Wealth of Knowledge

Alyssa arrived at the four story estate that her cousin recently purchased on a bright sunny day in June. It was in the middle of a busy neighborhood. Julia joyously greeted Alyssa and whisked her away for a tour of the home.

Julia tells her “Oh I got such an amazing deal on this home. It was auctioned off at an estate sale. The family who inherited the house lived in another country. They saved it for their child who when he came of age just chose to sell it with all of the furnishings. It was rumored that the owner was some kind of artist.” Julia smiles and says “They told me the name but I didn’t recognize it. And I haven’t seen any paintings that looked famous.”

When they get to the fourth floor, Alyssa finds it curiously dirty in comparison. Julia says we haven’t had anyone clean up here yet. Alyssa offers to clean up the area. She was feeling the need to positively contribute to Julia since she was offering her a free place to stay.

Late in the afternoon while she was sweeping up the room, Alyssa notices there is a crack in the floorboards. She sees something dark and lifts up the board. It’s a little black notebook. Its smooth and soft binding reminded her of journaling as a child. She opens it and on the first page it says “block the b to bury your secrets.” She is intrigued. She ponders, but nothing comes to mind.

She goes downstairs to find Julia who is looking lazily through an old history book.

Look what I found.

When presented with the line, Julia says people take secrets to their grave.

What do you think it means?

Oh it’s a clue!

If you cover the letter B, it says “lock.” So we need to find a lock and key at the cemetery.

How did you figure that out?

It’s so easy, silly. Let’s go!

Julia smiles brightly and says “there is a cemetery about five minutes away.” They take a stroll through town. As they get closer to the graveyard the smell of old moss and trees fill the air along with the smell of freshly watered grounds.

They slowly and delicately walk through the graveyard. Julia says “Hey I found a tombstone with a key on it.” Alyssa looks around the tombstone and notices the sunlight hitting something silver in the vault holder for flowers. She reaches down and pulls up a key that needs quite a bit of cleaning. She pulls out a handkerchief and wipes it off. Julia squeals with delight and asks if there are more clues.

Alyssa reads the next page of the notebook which says “where heretics never burn”, and a sketch of someone pointing. Julia lights up and says I was just reading about a man who was considered a heretic named Jan Hus and he has a monument nearby. As they walked over to his statue they mused over what they might find on their journey. They discussed that the key could be connected to an abandoned home, a post office box, or a lockbox. Alyssa said the key was too small for a home. And she assumed it had to be a post office box or a lockbox. Julia beams and says “that she hopes they will find a valuable package or money.”

When they arrive at the momentum, they notice the sights and sounds of a bustling town. And they dodge traffic to get close to find the next clue. Alyssa explores the many facial expressions of the other people. And Julia notices one statue is pointing in the direction of a bank. She tells Alyssa the next clue from the statue pointing is towards the bank.

While they walk to the bank, they notice the sound of children clamoring for the attention of their mothers. And the smells of garlic toast and roasted duck. It’s getting late in the day so they hurry to get to the bank. As they rush in to present the key. The gentleman asks which lockbox. They turn the page in the notebook to find the number 1883 and ask for the contents of that box.

Julia was disappointed to find that there was mainly just photos of a young boy with his family. He looked vaguely familiar but nothing was striking about him. The handwriting on one of the letters that Alyssa picked up was very likely penned by the notebook author. The letter says “a wealth of knowledge can be found in good writing.”

Alyssa contemplates what this could mean as they head home. She notices that the rest of the notebook is filled with stories and notes. She becomes curious if the artist was actually an author.

Julia and Alyssa take the notebook with them to a local historian to discover who the author might be. He tells them it’s Kafka’s and says the notebook is worth a lot. A local museum offers them 433366 Czech Koruna, which would be 20,000 US dollars. Julia and Alyssa both beam. During the walk home, they look at houses and estates to map out the next treasure hunt.