Treasure Hunt

                 After we both finished our meals and Asher had a second cup of coffee we paid for the meal – compliments of Gavin. We climbed back into his pick-up and he pulled onto the main road running through the city. We road in silence until –

                “Hey, you just passed our turn!” He turned to look at me and shot me his sideways smile.

                “Relax. I wanna take you somewhere. You trust me?”

                “I dunno if I should. The last time I trusted someone he betrayed that trust.” I trailed off and turned to look out the window as the streets flashed by. The first covers of night had begun to fall. We didn’t speak again until he pulled to a stop.

                “It should be close.”

                “What should be close?” Instead of answering he climbed out of the car. I followed him. I couldn’t tell where we were. Maybe some city park. We walked along a winding path for what seemed like five minutes and then he came to an abrupt stop. He strayed from the path, into what looked to be a small expanse of forest. I reached my arms out in front of me, not wanting to lose sight of him in the darkness and my fingers brushed against the back of his t-shirt. He stopped walking and held out his hand with a laugh. I took hold of it with only a slight reluctance.

                He began walking again, only slower this time to avoid tripping over the upturned tree roots. He jolted to a halt, letting go of my hand. I crossed my arms over my chest in a defensive stance as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He used it as a flashlight, shining it towards the ground.

                “There!” He said pointing.

                “What?” I asked, fearing his answer. He handed me his phone.

                “Shine it right here,” he instructed, guiding the beam of light. He kneeled on the forest floor and pushed aside some branches to reveal an army green storage box. He popped the latched and opened it.

                “What’s that?”

                “It’s a geo cache. It’s like a real live treasure hunt.” He dug through the box and found a small note pad and a pencil. “This is a list of all the other people that have found it before us. I’ll write our names down.”

                “How’d you know this was here?” I asked.

                “Well you can find coordinates online, but I made this cache a few years back.” He placed the pad and pencil back into the box. He dug around again and held up a hand woven bracelet made of hemp. He slipped it on his wrist and smiled. “One of the rules of geo caching is if you take something out, you have to put something in to re place it.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a lighter.

                “You smoke?” I asked. He tossed it into the box.

                “I used to. I just never stopped carrying around the lighter because I’d developed a nervous habit of flicking it on and off. It helped me cope with my anxiety.” He pulled out a piece of paper with a picture on it. He held it up to show me. It was a red, white and blue peace sign. “It’s a temporary tattoo,” he said, handing it to me.  I admired it for a moment before pushing it into my pocket.

                “I don’t have anything to put in,” I said.

                “Sure you do. There has to be something in that purse of yours you wouldn’t mind parting with.” I dug through my bag in the darkness until my hand brushed against a small bottle of body spray. I pulled it out and handed it to him.

                “That’ll do,” he said and tossed it into the box. He snapped it closed and was on his feet again in an instant. I handed him back his phone. He placed it back into his pocket and held out his hand to me again. I took it and we started walking back in the general direction of the car.