Adam. Fourth page of revelation.

Photo by Anna Strachan

IV

It was the third day of the game. That day, Adam and Eric tried an abandoned tree-house inside the only forest around the town. The clues ware frivolous, but there had been a glimpse of hope over a note of “The key of happiness is to always find a home inside a deep dark forest”. The house, nevertheless, was as empty as the sky above them.

“Are you sure this map is for real?” Adam complained to Eric while he was crawling around the hollow tree-house.

“I don’t know Adam. I’ve told you thousand times, I have not lied, okay? You saw it through your own eyes, the map was right there.”

“You have not lied, that’s the problem.”

The note had been found two days before. After learning the map, Adam bruised all over his legs climbing down an emptied shallow well at an apple yard. The note was carved on the bottom of the well. They would have examined the place more if the keeper of the yard did not shout from the middle of nowhere and chased both Adam and Eric.

It all happened after Eric found a box behind a panel in the attic on the first day. Adam would not believe all these, but lucky Eric that Adam was right there just as he undiscovered the box. The rigid box contained nothing but a scrolled map. A map with an X-spot (over a drawing of the well), some other drawings, and a written text on the right hand corner. It was written there: Don’t find me, I’ll find you. Thus the game began.

This new adventure had driven Adam away from his other teenage lust. Kate Yariv had moved out of town. Some said she’s bored. Some said she’s pregnant. Some said she’s going to be married. Adam would say “I don’t care”. Yet, she’s still one of a kind and a very kind friend. Adam still texted Kate in some random summer nights, he always craved her words in those nights when he needed a personal psychiatrist for his teenage hysteria. 

The thought of Kate popped out when Adam saw a caring mom talking to her daughter at a train station. Adam had spent the last two hours there, sitting on a bench with Eric.

“The key of happiness is to always find a home inside a deep dark forest. Do we have to do this, really? It sounds like the previous owner of the house’s child drew this ridiculous map after finding a random carving inside that hole,” Adam uttered.

Eric finished his Pepsi can, “Yesterday we searched through the daylight and found nothing in the forest. Today we made it to find a tree-house in the end of the daylight.”

“And found nothing in that mosquito lair. That is not a progress, stupefied,” Adam almost jumped, “wait a minute, did you say ‘daylight’?”

Eric looked confused.

Adam smirked, “A home inside a deep dark forest.”

You might need to read: Adam. First page of revelation.; Adam. Second page of revelation.; Adam. Third page of revelation.