The Treasure Hunt Club

by Michael Scott Clifton

  “Nick, it’s all right,” Abby said softly as she interrupted him and placed her hand on his. “The truth is, I … really don’t know myself. It’s just … it’s just that when you insisted that I be included as a member of the Treasure Hunt Club, I … I thought that was a sweet and unselfish thing to do. The way my life has been lately… well, I could use a little sweet and unselfish for a change.”

  “At any rate,” Abby said as she gave an embarrassed shrug, “if we are going to be business partners, we need to get to know each other, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “Right … partner!” Nick said, immensely relieved.

  “Well, now that we’ve got that settled, I’d better be going!” Abby said, smiling, as she looked at her watch. For a moment, Nick just stared at Abby, noticing how her smile completely transformed her face. It made her warm brown eyes seem to come alive, and he found himself becoming lost in them.

  Abruptly realizing what he was doing, Nick blinked and turned away. Squeezing out of their seats, Nick and Abby made their way out of the trailer and to Abby’s car. As they made the walk, Nick knew he wanted to see Abby again, and he tried to frame the words in his mind on how he would ask her. As they drew closer and closer to the Corolla, Nick desperately tried, and then discarded, different ways to casually ask Abby out without seeming to be too eager or too forward.

  Reaching her car, Abby said good-bye to Nick and opened the door and got in. As Abby started the car and put it in gear, Nick suddenly tapped on her window. Powering the window down, Abby looked up questioningly at Nick.

  “I, er, I was, you know, wondering, if you would like to go out for … for dinner or something next week?” he stammered. Idiot! he thought as he mentally kicked himself. So much for the cool and casual approach!

  “Why, that depends, Nick. Is this for business or pleasure?” she asked him coyly.

  Nick froze like a deer in headlights, and his tongue felt thick in his mouth. It was only after he saw Abby begin to giggle that he knew she was teasing him.

  “I, ah, I was thinking pleasure. Yes, definitely pleasure!”

  “Well, in that case, I would love to! We can talk more about it tomorrow night at the meeting. See you then!” Waving, Abby backed up and then pulled away.

  Nick watched Abby drive away, he pumped his fist in triumph and cried, “Yes!”

  Turning and practically skipping back to the trailer, one word seemed to repeat itself over and over as it described his feeling toward her.

  Possibilities …

  Chapter 18

  Nick spent Monday morning depositing his cashier’s check at his bank and then opening up a checking account complete with a debit card. He had closed his old checking account years ago when he finally came to the conclusion, after overdrawing his account yet again, that he didn’t possess the fiscal discipline to keep his checking account balanced. In fact, more than once, Mark had had to lend him money to pay off the overdrafts plus the penalties levied on them.

  It had been a particularly humiliating experience and not one he was eager to repeat. Since then, he had paid for everything in cash or money orders. However, with the discovery of The Book of Lost Treasures, Nick’s life had taken a definite turn for the better. He planned on having lots of cash to deposit in the future when being fifty to a hundred dollars off on his balance wouldn’t register a blip on his bank account. Besides, with $10,000 to deposit, he now had plenty of cushion to cover any faulty accounting of his checkbook.

  The meeting was to be held at Mark and Patti’s house at seven o’clock that evening, and after running several errands in town, Nick went home and decided to pass the time by working in his shop. He found himself pausing every so often and pulling off his goggles; he would look around the shop, thinking as he did so about what Abby had said. “What … what if she was right?” he mused. What if he could sell the furniture he made? Shaking his head, he decided it didn’t matter anyway. He was going to be much too busy spending the money The Book of Lost Treasures was going to bring them!

  The time passed quickly, and before he knew it, it was time to leave for the meeting. Washing his face and hands, he combed his hair before throwing on a pair of cargo shorts and a T-shirt. Flip-flops completed his ensemble as he hurtled out of the trailer and to his car.

  Mark and Patti’s house was located in a subdivision on the south side of town, and Nick arrived there a short time later. As he pulled alongside the curb and parked in front of their house, he noticed he was the last one of the club members to arrive. Steve’s car was parked in the driveway, and Kenneth’s car, a blue Honda Civic, was parked behind Abby’s. Getting out of the cramped confines of the Sprint, Nick took a few minutes to stretch and work the kinks out of his muscles. Then he strode toward the front door.

  Mark and Patti’s home was a three bedroom, two bath red brick affair with a two-car garage, and was a scene straight from suburbia, with only the backyard barbeque (which Mark had plans to build in the very near future) needed to complete the picture.

  Having been to Mark and Patti’s house numerous times, Nick didn’t bother knocking and instead let himself in through the front door. A short hallway led from the front door, and as Nick entered it, he heard voices coming from the den. Turning right off the hallway, he entered the room and saw everyone already seated and waiting for him. The den was the largest room in Mark and Patti’s home, with a couch, love seat, and two Queen Anne chairs arranged facing a walnut entertainment center complete with a flat screen TV.

  In addition, a brick fireplace with a mahogany mantle was adjacent to the wall nearest the entertainment center. A tray containing a pitcher of iced tea and glass mugs was set on a coffee table in front of the couch. Helping himself to a glass of the tea, Nick plopped himself into one of the Queen Anne Chairs and looked around. Mark, Patti, and Abby were sit- ting on the couch, while Kenneth sat in the love seat and Steve in the other Queen Anne Chair. Nick’s gaze stopped on Abby, and he felt his heart skip a beat. She was wearing a denim pair of crop pants with a yellow mandarin collar shirt. Barefooted, she had one leg tucked under her as she sat on the couch. To Nick, she looked prettier each time he saw her.

  “Well, I guess now that Nick has finally arrived, we can begin!” Mark quipped.

  Refusing to be baited, Nick grinned and immediately said, “I call this meeting of the Treasure Hunt Club to order. If there are no objections, let’s skip the reading of the minutes and go straight to new business.” Hearing no objections, Nick continued, “Who has suggestions concerning how we next use The Book of Lost Treasures?” Immediately, hands shot up from all the club members. Going around to each person in turn, Nick let them give their suggestions, followed by debate on the merits of each suggestion.

  These ranged from asking the book to locate buried pirate treasure to Steve’s suggestion that they find a rhythm guitar purportedly lost by Jim Morrison of The Doors shortly before his death. However, it was Patti whose idea they all agreed had the most merit. She had proposed that they search for valuable antiques, reasoning that they were much more likely to find them closer to the Pleasant Mountain area than other lost items of value. Nick then asked her to elaborate further on her idea.

  Blushing slightly at the attention now focused on her, Patti said, “Well, I was trying to think of lost objects not necessarily common but, at the same time, not uncommon to where we live That way, we don’t have far to travel to find them once their location is at last revealed by the book. Also—and this is very important—when I say ‘lost,’ I don’t mean ‘lost’ in the sense that something is hidden and needs to be found. Rather, I mean ‘lost’ in terms that the owner of an antique doesn’t know that their piece is extremely valuable. When approached like this, someone may literally have a ‘lost’ treasure right before their eyes and not be aware of it! If so, The Book of Lost Treasures might be able to locate these kinds of antiques as easily as those that are truly missing!”

  Seeing confusion on some of the faces around her,
Patti elaborated further. “I got the idea when I was flipping through the channels on the TV and came across a PBS program called Antiques Roadshow. It hit me, as I was watching the show, that practically everybody owns antiques of some kind.

  But as evidenced on Antiques Roadshow, many people often aren’t aware of their value! That started me to thinking that maybe The Book of Lost Treasures can reveal valuable antiques to us that are up for auction at estate sales or even garage sales. I mean, if I understand the rules of the book’s usage, we could phrase the request to it like, ‘Locate an antique at an estate sale or garage sale that unbeknownst to the owner is worth over one thousand dollars.’ We could even add that it be located within this county or the nearby surrounding counties.

  “What do you think?” Patti asked anxiously as she scanned the faces around her.

  “Wow! Can you believe I’m married to such an intelligent woman?” Mark asked, grinning.

  “Brains as well as beauty!” Nick agreed. Blushing furiously now, Patti wore an embarrassed smile as the club members applauded—all except Kenneth, who was strangely quiet. When the commotion quieted down, Kenneth raised his hand and was recognized by Nick.

  “But how do we know the book will honor a request like that?” he asked with a skeptical look on his face. “As Patti mentioned, these antiques aren’t really lost!”

  “We won’t know until we write the request in the book,” Nick admitted. “I guess the worst that can happen is that … well, that no map appears in the book.”

  “Then I move that we write Patti’s request in the book right now! That way we can immediately see if the book delivers as we’ve been told it can. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am still going to need proof this book can locate lost items of value.” Kenneth’s pudgy chin jutted out stubbornly as he said this, as if daring anyone to challenge his statement.

  Mark, seeing Nick’s eyes flash with anger, quickly interjected, “I don’t think anybody here would disagree with you, Kenneth. Neither Nick nor I expect you to fully believe anything until The Book of Lost Treasures produces a map or directions to the next lost treasure.”

  “Okay, so what’s wrong with right now? Let’s write the request in the book and see if it produces a map!” Kenneth persisted. Puzzled, Nick studied Kenneth. He seemed almost angry, his normally pallid complexion flushed.

  Nick wasn’t surprised that Kenneth needed proof of the book’s ability, but his reaction was way beyond that. Suddenly, it struck Nick as to the possible reason why: Kenneth’s world was an orderly one of electronics, microchips, and logic based on software programs. The Book of Lost Treasures upset this predictable world, and it introduced a variable Kenneth neither understood nor could control. It wasn’t doubt that he was observing in Kenneth, but fear! Kenneth was scared!

  “What do you think?” Nick asked as he turned toward Mark.

  Mark didn’t answer immediately. Drumming his fingers on the couch’s upholstered arm, he considered the question carefully. Finally, he said, “I think we should wait. In fact, I think we should wait until this Saturday to begin our search.”

  “But why?” Kenneth protested.

  “For one or all of the following reasons. First of all, we have no working capital. Whose money are we going to use if we have to buy any of the antiques we discover?”

  No one, it seemed, had considered that point. The question went unanswered.

  Plunging on, Mark continued, “I was going to take the old coins we found in the cashbox to the coin dealer in Texarkana and see what they are worth. With any luck, he’ll buy them from me, and we will have some money to deposit in the club’s account. Of course, right now we don’t have an account, which means we will have to set one up. That takes some time, as does driving all the way to Texarkana. I have meetings with clients scheduled throughout this week, and I’ll be lucky to be able to find the time just to make it to the coin dealer.

  “Then there is the legal establishment of our business. As a favor to Patti, one of the partners at her firm has offered to draw up an article of incorporation that establishes the Treasure Hunt Club as a business, as well as the contract offering ten percent to the owner of anyone whose property we find valuables on.

  However, he is doing this on his own free time, and these legal documents won’t be ready until sometime toward the end of the week. I don’t think we should proceed until our business has legally been established and we have that contract in hand.

  “Finally, as I alluded to earlier, I have to work, as do most of you. I just can’t take off and go searching for whatever the book leads us to. It’s liable to be time-consuming, and I’d rather not start a search I can’t finish.”

  Turning to Nick, Mark said, “I would like to make a motion we meet here again at promptly eight o’clock this Saturday morning, write our request in the book, and begin to search for the antiques it leads us to.” Patti quickly seconded the motion, and when Nick called for a vote, even Kenneth reluctantly raised his hand.

  “I still don’t see why we can’t see if the book produces a map,” he mumbled after the vote.

  Hearing Kenneth, Nick spoke up, “We have to be careful about the timing of any request, Kenneth.”

  “Why is that?” Patti asked with a questioning look.

  “Well, think about it. If the book produced a map based on a request we made tonight, circumstances might change between now and this weekend! What if someone at one of these estate sales buys the very antique revealed by the book and drives back to Dallas with it? What then? Would we be forced to approach this person and offer to buy the antique from them? What if they refuse? Then we couldn’t make another request of the book until we obtained that antique!”

  Standing up, Nick began to pace back and forth. “There is so much about The Book of Lost Treasures we don’t understand! We don’t need to make any kind of a wrong move that compromises the book’s value to us until we know more of how the book operates.”

  “I agree with Nick. Let’s just hold tight until Saturday. Then we will go from there,” Hearing no further objections, Mark made a motion the meeting be adjourned, which was seconded by Abby. At that, the meeting ended, and the club members began to drift out of the den and to their cars.

  Nick took his glass of tea to the kitchen and emptied it before rinsing it out. Placing it in the sink, he returned to den, empty now except for Abby, who stood with arms crossed, looking at him expectantly.

  “Well?” she asked.

  Looking around to see if he had missed anything, Nick finally glanced back at Abby, a confused expression on his face.

  “Wh … what?”

  Rolling her eyes, Abby said, “Don’t you remember? You asked me Sunday about going out to dinner sometime this week! Or did I imagine it?”

  “Oh … that! Of course! Where … I mean when ….”

  Nick stopped when he saw Abby giggling.

  “Did anyone ever tell you that you look cute when you get that panicked look on your face?”

  “Huh? Well, uh, no actually,” he managed to stammer. Wait! Did she call him cute?

  Before he could process that bit of information further, Abby looped her arm through his and began to steer him to the front door. “Here’s what I think we should do,” she carried on conversationally as they walked. “I think we should go to Longview Friday night. Patti told me about this new café that just opened that she and Mark went to. She said it was fabulous! We might even get to do a little shopping before we eat. What do you think?”

  “Uh, that would be … great!”

  “Good! I’ll take care of making the reservation, say around eight o’clock?”

  “Sure … eight o’clock sounds fine.”

  By this time, they had walked out the front door and were standing by Nick’s car. Mark, Patti, Steve, and Kenneth were standing by Steve’s car and looked over at them curiously.

  “Oh, one more thing,” Abby said to Nick as he opened the door to the little Sprint. “D
o you mind if we take my car?”

  Grinning at Abby, Nick said, “My car is really a lot roomier than it looks, but … if you insist!” Abby laughed, placing her hand on Nick’s arm as she did so. His skin tingled where she touched him, and he was struck once again by how easy the sound of laughter seemed to come from her. For a moment or two, they stood in awkward silence knowing they were being observed by their friends. Nick finally got into the car, folding himself in carefully. The engine sputtered to life as he turned the key. Before driving off, he rolled the window down and said good-bye to Abby.

  Watching her image in the rearview mirror, he gazed at her until he was forced to turn at the end of the street and she finally disappeared from sight.

  Chapter 19

  The week flew by quickly as Nick busied himself with various tasks. He spent one afternoon in the Pleasant Mountain public library poring through reference books on antiques. Writing notes on a legal pad, he was amazed at the variety and the value of antiques, large and small.

  To his untrained eye, many of the valuable pieces pictured in the reference book looked rather ordinary—something he might pass by a hundred times at a flea market or estate sale and never suspect were priceless. For example, there was a copper tray, rather crude and ugly looking to Nick, pictured in the reference book that had an estimated value of $6,000, while a nineteenth century carved wooden mask made by Alaskan Eskimos, something that looked to him like a cheap souvenir, had a value of over $30,000!

  By the time he left the library, Nick was convinced Patti’s plan would work. Most people, the overwhelming majority, were just like him—they couldn’t tell a valuable antique from garage sale junk! If so, these treasures were truly “lost” in the fullest sense of the word! It just remained for them to phrase their request to The Book of Lost Treasures carefully enough that it achieved the desired result. It left him with such an intense sense of anticipation, Nick felt sure if he were a dog, he would be salivating all over himself by now.