couldn’t help but shake my head in exasperation. “What 20K?”

He sighs as he picks the notebook up again. “Everyone in there is whining about how they didn’t get anything, and to be honest I would probably be in there with them if I didn’t know the truth. It must have been something he did before he died but his accounts were emptied before his death. All of his wealth was spread to various charities and funds that he was associated with, except for a solid 20K which was the last thing to be withdrawn and has not been seen since. Given that you were the only one to receive something that had personal significance to him I figured it might have something to do with it.”

I was speechless, why was he looking into me to find this money. “Well you got the house, wouldn’t you be the one to receive it, and besides why do you even want it? This house is worth more than that. And even if he did leave me money why is it your business? ”

He pushes the book across the table to where I was standing. “This house is going to be a money pit, it’s old and everyone wants it to remain in the family. If that 20K exists it belongs to the family. It should primarily go to me, your mother. I don’t care how little there is, I am owed something! But seeing as we don’t even know where it is or if it can even be found, I was looking for clues.” He pauses and looks at the book. “Which there are none in there, so enjoy what the old man left for you.” He quickly gets up and leaves the room. He melts into the crowd in the other room, leaving me with my inheritance. I had enough of this gathering so I took it and left.

I went back to my apartment and began to sift through the book. I would have considered it a quaint gesture from my grandfather under normal circumstances but my uncle’s paranoia seemed to have latched onto me. I had to at least try to find some sort of answer to the missing money so that my family would hopefully resign themselves to the fact that it was gone. I flipped through the pages and didn’t find anything remarkable. Doodle here, list here, note here, until l got to the final page with writing on it.

To my beloved granddaughter, my little Red Squirrel.

I remember the time you asked me about the motorcypher that I bought when I was in Denmark.

I met a famous Polish man named Mr. Vigenére who taught me how to repair and maintain a motorcypher. He said to me, in Danish of course, “Wultd luo hswdd zvcrkvo wze”. A phrase which reamains true to this day. If you remember the words of Mr. Vigenére and use them well, any Red Squirrel can fix any kind of motorcypher. I wish I could have spent more time with you but I guess that’s life. Hopefully this gift will suffice, at least for a little while.

What in God’s name is this?

I was beginning to understand my Uncle’s frustration, this really was insane. It didn’t just feel like nonsense it seemed like it was purposefully incomprehensible. I read through it again just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. Either he was really losing it or this is some kind of weird joke. He never called me “Red Squirrel”, I was his Chipmunk, he says this twice. Motorcycle is spelled motorcypher 3 times. I began to write all of this down. According to my Uncle my Grandfather had never been to Denmark. But here he says he went to Denmark and met a Polish man with a French name who spoke Danish. How was this man famous, would he show up on google?” I looked up the name “Mr.Vigenère”. I expected to find some sort of article about this man but all that came up were pages about the “Vigenère cipher”.

I could feel my heart beat faster. Grandpa was telling me something! Motorcypher wasn’t a chronic spelling mistake, it was a clue. And the Danish phrase from Mr. Vigenère must be the Vigenère Cipher, online translations couldn’t give me anything from Danish to English. But I had one problem, I needed the keyword. Was it Red Squirrel? That stuck out from the text since it was mentioned twice and he always called me chipmunk, but the keyword had to be one word. Was it Chipmunk? I feel like that would have been fail-safe in case anyone but me were to discover the clues, and make it this far through the puzzle. I laid it all out on paper and put the keyword into the cipher. “chipm unk chipm unkchi pmu”. I followed the guide for each letter, and finally Grandpa’s secret message lay before me.

It read “Under the floor fishing hut”.

My mother always said that Grandpa spent more time in the fishing hut he built than the mansion he bought. It was where we spent may long summer days together in my childhood, and now he’s telling me to go back one last time. It was on the perimeter of my grandfather’s property, and I knew exactly where it was. I got into my car and began to head back to grandpa’s property. I had arrived to the same spot I was when I came her last. I started to walk down the path past the house towards the river.

As I was passing the back porch I heard a voice. “You’re back, I suspect you know something I don’t.”

I turned in shock, it was my uncle, here by himself. I had to think of something, quick, something to keep him occupied.

“Oh there you are, well yes I cracked the code.”

I produced the black notebook I had inherited and handed it to my uncle.

“Pay special attention to the name Vigenère.” I spoke with confidence and he looked at me in disbelief. “It’s a Vigenère cipher, he’s hidden a message in plain sight.”

He excitedly takes the book into the house, to preoccupied to question why revealed this discovery to him and sacrifice my inheritance. Perhaps he convinced himself that he had convinced me that this money would go to the “family” rather than himself. Regardless, I quickly made my way to the lonely hut. It was just how my grandfather had left it. I scoured the floorboards until I found a small silver latch, almost completely hidden under the workbench. I lifted it and in the hidden compartment was an old olive green tackle box. I grabbed it, opened it, and there it was $20000 in cash.

I was excited and overjoyed at this gift. But as the initial rush faded away, I felt a sense of pride that I had done it, I cracked the code. It was even more heartwarming that Grandpa would take so much care to make sure I had received this gift safely. And that he knew I would be able to solve his puzzle. I felt proud of myself and proud to be his granddaughter. But now I had the question of what to do with the money. I knew my uncle couldn’t be trusted but my mother could. I decided to keep 3k and I gave the rest of it to my mother to distribute to the family, my uncle included. Maybe this was what my grandfather wanted, maybe this is what he knew I would do, maybe he wanted to give me the choice to keep it, maybe he just wanted to keep my uncle from deciding what to do with the money. Whatever it was that he wanted, My uncle was content, at least he did a good job of seeming like it, after all it was his idea to give it to the family, he couldn’t let the mask slip. My family was now able to live in peace.