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.
