The Suggestion Box (Volume 1)

Part 4: The Legacy (4)

Based on the following Suggestions:

Names: Teresa, Elena Knight
Times: 1930's and 2030's, a century
Places: Egypt, Uncharted Phoenician island, citadel of Natalys
Objects: Turkish scarf, heirloom watch, a puzzle in 4 pieces, fountain of youth

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Teresa set down the amazing paper and looked at her mother. Elena cradled the watch in her hands as if it held her mother's soul, crying softly at the legacy she realized her mother had intended for her. How could she have let herself grow so fearful of the world her mother delighted in? Now she had missed her chance to reconnect with the woman, and she would never have it again.

Teresa immediately reached into the box and pulled out the papers and maps. One of them matched the design on the scarf exactly, and looked very old and weathered. It was the map to Natalys! The others showed maps of the Arab peninsula, the Mediterranean Sea, and the surrounding countries, from Syria to Egypt. Thin lines traced over the surface of the maps, with brief notes written in Teresa Mallow's hand; these had been her maps, placed in the box to inform the next explorer of the places she had already visited, and some of what she had discovered there.

Some of the papers were journal entries, records of the discoveries Teresa Mallow had made over the years. Over and over again, Teresa Knight read the word "Fountain", always capitalized, always prominent out of all the rest of the text. One map, which appeared to be a specific corner of Natalys (or perhaps a section in the middle; having no borders, it's precise context was unclear), with a line tracing over various landmarks and notes, ending in a circle surrounding a symbol labeled "Fountain Y." Teresa wracked her brain to figure out what the Y could stand for. She gasped.

"The Fountain of Youth."

Elena was still lost in her grief; she wondered if she had heard her daughter correctly. "What?" she choked wearily.

Teresa felt her heartbeat accelerate, and she almost could not breathe. She felt faint as she realized the implications of what she had just learned.

"Your mother," she looked up at Elena, her face white with shock. "Grandma Teresa—she found the Fountain of Youth."

"No!" Elena's voice came in a strangled wail. "That's not true!" she shook her head violently. "It's just a myth! You can't find something that doesn't exist!"

Teresa pulled up the map that depicted the location of Natalys, in the middle of the Mediterranean. "This didn't exist until your mother found it, either," she noted. "She found Natalys, and she found the Fountain of Youth."

Elena was too overcome to speak, but she still shook her head. "She didn't find it; that's what the letter said. She thought she found all the clues to it, but she never found the fountain."

Teresa nodded, her face glowing at the prospect before her. "That's right; the person who collects and compiles the contents of this box will have everything she needs to get right to the Fountain."

Elena snorted, "Except the money! Honestly, Teresa," she laid a hand on her daughter's arm as the flame of adventure lit the younger woman's features in exactly the way that Elena had done everything she could to prevent. "You've got to remember that traveling all these places costs a good deal of money, and mother was never a rich woman, with all the philanthropy projects she participated in. Archaeologists in those days were never allowed to keep the artifacts they found, particularly not if it was money."

Teresa reached the bottom of the stack of paper and her eyes bulged.

"Mom," she said, her chin quivering with astonishment. "Look at this."