“No you’re holding it upside down, see.”
Skyler grabbed the treasure map from Rey’s hands, rotating the flimsy paper around while pointing confidently.
“This is where that river bank is, see, right here...and that field is where we just came from...and the boulder we’re looking at is north, so it has to be upside down.”
“If it was upside down then why would the letters be rightside up? Come on Skyler. Think!” Rey responded.
The two were good friends, but often argued over the simplest of things. Teaming up to find an alleged treasure was probably the worst idea the two had ever had. It all started with an offhand trip to a thrift shop on an otherwise boring day. They had been scheduled to pick something up for Skyler’s cousin, Nataliya, who was also Rey’s girlfriend, but due to a cancellation, ended up spending some extra free time browsing the other shops in the area. In the midst they came across an old looking map in the “clearance” section of a thrift shop. Rolled up, dusty, and nearly falling apart, it looked more than genuine.
Skyler was skeptical at first, claiming the absurdity of finding a real treasure map in an old thrift shop they had never heard of before, but Rey bolstered the idea of it holding some value. To be fair, his defense was initially meant as a joke, but his intrigue held a small amount of authenticity to it. This was only strengthened once the shop owner noticed the two bickering about and decided to do what businessmen do best: sell the product. He told them an elaborate story about a spanish conquistador who had sailed across the atlantic to discover more land along the North American coast, only to be met with an unfortunate series of events that lead to one of his ships sinking, and the riches aboard being buried in a forest so it could be retrieved upon his return.
The story was obviously malarkey, but Rey and Skyler were desperate for entertainment, and Rey especially could use the exercise. The two forked over $30 for the map, and headed into the forest the map was supposedly referencing, which was conveniently only a couple miles from the shop they had purchased it at.
They had joked about the situation with each other throughout the car ride, imagining what they could do with an imaginary treasure, but when they arrived at their starting point, the joking seemed to die down a little bit as they began taking the idea more seriously the moment they saw the vast forest ahead of them.
Despite the intimidation the maze of trees brought forth, they trekked onwards into the green and gray abyss, staying confident in their knowledge of the area and good service on their phones. They didn’t expect to get very far before turning back, anyways. That frame of mind, however, started to change when they realized just how accurate the map ended up being. It was fairly simplistic, but noted standout trees, rocks, rivers, and the like, which matched up with the invisible trail they were walking on. Very quickly, they were finding themselves encompassed by the thought that this shitty thrift store treasure map was something of a hidden gem.
As the day progressed and they got further along the path and closer to the unknown spot of attraction, the map began losing its credibility, and the duo grew more and more frustrated, not from worrying about their return, but worrying about their ability to find the treasure’s final resting place. Soon it resorted to foolish paranoia.
“No no look at the riddle for this part! ‘Down this path, your glory waits; Up your spirits, and cross the gates.’ Down? Up? It’s clearly trying to clue us in here.” Skyler defended.
“Yeah okay, sure. Well just a reminder that this is all translated from your poor understanding of spanish, so forgive me if I trust the map itself more than I trust you.”
Skyler glared at his exhausted friend, knowing that realistically, they had both been defeated by either a faulty map, or their own ineptitude. Either way, they were in an emotionally precarious situation and he knew they had to give up.
“...You know...it’s getting dark.”
“Yeah I know that.”
“No like, we’re not going to make it back in time and we can’t be out here at night. We don’t have any camping equipment. This was such a mistake.”
“Why don’t we just stay in that cabin then?”
Rey pointed ahead of them, and to Skyler’s surprise, there was indeed a cabin, obscured only by a couple trees and bushes; visible enough for him to be surprised that he hadn’t noticed it moments earlier.
“Uhh…” he looked back down at the map, seeing no signs of a cabin on the discolored paper. “Well we can’t just barge into someone’s cabin like that, we’ll probably be shot on sight.”
“That’s if anyone’s there.”
“Yeah, or if anyone comes back.”
Rey frowned a bit. He wasn’t too happy about the situation either. This was supposed to be a fun distraction after all, and he certainly didn’t fancy the thought of trespassing, but he was much more worried than he let on. They had tried using their phones a few minutes back when they initially realized they were lost, to see if the GPS worked, but discovered they had no signal. It seemed like this cabin was the only option left, aside from wandering aimlessly and having no shelter for the night. The sun was setting rather quickly.
“We have to chance it.” Rey decided, “if anyone’s there, we’ll just tell it to them straight.”
Skyler’s expression showed uncertainty, but he ultimately agreed to the plan, following his cousin's boyfriend down to the mysteriously placed cabin.
Arriving at the door of the wooden cabin, it didn’t appear abandoned. Peering through the window, the two boys could tell it was furnished and very well kept, but the lights were off and the door was cracked open ever so slightly. Skyler tapped on the door gently, but was abruptly stopped by Rey.
“Hey now, hold your horses. If anyone’s here, I’ll do the talking.”
“Tsh. Right, that’s reassuring.”
The two gave a light chuckle and Rey took position in front of the door. He proceeded to give it a good knock, calling out a pretty confrontational “Hello? Anybody home?” only to continue garnering no response. They felt it was safe after waiting a few more minutes outside in silence.
To their surprise, the door was already unlocked, so there was no need to attempt to crawl through any windows or check around back.
“Hello?” Rey shouted, once the two were inside, as a final bit of security to make sure the place was indeed empty. The certainty shifted Skyler’s mood quite a bit, as he took on a positive tone.
“Alright, calm down, no one’s here to hurt you, Rey” Skyler said, jesting. Despite being the taller and more muscular one of the two, he was much more nervous under pressure, but he kept his big ego once he felt he was safe.
“Gee, how fortunate. I could have had to rely on you to protect me.” Rey responded sarcastically.
“I was ready to bitch slap whoever came through that door, don’t doubt it!”
“Haha! Riiiight, and they were ready to stab you.”
“That’s why you were my meat shield. Good teamwork!”
The two laughed, finally calming down about invading someone else’s property, and settling into a more relaxed state. They were content with the predicament they were in, trying to find the positives in it. They knew getting back shouldn’t be too hard in the morning and, at the least, they would be able to find a hot spot for cell service, thus the only thing they needed to worry about was getting through the night. For now, they just needed to look around and get themselves situated.