With a quick nod, Jack left. I was alone in the quiet kitchen with a secret. I knelt on the floor and pushed on the old wooden planks. One of them moved.
My heart started racing. I used a knife to lift the board and found a metal box wrapped in cloth. I carried it to the table and opened it. Inside were photos, maps, and a letter with my name on it in my father’s handwriting.
I sat down and broke the seal. The first line made my eyes tear up:
If you are reading this at Rose’s table, then you came here exactly the way I hoped you would.
I looked at the room again—the warm lights and the polished wood. Then I looked at the paper hidden beneath the letter. It was a land survey map, and my father had circled one specific section over and over again until the ink nearly bled through.
