Treasure Hunt

By Yolanda King

Cora's life is very routine: work, eat sleep, occasionally go out. So when she sees an ad for a Treasure Hunt she decides to participate.

She allows it to take her where she would never have dreamed of going, literally, figuratively and physically.
Will this hunt lead her to a treasure?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Release date: Jan 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9783756896943

Yolanda King

Yolanda King was born in 1977. She lived in North America for more than two years, traveling and working, and she also lived in Florence, Italy for one year. She speaks German, English and Italian fluently. Yolanda is married with two children. She and her family live in a small town in the northern part of the Black Forest. She is a teacher and translator who has now turned her hobby - writing - into her new profession. Yolanda started writing in elementary school, continually encouraged by her teacher. Writing has been her constant companion since. https://mewe.com/i/yolandaking4

Book preview

Treasure Hunt

Preface

Treasure Hunt

Copyright

Preface

It was really easy to write this story, it came flowing out of me. That's not always the case. Sometimes I get stuck because I can't find the exact words to describe my thoughts or feelings. In this story, however, everything fell into place smoothly.

I love wines but I'm not really knowledgeable. I drink what tickles my palate. I didn't want to go into details here regarding wines as that would've derailed me from the actual storyline.

However, I did some research on chocolates so the information given in this story should be as accurate as was available in 2022.

Since this year is the 35th anniversary of Dirty Dancing, there're indeed special TV shows to commemorate it. Whether some movie theaters also show the original again I don't know. I made that up to suit my story.

I love Halloween, it's my favorite festivity. My house is always decorated inside out. I don't get many t-or-ters, though, because we live at the end of town.

When my children were younger we used to throw Halloween parties with up to 50 people. They were awesome, albeit a lot of work.

That this story would span the time between the beginning of October until just about Christmas wasn't intentional but I reckon it's the fact that I started writing it just around that time.

There's nothing else to be said about this story so read on and enjoy!

Treasure Hunt

It was late afternoon on Tuesday and as always Cora was at the local library for story hour. She had just finished reading a few books to a group of children followed by making Halloween crafts. It was the beginning of October and the kids were already very excited about this particular holiday. So was Cora. It was her favorite time of year.

She had already decorated her apartment and chosen her costume but she was not certain yet where to go for All Hallows` Eve.

She was in her mid-forties, petite, with raven black, long curly hair and equally black eyes that were always tired because she worked too much and she knew it. Had been for years. She managed with difficulty keeping her library appointment on Tuesdays and she went out for a drink with collegues perhaps once a month. There was little to no time for anything else; reading, occasionally watching some TV, chatting with her mother – who usually traveled a lot and was rarely around – or, on super rare occasions, meeting up with her sister, who at least lived in the same city. That was basically it.

On Sundays she slept in, caught up with household chores like doing laundry, cleaning and grocery shopping, then had a lavish late lunch at one of her favorite restaurants. She never cooked on Sundays but indulged in being pampered by excellent food and fantastic service at restaurants across town.

When the weather was nice she would go to a park or take a short trip to the country to swim in lakes, enjoy some sightseeing or try out a new sport like paddle boarding, parachuting or a similar activity.

When the weather was bad she would go to a museum, sometimes to the movies or simply back to bed.

Every now and then she also saw her sister, Sabina. Cora knew she should make time for her more often but she found it hard because Sabina had three still rather small daughters and at the end of her exhausting week Cora could not muster the energy to face their liveliness. She and Sabina spoke on the phone regularly, though.

Cora's job was very demanding. She was a top-notch interior designer, the leading one in the small company she worked for, and competition was fierce. She had to meet with multiple clients a week and then work on their projects until late at night. She had to be flexible, spontaneous, open-minded and creative, on top of polite and diplomatic, although she would often like to strangle the – especially really rich – clients she worked for.

They believed that their being eccentric was adorable and attractive, which it was not. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Of course, Cora had to bottle it all up and put a good face on things. At some point she was going to buy a punching ball on which she could vent her anger.

As she was leaving the library a note pinned to the bulletin board caught her eye.

Too busy to have fun? Too busy to date?

Then join this free-of-charge mostly online treasure hunt!

For more details Email:

she thought and took a picture with her phone. She could inquire and always decide not to participate, or drop out at any time.

When she got home that evening she prepared a quick dinner – it was mostly some kind of salad with grilled cheese or fish, or some sort of casserole dish that would last her for a few days and could be reheated quickly – and, until about 11p.m., worked on one of her current projects that had to be presented by Thursday.

Afterward Cora could no longer suppress her curiosity. She clicked on the picture she had taken earlier that day and accessed her email account. She typed:

Hi Treasure Hunt organizer,

I saw your sign at the library today. I'm one of

those people who has little time for anything so

being able to join something online sounds good.

How does it work, what are the rules?

Looking forward to hearing back from you.

Best, Cora

She clicked and closed the laptop.

The first thing Cora did the following morning was check for an answer, and she was positively surprised.

Hi Cora,

nice ot see that you're interested!

If you sign up, I'll send you your first clue.

Upon completion, you'll be sent the next one etc.

You have 3 days to figure out each clue or

complete a task.

One level consists of 5 clues. Many questions

can be answered online, some will require you

to physically go somewhere to „investigate".

There're 3 levels all in all.

Everyone who finishes will be awarded a small prize.

If you decide to quit at any point, you can do so.

If you have further questions, just fire away.

Best, V

Cora mulled it over for the rest of the day but she could not find any catch. And if it helped take her mind of work for a bit every night, why not?

So before she went to sleep that night she told V that she was going to give it a try. After all, her email address was all that was required, and she was using an account that could not be linked to her work or bank or anything personal. An old friend from her days at university had set it up for her. Every now and then Cora would ask her to check and update it and so far, there had never been any problems.

She was excited throughout the next day, wondering what the first clue might be. She was more light-hearted at work and time passed more quickly, even that tedious meeting her boss had set up.

Lucinda, her boss, was trying to reel in a brand-new client and to win her over, her best designers had to put their heads together and come up with something original, as a team – which happened rarely. All designers were normally responsible for the success of their own pitches, unless it was a super rich customer like in this case.

Tossing big egos together in one room and demanding that they pull on the same strings was quite a challenge but Lucinda had made it very clear that everyone who was going to be petty about it was going to be kicked off the team.

To everyone's surprise the first meeting had gone surprisingly well. The men had not bragged about their weekend activities, like how great they had done at one contest or another or that they had met this or that sports celebrity and so on, and the