chapter 3

Chapter 3

            It was a joke! It had to be! Scott wouldn’t leave town, much less the state without me. Would he? I wrestled with the idea for a while. It was a joke! A crazy scheme! But why? Even if it was a joke I couldn’t help but feel the hatred burning up inside of me. I went to his bedroom, surely if he did leave he would have brought his clothing.

            Stepping into the bedroom I found it messy and unkept. There was dirty laundry on the floor and trash in the windowsill. His bed was torn apart and his closet stood open. Bare. So he had gone. Or were all of his clothes on the floor? There was only one way to know for sure. Scott kept all his money in a loose floorboard under his bed. I know because I’ve seen him put it there when I was visiting him once. He must’ve had a lot, he wouldn’t even let me know he owned any. I used all my weight to move the heavy bed aside. Once the task was done, I used the switch blade to peel the boards up. It took a little effort, but they came loose. I didn’t find money. What I found was a map. I don’t mean to sound like I’m in a pirate movie with maps and treasure and such, but it was a real map.

I unrolled the dirty scroll. The map was wide showing a complete picture of the world, starting from Russia. Whoever was in pursuit of the “treasure” last must’ve come from Russia. A black line leading from Russia came across the Pacific Ocean and stopped in California. A different line led from South Carolina across the country and ended in California. There was scribbling in Spanish in a few of the blank spots around the ocean and, In Scott’s handwriting I read “San Clemente”. That’s where he was heading. Curiosity had clearly got the cat.

I started to think. It wasn’t money he was hiding, it was the map. But where had he gotten it? How was he going to get a plane ticket all the way to California? Obviously he hadn’t enough money to get there with what he was making. At least, that’s what I thought.

Stuffing the note into my coat I put the floorboards back in their place, and did so with the bed. Coming out of the bedroom I saw that Red had made his own sandwich while I had been preoccupied.

“Come on lets go. Scott won’t be back for a while.” I told him.

“Why not stay Brady, we came a long way.s” Red replied taking a bite from his sandwich.

“We have to be back by 6 o’clock and it’s already 5:30.” I protested

“Okay just a second.” he replied. And I watched him gobble his food in a revolting way. But I looked at the sandwich and sort of wanted one myself.

“What was in that?” I asked him.

“Baloney, lettuce, sardines, tomatoes, mayonnaise, olives, you know, the usual things.”

“Sounds good, but why did it crunch when you bit into it?”

“Potato chips.”

            I shut the apartment door behind us and decided to keep the key. We started down the stairs in silence, except for the sounds of our shoes pounding down each step. Just as we were about to walk out of the building, Pat called out to us.

“Brady!” Pat said in her Grammy voice.

“Yes Ms. Pattie?”

“Do mind helping me for a moment?” she asked

            I smiled, her rosy cheeks and tender smile could make your heart melt in a minute.

“Sure.” I told her, and she waved me into her office. Once we were inside Red studied her desk. Pat pointed to a bookshelf by the window.

“Can you get that box on top of the bookshelf down for me? I’m afraid it’s too high up and heavy for me.”

“Yes ma’am.” I reached up and grabbed the box. It almost slipped out of my hands but readjusting myself the box was safely in my arms.

“Pat do you know where Scott went?”

“He mentioned a trip of some sort and not to worry” she told me

“When did he leave?” I asked 

“Only two days ago.” she reported

“Thank you.” I told her, and with that I set the box on the table and left. Red looked confused, but I didn’t care. Pat was my verification that Scott had definitely left.

            I walked fastly, eager to get back to the orphanage. Red struggled to keep up behind me. I wanted to study the map more, maybe there was a clue about the “treasure”. It seemed strange to just find a map and run off without thinking. San Clemente is more than two feet of land. You can’t possibly think you’ll find the prize in a scavenger hunt without reading the clues that lead to the prize.

            Finally reaching Penny ST I slowed down a little. Catching my breath as we stepped into the courtyard of the orphanage Red stopped me.

“Why did we go if you knew he was gone?” he asked in his strong voice.

            I didn’t know what to tell him. Should I tell him? Did I trust Red enough? These questions rang in my head for a while. When finally I said to him, “Wait until after headcount and dinner. Then I’ll tell you in our room.” Instead of him saying thank you he just looked more angry and confused. He stomped off into the building. I followed. We were both late to headcount. We both got that night’s dish duty. So I couldn’t tell Red in private until about 8 o’clock. When the door shut he came at me.

“Well?”

“Look, I didn’t know he was out until I found this.” I took out the small piece of paper that had been on the refrigerator door and shoved it into his hands. He read it and looked at me. Funny how dull brown eyes can show so much emotion. For him it was like all the pieces fell into place. Until I introduced the other half of the puzzle.

“That’s not all.” I told him quietly.

“What else is there?”

            Slowly I withdrew the map. He looked at it in wonderment. He took it from my hand and unwrapped it. Red studied or a few minutes. He gasped, “Brady! Do you have any idea what this is?!”

I shrugged, “looks like a piece of paper to me.”

“Of course it’s a map!” he stopped and lowered his voice, “It’s called the Russian wonder”

I huffed, “That’s a stupid name for it”

He groaned and shoved the map in my face,” You see that line that leads from what is now known as Russia?”

“Yeah, so?”

“It’s a fake.” he said slowly but excitedly.

I waited,“…A fake what?” I asked as slowly as he had said it.

“The Russian line is a fake.” he waited for me to get it…I didn’t.

“It’s a clue.” he told me.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand”

“You see, a group of bandits robbed the Spanish monarch, Charles the third, and were supposed of stealing a boat and traveling to North America. No one knew if they lived or where they went. It was said that they split up, some of them ended up in Russia along with the map. Many people believed that the map came from Russia since the bandit who had it was found there. The map was preserved and passed down from child to child. Until one of them donated it to a museum. Come to think of it, the museum is here in South Carolina, The Museum of Carolina.” he stopped.

“That place closed down months ago.” I told him.

“How do you know?” he questioned

“I heard about it I guess.” he nodded and sat on his bed.

“Why is it called the Russian wonder?” I asked.

“The whole story, every kid who was in possession of the map went after the treasure. And none of them succeeded. Only few people knew the whole story, but refused to tell. So it’s been a ‘wonder’ to Russia.”

            I studied the map. Russia being the clue, and California being the treasure. There had to be some kind of clue in California maybe an old building or church of some sort.

            We heard a knock at the door, but before Red and I had time to put the map away or to think or say “don’t come in”, Katie opened the door and saw the map.

Before Katie could get a word in edge wise, Red and I rushed to her. He closed the door behind Katie while I covered her mouth so she wouldn’t scream. I was about to let go, but before I could do so she bit my hand, making me release with a small yelp.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!” Katie screeched at the top of her lungs, as if she couldn’t yell any louder, “Do you honestly think you can!-“her attention was pointed towards the map spread out on my bed, “You…could-” she stopped and picked up the map, studied it for a moment.

“This is not a map.” she looked at me as if I would say ‘no it was all an elaborate plan to make you bite me’. When I didn’t tell her that it was a fake she said, ”It’s real?”

“Yeah.” Red told her, Katie looked unassured, so Red started to explain to her. Starting with me finding the note left from Scott. He added in a few more details to make the day sound a little more exiting. When Red had finished Katie questioned him, of course he answered every single question perfectly.

“If you know so much about it then how come some scientist or champ navigator hasn’t found it yet?” Katie asked

“Actually not that many people know about it, and it was only on display at the museum for only a few months.”

“Uh huh, and how do you know so much about it?”

“My 5^th grade class went to the museum every other Friday.”

“How did your school have enough money for every other Friday?” I asked him

“It was cheap, and just between you and me, my teacher had a thing for the curator.” Red sat back in the desk chair.

 Katie looked at me, “what are you going to do now? With Scott gone and you with this map?”

“Nothing, I can’t just run off like Scott did, it’s stupid to do something like that.”

            She sat down and leaned against the wall and sighed, “That’s too bad. I bet between the 3 of us we could probably go after him. I’m dying to get out of this rat hole.”