Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Romantic Proposition: Get Some Ladders
GHOST
T rue to her word, Emily kept my mind off the painting hanging in the lobby all night long. If anything, knowing it was there, waiting for us to discover its secret just added to the anticipation and pleasure we shared until we both finally fell asleep.
When I woke, Emily was still in my arms, and I spent a long moment just wondering at the way life had shifted and morphed in the last few weeks.
“Hey,” she said, her eyes fluttering open.
“Good morning.”
“Are you watching me sleep?” She wrinkled her nose at me.
“Only for a second. I just woke up.”
She stretched in the circle of my arms, and I hugged her closer, kissing the shell of her ear.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“It’s after eight.”
“Aubrey will be up for sure. She has a newborn.”
“Good point,” I said, the excitement I’d felt last night racing back through me. It reminded me of Christmas morning as a kid—having to wait until we could rip into packages and reveal something anticipated and wonderful. “Let’s get some ladders.”
Emily laughed, but she hopped up as quickly as I did. “Do I have time to run to my room and change?”
“Of course,” I told her. “I’ll just get some of the guys and some gear. Meet us down there.”
Not long after, we had a tall ladder on either side of the desk, and a plan. I climbed up one side and Fake Tom was up on the other, below us, Sasquatch, Brainiac, and Wiley were ready to receive the huge piece of art as we lowered it down. Emily and Aubrey stood to one side of the lobby with Lucy, Emily snapping pictures as we set up. The question would be how securely it was attached to the wall.
“How heavy do you think this thing is?” Fake Tom called to me.
“No idea.”
“Maybe we need a crane,” Lucy suggested. “I’ve got one—it’ll just be an hour or so to get it over here and set it up.”
“If it seems crazy heavy, we’ll get the crane,” I agreed. But I was too excited to think about what was probably the smartest and safest option, and a group of former F-18 pilots was unlikely to be the type to lean into taking things slow and easy. We shared a love of getting shit done and worrying about details only when necessary.
“We’ve got it,” Fake Tom assured her.
He and I both gripped the substantial frame and lifted. The piece wasn’t as heavy as I’d feared, and it came away from the wall easily. I moved to look behind it. “It’s on a wire,” I called to Fake Tom. “We just need to lift a little higher, and then out.”
It took a few tries, but eventually we got it lifted high enough to pass over the hooks that held the wire, and then we began lowering the enormous thing down to the hands waiting below. It was a little unwieldy, and I didn’t want to smash anyone below if we lost control of it. A few interested guests had begun to gather in the lobby to watch the process, and Aubrey guided them out of way in case we were to drop the thing.
Finally, Fake Tom and I came down and we all stood, staring at the painting as the guys held it upright in front of us. It was taller than I was, and more than twice that wide. I realized there weren’t many places to put the thing now that we had it down.
“Uh, okay, what now?” Brainiac stood holding up one side of the big thing.
“We examine it,” Aubrey said, moving close with Finn in her arms. She walked around the piece, Emily and Monroe close behind her, as the rest of us examined different parts of the painting.
“This is it!” Aubrey said, her voice rising from behind the painting. I moved around to join her. “Look!” She pointed to the top of the back of the frame, where a manilla envelope was affixed, blending in almost completely with the backing of the artwork.
“Lower it down, guys,” I suggested, and slowly, we laid the big thing down in the center of the lobby floor.
Monroe was closest when the piece was face-down, but she stepped aside and looked at Emily meaningfully. Emily’s smile grew wide and she knelt down to carefully remove the package from the back of the huge wood frame.
“What is it?” one of the guests asked, stepping close.
“It’s the treasure,” another one said, clearly having read about the resort before coming to visit.
“Open it!” Aubrey practically yelled.
“Aub?” I said, stepping close. “Maybe we should get this out of the way first? And then do this somewhere a little less public?”
Aubrey glanced around, taking in the interested guests and the painting taking up most of the floor of our lobby. “Yeah, okay.”
We maneuvered the painting to lean against one wall, agreeing to put it back up a bit later as long as it wasn’t a danger to anyone. And then we moved into the bar, which was quiet and empty that morning. The guests made to follow, but Sasquatch distracted them by suggesting that snowshoeing would be a great activity for the day and leading them back to the adventure shop.
“Okay,” Aubrey said, taking the envelope from Emily and laying it on the bar. “Want to take a picture or anything?” she directed this at Emily, who nodded excitedly and took a few photos of the envelope and the gathered group.
“You get in there too, Archie,” she said, and I stepped next to Aubrey behind the bar, each of us holding one side of the envelope.
“Open it already,” Lucy said. “We’ve been waiting literally years for this.”
It was true, and as my sister carefully opened the envelope, I felt like one door was swinging shut behind us all as another one eked open.
“It’s a letter,” Aubrey said, pulling out a folded piece of paper. “And of course, a movie.” She deposited a reel of film on top of the padded and taped envelope.
“Of course,” Monroe laughed. “Your uncle loved his movies.”
“He did,” I agreed.
“Read the letter,” Wiley suggested. “Or, uh, do you guys want to do it alone?” He looked between his wife and me.
Aubrey and I exchanged a look, and then she looked around at the gathered group. “You guys are family,” she said. “And you’ve been as much a part of this as we ever were. This letter is for us all.”
She unfolded the letter and handed it to me to read. I caught Emily’s excited gaze and cleared my throat, and then looked down at Uncle Marvin’s letter.
The paper was time-worn, yellow, and I wondered again how long ago Uncle Marvin had put the entirety of the hunt together for us to find. I pictured him, bent over the map as he drew it, cackling as he hid away various notes and keys, scrawled out his poem on the wall upstairs. There were times during the hunt when I’d become convinced there was no real point to it, that he was just a doddering old man keeping himself busy. But now? I was more convinced than ever that he’d planned every detail carefully, trusting us to follow the path he set down.
I cleared my voice and read aloud, pausing here and there over Uncle Marvin’s shaky scrawl.
Dear Aubrey and Archie:
I’m impressed. But I shouldn’t be. I didn’t set this whole thing up with a mind that you’d never figure it out. And you kids were always too smart for your own good.
Well, in case you’re concerned this might be just one more clue to lead you off traipsing through the woods outside, be assured: This is the end. This is the treasure.
Not this letter so much as what it represents.
It is my hope that the two of you carried out the hunt together as a team, and my even greater desire that you gathered teammates along the way, as a snowball builds on the way down the slope.
I hope that along the way you may have already discerned what the real treasure in life will always prove to be, but there is a chance you’re still in the dark about that particular truth.
You’ve learned about me, about my life and my love—won at great cost from a man who I’d once believed to be a friend. But the money he stole from me didn’t matter once Lola was in my arms.
My wish for you both—for all of you—is that you’ll know that kind of love in your lives. Because that is the only real treasure I have to offer.
I’ve loved you both as best I could, and through the pages and trails of this hunt, I’ve given you what I know about finding love. The last thing I have for you is this movie—not one of the ones I made back in the day with Rudy you-know-who. This one is new. Never seen before. And probably not very good.
But I know it will be meaningful to you. And I hope you’ll watch it with those you love most as you all unearth the greatest treasure the world provides us: one another.
I love you kids with all my heart,
Your Uncle Marvin
There was something in those words that hit me hard—maybe it was the recent realization that love was something I might actually attain. Something I might have already discovered.
I swallowed hard and looked up at my sister, whose shining eyes met mine. And then I glanced at Emily, who also looked affected, her cheeks rosy and her eyes teary.
“Well, fuck,” Sasquatch said, sniffing and rubbing his eyes. He’d come back in just as I’d begun to read.
The tension broke then, and everyone laughed, exchanging looks and pats on the back along with hugs. Relief was a palpable thing—the hunt was over, or almost so, and that meant we’d achieved an objective. It felt like victory and I let the glee of the win sink into my skin.
“Should we go watch the movie?” Aubrey asked, holding up the reel of film.
“Does the pope poop in the woods?” Sasquatch replied.
“I don’t think that’s a saying at all,” Lucy said. “Kind of offensive, even.”
Sasquatch looked unconcerned as he threw an arm around CeeCee and grinned. “Oh well.”
“Movie time,” Wiley suggested, and I took Emily’s hand and followed the group toward the lower wing that housed the theater.
“I’ll get the popcorn going,” Antonio called, leading the charge.
I saluted one of our new staffers who looked slightly confused as she watched from the front desk as we all passed by. “Don’t worry about that,” I said, pointing at the painting. “We’ll get it back up tomorrow.”
She nodded and waved, and soon I was adjusting the reel onto the old-fashioned projector in the booth and returning to my seat at Emily’s side just in time to watch Uncle Marvin’s final film.