Second Chance

Chapter 29 - Epilogue

Epilogue

November 23, 1982

It was a small café, one that had a limited menu, but most known for coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. It had a limited menu, serving breakfast staples and sandwiches, but the locals and students loved it more for its cheap bottomless cups of coffee, something poor students needed.

It had a diner-style bar with 12 seats. There were several four and six person booths, and four large corner booths, the latter constructed just for students. In one of those booths, she sat with a textbook and several notebooks opened.

She was a great math student, her Calculus professor often remarked on her high grades. He also considered her a natural. She didn’t think so. Though she could find the answers to her homework quickly and understood the professor’s lectures, she still thought it prudent to study an extra hour a night. Tomorrow she had one class and one test before breaking for Thanksgiving and returning home to Albany, and both were Calculus.

Thanksgiving was a holiday to spend with loved ones, whether they are family or friends. She had a new love in her life and wondered if he would be there; want to spend it with her. In his last letter, one that arrived Friday, he was unsure of his Thanksgiving plans. He wanted to be with her, spend the entire day with her, but his family had plans for a big feast. He wrote that he would tell her soon, before she left for home Wednesday afternoon. She hadn’t heard from him since.

Antoinette De Fiore felt that she needed to study more. She had come to the “Deep Snow Café” immediately after her last class ended. That was at noon, and now as it approached 4 PM, she was still at it. She had finished three cups of coffee and was working on her fourth when the server Mary, a local girl that had no expectations of attending college, came over.

“Need another coffee, Toni?” she asked. The student shook her head without looking up.

“Want something to eat?”

Antoinette stopped reading and looked at her watch. “I think I should, Mary.”

“I thought you might say that.” Mary removed a menu from her apron and handed it to Antoinette. “Let me know when you’re ready to order.” She turned to allow the teenager to look it over in peace.

She looked at the small menu quickly. “I know what I want.” She smiled at the server and ordered a bacon cheeseburger with a side order of fries. She also ordered a Coke. Mary wrote it on her order pad and turned to hand it to the kitchen. Antoinette resumed studying.

“Hey Miss De Fiore, how are you?” a loud and familiar voice surprised her. Antoinette flinched, sending her pencil from her hand to the floor several feet away.

“Oh did I scare you?” Zoe Barker asked. She picked up the writing utensil and handed it to her roommate.

“Yes you did,” Antoinette said. After the two laughed, she asked, “What are you doing here? Don’t you have an English class right now?”

“It was canceled.” Zoe was an Archeological Studies major, a young woman that wanted to join her maternal grandfather and rediscover the American past. She had no delusions of becoming the female Indiana Jones and knew that men like him never existed, but wanted to make her mark on America.

“So, why are you here, and not headed home?” Antoinette asked.

“Mom doesn’t want me home until the morning. I came here because this just arrived in our room.” Zoe removed a magazine from her backpack and put it on the table, on top of her roommate’s Calculus book.

Antoinette picked it up and read the title, Capital Stories. She flipped through the pages quickly before tossing it to Zoe. “I didn’t order this.”

“I know you didn’t, neither did I, but it came for you.” Zoe tossed it back.

Antoinette looked at the cover and realized that there was no mailing label; it was either hand delivered or was inside an envelope. “How do you know it’s for me? There’s no label on it.”

“I was told it’s for you.”

“Who told you it was for me?”

Zoe shook her head. “Look at page 33. That might help with who sent it.”

Antoinette shook her head and exhaled in disgust, but opened the magazine to page 33. “What’s so important,” was all she could say before she read the story title, Adirondack Ambush. She squinted at the familiar title. She turned white with surprise when she read the writer’s name: Micah Vaughn.

She was excited. “Oh my God, he published something. I have to read this.” She pushed her math notes and book away from her and placed the periodical flat on the table.

“Oh this is good,” she cooed after reading the first paragraph. She looked up at Zoe and smiled. “I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you that I know the writer on page 33.”

“Is it Micah?” Zoe had listened to Antoinette talk about her love, about how they professed their love for one another on prom night and how they survived a kidnapping. She listened to the stories he sent every week and knew that he was going to be a professional writer someday.

“Yes! Oh my God, he’s printed.” She looked at Zoe, “This is so wonderful. It was his dream to be a writer when he was younger, and now, he’s realized that dream. I am so happy for him.”

Zoe reached across the table and squeezed the other teen’s hand. “I know you are, and I’m happy for you.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to be terrible to you and go back to reading.”

“Oh don’t be sorry.” Zoe put her bag next to her on the leather bench seat and removed a magazine of her own. “I’ll join you in reading.”

The two laughed. “Oh what’s this?” Antoinette asked. She looked beyond her roommate and saw Mary holding a bouquet of red and white carnations.

Zoe turned and smiled. “Are they for me?” she joked.

Mary shook her head, “They’re for her.”

“I didn’t order any flowers, just a cheeseburger,” Antoinette quipped, taking the flowers in her arms. She inhaled their aroma and smiled. “I wonder who knew I love carnations.”

The server stood and smiled. “I think he did.” She turned and pointed at the young man standing by the kitchen entrance, wearing a black leather, wide-brimmed Fedora and black leather overcoat. His glasses were new, but she knew who it was.

“Micah,” she whispered. She slowly rose from her seat and walked to him. He closed the distance quickly. Their deep embrace caused some in the restaurant to moan in jealousy.

They broke the hug. She pulled him down and kissed his cheek. “What are you doing here?” she whispered. “Don’t you have classes tomorrow?”

He shook his head. “I told my professors I wasn’t going to be there tomorrow, not after the magazines arrived. I knew I had to come up here and give you a copy.”

She playfully punched his shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me you were going to be published?”

“I wanted to surprise you,” he answered as they walked back to her booth. She introduced Zoe. He smiled.

“I met her an hour ago. How else did she bring you the magazine?”

She rolled her eyes in realization. Antoinette kissed him on the lips and shook her head. “This must have paid well. I mean, how else could you pay for the new glasses and the leather?”

He was silent. He looked away.

“Oh don’t tell me it was real?”

“What was real?” Zoe asked. They left her question unanswered.

He looked at his love and a slow devious smile appeared on his face. He slowly nodded.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “Is it a map, too?”

He looked around to make sure their conversation was private. “Yes it is.”

All color left Antoinette’s face. Her brown eyes widened. Her mouth opened, though she was unable to speak. All she could slowly shake her head.

Micah anticipated all the questions Zoe was going to ask. “Antoinette told you of what happened right after prom, how we were kidnapped by some psycho wanting to know the location of a painting his family held dearly?”

She nodded.

“Did she tell you that there were Van Rossum family legends about it, that it was in actuality a treasure map?”

Again, Zoe nodded. “She told me that the map part was just a hoax, something the Van Rossums told to keep the younger generations interested in the painting, to keep looking for it.”

“It was no hoax. The legends were true. It was a treasure map.”

“You found the treasure?”

Micah shook his head. “No, I didn’t find it. I found the map, which was funny. It was on a farm where my father was born, in a cavern he and his brothers and sisters played in a lot. They never knew it was there.

“No, I didn’t find the treasure. A cousin and I took the painting to the state museum, the true owners. We received a reward for returning.”

Antoinette hugged him. “They gave you a big reward?”

“Yes and no. Yes, the money they gave us was a lot, but not too large so that I could quit school and live off the money.”

The teens laughed.

“When the museum historians cracked the puzzle the painting was and found the treasure, they gave my cousin and I a part of it, only like 5%. Again, it was not enough for me to move to Hawaii and live on the beach.”

He looked at Antoinette and smiled. “I have enough money, though, to change schools, to come here and be a Computer Science major in the fall.”

“Oh that’s so wonderful.” Antoinette was giddy. “You can live in my dorm.”

He shook his head. “No, I can’t.”

She was crestfallen. “Why not?”

“Because there’ll be no room in ours?” Zoe asked.

He shook his head. “No, I could live in your dorm if I want.” He smiled devilishly. “Why would I live in a dorm and share a room with a stranger when I can live in a rented house with someone I love?”