Chapter 34

May 4, 1967

On a Sunday afternoon in early May, Gracie stood beside Kage on the hill under the tree where he had given her the ring. It had been over a year since Kage had placed it there. He’d saved not only for their wedding bands but also enough for a trip to see the ocean.

There with Pastor Ted, Kage took Gracie’s hand and slipped the wedding band onto her finger and, without Pastor Ted prompting him, he kissed her. Though the entire town was gathered, waiting at the Franklin’s home, Gracie stood still, hoping somehow that this moment would never end. It had been Kage’s idea to marry on top of the hill, but it was Gracie’s choice that it only be the two of them. She appreciated the celebration awaiting, but the anticipation of seeing the ocean for the first time and being alone with him that night was nearly more than she could bear.

* * *

Gums showing from cheek to cheek, Gene smiled. He looked around the barn, wanting to show the newspaper to somebody, but he was alone.

He leaned back in his chair and reached in the desk drawer for a pair of scissors and felt around the bottom of the drawer until he was sure they weren’t in there. He instead carefully ripped the announcement from the newspaper, making sure not to rip the picture of Gracie Howard or the words below. His eyes were beginning to fail him, but there was no mistaking the gleam on her face in that wedding photo. He remembered the feeling himself from decades earlier on his own wedding day.

He pulled his Bible from his top dresser drawer. Two brittle newspaper clippings and an old black-and-white photograph fell out of it. One clipping had the headline, “Treasure to be Discovered in Ridgewood,” the other clipping read, “Missing Treasure Somewhere in Ridgewood.” As he picked up the old photo, the upper left corner chipped off into his hand. It was a photo of a young man and woman. She wore a simple knee length white dress with a lace collar, her long hair meeting her shoulders. She had rarely worn it down like that. She was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Their thin bodies were close, and his arms embraced her around the waist as they posed. The girl, nearing sixteen at best, looked every bit of a sophisticated twenty-five-year-old. She was leaning forward in the photo; it caught them both laughing, their faces bright and youthful. He remembered how she had felt in his arms that day, how he had been the happiest man alive at that exact moment, and it had been caught on film.

He brought the photo closer to his face. The sight of it caused his huge smile to thin. He looked at his image in the photo knowing it was from a lifetime ago, but to him Olivia had not changed a bit. The picture had captured her intense beauty that she had carried with her always, every day that he’d known her. He touched her face in the photo and then tucked it away in the book and placed the neatly-cut newspaper clippings, published decades ago on top of it. Then he placed the freshly torn wedding announcement atop the others, shut the Bible, and returned it to the drawer.