The hot shower had made her feel much better. She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself. Jennifer had had a very bad day and it all started with this silly nightmare of her swimming for her life because a huge robot shark was chasing her. And she didn’t even want to think about all the trouble they had at the practice today. She was just glad to be home and at least it was Friday.
She looked outside through the bathroom window. The back yard and the rest of the world was covered with a blanket of snow. It looked peaceful and beautiful and like everything bad was a million miles away.
The shower was good but Jennifer was also hungry for some sugar so she headed downstairs into the kitchen after she got dried up and dressed.
Jonathan had just fed the cats and was washing his hands in the sink. She was glad he was there because he probably knew the answer to her sugar craving.
“Hey, do we have any candy?”, she asked him.
He turned around. “Uhm.. I don’t know but I don’t think so.”, he said with some regret in his voice.
Jennifer was disappointed at first but then she remembered something.
“Okay, where is your “secret” stash of emergency candy? Because this is an emergency.”
He looked surprised. “What? If I told you it wouldn’t be secret anymore… I mean… what secret stash? What are you talking about?”
Jennifer got closer to him and looked him right in the eyes.
“I’ve known you for 20 years and you have always had a secret stash hidden somewhere because you brother used to steal it.”
“He was a damn candy thief… and he still is.”
Jennifer smiled at that in amusement. “Aww poor honey.”
He looked at her for a few seconds.
“Come on, please. I need something.”
“Alright… it’s in the garage, blue box in the corner. But don’t tell anyone.”
“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”
She went straight into the garage and found the box right away. It was full of chocolates and other snacks and candies. She took a caramel bar, closed the box, put it away and went back into the kitchen. At least the day would end well…

A cool wind was blowing from the ocean as Jennifer sat on the beach reading a murder mystery. Normally she didn’t like those but Sarah had recommended it to her and she thought she’d give it a try. She liked it and she had no clue who the murder was, at least not yet.
It was a nice and quiet late Saturday afternoon in April, the sun was shining but the sky was getting clouded. She loved the sound of the waves crashing and the smell of the sea.
Jonathan was lying next to her on the blanket. He had been reading, too, but he seemed to have fallen asleep.
She watched him for a few minutes. After everything that had happened it was no wonder he was tired. She decided to let him sleep as long as he didn’t start snoring.
As she turned her head to look at the waves she saw some kind of weird reflection in the sand close to the water.
Whatever it was it wasn’t there before so could it have been washed ashore by the waves? She got curious and decided to investigate. It was probably nothing exciting… but what if it was?
The object was easy to reach, she just had to avoid some light waves.
It was an old bottle. But it wasn’t empty, something was visible through the glass.
Jennifer took the bottle back to where they had put the blanket and sat back down which did not go unnoticed by Jonathan who woke up the same second.
“What is that?”, he asked with a tired voice and sat up.
Jennifer smiled at him. “It looks like a message in a bottle. I found it right over there.” She pointed to where she picked it up.
The roll of paper looked very old and faded, she hoped whatever was written on it was still readable.
“Can you open it?”
“I think so. What do you think it is? A treasure map? Maybe a love letter from a man who was lost at sea to the woman he loved?”
“Or to the man he loved.”, Jonathan added. “Hey, you never know.”
“Let’s find out.”
Jennifer removed the cork and tried to get the roll of paper out through the bottle neck, very carefully as not to damage the paper.
She slowly unrolled the paper and noticed that it was 3 sheets of handwritten text. The writing was very small, it looked like whoever wrote this wanted to fit in as much as possible yet it was still readable.
“Look, there is a date. January 24th, 1843. This is pretty cool.” She started to skim over the text to see what it was all about. It didn’t make a lot of sense to her, they wrote about darkness and light, the past and the future. It almost sounded like a science fiction novel.
When she got to the second page she read something that wasn’t possible.
“Honey, you should take a look at this.”
“What is it?”, he asked as he looked at the sheet of paper in her hand. She pointed to the last line on the page where two names were written in capital letters. Jennifer Ryan and Jonathan MacLean…

He jumped off the yellow tree into a puddle of peanut butter and ran. Something scared him and he could just feel it go after him. Something dangerous and dark. At least he tried to run. He could feel his legs move but he couldn’t get away, he was stuck. Was it the peanut butter?
He looked down to check but he saw 4 cats licking his shoes. So it couldn’t be the peanut butter. But he couldn’t feel the danger anymore so he must have escaped it somehow.
He slowly walked towards the little shed behind the tall hedges. He was hungry and he just knew that there would be Doritos. Almost starving he reached the row of hedges that protected the shed with the life saving food but he wasn’t able to pass them, there were so many hedges and when he took a closer look he realized that it was a labyrinth. There had to be a way out but the entrance was gone, hedges everywhere. How do you escape a labyrinth? One that changes all the time. There was a trace of colorful dust on the ground and he decided to follow it never looking up. If he couldn’t make it through this maze he would probably die. The dust was the answer. It was bright and sparkly and changed colors. What could it be? Star dust? What was it doing here? He ran into a wall and hurt his head. A white cats was licking up the dust. “No, don’t do it. I need this.”, he shouted. The cat ignored him.
What was he supposed to do now? The hedges were massive brick walls now and it started raining. What was he supposed to do? Staying here was too dangerous so he continued his search for the shed. The shed would save him. A few meters ahead stood another tree. A giant and dark tree without leaves and this tree seemed to be responsible for the maze. Owls were sitting in the tree, one on each branch. They didn’t move, just observed, stared at him and saw his fears. What were they planning? Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good so it was time to get out of there. Again he tried to run but couldn’t. Running never worked, just because he stepped in the peanut butter earlier. He turned his back on the mysterious tree and saw the shed but it wasn’t the shed. There was no shed, it was bait. No life saving Doritos, no shelter. Just a hole in the ground. It started raining again but it wasn’t water, it was the glowing, glittering dust. It was everywhere. He looked up to see where it came from but there was nothing, no clouds, just the ceiling of the world.
“Jonathan.” a voice behind him called out to him. It was a familiar voice, a comforting voice.
He turned around. There was nobody.
“Jonathan.” Once again a voice behind him. He turned around again and saw a man. A man he knew so well. “Gary?”
Gary stood there in a beautiful field of flowers, dressed in white. Smiling his smile.
Jonathan walked towards him, happy to see him again. He couldn’t believe he was here. What was he doing here? They hugged each other tightly and then they kissed.
They were suddenly disrupted by the sound of an explosion, so loud it was deafening. Jonathan opened his eyes but Gary was gone, the flowers were gone. A swarm of terrifying dragons flew overhead. But they weren’t important right now, he had to get to class, he was late already. Not again. If he failed this class he would be expelled, what would his parents think? He was lucky, the school bus arrived and he jumped in, he would be on time, everything was going to be fine.
And then the alarm clock went off…

The sky was clouded and a cool wind was blowing as Jennifer walked down the streets in her neighborhood. She just had to get out and take a walk after 2 days of writing. Her novel was coming along great but everyone needed a break now and then. She enjoyed the fresh salty air. She passed some houses, looked the front yards and porches. Some were very neat with trimmed lawns and flowers, nicely decorated, others were overgrown but charming. She saw bushes and trees and a huge flower pot that looked like it was a repurposed drum from a washing machine. Some people were really creative.
Jennifer turned left after the next house and walked along a narrow path between rows of maple trees. It lead her to the beach and she decided to take the beach route back home.
The sound of the waves and the seagulls was soothing, she was not in a hurry so she took it all in and walked slowly on the sand.
After a few minutes something in the sand caught her eye, something small and shiny. She reached down to check it out, it took her a few seconds to get it out of the sand completely. She inspected it and it looked like an old and rusty, and now sandy, bead chain necklace with a small key attached to it. Could it have been washed up on the shore? She cleaned it from the sand to take it back home. There was something about it that she found fascinating. Who did it belong to and what would the key open? As a writer it inspired her.
She would ask her husband about it, maybe he had an idea, maybe he recognized the kind of key. She remembered that he told her he wanted to try a new waffle recipe that he got from his father. The prospect of fresh waffles made her walk faster…

Jonathan walked along the street in his hometown. He was on his way to the post office to pick up a package. It was a hot summer day and he already missed the air conditioning of his car. Not a lot of people were outside, most of them avoided leaving the cool indoors.
Summer was not Jonathan’s favorite season.
He passed some shops and restaurants that had always been there so he didn’t pay them much attention until suddenly something caught his eye.
He slowed down to take a look and he was confused. Until just a couple of days ago there used to be a barber shop but it wasn’t there anymore. Instead the sign now said “Fred’s antique books”. Jonathan go curious. He loved books and sometimes browsed books for hours so this looked very interesting. From what he could see through the window the store was full of books, old and new. He didn’t really have the time but he still wanted to check it out.
When he entered the store the first thing he noticed was the cook air. What a relief.
The store itself was rather dark and the smell of old books was in the air. He liked that.
He looked around and saw 3 other customers and a tall, skinny man with gray hair and glasses at the check out desk. Everything looked like it had been there for years but that wasn’t possible. Jonathan had a strange feeling, something wasn’t right.
He continued to look around and walked between the bookshelves. The titles of some of the books were pretty obscure. “How the frogs conquered the moon”, “The secret life of willow trees”. He had never heard of the titles or the authors before but that didn’t really have to mean anything. Nobody knew every title.
He reached the back wall of the store and saw an old astronomy book. He took it in his hands. It wasn’t antique, but few decades old. Some of the information would be outdated but it was interesting nonetheless. The dust jacket looked worn out and someone had made some notes inside the book. At first it didn’t look like much but Jonathan noticed that the notes didn’t make any sense and had nothing to do with astronomy.
“Hello.” The dark voice startled him and he looked up to see the man from the check out. Maybe he was the owner, Fred.
“Uhm, hello.”, Jonathan replied but he didn’t really know what to say. The man looked him right into the eyes which made him a little uncomfortable. The man’s eye were dark and he looked old but he couldn’t really tell how old he could be. His glasses looked almost antique. He was wearing a white shirt with short sleeves and dark green tie. On the back of his left hand was a small tattoo, Jonathan couldn’t quite make out what it was. It looked like some kind of animal.
Fred reach for the book in Jonathan’s hand and took it. It was the tattoo of an elephant, he could see it now.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Jonathan.”…