CHAPTER 2
Rick read the name of the journalist. Sofia Torres. He was sure she knew a lot more than what had been written in print. He wondered, too, if she was related to the missing man, though he realized Torres was a common last name.
Considering the journalist’s possible familial connection got Rick thinking about his own family...
He was a grown man, but he’d always secretly still craved his father’s acceptance, to be acknowledged in his eyes as a person of worth, maybe even of celebration.
But it was too late now. His father had died almost two years ago. A part of Rick had died with him. He’d never been able to show his father much for his efforts, no great discovery, nor any material success to finally gain his stamp of approval. And now he never would. That was another loss Rick was forced to live with. It haunted him. Maybe it always would.
His father, Edward Braeden, was an esteemed business owner, a relentless workaholic, and local pillar of the community. He’d long pushed for Rick, his only child, to follow his footsteps into the family business.
Rick had tried, really tried. For a long time. But he just could not fit into the office environment or find even a hint of passion for the business. His father had attempted to find positions that Rick could tackle and find a reasonable fit with, but it hadn’t worked out. In the end, it’d been an embarrassment for both of them. Rick left the company after failing to meet his father’s endless expectations of him, which Rick felt were impossibly high standards. He knew it was his own fault, to a large degree. His heart just wasn’t in it and he couldn’t summon the will to force it or even fake it.
As a boy and as a young man growing up, Rick had been drawn to exploration outside in nature, especially to places of historical significance. It had started when his mother, Eleanor, had taken him on a field trip to a local site known for its history of archaeological finds.
She’d seen how much he loved the experience, how he seemed to come alive as he explored the natural world, seeking lost treasures. After that outing, she’d always made sure to encourage Rick’s imagination, his love of the outdoors, and deep fascination with ancient history. The two of them had a strong mother-son bond. He felt understood and accepted by her, and the two of them had a great deal of fun together.
Rick had been devastated when they found out she had cancer. The diagnosis had come out of nowhere. Her decline had been swift. Only a few months later, his mother was gone. Rick never had a chance to get his footing during her illness. Every time he tried to make sense of what was happening, there’d be another sudden, shocking development, and an even more grim outlook. He’d felt as though he kept tumbling down a dark rabbit hole into a nightmarish world he’d never imagined being in, and could scarcely cope with. The sense of fear and powerlessness and overwhelming despair was crippling.
He’d only been seventeen years old at the time. Not yet a man. He’d only realized in hindsight how much he was like his mother, and how much he’d depended on her to make him feel loved. Once she was gone, it felt like all the love in the universe had died with her. At least all the love in the universe that had his name on it. The world afterwards felt cold, distant, and achingly lonely. He never really felt like he belonged anywhere after her loss. It was as though he’d lost a big part of his identity. That he no longer mattered. He waffled between anger at the universe, shock and heartbreak over his mom leaving him, and longing towards a father who failed to be there in the ways he needed him to be. A father who couldn’t face his own grief over his wife’s loss, so he buried it deep and lashed out at anything, or anyone, that reminded him of it. For Rick, it all mixed into a profound, seemingly endless grief spiral, and for a long time, he’d sunk into a depression.
What finally showed promise in bringing him out of that deep, dark depression, that sense of hopelessness and loss of purpose, was a solo trip he went on to a state park. He did it in honor of his mother’s memory. He’d camped out for a few days, under the stars, reflecting on his life, and his mother’s passing. He’d asked the universe for help in making sense of an existence that now felt empty to him. While on a hike the next day, he’d found a tiny fossil. A partial footprint from a small creature from the ancient past. It was the sign he’d been waiting for, longing for.
He’d been elated. It had been ages since he’d felt anything even close to his old self. He’d felt energy and purpose begin to flood back into him.
He’d been so excited to share his small discovery with his father. His father had worked late again, but over dinner that night, Rick showed him what he’d found, and more importantly, shared what it meant to him. Rick said it felt like a sign from his mother that he was meant to dedicate his life to searching for ancient treasures. But his enthusiasm had been instantly crushed. His father’s disinterest was clear. He told his son to focus on more practical matters and forget his fanciful notions of searching the world for lost things and remnants of a past that had no bearing on his own future.
Rick had tried to get his father to understand how much
