Nathan had been staring at that map all his life and it just didn’t make sense. Why in the hell would something be marked in such a dead zone. It was basically the middle of the desert but even with GPS, there was no way to tell what, if anything, was there. He leaned back in the high back leather desk chair that again squeaked in protest. Adrienne was just outside of the door, per usual, watching the ritual of obsession take place. What hurt worse is she knew where that spot was at. Not for a long time but long enough. She looked down in her hands at their father’s journal and sighed.
“You know, staring at it like that only works if you’re psychic or something.”
“Still not funny, Dree.”
“Well, I think I can cheer you up.”
“Yeah, I could smell dinner cooking. That’s for that.”
“Even better but you have to peel your eyes away from the map for a second.”
He sighed and swiveled the chair. Once he looked at her his eyes dropped to the old journal, “You— you found it?”
“About a week ago. I wanted to read it first before anything added to your obsession.”
“What—does it—“
“Yes. It explains what the map is of and where but it…” she sighed, “It gets real cryptic about what is there before it cuts off. It’s really incomplete.”
“Where is it?”
“Well…that’s the problem. It says Atlantis in quotes, but the map, the shape really looks more like Mexico. All that, that you think is desert,” she said waving her hand at the map on the wall, “Um, yeah, that’s water.”
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty good at reading and you did dub me the puzzle queen, which, accurate,” she said with a smile.
“Okay, so maybe Atlantis. Maybe just a code for something.”
“Yes.”
“Definitely Mexico?”
“Yes.”
Nathan whipped the chair around and turned on his computer. Adrienne reserved comment as she realized the last place he thought it could be was Egypt. Made sense but as corny as Dad was, he wasn’t that cliche. Nathan pulled up a bunch of different programs, his head bobbing up and down, no doubt trying to compare the screen to the map in front of him. A few clicks let him zoom in to a weird dark blue spot that stood out against the jewel toned waters of the Caribbean.
“Does that look real? Like a sinkhole or cave system or something?”
“Maybe. Or just a random deep spot.”
“Uh huh. What else did it say about the location?”
“It didn’t. Like I said, it got real cryptic. So much so, I don’t think any of this would make sense from here.”
“Uh huh.”
She could hear the shit-eating grin on his face when she said that and rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, I already booked the flight. We gotta charter the boat when we get there.”
“Dree. That’s why you’re my favorite.”
“One last thing.”
“What?”
“‘On its face or yours, you may not rise or you may float. You may not see or you may gloat, how free to reach the top of the sea from beneath,’” she said reading from the book.
“That cryptic huh?”
“Yes. And it’s not in Dad’s handwriting.”
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D. Ondria
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