Map: Part III
The Story of the Map
(As told by Aaron Torres)
“This map once belonged to the great Fernando Buchante, a world-renowned explorer. He sailed the seas, collected treasure, and enchanted women. On one of his quests, he discovered a treasure too great and too powerful for anyone to possess. Believing he had no other options, he hid the treasure in a place no one would be ever able to find it.
“No one except the owner of this map, which he painstakingly drew the night before he sailed back Spain. The map details the location of the treasure, but even that isn’t enough, for Fernando had set up trials and puzzles along the trail. Only the true of heart can pass and reach the treasure.
“Still, Fernando was afraid that the treasure would fall into the wrong hands, and so he carefully protected the map until he knew who to pass it on to. Years and years went by, and Fernando became old and obsessive. He told anyone who came within earshot about the treasure, claiming he needed them to find it, needed them to get it for him, for he had become too frail to retrieve it for himself.
“At that point, no one believed him, and everyone wrote off his ramblings as the musings of a madman. But his youngest grandson, still enticed with the ideas of adventure and treasure, accepted the map from his frenzied Abuelo. Since that day, the boy’s family has been handing down the map, generation after generation, knowing that one day a young descendant of the Buchante line will finally stand up to the challenge and accept the treasure.”
After much enthusiastic gesticulating, Aaron finally put his hands down, looking to Rosie for her response.
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Let me guess. The young, handsome fellow that will finally find the lost treasure is you?”
He laughed, even though she stared at him blank-faced. “I didn’t say handsome,” he said.
“Well you should have, because every part of that story was romanticized.” She leaned forward, elbows on knees. “Did you say ‘only the true of heart can pass?’”
Her hair had fallen in front of her face, so she didn’t see him make a face at her in annoyance. “It’s true,” he said defensively. “I mean, no one thinks it’s real, but I think it’s worth a shot. What have you got to lose?”
Rosie shifted and looked at him with her dark brown eyes. “Nothing, I guess.”
Read part I: https://theprose.com/post/243841/map