Stealing Second (The Amendments Book One 1) by Nicholas Antinozzi Page A

her, either by choice or circumstance, Violet would have a home to call her own and good people to use as role models.
    We rode along in silence, side by side on the narrow highway. We pedaled non-stop until darkness fell and didn’t meet a soul on the road. We stopped sometime after ten o’clock and ate an energy bar and drank from my canteen. It felt wonderful to take off my pack and stretch my sore shoulders. I dug out the flashlight and studied the map. After a five-minute rest, we set off into the night. The clouds blotted out all traces of moonlight, but our eyes adjusted to it and I was thankful for the inky blackness. If we did happen to come across a pair of headlights, we would see them long before they spotted us. There would be plenty of time to wheel our bicycles into the ditch and hunker down. Occasionally, we heard the distinctive pop of gunfire in the distance.
    We made surprisingly good time. Violet proved herself to be up to the challenge, and we pedaled until well after midnight before we stopped again. I checked the map and estimated that we were well over halfway to the freeway. We wheeled our bikes off the road and sat down in the tall grass of the ditch. We sat and listened as another burst of gunfire echoed in the night sky. The shooting soon escalated into a fierce battle, and I imagined the government troops firing the automatic weapons and the people popping back with the single shots. I couldn’t think of them as rebels, which is how the media would describe them. I thought of that as the sounds of the battle began to die away.

“Where did you get all of that money?” Violet asked.
    I laughed. “That’s a long story,” I said. “But it’s a good one. Would you care to hear it?”
    “Well yeah, why do you think I asked?”
    I laughed again. I then told her the whole story, from beginning until end. I left nothing out and she never interrupted me, not once. I even told her exactly where I had buried it. If something were to happen to me, I wanted her to have it. Even in the darkness, I could see her staring at me with wild-eyed wonder. “So I buried it,” I said “And now you know. What do you think about that?”
    “How much do you think that gold is worth?” she asked.
    “I have no idea,” I said, honestly. “I’m pretty sure it’s worth at least a million dollars; maybe more, maybe a lot more.”
    “I’ll bet it is,” she said. “You’re rich, that’s really cool. What are you going to do with all of that money?”
    “I have no idea. For now, I try not to think about it. If … when things get back to normal, I’m hoping to buy a farm of my own, something like that. I’d like to take a nice long vacation to someplace tropical. What would you do if you found a million dollars?”
    “I’d give it to my grandma. I want her to have a better life; she deserves it. She lives on her social security checks and can’t even afford her medicine. How fair is that? You’d like my grandma. She’s super nice.”
    “I will like your grandma,” I said. “This thing will be over soon and when it is, you and I will hop in my dad’s car and drive to that campground. That’s a promise. After we dig up the treasure, we’ll stop by to visit your grandma and I’ll give you your share of the loot. You can give it to her, if that’s what you really want to do.”
    “My share?” she asked. “But I didn’t do anything to earn a share.”
    “That’s not true. You’re helping me make it out to the farm. You’re my friend and I told you the biggest secret I have in the whole world. I’m counting on you to keep our secret. Can you do that for me?”
    “Well … duh. Of course I can. I won’t even tell my mom when she shows up. I’m mad at her anyhow. She didn’t have to stay with Todd. Do you really mean it? You’re not just making this up, are you?”
    I slung my arm over her shoulder and stared into her eyes. “I swear to God that I’m not making any of this up. As