Buried Treasure and Best Friends

I had a best friend growing up named Dee Adams. We had many adventures together including building a fort in her backyard and trying to create a new language of our own.

One adventure that I still remember so clearly was borrowing and gathering as many shiny valuables as we could from our moms’ and sisters’ old junk jewelry, decorating a shoe box, and burying it in the far end of my backyard. We made a careful map with a big X to mark where it was buried, then tried as hard as we could to forget about it.

That only lasted a few days. We talked about it nonstop, though for all those days, wondering if someone had found it, whether maybe (we hoped) the fake jewelry had turned into real gold and gems. When we couldn’t wait any longer, on the tenth day we pretended we didn’t know where it was and followed our careful map, counting out steps and carrying Dee’s dad’s shovel.

When we dug the box back up, I was more excited than I thought I would be. We had gathered and made the box and buried it and drew the map ourselves, so there shouldn’t have been any surprise.

But the planning and waiting and re-discovery was so very exciting. It was like re-reading a book I loved. I knew how it would turn out, but the pleasure of going on that journey again was just as delicious.

Maybe you and your best friend or friends could bury your own treasure. Ask your parents for any shiny objects you might borrow. Look in your family junk drawer (I have never been in a house that didn’t have one of these). Gather some coins and small toys and little treasures you have in your room.

Find a small box and decorate it with lots of colors and shapes. If you have some stickers, this would be a great place to use them. Load up your treasure box and secure the top carefully.

Plan with your friends where a good place to bury it might be. If you don’t have a yard, consider a closet that seldom gets used and bury it way in the back under old sleeping bags or shoes.

Don’t forget to make a map. Draw as many details as you can so your return trip to dig up your treasure will last as long as possible. Include important items like the ceramic frog in your garden, or the big rock at the bottom of the hill, or the poster on the wall with a dragon. Count out the number of steps it takes to go from one place to the next. Put a big “X” to mark the spot where you buried your treasure. Wait as long as you can.

Then, pretend you are pirates returning for your booty. Or treasure hunters on an adventure of a lifetime. Or maybe even a writer, looking for clues for your mystery novel.

I hope you find treasure everywhere in your life, especially in books and in best friends.

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” Walt Disney