A Treasure Found

The air already smelled stormy, and the winds had already picked up when Jaiden finally noticed signs of the old city ahead. He quickly pointed them out to his mother, who nodded and picked up the pace.

They could reach shelter before the hurricane hit, but they didn't have any time to delay. Not with Hannah's cough getting worse and her breath getting shallower.

As soon as they could distinguish the buildings from one another, Jaiden's mother placed her hand on his shoulder and turned him around.

"Do you see that large office building near the outskirts of the city?" she asked.

Jaiden looked over and nodded. Compared to the other buildings nearby, it had sustained little structural damage. More importantly, there were sure to be windowless rooms that protected against the storms that were getting ever more frequent.

"You'll need to go on ahead. Hannah and I won't be able to beat the storm by much, and we need to find the medicine quickly. Remember, the word you need to see on the bottle is "amoxicillin." Her voice quavered. "With father gone, I need your help now more than ever. I know you can do it. I love you."

Jaiden found a vocal response to that too difficult, so he merely nodded and started to run ahead.

Nowadays, all the outside playgrounds and basketball courts were full of debris, and the large arenas had all been repurposed. He'd never know what it's like to just be a "normal" child. He still didn't quite know how world war and global warming had combined to divide the world into uninhabitable deserts and interminable hurricane zones.

All the remnants of humanity could do now was try to live the best they could in the border areas, ever wandering to stay just ahead of the storms. He knew he had to protect his mom and sister with father gone. With every decision he made in doing so, he always asked himself what his father would do.

Jaiden thought back to one of his favorite memories of his father, the first Father's Day he could remember...

Jaiden was five at the time, back when people still thought they could weather the storms from their homes. Businesses had reverted back to local economies from global ones, and instead of a worldwide web and national banks, people had gone back to a barter economy.

Jaiden had wanted to find something extra special for his father. He and his mother spent an entire week checking every local store that was still up and running, but the selection was expensive, unless he wanted to pick out an old tie or stuffed animal.

Oddly enough, Jaiden found exactly what he was looking for doing something else entirely.

He and his mother would sometimes wander some of the abandoned fields near their house to look for items to use or trade, and two days before Father's Day he noticed something glinting on the ground during one of the searches. He called his mother over to help him dig it out, and it turned out to be a golden heart-shaped locket.

Jaiden remembered how excited his mother became upon seeing the newfound treasure. The two of them immediately returned to the house and cleaned the grime off the locket using water from the rain barrel.

Miraculously, it was free from scratches and was still in pristine condition. That very afternoon, they brought the locket to the nearest shop, heads held high, sure they would get more credit for it than for any previous find.

The lines were long as other people attempted to make trades of their own, but Jaiden didn't notice. He was too busy thinking about what they might get for the locket.

When they approached the counter, the clerk took a brief look at the locket and took it to a back room. When she returned a couple minutes later, she informed them that it was made of 14K gold and not particularly rare or valuable. They were offered $10 worth of credit for the locket if they choose to trade it in. Jaiden was crushed, but his mother wore a knowing, sad smile.

She asked Jaiden to sleep on it, and if he still chose to trade it in they could come back tomorrow. However, she asked him not to say anything about the locket to anyone else.

The next day, Jaiden was ready to trade the locket in for the credit since he thought this was the only option. However, his mother had another idea. She asked him if he would like to put a picture of him with his father in the locket and use it as a Father's Day present.

Jaiden agreed, and when he gifted the locket to his father, he knew he had made the right decision. His father loved it, and it was one of his most prized possessions from then on. He wore it proudly and never took it off.

At that moment, a loud roll of thunder startled Jaiden's thoughts. The storm was coming in way faster than they had anticipated, and it has nearly caught up with him. He knew he had to find shelter quickly.

To this day, he never had to weather a storm alone, but he knew what to do. Instead of reaching the heart of the city where the pharmacy was, he found himself in the middle of a residential district.

Every house Jaiden tried was boarded up too well for him to enter, and his frantic knocking yielded no response. By the time he reached the last house, he was frantically freezing and out of breath. When he knocked surprisingly, an elderly woman answered and beckoned him inside.

The woman beckoned Jaiden into the basement, which had a second layer of protection, and fetched him some blankets while he waited. He didn't have the time to thank her properly before she began another trip up the stairs and back, this time bringing hot tea and some cornbread. He accepted it gratefully. When he had eaten enough to sate the hunger built up from running, he was finally able to bring himself to talk.

"I cannot thank you enough for letting me wait out the storm with you. My name is Jaiden, what's yours ma'am?" Jaiden asked.

"Well, my dear, I don't get much company these days, so whenever I can have company over it's always a privilege. My name is Sara," the woman replied.

"How long have you been living here?"

"Oh, I have been here for over 30 years. I have been living alone the past 10 years. My husband and daughter have passed away years ago, but before my husband passed he made sure this house was good and sturdy in case anything happened to me," Sara replied, a small tear forming in her eye.

"I am so sorry," Jaiden responded. "My mom and sister are taking shelter in an old office building a couple miles west from here. My little sister is very sick, and I need to find some amoxicillin before it's too late. Is there a pharmacy nearby?" Jaiden's voice quavered at the last sentence.

"Oh honey, I have some stocked in my bathroom. Let me get some for you." Sara replied.

Sara got up from her chair and walked back to the bathroom. Shortly afterward, he was surprised to hear her talking to someone, a man. I guess she doesn't live here alone after all, he thought to himself. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but something about the man's voice sounded very familiar to him. When she came back, she handed him a full bottle.

"Are you sure you don't need this?" Jaiden asked.

"Oh, I am sure, dear, I used to be a nurse, and I have plenty of supplies stocked. I was checking in on my other house guest in the back bedroom. The poor dear, I came across him behind my house about a month ago. His leg was completely shattered, and he was on the verge of dying from infection. I am so glad I was able to help him, and luckily he is recovering quite nicely," Sara replied.

Jaiden sipped the last of his tea and finished his cornbread. He then asked if he could use her bathroom. She pointed him to the proper door and started cleaning up his cup and plate. As he walked down the lantern-lit hallway, he noticed that the adjacent bedroom door was slightly open.

His eye caught a glimmer shining from the room. Something in him beckoned him to the bedroom, so he decided to have a closer look.

As he got closer, he spotted a golden, heart-shaped locket sitting on an end table adjacent to the bed. Immediately, tears welled up in his eyes, and he started to choke up. It was just like the locket he had been thinking about earlier, the one he had given his father all those years ago.

There was a stir from the bed, and Jaiden realized there was a man laying down in it, facing the wall. In a familiar voice, the man asked, "Sara, is that you? Is everything all right?"

Jaiden's body froze as he slowly watched the man start to turn his body towards him. When he saw who it was, for a moment that seemed like an eternity, he held his breath. Then the man's eyes filled with surprise, followed by joy, and finally, a deep love - the love of a father for a son he hasn't seen in a long time and worried he may not see again. Jaiden was frozen in place, hardly daring to hope that his vision wasn't playing tricks.

"Jaiden?! Son, is it really you?"

"Dad?"

An instant later, Jaiden's father had pulled him into a strong hug, tears running down his cheeks to match Jaiden's. He whispered softly, "I'm so sorry... I tried to come back... Some desperate men cornered me, stole the food I was going to bring back... I didn't know where you went after the storm... but now you've found me instead... I'm so proud of you..."

Jaiden's father ended the embrace and looked him square in the eyes, the question he was afraid to ask evident on his face. Jaiden grinned broadly and answered it.

"Dad, Mom and Hannah came with me. Hannah is sick, but Mom is taking good care of her. They're in a strong building, on the outskirts of the city. They'll be fine until we can get back to them with food and amoxicillin for Hannah."

"And a long time after, if I have anything to say about it," Sara said from the doorway. Jaiden and his father looked over at Sara, who was holding the medicine in one hand and a lantern in the other.

*******

Once the storm had finally blown over, Jaiden raced back to the office building with the medicine, even faster than he had been when fleeing the storm. He couldn't believe his good fortune. He had left with one family member missing, and he was returning now with two family members found. Years ago, he had discovered a treasure buried in the earth. Yesterday, he found that same treasure again, in the basement bedroom of an old house miles away, along with so much more than he dared to hope for.