What ifshewouldn’t like the realme?For all he knew, he wasn’t a good guy, even though his instincts since he’d arrived in Emerald Hollow seemed good.If I was a good person, with people who cared about me, someone should have come looking for me.
Being idle with his thoughts was making him restless. He decided to head downtown, hoping to run across something that would distract him. After ten minutes of walking, he passed by the town’s museum and spotted some old maps on display in the window. On impulse, he pulled open the door and stepped inside.
“Hello there” came a voice from somewhere to his side.
Isaiah looked to his left to see a man sitting behind a counter with a boy of about ten. The boy was doing something on a cell phone, and the man was peering at a computer screen as if it were a complex puzzle. “Are you here for a tour?”
“I saw the maps in the window and was curious about them.”
The man grinned and stuck out a hand. “Ben Hadley. I’m a volunteer here at the museum. This is my son, Henry.”
Henry looked up from the phone and gave Isaiah a wave and a smile.
“I’m working on a new map digitization project for the town right now.” Ben turned the computer screen so that Isaiah could see it. “We’re using some free software, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out how it works.”
Isaiah leaned in and studied the screen. Automatically, he reached for the mouse and said, “Do you mind?”
“Be my guest,” Ben said with surprise.
Isaiah made a few movements with the mouse and typed in some codes he seemed to know naturally, and the scanned map rapidly adjusted to fit the screen.
“Whoa! How’d you do that?”
“Must be something I know how to do,” Isaiah said, unexpectedly excited by the skill he’d uncovered.
“Oh right, you’re the one Ash and Sofia found out in the woods. You still haven’t got any of your memories back?”
Henry looked up in interest.
“Afraid not. But skills and likes or dislikes seem to come back when needed, like in this case.”
“I wonder if you used to volunteer at a museum,” Ben said with a laugh. “Hey, what are you up to today? I’m closing up here soon, and Henry and I were about to go out and do some geocaching. He’s homeschooled, and we give his mom a break every now and then. He’s choosing our next spot right now.”
Henry held up the phone to show Isaiah the screen. “There’s one on a hill in the woods behind the Emerald House that we haven’t found yet.”
Isaiah stared at the screen, where there was a map and a colorful dot on a location in the woods. “What is geocaching?”
Henry jumped in, talking animatedly. “There are these containers hidden around in the wild. They’re all listed on the map here. You navigate to them and look for the container. Usually, they’re pretty small. There’s a notebook and pencil inside, and you sign your name, showing that you found it. Sometimes, there’s trinkets in there, and you can trade one out. We always bring gems to trade out for something.”
“Fake gems, obviously,” Ben added, smiling at his son. “There are digital geocaches these days, too, but we stick to the traditional physical ones. Emerald Hollow’s not that tech savvy yet. What do you say? Do you want to join us?”
Isaiah thought it sounded like as good of a thing to do as any, and the lingering excitement over discovering his skill with the mapping software had him wanting to spend more time on a related project. “Sure. Why not?”
Henry’s face broke into a grin.
Forty-five minutes later,Henry let out a shout. “I see it!”
Ben and Isaiah had been walking a few yards behind him, searching the ground and the trees for a container. Isaiah looked where Henry was pointing and saw what appeared to be a tiny birdhouse nestled on a tree branch. Henry jumped, but he couldn’t reach it.
Ben walked over and retrieved the birdhouse then opened it carefully from the back. “Nice work, Hen.”
He pulled out a miniature pencil and notebook and passed it to Isaiah, who wrote his first name and passed it back.
Henry was already sifting through the tiny trinkets. “There’s an army guy in here!” He slipped the green figurine into his pocket and replaced it with a bright topaz gem. “Do you want to take something?” he asked Isaiah.
“I don’t have anything to swap it with.”
“That’s all right,” Ben said, pulling a gem out of his pocket. “We’ll throw in an extra one.”
