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In the years that followed, more cities and businesses started to learn about what Dad was doing and asked him to do one for them. It was then that he started taking Natalie along, wanting to keep a younger perspective and the whole father-daughter, blended family experience. It worked as not only kids and families liked it but young adults and couples used it as ways to their own hunts and figure out the answers before he gave them.
It only grew from there with bigger productions and riddles; he even had a convention and would have people do group events. We had been working on setting some up for people to do in other cities around the United States. It was one of the things that I was going to start working on but then Dad died and now everything was on hold. I was still hoping to do it but it wasn’t just my decision, it had to be made by Natalie and me.
“Did you figure out the riddles?” I asked Natalie.
“We are heading to Monterey and the Aquarium, aren’t we?”
“Yes,” I said with a smirk. “I was talking about what the other three riddles meant.”
“Did you not figure them out?”
“Did you?” I asked.
“You hadn’t, had you? You’re hoping I will give you the answers.”
“Not in the least. Read them to me again.”
“Sure, so you have them fresh in your mind as you quickly try and figure them out. Okay,” Natalie reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. “I am many colors or only one. I was a home but now I’m not. You might hear the sea in me. What am I?”
“A shell,” I replied.
“Very good and this one? I use ink but cannot write. I can stick on hard or drift about. I have three hearts. I have eight arms but cannot juggle. What am I?”
“An octopus.”
“Correct, let’s see if you can get three out of three. I am in the sky and in the sea. I do not have gills but I live under water. I am a common shape. I have five arms. What am I?”
“What do you think it is? I can’t be doing all the heavy lifting here,” I teased.
“Heavy lifting? What driving and answering kid riddles. You must be exhausted, do you need to take a break, maybe have a nap?” she asked.
“Now look who’s stalling. I’m starting to think that maybe you don’t know the answers.”
“It’s a sea star. Answering the riddles isn’t the problem, it’s finding a place that has all three in the same place.”
“Won’t the octopus’s tank have all three? They don’t just leave the octopus by themselves.”
“Possibly, it’s been years since I’ve been to the aquarium and not sure how it’s all set up. I don’t think it will be that easy. Kevin liked to make people think the riddles were easy but they weren’t. There was always a little catch to them and this one seems too easy for it to just be us finding a tank in the aquarium.”
“We’ll find out tomorrow,” I said.
“Tomorrow? You don’t want to go today? There should still be time to get in before they close.”
“I don’t want to rush it. I want to be able to get some good footage of the aquarium and we can take the time all day tomorrow to do it. Today, we can head to the wharf, take a walk along the trail and the beaches, get some background video, get settled, all of that. We don’t need to rush into this.”
“We have no idea how many stops we’re going to have to take, how long this will be. We should be trying to get this done as soon as possible,” she stated.
“Do you have a hot date, or somewhere else you need to be? I’m sorry, is something more important to you than our company and my father’s legacy?” I tried to keep the annoyance out of my voice but it was hard.
“Why do you keep doing that? Why do you have to berate me whenever I say something you don’t like? I might have a different way of doing things and you may not like it but it doesn’t mean it couldn’t work. I don’t like wasting time. I don’t want to sit and look at the water and contemplate your father and what he means to me. I want to do the job and get back home. Is that so hard for you to understand?”
Her voice cracked at the end of her speech. I could hear the pain and loss in her voice but she was doing her best to hide it. I wanted to look over at her, I wanted to take her hand and tell her I missed him as much as she did. I knew she didn’t want that, so, instead I kept my eyes on the road.
After a moment, I said, “I get it. This is hard but we can’t rush it. It isn’t going to make your feelings for Dad any less real. I miss him too. Maybe this is our way to be closer to him, one last time.”
“Or have to say goodbye to him forever. I’m not sure if I’m ready for that. Or any of this,” she said with a sigh.
“Do you mean this trip, or what comes after?”
