Inside Glenwood Public School, the school day was halfway through. Most of the students were going to their last class before lunch, dreaming about the Boston cream pie waiting for them in the lunchroom. Lockers were slamming, girls were squealing and giggling, and
through the glass windows in the classroom doors, you could hear teachers shuffling the papers and tests that they were planning to hand out to their next group of students. Walking down the hall, her nose stuck in a book, perfectly avoiding every obstacle, was Jada. She usually spent her time in the hallway trying to finish one last chapter before her next class. She looked up just in time to avoid a boy running toward her and dribbling a basketball and stop at her locker. Spinning in the lock combination, Jada opened up her locker and traded the backpack in her arms for a larger one at the bottom of the enclosed space. She finally dropped her book into a worn satchel at the back of her locker.
“Help? Could someone get me out of here? Please?” A muffled voice echoed out of the locker next to Jada’s.
“Ty? You in there?” Jada called her concealed friend.
“Yes! Let me outta here!” Ty said to Jada. Jada spun the numbers on Ty’s lock. She looked at her scrunched friend in the locker. His scruffy blond hair was coated with dust, and there was a look of relief on his face.
“Calvin again?” Calvin was the main bully leader at Glenwood. Ty nodded. “You seriously need to stand up to that guy. I’m tired of having to free you from your locker every school day.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You aren’t stuffed in a locker and locked in the janitor’s closet three times a day. I know this is completely off topic, but did you study for that test we have tomorrow?”
“Oh! I completely forgot about that test!” Jada gasped. “You’re probably going to have to help me study. I can’t believe I forgot!” She pulled on a chain around her neck and yanked out a pendant. Jada started tapping on it nervously with her fingernails.
“Hey! Where did you get that?” Ty grabbed the pendant from Jada’s hand and pulled it toward him. Jada took the chain from around her neck so Ty didn’t strangle her. “Where did you get this?” Ty repeated.
“My dad gave it to me. I’ve had it for a while. Why do you want to know, dare I ask?”
“This is really old! And the detail is amazing! Where did your dad get this? A museum?” Ty stared at the necklace in awe. His dad worked at a museum and knew a lot about old jewelry. Ty’s dad had passed on a bit of that knowledge.
“I don’t know, really. Maybe we could ask my dad,” Jada replied just as the school bell rang. She realized just how long they had been standing in the hall.
“Oh no, uh… come over to my house after school! We can figure this thing out later. Bye!” Ty tossed the necklace back to Jada and ran to class.
“See you!” Jada followed Ty’s example and sped off.
***
There were some hard knocks on the door. Ty opened it to see Jada, sweaty and breathless. Looking past her, he could see a bike with chipped green paint lying on the front
lawn. By the look on her face, Ty could see Jada was just as excited to find out about the pendant.
“Come on! My dad is in the study!” The two of them pounded up the flights of stairs to the study. By the time they got there, they were both breathless. With the both of them thudding on the door, it didn’t take long for Ty’s dad to come to the door.
“Yes, Ty? Oh, hello, Jada! What is all this banging about?”
“Dad! Could you identify Jada’s necklace that her dad gave her? It’s really old, and it looks like something from an Indiana Jones movie! So can you take a look at it? Please?” With all the excitement in his voice, Ty sounded like he was speaking gibberish, but his father understood him perfectly.
“Well, sure, as long as it doesn’t take too long.” Ty’s dad opened the door wider to let the two of them in. He sat down in front of a desk cluttered with papers, which he swept aside with an absent-minded hand. “Well? Let’s see this necklace of yours, Jada.” Jada reached under her hair to grab the chain. When she pulled out the pendent, immediately Ty could see his dad’s eyes get wide. “Look at that! I can’t believe it!” Jada laid it onto the desk. “This is more than 20 karat gold¾old, too. You can tell by the duller shine. Things like this that are under 70 years old have a much brighter shine to them. This has got to be over 100 years old, at least!” Ty’s dad brought a large magnifying glass over to the necklace. “Oh, see this thin ring around the edge? When you look at it closer, it turns into this!” Ty and Jada leaned in closer to see a pattern of swirls and zigzags, so tiny that you could barely see them without the magnifying glass. “It’s a common Native American pattern, but it’s usually much larger. The craftsmanship is amazing. Do you know where you got this? I’d love to know.”
Jada shrugged. “My dad gave it to me a few years ago. I never really thought about where it came from.”
“Well, this is definitely ancient. It almost looks¾no, it couldn’t be…”
“What? What couldn’t it be?”
***
“That’s weird. Why would he say it’s an Aztec artifact? That wouldn’t make any sense.” Jada and Ty were biking back to Jada’s house¾and hopefully to answers.
“Stranger things have happened. Do you remember that time the class president found a possum in the…”
“Really? You really just brought that up? I thought everyone in the school took a vow to never speak of that again,” Jada interjected.
“My point is,” Ty said with a hint of irritation about being interrupted, “that maybe Dad is right, and your necklace is Aztec. I’ve never known him to lie.” Jada just shrugged in response. They rode the rest of the way in silence. When they got to Jada’s house, they pushed their bikes into the garage and opened the front door to find two very annoyed-looking cats. Jada had adopted the gray tabby brothers over six years ago, and they were as floppy as beanbags. They were as fat as beanbags, too.
“Why hello, you two. Shouldn’t you be taking a nap upstairs?” Jada bubbled to the cats. She had a habit of talking babyishly to them. A long, sad dog howl echoed through the house. The two cats blinked in unison. “Oh, I guess Charlie is at it again. Go on, Roz. You, too, Michelangelo.” Jada pushed the cats out of the doorway with her foot. “Mom! Is Dad home?” Jada called through the house. There was no answer, only the mournful baying. Jada and Ty walked into the kitchen where Charlie the basset hound was using his voice to deafen all who came within ten feet of the place where he rested his haunches. Jada and Ty escaped that room as quickly as they could. “Come on, I think I hear something in the living room.” They went into there to find Jada’s mother doing a workout.
“Hi, honey, I’m just doing a little Pilates. There are some celery sticks in the fridge if you’re hungry.” Her voice sounded very staccato because she was doing jumping jacks.
“Mom, is Dad home yet? I need to ask him something.”
“Yes, he’s outside. I think he’s fixing up one of his old bikes.”
“Ok.” Jada and Ty retraced their steps to the kitchen and were about to slip out the back when Jada’s mother came in and stopped them.
“I almost forgot to tell you. Uncle Drew is here visiting. I hope you don’t mind,” she said breathlessly. Then she reached into the cupboard to get a glass but got a handful of fur instead. “Aah! Michelangelo! Get out of the cupboard!” Jada and Ty slipped out the door giggling. Jada sighted her dad and her uncle in the corner of the yard.
“Hi, Uncle Drew! Dad, could I ask you something?” requested Jada.
“Hello, Jada and Ty! So what have you guys been up to this afternoon?” Uncle Drew stood and shook off his faded jeans. He was stronger, more muscular than Jada’s father. Drew was still a bachelor, though he was a bit of a handsome fellow. His dark, wavy, brown hair was identical to his brother’s. A slightly twisted nose sat on his face, a little battered from the time he fell and broke it. He had been a football player in his high school years and had a chipped tooth to prove it. His only out-of-place feature was his eyes. One was a blinding aqua blue; the other was a deep brown. Through them he would always look straight at the person he was talking to, his eyes never wavering. It was as if he knew something about you that he kept secret. He was a little strange, but nice, as far as uncles go.
“We’ve just been trying to find out about Jada’s necklace,” Ty answered.
“What is this about the necklace?” Jada’s dad had a mixed look of surprise and suspicion.
“Um, well, you see, Ty’s dad said that this necklace,” Jada took out the pendant, “is an Aztec necklace over 100 years old. I just wanted to ask if you knew where it came from.” Jada was getting a little uncomfortable under her father’s intense gaze. He sighed and looked down at his grease-stained shoes.
“Jada, I guess you finally found out about that necklace. I was hoping you never would.” Jada’s father sighed.
It was Jada’s turn to be surprised. “What do you mean? Why didn’t you want me to find out?”
“Jada, you don’t know this, but your great-great-grandfather was a treasure hunter. He loved to solve ancient mysteries. He often found treasure, and he was a very great man. When he was a little older, he heard an old legend in Mexico. He was on his way back from one of his adventures. He followed clues in the legend, until he found an amulet. The amulet was supposed to be a map to an Aztec temple, full of gold. He unfortunately never found out how the amulet worked. He eventually gave up on the amulet. Later on, he became sick with a strange disease from some exotic place in the Amazon. He soon died from it and the amulet got passed to his son. He couldn’t find the temple either. So the amulet has gone on in the family, getting passed down, until it came to me. I, too, searched for the temple, but when I realized that it was probably just a wild goose chase, I decided to give up. I settled down, got a job, and married your mother. When you came along, I forgot about that thing almost entirely. I gave the amulet to you, but I purposely didn’t tell you about the legend. I didn’t want you going off and trying to find something that doesn’t exist, like your grandfather did.” Jada was a bit hurt. When someone mentioned her grandfather, she always hurt inside. He had gone away and never come back when Jada was four. Now she knew why he went. He was probably trying one last time to find the temple, without the help of the amulet.
“I understand why you didn’t tell me.” Jada answered with a mature sigh.
“You do?” Her dad was looking a little apologetic, and worried. He was concerned that Jada would be angry at him for not telling her because Jada sometimes struggled with a hot temper. Now all her emotions looked like they where a mixture of excitement¾probably from thinking about the treasure¾and also something else, too unexplainable to say.
“Yes, I do understand. You didn’t want to lose me¾like grandpappy. But I do want to find the temple.” Her voice was filled with determination. She wanted to find the temple. She was going to find the treasure.
“But, Jada,” her father started, but was interrupted by Uncle Drew.
“Nathan, can I talk to you for a second?” Nathan was Jada’s father’s name. Drew pulled his brother away before he could start a long lecture on safety and why Jada shouldn’t go. “Nathan, I think it would be best to let her go.”
“What?!? Are you out of your mind? I can’t let Jada go. She’s not an adventurer like her ancestors; she’s just a little girl.”
“I know, but if I go with her, it would be much safer. Just hear me out. If she and I go to Mexico, we hear the legend, we look around for a few days, and we don’t find anything, then Jada will realize that there’s nothing there, and it will be out of her system. She won’t even think about it anymore. It’s perfectly safe. It’ll be just like a weeklong camping trip. Her friend could even come along.” Drew looked like there was something scheming somewhere inside him. But nobody noticed the glint in his two-colored eyes.
“I guess that wouldn’t hurt anybody. You wouldn’t let her do anything too crazy?”
“Of course not. The most dangerous thing I’ll let her do is set up a tent. I won’t let anything happen to either of them if Ty comes along,” Uncle Drew assured him.
“Well, I think we’ve come to a decision.”
***
The bouncing of the Rover jarred Jada up and down and against Ty, who was listening intently to the guide sitting up front.
“Hey, watch it!” Ty glanced over at Jada with a reproachful look on his face. Jada was bouncing her legs and drumming on the seat with her knuckles. She was antsy to get into the forest. So far, all they had seen was a Mexican desert filled with dusty grey weeds and strangely shaped red rocks. The guide that was driving the three of them was jabbering on about the history of Mexico. He was obviously excited about being able to show off his vast knowledge about all the legends and myths of the Native American tribes that lived in Mexico. Jada looked over at Uncle Drew for a little company, who was looking bored of the droning of the guide’s voice, and sick from driving for hours on the rough road coated with rocks and bumps. He was leaning over the Rover’s door and looked like he could either scream at the guide to stop, or get sick all over the outside of the car. Jada looked to her friend, but Ty wasn’t any better. He was leaning forward with his nose almost touching the back of the driver’s seat and was cocking his ears forward to hear every word of the stories. Jada could tell from the look in his eyes that he was lost in an ancient world. Jada herself kept gazing out of the Rover to look for just a glance of their destination.
“…and that was how the legend of the Chupacabra was started. Amazing isn’t it?” The guide looked over his shoulder at Ty and Jada.
“I’ll say! People actually thought that mangy dogs were reptilian monsters? Funny. Huh, Jada? Jada?” Ty meant to shake Jada’s arm, but as the Rover went over a bump, the gentle shake turned into a hard slap.
“Ow! What was that for?” Jada rubbed her arm as she blinked the sun out of her eyes. Ty tried to defend himself.
“I¾” Ty was interrupted by the guide, Pedro.
“Kids, we are here.” Jada had been looking at a mound for hours, waiting for it to become the trees of the forest where her great, great grandfather found had the amulet, now dangling from her neck. And now, they were finally here.
***
“You’re going to need this,” Ty said and threw over a can of bug spray to Jada. “You’ll get malaria otherwise.”
Jada popped off the cap and drenched herself in the spray. “Finally! I’m getting eaten alive by these things.” She swatted at a mosquito and scratched her knee. Uncle Drew was already asleep in the tent he was sharing with Pedro, who was reporting back to his station back in Frontera. Ty was quiet, something very unusual for him. He was staring at the logs that were still smoldering.
“Do you think we’ll find it?” he asked dreamily. Ty was lost in the pale flickering flames of the dying fire.
“Find what?” Jada glanced up at Ty.
“The treasure. Do you think we’ll find it?” He broke his stare to look back at her.
“Maybe. I don’t know. No one else ever could. No one even found out how to use the amulet.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Could I see the amulet?” Ty held out his hands to catch the chain.
“Sure.” Jada tossed over the necklace. Ty grabbed it and held it closer to the flickering light of the fire. He sighed.
“What if the map is in some old Aztec language that no one can read? What if the patterns are the map? The possibilities are endless with this thing. What if the map was on the back and it wore off without anybody noticing it?” Ty was getting a little worked up when Jada walked over to his side of the campfire.
“We’re going to find the treasure, but we can’t do it if we don’t sleep. Come on. Let’s get some rest,” said Jada, although in her mind, she was just as doubtful as Ty. What if it was in Aztec? Where on earth would they find someone who could read an extinct language? What if part of the amulet was missing and they couldn’t find the treasure? Jada zipped up her tent with these thoughts rushing through her brain at top speed. Still, it wasn’t long before a slight drizzle of rain put Jada into a deep slumber.
***
Jada awoke from her dreams of treasure to the sound of drumming rain. What had been a gentle drizzle the night before, had turned into a drenching rainfall overnight. Shivering, Jada wrapped herself in the rain poncho she had packed and unzipped the tent to peek out at the wet world. The campsite was a mud hole. The ground that had been dusty dirt yesterday was now a thick, wet glop. The bright yellow tents had become a soggy brown. The door flaps of Uncle Drew’s and Pedro’s tent were wide open and flapping in the wind. The tent was empty. Jada dropped her poncho and ran to the tent. The sleeping bags had been abandoned and were soaked with rain. All the other belongings were gone. Jada turned and saw that the Rover wasn’t there.
“We’re stranded! Uncle Drew left us! No, he couldn’t. He wouldn’t. Then why is he gone?” Jada argued in her mind as she tried to work out what happened. She tried to silence her anxiety-filled mind as she rushed to Ty’s tent. Ripping open the flaps, she shook Ty with all her might.
“Huh? What’s goin’ on Jada?” Ty’s eyes half opened under his tangled, sandy-blond hair.
“Ty, Uncle Drew and Pedro are gone; so is the Rover.” Ty was immediately awake.
“What do you mean gone? They can’t be. I’ll bet they’re just out for a walk in the forest¾ in the rain¾really early in the morning.” Ty realized just how stupid he sounded. “Ok, they’re gone. But where? Where are they?”
Jada gave a worried shrug, “I thought you might know. We need to find them.” Jada grabbed Ty’s hand and pulled him out of the tent. The both of them slipped on boots and started into the forest. “Uncle Drew? Uncle Drew! Are you there?” Jada called into the awakening forest. The only replies were unfamiliar hoots and bird calls. “We’d better split up to try and find them. You go that way; I’ll go this way. Try not to go too deep into the forest!”
Ty gave Jada a wave of a hand and ran into the forest calling Uncle Drew’s and Pedro’s names. Jada did the same. She looked behind every tree and tried to follow her own advice and keep the open in sight, but try as she might, she couldn’t. It was like the forest was drawing her in. Jada’s ears pricked at a rustle behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see no one. “Uncle Drew? Pedro?” The leaves shook some more and Jada saw a blotch of tan. Thoughts of leopards and other wild animals raced through her brain at once. She took a few steps back. The rustling leaves came closer. She started stumbling backwards, with the shaking and rustling rapidly following. Breathing hard, Jada broke into a faltering run. Steadying her pace, Jada pushed away leaves and twisted branches, desperate to get away from whatever might be chasing her. She looked back to see if it had given up, perhaps gone after an easier prey. Thwack! Jada groaned and fell back from the thick trunk of the lichen covered tree she had run into. On the ground, she put a hand to her forehead to wipe away a warm sticky liquid. The last thing Jada saw was Ty, surrounded by a dark blur. He looked like he was calling for someone. As he looked down at her, Jada fell out of consciousness.
***
Jada’s eyes fluttered open to look at the strange furs, woven leaves, and sticks of the roof above her. She tried to sit up, but heavy blankets of furs made it difficult. A sharp pain throbbed in her forehead. When she touched it with a hand, a soft cloth wrapped tightly around the throbbing met her touch. It was slightly moist. Jada looked around at her surroundings. Thick furs lay around the hut; the walls looked like they were made of solid dried mud, covered with dried leaves and woven grasses. Crude jars were set around the room, and herbs were hung from the ceiling with thongs. A fire was lit in the middle of the room. Jada pushed away the blankets and got up off the mat she had been lying on. Going through the animal skins that made up the
door, Jada was shocked by the scene before her. It looked like it had been pulled out of the past. Native Americans were milling around a big fire in the middle of the clearing. Women were weaving baskets from dried grasses; small children were playing what looked like a game with a ball of rags and a plethora of cut branches. Jada spotted a familiar face among the strangers. Ty spotted her at the same time. He jogged over to where she was standing. A young native girl followed him closely.
“You’re awake! Come on, I want you to meet Rain. She can speak English!” Ty grabbed Jada’s hand and pulled her toward the native girl behind him. “Rain, I want you to meet Jada. Jada, this is Rain.”
“It is very good to meet you, Jada. How is your injury?” Rain said with a heavy, unrecognizable accent. Her speech was a little labored, as if she had a hard time bending her tongue to form the English words.
“It’s nice to meet you too, Rain. Umm… it’s ok, I guess. It feels much better than it did awhile ago.” Jada rubbed her forehead.
“I already told her how we got here, and about the amulet,” Ty said.
“Where is the amulet anyway?” Jada asked as she felt the loss of the weight around her neck that was so familiar.
Ty’s face fell. “About that…” Ty reached into his pocket and brought out the amulet. When he flipped it over, the green gem that was usually firmly in the center of the pendant was loose in his palm, and there was a hole in the center of the gold amulet. “It came out when you fell. I’m really sorry, Jada.” Jada took the amulet in her hand and picked up the stone.
“It’s ok. It wasn’t your fault.”
“No, it’s not ok. The amulet is broken and we’re never going to¾”
“No really, it’s fine. Look!” Jada pointed to a corner of old scratchy paper. When she tugged it, a folded piece of papyrus, preserved from being locked away in the amulet for so long, fell out. Ty picked it up in amazement.
“It’s a map! A map of the Aztec territory! The amulet wasn’t the map; it was just hiding the real one!” Ty cried when he unfolded the papyrus. He traced his finger along the map. “X marks the spot!” Rain looked over Ty’s shoulder to look at the map. She pointed at the “X.”
“I know how to get there. The river take you near place you seek. I come, show you way!” Rain smiled proudly at being able to help these strange people.
“Perfect! But, we don’t have a boat. We’ll have to go on foot. That could take days.” Jada sighed with disappointment. Rain let off one of her smiles again.
“We go in canoe. I show you!”
***
The canoe ride was fast, much faster than walking. Jada, Ty, and Rain were in the small canoe going downstream with the current pushing them along. One other Native American boy was in the canoe to row the canoe back to the village after they got to the temple. The greenish blue water was shining and twinkling in the lowering sun. Jada could just make out the muddy bottom, far below them. Fat silver fish passed in and out of her view. When she looked up, she could just make out a reddish rock sticking slightly above the trees.
“There it is! I see it!” Jada pointed out her finding to the rest of the occupants of the canoe.
***
The moss and vine covered temple stood before the three of them. All of them were gazing in awe at the sheer size of it. An intimidating stone door was the only thing in their way. Rain timidly walked up to the door to read the ancient text that was engraved on the door.
“ ‘What came out, you put in.’ Strange words, you know what they mean?” Rain looked back at the other two. They both had surprised looks on their faces.
“You can read that stuff?” Jada said in amazement.
Rain nodded. “My people use this language in sacred ceremonies. I learn to read many moons ago.”
“That’s probably a good thing. I did a little research on the Aztecs, and they loved to write in riddles. In their temples, they would set booby traps that had riddles. If you answer the riddle right, you get to go on with no harm. If you answer wrong, poison darts come out of the wall, or the room would flood and you would drown. They loved those kinds of traps. The
Aztecs had reservoirs all over the place just to make the booby traps in their temples.” Ty took a deep breath, as if to continue rambling on about the traps the Aztecs built, but Jada interrupted by talking out loud, trying to solve the riddle.
“‘What came out, you put in.’ how does that make any sense? It doesn’t!” Jada started feeling all over the door.
“What are you doing, Jada?” Rain asked quizzically.
“There has got to be some kind of lever, or secret spring, or something! We can’t just depend on a riddle,” Jada exclaimed in frustration. Ty copied Jada and got down on his hands and knees to check around the bottom of the door. Jada ran her hands over a pattern of zigzags that ran down the middle of the door. She felt a dent in the pattern. “Huh?” Jada passed her fingers over the dent again. It didn’t feel accidental; it felt like it had been chipped out of the rock for a reason. A light came on in Jada’s mind. “‘What came out, you put in,’ that’s it!” Jada reached into her pocket and pulled out the stone that used to be attached to the amulet. “What came out, I put in.” Jada slipped the stone into the dent. It fit perfectly. A rumbling ensued. With the sound of scraping stone, the door slowly swung open. Ty had been in the middle of pushing with all his might against the door and when the door opened, he fell down into the hallway.
“Oi! You could have warned me before you opened¾the door¾you opened the door!” Jada and Rain giggled as Ty got up and dusted the dirt off the seat of his pants.
“Let’s keep on moving. I want to get to the treasure!” Jada started down the thin passage with Ty and Rain following.
“Wait!” Ty suddenly grabbed Jada’s shoulders and pulled her back as long thin darts whistled into the air and embedded themselves into the wall where Jada’s head would have been.
“Yikes! I’m going to have to be more careful. Thanks for the save.” Jada self-consciously rubbed the side of her head, where the darts were meant to be.
“There must be a trip wire. If we step over it, we should be fine.” Ty kneeled onto the ground and pulled his flashlight from his pocket. He shined it at about ankle level. Sure enough, there was a thin wire running from wall to wall. Dusting off his hands, Ty stood and took a long, high step over the wire. Nothing happened. “Come on. Just step over the wire.”
Both Jada and Rain copied Ty’s movement and got safely over the deadly wire. On they went, carefully searching for other traps or dangers, until another door blocked their way. Rain again went to read the engravings.
“ ‘Bright as the sun, yet hides in shadow, patterned with darkness, a hunter, agile. Cat.’ ”
“Huh? Cat? What does that have anything to do with the riddle?” Ty asked quizzically.
“I not know. Jada? You know?” Rain turned to Jada. The gears in Jada’s head were working. She usually was very good at riddles, but this was a little hard. Then something clicked.
“A jaguar!” Jada exclaimed.
“What?” Ty and Rain said in harmony.
“Think about it. A jaguar is kind of the color of the sun, yellow, but it hides in darkness to catch its prey. Patterned with darkness, a jaguar has black spots! It’s a hunter, and it’s agile. Plus, it’s a giant cat!” With that a sound trigger in the door unlocked and the stone doors opened and the three of them were able to pass through.
***
“ ‘Treasure we hold, inside us there is gold. Answer the riddle, and we won’t take your souls.’ ” Rain quoted. They all shuddered.
“They are really trying to scare us out of our wits, aren’t they?” Ty stated.
“They won’t scare me. What’s the riddle?” Jada asked courageously.
Rain took a deep breath and started to read. “ ‘Some try to hide, some try to cheat, but time will show, we always will meet. Try as you might to guess my name, I promise you’ll know when you I do claim.’ ”
Jada started to turn the riddle over in her brain when a shadow fell over her. “Uncle Drew? You’re ok? How are you here? I thought you abandoned us,” Jada gasped.
“I had to find Pedro here,” Uncle Drew motioned toward the guide next to him. “He had gone out into the forest to find our next campsite, and didn’t tell anyone. I went to go find him. I left you a note. When I came back with Pedro, you were gone. I saw your footprints in the dirt and followed them until I found you here. I was so worried.” Jada squinted her eyes at her uncle, a sign she was thinking hard.
“You’re lying,” she said quietly.
“What?” Uncle Drew’s sympathetic, relieved look wavered for a moment.
“There was no note.” The fake look faded completely.
“I guess I should have known that you would be smart enough to figure that out. Get them!” Drew commanded in a spiteful voice. Three large men stepped out from behind Drew and Pedro and grabbed Jada, Ty, and Rain, holding them a foot off the ground. “You see, my dear Jada; your grandfather never gave me a chance to find the treasure. He left the amulet to your accursed father. When I found out he gave it to you, I thought I could get it from you. When I didn’t get the chance, I waited for the perfect moment to convince your father to let you try and find the treasure. If you weren’t able to, I knew I could just take the amulet from you and find the treasure on my own. I guess luck was with me when you found out that the map was in the amulet. Then I could just follow you to the temple and get in myself. Since your Indian friend was so kind as to read the riddle aloud for me, I guess I’ll just answer it and be rich beyond my wildest dreams.”
There was silence as Drew mulled over the strange Aztec riddle. Jada did the same as she struggled in the arms of her captor. Simultaneously, they each solved the riddle. But one was wrong.
“The answer is darkness.” Drew pulled out the words as long as possible. A rumbling started. Drew started to laugh with triumph. But the rumbling wasn’t the door. It came from the two large holes in the walls on either side of the door. First the holes started to drip, then stream, then gush water out. The door behind them closed, trapping them with the water.
“Stupid! The answer was death! Not darkness!” Jada screamed over the sound of rushing water. But it was too late for the right answer. Water was flooding into the room fast. Soon the door in front of them, pushed by the force of the water, swung open. Ty, Jada, and Rain were free of the men who held them, and they were pushed into the treasure chamber along with Drew and his comrades. Immediately, all of them pushed the doors shut to hold off the water. Drew was the first to look at his surroundings. His golden surroundings. Golden cups, vases, coins, and jewelry of all kinds filled the room. Precious gems were everywhere, and silver was abundant. The men who came with Drew started stumbling around the room, awestruck at the amount of treasure. But Rain had noticed that the water had started to seep through the cracks in the door. Over time, she knew that they would drown. She immediately warned Jada and Ty.
“We’re going to need some way out,” Jada stated. But Ty’s mind was on other things.
“Has anybody else noticed how light it is in here? It should be darker.”
“Wait, the only light in here is coming from flashlights. There must be a skylight somewhere. Start looking!” Jada exclaimed. Ty, Jada, and Rain immediately started to search for an opening. It was Ty who spotted it.
“Look! Right there!” Ty pointed to the place where bright, full moon’s light was coming in through a skylight. It was conveniently placed next to a pillar.
“Rain, can you climb up there?” Jada inquired. Rain nodded. She grabbed a long silver chain from the ground and leaped up the pillar, digging her toes into places Jada could barely see. Rain got to the top, and climbed over the edge of the skylight like a monkey. The chain jerked around a bit as Rain attached it to something. She appeared on the top and waved to the waiting figures below. Jada touched Ty’s shoulder. “You go on up. I’ll get Uncle Drew and the rest of them.”
“Are you sure? He abandoned us to get the treasure.” Ty grabbed onto the chain and started to pull himself up.
“I’m sure. He’s my uncle. I can’t leave him, no matter how bad he is.” The water was sloshing around Jada’s ankles and rising slowly. She knew she would have to act quickly. Jada could see that the men were starting to notice the water. A few of them had climbed up the chain after Ty. But Drew was lost. His two colored eyes were sparkling with the reflections of gold.
His look of greed barely faltered when Jada grabbed onto his hand. “Uncle Drew, we need to go. If we don’t, we’ll drown.”
“You’re just trying to trick me out of my treasure. The water can’t come in here.” Then he noticed the water. It was halfway up Jada’s shins. “My treasure,” he cried. He started scraping the treasure away from the rising water. Cracks had started to appear on the surface of
the door. The pressure on the other side was too great. It was going to break, and it was going to break soon. Jada had to get Uncle Drew up the chain.
“Forget the treasure. Do you want to drown for a few pieces of metal?” Drew let Jada pull him up from the ground with a dead expression. He followed her to the skylight, where he climbed up before Jada. He was half way up when Jada grabbed hold of the swaying chain and began pulling herself up the metal links. Just then, the door gave away completely and more water came rushing in. Jada was racing against it; sometimes the water was so high that she could feel the water on her feet. She got to the top and grabbed the edge. The edge of the skylight was wet and slippery, Jada could barely hold on. “Help me! Uncle Drew! I’m slipping!”
Drew was by the skylight. He could have helped her, but he hesitated. He muttered something. It sounded like, “Should I, or shouldn’t I?”
Jada’s eyes grew wide. “He wouldn’t.” But he would. He lifted his heavy boot and crunched down onto Jada’s knuckles. The pain made it too hard to hold on. Jada fell. She fell into the darkness of the flooded temple. With a faint splash, she was gone. Only a tiny hint of sadness flicked across Drew’s face before a sinister smile ran across it.
“And that’s that,” he whispered to himself. He launched himself down the side of the temple to the waiting figures below.
***
Hands clutched a silver chain. One of the hands was throbbing with pain, the fingers crooked and bent; broken from the weight of a heavy man. But she did not scream. She knew that if she did, she would lose the last of her slim air supply. Her golden brown hair was floating around her, reaching for unseen things. Her eyes were clenched shut. “I’m going to have to go up soon,” she thought to herself. However she didn’t especially want to go up. What if Uncle Drew pushed her down again? She felt herself fading into the darkness, but she struck out, kicking wildly and pumping her arms. Opening her eyes, she saw the small bright light in the darkness…her only way out. She let herself be carried by an unseen current, and Jada swam to her escape route.
***
Ty and Rain stood by the lazily flowing stream of water. It was hard to see it as anything else¾especially not water that had been trying to drown them barely five minutes earlier. It had started flowing about the time Drew came back with the bad news. He had told them, “Jada fell in. I tried to grab her, but she slipped too fast.”
Ty couldn’t believe that his best friend since the third grade, was gone¾really gone. Rain suddenly snatched at Ty’s wrist. With only the point of a finger, Ty noticed immediately what Rain saw. A shape heaved out of the water, flopping onto the wild grass. “Jada?”
***
Jada’s tired lungs sucked in the sweet, sweet air. She could barely get enough of it. She silently vowed to herself that she would never go near water ever again, at least for the time being. Jada lay sprawled out on the soft grass. Now that she wasn’t trying to save her life, Jada felt like screaming from the pain of her broken fingers. But she couldn’t find enough air to do it.
“Jada?” Ty’s voice echoed into Jada’s head. He was far away, but the sound of footsteps suggested he was getting closer. Jada brought her feet under her to pick herself up off the ground. Her legs felt exactly like Jell-o that was put into the microwave¾melted. Still, she stumbled along, going toward the voice. Then she was almost knocked off her feet by an embrace so hard it felt like a bear pouncing on her. It was Ty.
“Oomph. You’re choking me!” Jada felt a little constricted from the squeeze of her friend. Ty loosened his grip.
“Everyone thought you were dead! Drew said you slipped.”
“Oh really? He forced me to. He stepped on my hand to make me fall off.” Jada lifted her twisted hand as proof. Ty’s face grew stormy.
“Why that little…” What was supposed to be a long trail of insults drifted off into a growl.
“Do you think you could get Pedro’s radio? I need to make a call.”
***
The taxi cab rumbled into the neighborhood. Ty and Jada were in the back, Jada absentmindedly picking at the wrapped plaster and bandages on her fingers. Uncle Drew and his comrades had been arrested soon after Ty and Jada had called the police. What was her dad going to think when they came home with no Uncle Drew, broken fingers, and a crazy story? Jada didn’t know, but it would probably be something nasty. The cab stopped in front of the house, and Jada hesitated before getting out. What would he think? She exchanged a long look with Ty, knowing he was thinking the same thing. “Well, here goes nothing.” she thought to
herself and creaked open the door. The front door of the house opened, and both Jada’s and Ty’s parents came out.
“The hospital called us about your hand. What happened? Where’s Drew?” Jada’s dad said.
“First of all, I need you to know we did find the treasure.”
“What!? You found it!?” Jada’s dad was shocked. “But how? Where is it?”
“It’s still underwater back in Mexico,” Ty said casually.
“Underwater?”
“It’s a long story…”