Treasure!

Wednesday, April 6, 2005

The redbud had fully blossomed outside the window. Finally, Collette knew what the bean pod tree actually held inside – wonderful soft whispering blossoms. They transformed the view into a veil of purples.

The day before, Collette had hit the books hard – three hours of Chinese, an hour of tutoring math, and a good many hours into the early night of painting the boar’s head. There was a root beer break and the winds outside were lovely enough to keep the deck door fully opened.

Meanwhile, Carrie had stumbled across treasure. She had IM’d Collette early Tuesday morning –

“I got this book.”

“What book?”

“It’s a fairy tale… But it has real treasure.”

“Real?”

“Yes, REAL… Over a million dollars. This guy sold his company for over a trillion dollars. And now he’s bored.”

“That’s pretty cool.”

“The riddles are soooo hard though. There’s 12 tokens hidden. You trade them in for these jewelery. One is worth 450,000.”

“Wow; I’d sell it.”

“The guy that’s gotten the farthest is a NASA scientist.”

“Whoa!”

“But no prizes have been claimed yet. The guy who wrote this was a pretty smart cookie.”

“No kidding.”

“Don’t tell OLeif about the treasure. It’s mine!!!!!!! Don’t let him show it to any of his nerdy friends.”

And so Carrie spent the hour at the Silverspoons, while Collette taught math, working through the fairy tale, unwrapping codes and such. The pictures of the jewelry were splendid. One had been crafted into a chunky caterpillar and another held an enormous yellow diamond.

Meanwhile, Joe was starving for lunch.

“Is there anything I can eat?” He asked at least a dozen times. “I’m so hungry. I hardly got any lunch.”

Finally, he asked Curly about some unclaimed glass dishes of dessert, sitting on the counter.

Rose seemed to lah-dee-dah through the math session.

“You think I can jump on the trampoline?” She would ask, concerned that it would look funny in front of the guys.

And at home that evening, OLeif was thoroughly excited about Google Maps. He tracked down the apartment and the Snicketts’ house (with the travel trailer in the driveway).

“Look at this; it is just so cool!”

“We can see the camper from space.” Collette laughed. “Too funny.”

“And look at this,” OLeif went on. “Here are all the Chinese joints in the area. And, look, here’s Dad’s office.”

By the time it was finished, Collette was sound asleep.