#BookTreasure

CHAPTER 1: “The bando”

“C’mon Dez, it’s getting dark out here. Let’s go!” - Niko blurted out.

“Coming, hold on a sec.” - Dezir’ee hollered back.

As she rummaged through the tainted antiques and withered books, dust could be seen in the final rays of sun peaking through the window as night was falling.

“Forreal! I’m not trying to be here in the dark. This bando is creepy and I’m not looking to be here when this crazy doctor comes home and experiments on us.” - Niko exclaimed.

Niko had started joking earlier in the day after his observations of medical prescription pads and cases of thirty year old psychiatric medications. Even though the house obviously hadn’t been inhabited in years, it seemed potential that something weird could go down at night, and he wasn’t trying to stick around to find out. Anyways, the place was filthy and his sneakers had gotten all scraped up after Dezir’ee dragged him out there earlier, bribing him with hidden treasure. He didn’t know what to expect, but he knew it would likely be more fun than sitting in the house with no WiFi. He was one for adventure and in the middle of a pandemic could definitely use cash after his concert business went into bankruptcy due to no events. But he was definitely mentally and physically done being a scavenger.

“Dude! I’m done.” - Niko said under this breath.

“LET’S GO GIRL!” - Niko screamed in a sincere aggravated voice.

He nearly fell over as he lost his balance jumping in shock due to ravens in a nearby tree taking flight as a reaction to his scream. Placing his backpacks filled with trinkets and old books into her car, he decided that if he had to drag her out of the rundown house he would. He was ready to do what he had to do to not run into Franz Clauberg, the psychiatrist who most likely had been dead for decades. Regardless, this isn’t a question Niko wanted answered.

As he tracked up the steps of the house he couldn’t even see the floor. The people that previously lived there were hoarders and it seemed as if one day they just disappeared. Above all else there were many books in the house, literally thousands. Books on shelves. Books in boxes. Books in cabinets. Books, books, and more books. Most of the books seemed absolutely useless, but there were definitely some rare gems in the bunch. Such as an old version of Homer’s Iliad and an original first edition of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe from 1950 in perfect condition.

Coming upstairs he watched as Dezir’ee scrambled across the floor on her hands and knees, stuffing old clocks into a bag.

“Oh my.” - Niko mumbled.

He picked up her bags, made three trips up and down the steps to her car, and returned upstairs. He could now barely see her in the dark and she had pulled out a headlamp to continue through the hoarded house. He counted down as she sped up her pace. When finished counting he picked her up and began to head out.

“NIKO NO!” - Dezir’ee yelled as she squirmed off of him.

“C’MON!” - Niko said, tossing his hands in the air.

“EEEEEE!” - Dezir’ee shrieked as she loaded up her arms with everything she could carry and ran down the steps.

“This woman.” - Niko said as he shook his head.

She let him drive the car back to her place as she began looking up the value of the time pieces she had discovered in the forgotten home. Thankfully when they arrived she didn’t pressure him to carry inside the boxes and bags she had filled up. Finally he could sit down on the couch and relax as she continued to search the internet for different objects that she had found in her “house of hidden treasure”.

The second that Niko took his shoes off, his cellphone rang with a call from his roommate saying his dog got out and was running around the neighborhood. Niko immediately ordered a RYDE and prepared to head home.

“You can take my car.” - Dezir’ee offered aloud.

“I already ordered a RYDE. A red car will be here in three minutes. Thank you though.” - Niko replied.

CHAPTER 2: “The drop”

As the RYDE pulled up to Niko’s house Niko reached in his pocket to tip the driver. Doing this he realized that his wallet was at the bottom of his backpack. Not trying to be “that guy who doesn’t tip” he dumped out books in the back seat of the RYDE so that he could reach his wallet and pull out cash. He stuffed all the books that he could see back into his backpack quickly and hopped out of the car with an open bag.

“Thanks!” - Niko said to the driver as he turned around to his dog already waiting for him.

“Good day sir.” - The driver said as he rolled up the window and pulled away.

Chapter 3: “The pilot”

The time was 11:00 pm and Daniel had been working all day on his pitch for his midnight meeting with the extraordinary pilot he had met that morning in the strip. Pilot Jones had taken a liking to Daniel after Daniel overheard the pilot ordering his meal and advised the pilot that the eggs wouldn’t be fully cooked and would be sunny side up unless he specified to the waitress that he wanted them over easy. After that the two men sat and chatted about food, sports, and outer space. They could both tell that each other was highly intelligent, which created a friendly bond between the two men. Before they left, Daniel threw out an idea about a mercy plane that could travel the world helping the needy and feeding the hungry. This had recently been on his mind and the pilot seemed intrigued. So the pilot offered to meet Daniel for a midnight meal to discuss his thoughts further before the pilot's flight out. Daniel was exuberant all day and really put on his thinking cap. It was now coming up on the meeting time.

Daniel went outside to order a RYDE and as he pulled out his phone he realized his bank account was dry. Since the pandemic had started Daniel had lost his corporate job and had been doing all types of odds and end jobs that paid straight cash.

“Yikes! What do I do now!?” - Daniel vocalized.

Almost instantaneously a red car was driving down the hill and headed his way. He could see the RYDE light in the dash and he thought to himself “what the heck, I better try”. So he pulled out cash and began waving down the car with money in hand. Surprisingly the RYDE stopped and Daniel asked the driver if he could pay him for a quick ride downtown. The driver at first being reluctant, agreed to the ride after evaluating Daniel to not be suspect in his dress shoes, ironed button up, and clean haircut. So Daniel hopped in the back seat and they were on their way.

The ride downtown was quick, so Daniel decided to close his eyes and clear his head for a minute. As he was doing this the RYDE driver slammed on the brakes to avoid getting hit in traffic. This jarred Daniel and the small black notebook that he had been working on his notes all day in flew far under the seat. He scrambled to get it but couldn’t reach it, so he waited until they arrived to crawl under the seat and recover it. By this time it was getting closer to midnight and he did not want to be late. So he grabbed his notebook quickly and headed for the all night restaurant. He arrived about ten minutes early and sat down and ordered some lemon water to drink. He rejoiced in always being early and was satisfied to wait a couple of minutes.

About two minutes before midnight he decided to take a quick glance at his notes, just to double check a couple things that he wanted to talk about. Something was weird about his notebook. It seemed much older than it was when he bought it only one week prior. It was weathered and slightly bent at the top as if someone had sat on it. As he opened his notebook he began to realize this wasn’t his notebook at all. All the pages were blank!

As he flicked through the pages in disbelief. He didn’t know what to do. He flipped through the book all the way until he got to the last three pages. Taped to each page was a note. In utter amazement he looked at all three notes again and again. The three notes were currency. There was one note with Salmon P. Chase on the front, it read $10,000. There were two more notes with James Madison on the front, they read $5,000 each. His jaw dropped to the floor and he literally fell out of his chair. As he hurriedly climbed back up in his seat all he could think to himself was “Is this real life?”.

Pilot Jones ended up being five minutes late so Daniel had a couple minutes to recover his thoughts and just enough time to get his head back on straight. As the two talked, Daniel explained his ideas of mercy planes as best he could remember and Pilot Jones listened carefully. When Daniel was done explaining, the pilot sat up with a large grin on his face.

“Daniel, I love your ideas and I am willing to help you accomplish all of them.” - Pilot Jones expressed.

A wave of delight fell over Daniel.

“But before those projects, I would like to offer you an opportunity of a lifetime Daniel.” - Pilot Jones added.

Daniel listened attentively.

“I’ve been a pilot my whole life Daniel, and for the last twenty years I’ve been going through an immense amount of training in a very exclusive field.” - Pilot Jones explained.

“I’m listening.” - Daniel remarked.

“I’ve been training to be a space pilot for our new tourism route and I would like to offer you the chance to be on our first tourism trip to the Moon.” - Pilot Jones exclaimed.

“I - I - I - I would love to.” - Daniel stuttered out.

“I thought you might say that Daniel!” - Pilot Jones firmly replied.

“I hate to have to ask, but what is the cost of the trip?” - Daniel asked with interest.

“$400,000.” - Pilot Jones responded with a straight face.

Daniel spit his lemon water out everywhere.

“Luckily since I’m offering, I can provide you with my pilots discount of 90% off the full price.” - Pilot Jones informed Daniel.

Daniel thought about this briefly. He then reached into the back of the little black book. Peeled out the three currency notes and handed them across the table.

“I’m in.” - Daniel said.

“Do you usually carry this money around?” - Pilot Jones questionably asked.

“It’s one of those days.” - Daniel peaceably declared.

The pilot shrugged it off.

“My flight is at 8:00 am. Meet me at the airport at 6:00 am sharp and we will head to a short term training in Mojave, CA.” - Pilot Jones said, looking into Daniels eyes with a captain’s posture.

Eight hours later Daniel was on a flight headed to the base for his training. After two weeks of rocket passenger training they prepared for launch to the Moon. As Daniel looked down at the Earth getting smaller and smaller in the distance he meditated heavily. Now as they prepared to set foot on the Moon his heart raced with excitement. As he jumped out and landed on the rocky ground he was astounded at the sight of the Earth, the Sun, and the stars all around.

“I guess this is what it feels like to be out of this world.” - Daniel said with content.

“I made it.”