Zlin, I realise as the city appears, but still I can not help being angry at dad for using mom’s death as a weapon to save grandpa’s life and of course dad failed at this part.
It was as the city appeared that I realised that no matter what my feelings toward dad were at this moment, dad and I have to work as a team. To prevent myself from thinking about how angry I am I tried to remember the exact location of the treasure.
Gottwaldov, surely grandpa would have wrote Zlin.
Did grandpa really expect to be alive long? And besides his diary had nothing of the exact location, why did he not at least write some clue.
But he did
Grandpa traveled all the way to my house, and he did that for a reason. I took German classes a few years back, grandpa told me to the last time I saw him alive. Gott-God, Wald-forest. And we are driving through a forest NOW!
“Dad stop, the location is here...somewhere.” I explained to him the way of my thinking and we both agreed that this forest is a good place to start. However the forest was bigger than we thought.
“Where do we look? Up, down where?”I finally burst out.
“Up.”said dad so calmly it was almost bizarre.
“Why?” a splurt out taken aback by the simplicity of the answer.
“Well once you told me that Gott and waldov mean god and forest I gave myself the question what is the word ‘god’ doing in grandpa's ‘clue’ and so I gave myself the first answer that came in mind: god is in heaven and heaven is skywards-the treasure is up a tree.” said dad and then seeing my mouth opening he continued,”of course I think this is where your grandpa’s clue ends;he never was in the Czech Republic you see. Well in this forest there is just too much trees to cover so I give myself the question ‘where is a suitable place to hide a huge pile of gold-the answer is in a tree habitat.”
I look up and do my absolute delight I see a hole in a tree.
I hope it is there, I hope.
I remember my last thoughts before I tore up the notes in the diary ‘I will take a nibble at the treasure when I am sure of absolute privacy.
I am sure, no one would hide a treasure in a forest in which there is a lack of privacy.
Like a squirrel I jump on the tree a cling tight to its branches. I climbed up,peeked in the hole... it’s empty. But wait a moment, maybe the deserted floor is just a new layer of protection on the treasure, a new hope rising in me I give a punch on the floor and finally I found what grandpa was looking for... Piles of outstanding riches, and a question finally raised in me, what to do with this. I want to shout down to dad but a voice stopped me, an inner voice as though my mother's voice:’take a fraction of it and give the rest to the poor, they will make good use of it.’
And so, when I got a chance, I did.
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