When you’re driving across the country playing Treasure Hunt, one word doesn’t quite do it. You need several words, maybe even a whole rhyme. A rhyme Ruth made up, and one I’ve remembered for three years.
Something New
Something Old
Something Magic
Something Gold
These are the words I have sharpied on the back of those four pictures tucked carefully in my closet back at home. I can see those four pictures as vividly as if they were in front of me again.
So really, my secret plan isn’t my secret plan at all. It’s Ruth’s. But the idea of doing the same Treasure Hunt again as we go back across the country came into my mind like a gift. Because even though there were hard things about moving, we had each other. She’s the one who sat by me every night while we moved away from everything familiar and played me music while we looked at my pictures. And Ruth doesn’t even have to know I’m doing the Treasure Hunt, not at first, because I’ve got my camera. I can subtly take photos of Ruth at every stop, finding ways to replicate as perfectly as possible the images from the first time around. Look at the pictures I took of you, I’ll tell her at the end. I’ll surprise her with the pictures, and when she sees them, she’ll know. And for the last and final picture—our Something Gold—we can have Ellie or Eddie take a picture of us holding not moving boxes, but our Treasure Box.
We had each other, and I want her to know that we still do.
Look at all the magic and gold treasures we’ve found, I’ll say.