“We won’t do anything foolhardy, will we Gabby?” Tony asked as we climbed into the van.
“No,” I said sadly. “Not without the GPS. I’m still sorry, Tony.”
“Don’t be. It’s as much my fault as it is yours. We’ll stop in Grand Rapids and get another one.”
“But I know you can’t afford it any more than I can.”
“Nonsense. If a GPS is what we need to find more adventures I’ll work at the golf course all summer to pay it off.”
“But you shouldn’t have to.”
He almost put the van into reverse but he stopped when he knew he had to make a point.
“Gabby, look at me,” he said. “If we were strangers and you harmed something of mine, I’d expect you to make it right, just because that’s what we do when we damage something. Like the van. We tore it up. We made it right. Ned will never know what this van has been through.”
“Unless he reads his new bumper stickers.”
“But Gabby, I know you can’t afford a new GPS. And hopefully our… friendship goes beyond that. I was kind of wishing I could get a newer model anyway. Maybe now I can instead of holding onto the old one.”
“But… it’s not just the GPS. It brought us to so many places. I’ll get a new one. Stop in a city and I’ll find you a new one. I’ve got a card. I can pay my parents back.”
“No.” Something was bugging him and he turned off the van. “Take a walk with me.”
He got out of the van, so I opened my door and got out, too. We walked to the end of the dock and then sat with our feet in the water.
“The GPS means nothing to me,” he said. “You. You mean more to me than anything I could ever think of. If you let that dumb gadget take you from me I’d never get over it. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Of course. I’d hope any person would put their life above a personal possession.”
He sighed, as if I didn’t understand.
“Name anything. Anything you can think of. Name the thing that means the most to you in the whole wide world.”
“It isn’t things that mean the most to me. It’s the times.”
“And the times are made special by the people we experience them with.”
“Uh huh.”
“And Gabby… Gwendolyn, there is nothing, nobody, no time I treasure more than the time I’ve spent with you. That GPS is just junk compared to the times we’ve had. We’ll get another one, just so that we’ll have it to lead us on more adventures. But it’s not your responsibility to buy it.”
“Find a store where they sell them. Let’s see what they have. We have to find the event, too, you know.”
Dave was cleaning out the kayak. I think his ears picked up the possibility of a sale. A big sale.
“GPS units?” he asked.
“Yeah, but not just any GPSr,” Tony said. “We need one for geocaching.”
“I’ve got a few. Let’s take a look.”
In the back corner of the cluttered store was a little glass case. In the case was a conglomeration of expensive fishing reels, fifty dollar sunglasses, scopes for rifles, digital cameras and… four GPS units. One Tony ruled out immediately because it was for use on a boat. Another was for hiking but not geocaching. That left two units.
“Can we try them out?” Tony asked.
“I don’t see why not,” Dave said.
I guess you can get more of a demonstration in a little town with only one store and no customers. Dave found some batteries in a drawer and we put them in the GPSrs, then took them outside so they could find a satellite. Tony found our location on the map, but there were no caches loaded into the device. Still, he was able to see how readable the screen was and zoom in and out and see all the features listed in the menus.
“Do you have wifi?” Tony asked Dave.
“If it’ll help make a sale,” Dave replied.
When the guys went into a high tech huddle I decided it was time to check out the snacks again. They got out the laptop and rigged up the GPSrs and Tony showed Dave the geocaching site and explained the hobby to him.
“We’ve had a few geocachers in here,” Dave said. “I’ve got an account but it’s only so I can own the two caches out on the islands. Somebody told me I could rent a few kayaks if there were geocaches out there.”
“Well, it worked. You rented one to us,” Tony told him.
When Tony could see the nearby caches he was able to judge the two units capabilities.
“Gabby, would you go see if I left my wallet in the van?” he asked.
I am so gullible. I went to the van to look for Tony’s wallet and of course I didn’t find it because he was inside paying for the GPSr. When I reappeared without the wallet he held the GPS unit and the bag of snacks up triumphantly.
“You tricked me,” I said.
“No, I didn’t. Gabby, I just want to be right here beside you. Finding adventures. Let’s go find a motel. Tomorrow we’ll find that event. I wonder how we’ll measure up.”
As we were climbing back into the van Dave went back to the kayak to hose it off and add it to the rack. Instead he knelt down.
“How did you get in there?” he asked the snake. “You’re lucky that girl didn’t spot you.” Then he gently caught the snake and let it go into the woods.