A Pirate's Dream ARG

20250708

Prompt from the "Kev's Odyssey" series.

“Hi, Nat.” Mum’s voice was bright and breezy. “Do you remember hiding treasure in the walls?”
“What?” Nathan leant back in his chair, brow furrowing. “No? When?”
“Not sure.” He could hear rustling. Paper? “I think you must’ve been six. That’s when you got obsessed with pirates.”
“Wait, what have you found?”
“A map. Well, I think it’s meant to be a map. It’s got… riddles? Scribbled all around a drawing of our house. I’m just a bit worried because it seems you put something in the wall, so I wondered if you remembered what.”
Nathan rubbed his face with a rueful grimace. “No, sorry. Tell you what, I’ll come down at the weekend and help you figure it out.”
“Thanks, luv. I’m sure it’s nothing, I’m just being a worrypot again, I just…”
“No, no, it’s sensible! I’ll grab a rotisserie chicken and fixings on my way up, we’ll make nice sandwiches and search the house. It’ll be fine. Might even be fun.”
“Aw, you’re a gem, Nat. And it’ll be lovely to see you.”

“It was in a fancy bottle at the bottom of the wine rack. You’d put a wax seal over the cork and everything.” Mum gently weighted down the corners of the curling, faded notebook page with fridge magnets. “See, it’s this bit here that worries me. Looks like a pickaxe and a crowbar next to a hole in a wall. And, I mean, I hope I’d have noticed you taking a pickaxe to the house! But I thought maybe you found a hole and stuffed something into it…”
“Hmm.” Nat slurped his tea and contemplated. He didn’t remember ever having a hidden cache like that. “Was any of the house refurbished when I was little? Like, taking up floorboards or replastering?”
“No. Well, there was lots of DIY, I suppose one of those projects might have… but then there’s no telling where.”
“No.” Nathan polished off his sandwich. Still deep in thought. But nothing occurred, so he dusted off his hands and shrugged and said “Let’s see those riddles, then.”
Sadly his six-year-old self had overestimated the solidity of house landmarks; for instance the china poodle hadn’t been on a windowsill since the display cabinet was built a decade ago, and nobody could remember which room it’d been in before. But after much footwork, and messages to the family chat, and pondering, they narrowed the search down to the small loft.
“Aha!” Nathan crowed, peering into the gap around the hatch. “Here. Between the ceiling and the loft flooring.”
“Oh, well done!” Mum steeled herself. “Is it… was it perishable?”
“No, looks like… ohhh.” Nat climbed down with a sheepish grin, plastic bag under his arm. “It’s my old comics. Look, the letter says ‘open when worth enough for boat’. Sadly I don’t think these are worth owt, even if I’d stored them properly.”
“Aw, bless!” Mum relaxed and chuckled. “Let’s take a photo and I’ll frame it with the map. Your first ARG!”

Prompt was "Map".