“You know any numbers he uses?”
“Just three…” Ge recounted to himself. “Six, three, three, four, is the code for the medical stuff… He thought it would be good if I knew it.”
“Seven, Seven, four, two… It’s a code he gave me to store some spices because I was running low on space on my backpack.”
“And…” He gulped and shied away, as even now he was very touchy whenever THAT subject arises. “six, six, nine, nine.” And didn’t say what it was for.
“I remember that one…” I added with a grin rising on my cheeks. “… I also remember you getting flustered, because of something inside.” I was already setting the number in. “Let’s see…”
And then I pressed the button and heard the click, pulling the lid open immediately… The first thing to greet me was a note. “This is covered under no touching.” I read aloud and felt a little tick bite me on the side of the ear, or might have been my anger rising... Vernon chuckled at Grey’s preemptive cheekiness, I just took the note and crumpled it before tossing it away.
My eyes then widened, usually I wouldn’t hold any quarrels describing, but since this is not ‘that’ kind of story… I’ll skip it. “Look at the size of that thing!” I tilted my head. “You think he can take it all? Or is it just to use on other people?”
Vernon turned away like the prudish ma’am he is. “I think you should stop messing with his stuff, he is gonna get mad at you!”
“Ah c’mon we’re just having fun!” I closed up the case hearing a click that told me it was now locked, and thinking aloud. “Let’s see… Any suggestions?”
“I said what I know.” Vernon shrugged.
“You know any special dates for him? Or like a favorite number?” I asked.
“I don’t know… Maybe you should ask him directly, when he is back.” Vernon insisted.
“Ok, I’ll guess then…” I looked over the number pad. “Twenty-three, zero, seven.” Was my first guess.
“Why- Ah… Nevermind, just got it. It’s your birthday.” Almost sounded disappointed at me... But I learned to ignore that.
“Let’s see if gramps has stashed a gift for me in here.” I heard the click and promptly opened the case… It revealed a surprising amount of nothing.
Aside from a letter that read. “Nice try! Now stop messing with my stuff.” I once again crumpled the ball of lynx cheekiness and tossed it with all my might all the way outside. “How many of these has he prepared?!”
“It’s Grey… I’d be surprise if you open a number and there isn’t a note to mock you.” He added… And what astonishes me is that I did not doubt that being a possibility.
“And he has all this time to set up jokes for me, but not a single thing stored for me? Not even a reminder of a birthday gift?!” I inspected the lining on the suitcase, the black velvety inside containing no secrets that I could find.
“Maybe he just hasn’t thought of anything yet, your last birthday was somewhat recent.” Vernon put on his best ‘thinking face’. “Or maybe he just put it on another number because he knew you would try and peek at some point.”
I huffed in indignation before thinking of something else. “Let’s try… Yours. zero, one, one, two.” I read aloud as the numbers sat in place.
“My birth SIGN is not a single da-” He tried to correct me like the cute nerd he is.
“Yadda, yadda, yadda…” I nagged him into shutting up, before clicking the button and again opening the case.
This time however, there was something… A photo… I didn’t even recognize it, it was just the two of them leaning awkwardly over a table on a restaurant.
I was pleasantly surprised. “When was this?”
“Oh… A couple of days.” Vernon's voice denounced his embarrassment. “… My uncle wanted to see more recent photos, so I asked Grey to take one. We were going to take one of you too but I guess the conversation moved on, I was going to ask you when we were sending the next letter.”
“I see…” I started scratching my neck feeling it get awfully itchy. “… So he has a number for you, but not one for me?”
Vernon raised an eyebrow. “Are you… Jealous?” He asked like I was the weird one.
“Little bit…” I shrugged. “… I kind of wanted him to have something for me.”
He patted my head. “Don’t take it personally… I still think he put it somewhere else, a different number that he didn’t want you to know about, you know Grey.”
“Which one though?” I asked again looking over the number. “four, two, five, two…” I ordered the numbers.
“What is that?” Vernon asked in confusion.
“I don’t know… I just guessed.” I shrugged I clicked the suitcase open and lift up the lid… Quickly I tilted my head, as my completely wild guess had turned out something. “Clothes?” I said taking some of his stuff and pulling it out of the suitcase.
“Fancy clothes… The kind you take to a ballroom… And fancy leather shoes, shoe polish and… Perfume?!” I stared in confusion. “When does he ever use that?” I tipped it over a bit on my finger and smelled. “It smells like fresh sawdust, he likes the lumberjack scent apparently.”
“My guess is he doesn’t use it often…” Vernon inspected as well, his nose twitching at the scent. “… The air smells stale inside.”
“Makes sense… But now I kind of wanna see gramps dressed up in gala…” I looked over to Vernon. “And you too.”
“Me?” Vernon seemed a bit embarrassed. “You know I don’t look good in a suit.”
“A dress maybe?” I played around.
And the way he just gazed away was a dead tell he wasn’t against the idea. “We should put those back.” He came back to his original point.
But he was a bit late on that advice as it was right before I stood up and unfolded the whole thing over me to check how good it was… A blazer made with good cloth, a plain white undershirt, it was all rather basic, but I could picture the big guy bulging in these pieces. “He could use a bit more flair, but it’s decent.” I gave it a turnaround, accidentally slapping the lid of the suitcase closed, but it wasn’t too hard.
“Put that down Azreth.” Vernon scolded me. “You’re messing it up, he is gonna be so mad at you!”
“You said it yourself he doesn’t check it often.” I calmed him… But he kept staring at me like I was doing a dirty deed… So, I rolled my eyes around. “Fiiine.” I folded the clothes back up and kneeling down.
But little did I know how much I had done goofed already.
You see, I had been rather callous about what I was doing as I tend to when I’m enjoying myself… I wasn’t paying attention to how me swirling around had messed with the number setting… And now that the suitcase closed it had reset it’s configuration… So when I opened it up. “Ah… What happened here?” Was the only thing to say as I watched the empty space inside it.
“What?” Vernon asked and looked down onto the case. “Oh, you probably just messed up the number, put the same one again.”
And my heart chilled as I realized a terrible, undeniable truth. “I don’t remember it…”
Me and Vernon stared at each other in silence… We both knew what was on the other’s mind and it was a terrifying thought. “You’re done for.” He voiced.
“What do you mean I am done for? You were here too!” I cried out.
“You messed around with it… I told you not to!” He argued back.
“After YOU taught me how to open it… AND you were very much into it as well, you didn’t stop me at any point!” I argued back as well.
“I TOLD YOU TO STOP!” He rebutted.
“AND SINCE WHEN DO I LISTEN TO HALF THE THINGS YOU SAY?!” I rebutted as well.
“This is still your fault!” He stomped his feet, crossing his arms.
“You’re here with me… You’re going down with… Just help me remember!” I insisted and pleaded as if my life depended on it.
“How am I supposed to remember something YOU thought of on a WHIM?” He answered. “I just woke up! I’m not thinking good yet!”
And he made a heck of a lot of sense, but my panicked mind didn’t care. “C’mon you gotta help me out Vernon, you’re the smart one!”
“I…” He closed his eyes and concentrated really hard, you could see him frown as he kept thinking. “… I remember… a five… and a two… I can’t Azreth.” He shook his head. “That’s all… They were in there somewhere.”
“Good! GREAT! How many combinations does that leave?” I locked the five in the first slot and thinking of how to end the sequence.
“I don’t think it rules out that many, especially when I’m not sure where they went.” Vernon let out a desperate sigh. “Can’t you just focus and try to remember?”
“We have to try something.” I cried out… Brightening up with an idea. “We can… Just go up one by one!” I set it all up to zeros and began.
“It’s ten thousand combinations Azreth!” Vernon tried to make me listen.
But it was sort of late for that… I had already changed the numbers and had clicked the button and was mid opening the case again.
To our surprise there was a piece of paper there, a single sheet, yellowed out by time. The tittle read “List of important combinations.” I read aloud and looked over to Vernon. “I KNEW IT!! We’re saved!”
“Really?” Vernon tilted his head. “That’s so unlike him.”
“Hmmm… The numbers don’t have descriptions…” I read over. “I guess this narrows it down at least, this is like… thirty-six, seven… eight… nine, forty… two… Forty two, that many we can try before he gets here!”
“Azreth wait-” He was onto to something.
But I didn’t listen. I continued holding the list, already locking over the first combination… “two, five, two, six.” And then I opened the lid completely unaware of what I had done, I saw the metallic shimmer, and heard a tiny click just in time to toss myself over Vernon as we heard a loud. *BLAMMM!!*
I dropped on top of him with my ear ringing as I stood up. “Fuck!” I let out angrily. “Whyyyy? Why does it shoot you when you open it?!” I asked in shock.
Vernon moved over from underneath me. He sat next to me and gently tapped on my shoulder. “Did it hit you?”
“No!” My eyes went back to the suitcase where the smoking pistol still sat in place... Well, less of a pistol and more of a hand cannon. “Goddammit gramps! He is trying to kill us!”
“He told me he set traps in case it ever got stolen.” Vernon added.
“That fucking asshole!” I stood up fuming. “Do you think he heard that?”
And suddenly I needed not question that anymore as I could hear the steps rushing over to the tent… I don’t think I ever moved that fast picking the clothing and jamming it inside the suitcase as I tried to force it to close before he noticed the mess scattered around… And then I heard his worried voice. “I heard a shot! Are you both okay?!”
I looked over to him with the biggest awkward red-handed grin I had… I tried to think of a lie to cover this up, but nothing came, so in my attempts to find something I called out. At my most desperate moment. “uh… uhh…. FLASH!!”
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