Jacob, Emma, and Max went back to the car. Pete was awake, and watching the train. It had stopped, and there were a lot of people gathered around.
“Kids!” Pete gasped. “Oh thank God. There was an accident on the tracks—I thought one of you might have been hurt !!”
“There was an accident?” Jacob asked. “Did anyone get hurt?”
Pete looked over at the train, and then at Max. “I’m not sure,” he lied, “but I think it’s best we get you back to your hotel right away. I bet your dad will be worried sick.”
Emma thanked him, and they all got into the truck. It was a quiet ride back to Revelstoke. The kids were shaken by what had happened to Melissa, but they were also excited about being so close to their goal. It wouldn’t be long before they found the famous treasure… Would it be worth it? None of them were sure.
They gave Pete the address for the hotel closest to the airport, and as soon as he had pulled away they started walking back.
Ils donnèrent à Pete l’adresse de l’hôtel le plus proche de l’aéroport, et dès qu’il se fût éloigné ils firent demi-tour.
But they weren’t expecting what happened when they walked inside the doors of the airport…
Mais ils ne s’attendaient pas à ce qui arriverait quand ils passèrent les portes de l’aéroport…
“Mom!?” Jacob gasped.
His mother was at the information counter in the tiny airport, arguing with someone on the phone. When she heard Jacob’s voice she spun around.
Sa mère était au comptoir d'information du petit aéroport, en train de se disputer avec quelqu'un au téléphone. Lorsqu'elle entendit la voix de Jacob, elle se retourna brusquement.
“Jacob!” she screamed. She was across the airport in seconds and hugging her son close. When he felt her arms go around him, the stress of the last few days hit him hard. He found himself blinking away tears.
“Mom! How did you find us?” he asked.
“I get the credit card statements, you idiot!” she said. “What the hell were you thinking? Running off after some treasure when someone with a gun was chasing you! I’ve been worried sick! And Emma!” She turned on her son’s girlfriend. “I thought you would talk some sense into him! How could you bring Max into this?”
“Mom,” Jacob said, but Emma cut him off.
“I thought it was safer to bring him with us,” Emma said. She felt so embarrassed. At the time it had made a lot of sense, but now? Standing in front of Jacob’s very angry mother? She wasn’t sure it had been a good idea at all.
“A woman with a gun!” Jacob’s mom said again.
“Mom!” Jacob insisted.
“What?!” his mother yelled.
“We did it! We found the lost treasure. What Dad spent his life looking for…what he died for. We found it.”
It took a lot of explaining, but Jacob and Emma laid out everything that had happened since the break-in in Toronto. Jacob’s mom interrupted constantly with questions, asking why they had done certain things, why not others, and often, “Just what were you thinking?!” When they told her what happened with Melissa at the end, Emma cried again, and Jacob’s mom held her tight until she was done. Jacob hugged Max close, too, and they all took a moment before they kept going.
Il y eut beaucoup d’explications, mais Jacob et Emma déballèrent tout ce qui était arrivé depuis l’intrusion à Toronto. La mère de Jacob les coupait constamment avec des questions, demandant pourquoi ils avaient agi ainsi, pourquoi pas autrement, et en disant souvent, “à quoi pensais-tu?!” Quand ils lui racontèrent qui était arrivé à Mélissa, Emma pleura encore, et la Mère de Jacob la serra fort jusqu’à ce qu’elle aille mieux. Jacob serra Max, aussi, et ils firent tous une pause avant de partir.
But by the end, as she held the final clue in her hand, Jacob could tell that his mother was curious.
“Please, Mom,” he said. “I can’t leave it like this. I know my dad wasn’t a good husband. He wasn’t a good dad, either. This treasure hunt he was on…it wasn’t the reason he was always gone. He only started looking for it when Melissa told him about the box. He was obsessed with treasure long before that. But I know if we can find the treasure…I can find a way to say goodbye…. And pay off your credit card for all those flights,” he added hopefully.
“Kid, you are going to be paying back every penny of those flights from your own money,” his mom said. “You are in the kind of trouble most kids only dream about! You made a lot of bad decisions this week, and I’m not going to let that go. You hear me? You are grounded. For a year.” She stopped and looked over at Emma and Max, and then back to Jacob. “As soon as we get back from digging up that treasure,” she added.
« Mon garçon, tu vas rembourser chaque centime de ces trajets avec ton propre argent », lui dit sa mère. « Tu es dans dans le genre d'ennuis qui ne fait rêver aucun enfant que rêver ! Tu as pris beaucoup de mauvaises décisions cette semaine, et je ne vais pas laisser passer ça. Tu m'as bien compris ? Tu es puni. Pendant un an. » Elle s'interrompit et regarda Emma et Max, puis se tourna à nouveau vers Jacob. « Dès que nous serons revenus de notre chasse au trésor », ajouta-t-elle.
Jacob laughed. “Are you serious? Do you mean it?” he gasped.
“Let’s go rent a car,” his mother said.
It turned out it was almost an eight-hour drive, so they got the next flight to Williams Lake and rented a car from there. After that it was only a two-hour drive out to Cariboo. The nearby Keithley Creek was a ghost town now, with no sign of even the buildings that used to be there, but there was a road that went most of the way to their destination. After that, they had to go down some old logging roads. Luckily, the 4x4 that Jacob’s mother had rented could handle it.
They got out and looked over a map. It was a little bit of a hike through beautiful old-growth forests. Emma kept an eye on Max, reminding him to drink water, and Jacob and his mom carried the heavy shovels they had bought in Williams Lake. Most of the trees around them were fir, spruce, cedar, and hemlock. But as they arrived near the location, Max saw the bright white of a dogwood flower.
Ils sortirent et regardèrent une carte. Il fallait marcher un peu à travers de magnifiques forêts anciennes. Emma surveillait Max, et lui rappelait de boire de l'eau, tandis que Jacob et sa mère portaient les lourdes pelles qu'ils avaient achetées à Williams Lake. La plupart des arbres autour d'eux étaient des sapins, des épicéas, des cèdres et des pruches. Mais lorsqu'ils arrivèrent à l'endroit, Max a aperçu le blanc éclatant d'une fleur de cornouiller.
“There!” he yelled.
“Hold on…there’s more than one!” Jacob pointed in the other direction. “What do we do?”
They dropped their supplies and explored the area. There were dogwood trees here and there, and they looked out of place in the forest. They counted seventeen in total.
Ils déposèrent leurs affaires et explorèrent les environs. Il y avait des cornouillers ici et là, qui semblaient déplacés dans la forêt. Ils en comptèrent dix-sept au total.
“How do we know which one it is?” Emma asked.
“He probably planted one, and the others spread from it. We need to find the largest,” Jacob’s mom suggested.
They spread out again, and eventually agreed on what they thought was the biggest tree. Jacob and his mom got out their shovels and started to dig. It wasn’t long before Jacob’s shovel clanged against metal. “Here!” he yelled. “I found something!”
His mom joined him, and soon they had a big hole. And in the centre was an old metal steamer trunk. Jacob knocked off the old, rusted lock easily with the shovel. He opened the top of the trunk…
And found a huge pile of gold nuggets, watches, jewellery, and other stolen treasures. It was a fortune…and since it was his family inheritance, it was completely legal to dig it up and keep it.
They all took turns touching the gold, picking up necklaces, and running coins through their fingers.
“Wow,” Emma said. “I can’t believe it. We really did it. We really found the treasure.”
Jacob sat back, wiping a hand across his forehead. He couldn’t believe it. He had done what his dad set out to do. He picked up a piece of gold and looked up at the sky.
Jacob s’assit, essuyant son front de la main. Il n’arrivait pas à y croire. Il avait terminé ce que son père avait commencé. Il prit une pièce d’or et regarda le ciel.
This is for you, Dad, he thought. I love you.
Emma sat down next to him as his mom and her brother figured out how to divide the treasure up so that they could carry it home.
Emma s’assit à côté de lui pendant que sa mère et son frère cherchaient comment répartir le trésor pour pouvoir le ramener.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “Does it feel like saying goodbye to your dad?”
“I’m okay.” Jacob thought about it, then added, “I know this whole thing was scary and messed up. But it was kind of awesome, too. Getting to finish what he started. Getting to see what treasure hunting is really like.”
“You know…” Emma said. “There are other famous Canadian treasures that no one has been able to find. And we made a pretty good team.”
Jacob laughed. “I think I’ve had enough treasure hunting. For now, at least, I’d like to focus on graduating high school…and on doing this.”
He kissed her. Laughing, she kissed him back.
“Okay,” she agreed, “that sounds fun, too.”
THE END
