Episode 1: The Treasure Map
The Ballad of the Golden Heart
Find the Table of Contents here if you’re looking for a different episode.
Krill had very nimble hands. Just now, those hands happened to be picking a lock which was hanging from an iron gate in an otherwise empty alleyway. His younger brother, Mattathias, was watching him intently.
“Krill, hurry up.” Mattathias’ voice cracked as he said this, somewhat ruining the authoritative effect he’d intended. “You said you’d done this before.”
“It’s been a while, okay! How often do you think I go picking locks and breaking into houses?” Krill was tall and skinny, with ruffled hair. Mattathias was shorter and stocky, with strong, broad shoulders.
“I know, I know, okay! It’s just… it’s taking a while. Just … hurry up, please!”
“Matty!” Krill threw the pins on the ground, and turned to face the teenage boy. “I’m only doing this for you, ‘kay? Can you leave me alone? There’s nobody here, anyhow.”
At that, a man turned from the busy distant street into their alleyway. He was an old man and walked slowly. He seemed to pay the boys no mind, and walked right past them.
Krill stooped to pick up the pins again. “I really don’t see what the big deal is about this diary, anyways. You know your friend was just making fun of you, right?”
“I know, I know! But it would be so great if I could call Luigi’s bluff about this whole thing on Monday. I mean, he’s kept this prank going for, like, two years now. All about these maps, and his dad’s old travel journal, and stuff like that. Like, half of our class seriously believes in this mythical lost city, Krill!”
“Maybe…” Krill was muttering to himself now, as he continued wrestling with the lock. “Maybe there really is some lost, abandoned city out there.” The lock finally popped open. “Now it’s your turn to hurry up and be quick. If anyone comes, I’m only yelling once, and then I’m leaving you to get caught.”
As Mattathias slunk through the courtyard toward the house beyond it, Krill pulled out a letter and stared at it. The looping, delicate handwriting on the parchment showed that it had been written by a woman – in fact, it was one of his friends from university, Francesca. Krill was currently back home for the summer, but this friend was coming out to visit; in fact, she was meant to arrive that very night by train.
As Krill was reading through the letter, a scratchy, thumping noise arose from the courtyard. Krill looked up to see an tiny, ancient woman wandering around the courtyard, leaning heavily on a walking staff. She seemed to be talking to herself, although Krill couldn’t quite make out what she was saying. He was about to shout to his brother, when Mattathias came scrambling out through the door of the house. He almost knocked the old woman over as he scurried across the courtyard. She stared and watched as he raced out through the gate.
“Matty, you lucky fool – you said nobody was home!”
“Fine, I get it! I got what I need though!” He took off down the alleyway toward the busy street, a fat journal and a rolled-up scroll of parchment in one hand.
Out on the street, the brothers passed several blocks at a brisk stroll. “So… I still don’t get what your plan is.” Krill turned down another busy street, and Matty followed him. “Are you going to give those things back to your friend Luigi? Or did you really just steal his dead father’s old travel journals?”
Matty shook his head. “You don’t get it – that’s the part that was the lie! I only figured it out because Becky Margaret was with him when he bought this journal and map at a flea market, two summers ago.” Matty shook his loot aggressively. “And Luigi’s older brother, Sam, he made a comment last week about how their father was always tied down with running the bakery here in town – their dad always wanted to travel abroad, but he never actually got to.”
Krill nodded along, apprehensively.
“So, you see, it was all a lie! And all I have to do is figure out who actually owned this journal. There has to be a name or something to identify the writer.”
“So is there really is a lost city, then? Maybe Luigi’s father never went there, but there really could be a lost city?”
Matty stopped in his tracks, and Krill had to turn around to face him. “Krill. Seriously.”
Krill shrugged his shoulders. “I mean you don’t know what’s written in the diary.”
“Exactly. None of us knew what’s actually written in here besides Luigi – but, I mean, come on! Who ever heard of an abandoned city floating in the clouds?” Matty shook his head, hopelessly, and the brothers started walking again. “It’s probably just some boring journal about some old man’s job, and his wife and kids. The journal just looks really cool, which is probably what inspired Luigi to make up his whole ridiculous story. I promise you.”
As they walked, the sun started to make its gradual descent across the afternoon sky. The streets of the city were filled with people walking and biking, and horses trotting along; occasionally the trolley would pass through the iron tracks lining the middle of the street.
And so the two brothers got away with theft. And as they walked, both of their minds began to wonder what exactly they had stolen.