Lawrence Looks for Treasure

Part 2 - Chapter 17

17

As we biked to find somewhere to sleep, Ema and Matty talked and giggled and only paid attention to each other. It was making me nauseous. So me and Chris biked ahead to find grounds to sleep. The grounds had to be hidden enough to avoid onlookers, yet open enough to discourage murderers. After some searching, we set camp in the back corner of a farmer's field. This particular corner was bordered by trees, segregating us from the road and other properties, while the field itself seemed to expand endlessly outward, separating us from whatever was on the other side. Chris and I agreed: no one would know we were there.

We had pitched our tent in time for Ema and Matty to arrive. Soon enough, we were all safely tucked away, comfy around a fire, stuffed like pigs, sleepy like dogs and thinking that treasure hunts weren't so bad after all.

'I brought a book,' I said. 'Maybe it'd be nice if I read some aloud?'

'What book?' Ema asked, in a bubbly kind of way.

'The Grand Adventure of Dmitri Waltz—it's my favourite.'

'Didn't we read that in middle school?' Matty asked.

'Mrs. Glube's class,' Chris said. 'I didn't read any of it. Too boring.'

'Me neither,' I said. 'But I tried again in tenth grade. It's actually pretty good.'

'I liked that book. What's it about again?' Ema asked.

'It's about this kid who runs away from his village to join a circus,' I explained. 'He tries to be a magician, because he thought they were these sophisticated people. But after he joins, he learns that it was dumb to run away, because he was all alone and the circus people were cruel. So he flees, and . . . well, I don't want to ruin it. But it's about adventure and growing up.'

'. . . Dmitri is kind of a lot like us right now. We may not be from a village, but we are from Kinnard. And we're on this adventure, which is turning out to be, erm . . . challenging? But that's how Dmitri's adventure was too. And he ends up—I really don't want to ruin it—he ends up happy is all.'

'. . . So his story could kind of motivate us. It's actually based on the author's life. The point is, we shouldn't worry that going after the treasure seems dumb, because Dmitri joined the circus, even though that was dumb. But if he never had, if he never got up the courage, he would've just stuck around his village, and missed out on this adventure, and this happy ending, which I won't ruin for you.'

I looked at them breathlessly. Chris was staring at the fire with eyes deader than a zombie. Matty sat next to Ema, practically on top of her, poking her all over like she was a goddam science experiment.

'Sounds good, dude. Read away.'

'Great!' I said, nervously, and started reading. I wasn't sure how much they paid attention, but I read aloud until everyone fell asleep. Then I added more wood to the fire, and continued reading:

I shall say little about my time in the circus. Though I had spent my childhood dreaming of that moment, I have since done my utmost to forget. It was a dark time, and I believe in the virtues of forgetting; indeed, I attribute much of my later success to forgetting all of my prior failures.

Simply joining the circus was a sweatless job. When it came to town, I performed for the ringmaster. I assured him that I had no family and would work for board. It was true enough. My mother had passed, and my uncle, to whom the court granted care, treated his duties casually, perhaps—I am no lawyer—unlawfully. In any case, he was just as excited as me that I had found work, and that he would lose a dependent. So, when the circus left town, I left with it.