The Fountain of Youth

Public transportation and I have been in a love hate relationship for a very long time. I love the way my train speeds down the tracks in the afternoon while I see the highway congested like a parking lot full of cars. And then there are days, wherein I hate it because the older kids are rowdy and picking on unsuspecting passengers.

I sat at the back of the car in the corner, with only one seat available next to me, as I had placed my very large backpack in the middle seat. We were entering the downtown area and there were three more stops until mine. A man in a black suit and dark sunglasses got on and sat next to me. He did not remove his sunglasses which seemed odd since the sun was not even out. The man got off at the next stop, which I thought was very odd since he was only on for one stop. He could have walked the distance faster than getting on the train. I tried to dismiss it but as I got ready to get off at my stop, I noticed the man in the suit had left his briefcase under my backpack. I quickly picked it up and got off the train. I started back to the previous stop in hopes of finding him and returning it to him. The streets were crowded and it was difficult to see over all the people walking about trying to get to work on time.

I looked at my watch and thought I was going to be late if I did not hurry in other direction to work.

As I got to work, I wondered about the man in the suit. How odd that he only got on the train for one stop. How odd that he left his briefcase. I got to my office and laid the briefcase on my desk and I looked at it. Then I put my ear to it as my imagination wildly popped the idea that it could be a bomb into my head. No ticking. I then shook it. There was definitely something inside it. Finally, I opened it.

Inside was a small leather bound black book with an elastic band around it. I searched the rest of case and found nothing. No identification as to who it belonged to, or how to find him again. I closed it and tossed it on the couch and heard something move inside it. I went to the case and opened it and still, nothing. There had to be a secret compartment. I jiggled and wiggled the sides and the back of it and then pop! It came apart. There was money inside the secret compartment! I counted the money, there was $20,000.00 dollars! I am sure the man in the suit would be missing it. I certainly didn’t need it; I need to find this guy and get this back to him! I opened the black book and there was no name inside it. The only thing it had was a sentence scribbled on the inside of the cover, “He who seeks shall find”. Find what?? I turned the pages and there were numbers 29.9068N and -81.3147W. There was a drawing of the sun, water and the eternity symbol. But nothing else. How incredibly strange.

I was about to call the police to tell them about the briefcase, the money and the man in the suit. And the phone rang, it was my mother reminding me that we had another doctor appointment. She was sick and I refused for these doctors to tell us there was nothing they could do for her. We would find the one that would help her, if it was the last thing I did on this earth. She was fine, she looked great. How could she be as sick as they were all trying to tell us?

Later that afternoon, in the doctor’s office, we were being told the same old story. “I am sorry ma’am, there is nothing else we can do for your mother, other than to offer her palliative care.” No! I wasn’t going to hear this crap one more time! I yelled back, “What do you want? If its money you want, I’ll give you $20,000 dollars right this second! But do your damn job and help her!”. My mom cried, I cried and I even made the doctor cry. There was truly nothing else anyone could do for her. I just could not believe it. We had been to 5 different doctors and they all told us the same thing.

On our way back to the house, I told my mom about the man in the suit, the money and the black book. I told her about the numbers and she immediately told me this were longitude and latitude coordinates. I would have never thought of that! We looked up the coordinates and I just could NOT believe what came up. They were coordinates to the Fountain of Youth! The Fountain of Youth of all things on this earth! I told her we had to go, that we had to make the trip, it was our last chance to get more time for her.

We looked up everything anyone ever knew about the Fountain of Youth. Apparently, you had to drink it out of a golden chalice for its magical properties to work. I had just seen a news story about shipwreck salvors having found a golden chalice from the wreckage of a Spanish galleon that sank in 1622 off the coast of Key West. We quickly found out that the owner of the chalice was a collector that lived in a penthouse right down the street from my office. We packed up the car and off we went. We first went by my office and picked up the briefcase with the money and the black book. We went up to the penthouse and met with the collector. We explained we didn’t want to keep the chalice, we just wanted to borrow it for a bit and would return it. He let us borrow it for $10,000. Ad we had to out another $10,000 down as a deposit. I sure was glad I had that cash handy. I promised I would return it out of my personal bank account if I ever found the man in the suit again.

And we were off to find the Fountain of Youth! On our way there, my mom and I spent our time reminiscing about when I was little and growing up and all the wonderful things we had done together. All the places we had visited and traveled to. She opened up the world to me thru, literature, art, music and travel. We laughed and we even cried at our incredible life together. My sweet mother, how was ever going to do all this without her? This had to work!

We arrived in St. Augustine, Florida and then to the exact coordinates. We arrived at Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth Archeological Park. I don’t know what I expected but a park was certainly not it! We entered and went to the clear pool of water in the center if the park. I dipped the golden chalice in the water and I handed it to my mother to drink. She took it, closed her eyes and drank it. We waited for something, anything to happen. I hoped it worked.

As we were walking back to the car, I saw the man in the black suit with sunglasses! “Hey!” I called after him. My mom asked “Who are you yelling at”? The man in the suit, I told her, couldn’t she see him? She could not see him. As he came closer, I told him how I found his briefcase. He did not seem to care. He told me death was inevitable for all of us, but that we had control over how we spend our time with those we love. He leaned over and whispered in her ear, that it was time to go home. As I looked at her and told her that I loved her, the man just disappeared! She smiled and told me she would love me forever and that she would waiting for me. And then she was gone.