The Clumsy Treasure Hunt

It was an excruciating warm summer day. The waves of the turquoise colored lake danced along the shoreline amongst the feet of many beach-goers basking in the sun like lizards on heated rocks.

“Oh, thats cold!!” Melinda shouted as she planted her feet in the sand right into the oncoming waves on shore.

Melinda, age twenty seven, had come to this beach many times since she was a child and she swore the water was never that cold in the summer. She had decided to stroll upon the beach to look for beach glass that she used for her mosaic tile projects that day. As she strolled by, she smiled at the many children making motes and sandcastles, families having picnics as well as the many young adults bathing in the sunlight. At this very moment, she plunged forward into the wet sand as a piece of lone driftwood washed ashore and tripped her.

“Well this is embarrassing!” She thought to herself.

As she began to push herself up from the sand, a young man with bright green eyes and dark hair offered to help her up.

“Thank you” she said thankfully as she brushed the sand off her clothes and knees.

“Did anyone see me?” She asked out of embarrassment.

“Well, maybe a few people but they don’t seem to be paying as much attention to your fall as they are to the dog who got loose and knocked over half the towels and drinks of the group on the beach” He joked.

Melinda looked around and noticed he was right after all! A group of kids were trying to chase down a black Labrador Retriever running a marathon through the crowd of people sitting near the shore line.

“I’m Tanner by the way, nice to meet you.” He said confidently.

“I’m Melinda, the beach klutz.” She replied with a smirk.

After this meeting, Melinda and Tanner walked the beach together. They were talking when something caught Melinda’s eye near a large rock in a more secluded part of the beach. She put her hand over her brow to block the sun as she noticed a rectangular black notebook as if someone had accidentally left it there.

Melinda pointed out her recently discovered find to Tanner as they walk over to find out who the mysterious notebook belonged to. Melinda reached down and opened the cover to discover there was no name written on the notebook.

There was a message written on the inside on the very first page that read “Dear whomever reads this, I have left this notebook here because I have left a clue to a hidden treasure chest lying on the beach. If you find this treasure chest, you will find that you are very fortunate.”

Melinda looked at Tanner as she read the message out loud. “Seriously? Who does this sort of thing? Don’t people use their phones to leave messages these days?” Melinda teased.

“Well, some people might. Let’s just do it for fun! I mean, do you have anything else planned for today?” Tanner asked.

“I’m pretty sure a mysterious treasure hunt wasn’t on my list for today.” She said with a smile.

“So why don’t we add it to your list? Come on.” He begged. “Please?”

“Okay but if we can’t find it within the next couple of hours, I am going home to my cool house and a glass of wine!” She replied as she shoved the little black notebook into the waistband of her jean shorts.

Tanner and Melinda read the first clue out loud. “When the sun goes down and the tide is low, I rest somewhere near bright yellow.”

They searched up and down the beach with no idea until Melinda saw a yellow ribbon under the shallow pools of water near the sand. As they dig through the sand they find a bottle with a piece of the notebook paper with clue number two.

“Near this object here I lie, that’s bluer than the daylight sky.”

Again, their eyes searched the beach hunting for anything blue. “What in the world could be THAT blue on a beach other than the water itself?” Melinda pondered out loud.

Melinda and Tanner scan the beach for another time, when Tanner suddenly spots a park bench close to the shoreline that is painted bright blue. They approach the empty bench and notice beside the bench yet another blue ribbon tied to it in notebook paper.

They quickly unravel the rolled paper to reveal the last clue. “By the way, I forgot to mention, to find me, you mustn’t pay attention!”

“This is a clue?” Melinda said sarcastically as she began walking back down the beach.

“I have no idea. Let’s split up looking for it. You go to the bottom half of the beach and I will go towards the top.” Tanner replied, as he seemingly searched the beach in confusion.

After looking for nearly forty five minutes Melinda began to get very warm.

“I am going to cool off,'' she said kneeling down in the wet sand, wetting her face, feet and hands in the cold lake.

As she got back up in frustration of the puzzling last clue, she decided to find Tanner. Instead, she found herself in a familiar situation; plunging back into the wet sand face-first as she tripped over the very same piece of driftwood she had tripped over earlier.

“How does one person trip over the same stick twice?” she asked herself, embarrassingly.

As she again picked herself up out of the wet sand she saw a sandy colored ribbon sticking out of the water near the driftwood. She quickly dug into the sand until she saw a plastic container. She opened it quickly and noticed within a plastic bag was a check for $20,000 and a note that read “Hope you enjoyed this treasure hunt, be careful next time. - Tanner.”

Her jaw dropped in amazement and she looked to see if Tanner was still nearby watching her reaction. However, Tanner was nowhere to be found and the notebook fell out of her waistband. That is all that is left of her clumsy treasure hunt with Tanner.

She sadly never saw Tanner again. However, every summer she now hides clues with the notebook paper from the black notebook as well as treasure for others to find. It reminds her of her summer encounter with Tanner, the mysterious kind person who encouraged her to have more fun. She also posted a sign cautioning those about the driftwood so nobody else fell on their face in wet sand in embarrassment again.