Ficorpio
Chapter 1
When I was seven, my grandfather came to me in a dream on New Year’s Eve. His voice sounded as if it had been scraped raw with sandpaper.
“Don’t touch the third platter of ribs. Not even one bite.”
When I told everyone at dinner, the whole table erupted with laughter. My father, Michael Reed, slapped the table and called me a curse on the family. My aunt Claire even dropped a rib onto my plate.
“Children shouldn’t take silly dreams so seriously.”
I clamped my mouth shut and refused to swallow it.
In the middle of the night, ambulances rushed my entire family to the hospital. I was the only one left behind, standing before the wreckage of our holiday dinner with an empty bowl in my hands.
My cousin Toby had eaten more ribs than anyone. The doctors saved his life, but he was never the same afterward. Tests later revealed that Claire had mistakenly cooked the ribs with poisonous mushrooms. My uncle Derek flew into such a rage that he beat her until she permanently lost the hearing in one ear.
Twenty years later, I lost my job.
That night, Grandfather came to me for the second time.
“There’s gold hidden inside the walls of the old family house,” he told me. “Don’t tell anyone.”
“Nathan, don’t forget about us when you land somewhere better.”
“Of course. I won’t.”
Surrounded by the sympathetic smiles and well-wishes of my coworkers, I carried my cardboard box into the elevator. The moment the doors slid shut, the smile fell from my face.
I’d bragged to my relatives that I would buy a car before the end of the year and drive it home for the holidays. That was clearly never going to happen now. Worse, I had no idea how I was going to explain any of this to my parents.
I sat in the subway station beneath the office building for half an hour before suddenly remembering my dream from the night before.
After twenty years of silence, Grandfather had visited me again.
He had said there was gold inside the walls of the old family house.
At first, I hadn’t believed a word of it. Grandfather had never been more than a modest farmer. During the famine, he had barely managed to keep his three sons alive. If he’d really owned gold, how could any of it have survived untouched until now?
I gave a bitter laugh. Then I glanced at my reflection in the glass across from me and went still.
The expression on my face was exactly the same as the one my family had worn twenty years ago when I told them about Grandfather’s warning.
They had laughed at him too.
Then every one of them had been poisoned and rushed to the hospital. If Grandfather hadn’t warned me, I probably wouldn’t be alive today.
Cold sweat broke across my back.
What if there really was gold hidden inside those walls?
Chapter 2
There was only one way to find out.
I had to go home.
Right now.
I left the cardboard box at the office and immediately searched for a rideshare heading home. Luck was on my side. Three hours later, the driver dropped me off at the edge of the village.
From a distance, I spotted Toby Reed digging in his family’s field again. Claire had taken her eyes off him, and he was so absorbed in playing with the dirt that he didn’t notice me.
The village was especially quiet at lunchtime. Most of the younger people working out of town hadn’t come home for the holidays, while the older residents rarely bothered cooking a proper meal. Bread with a little sesame salt was enough to tide them over.
Near the village entrance stood Uncle Richard’s three-story house, impossible to miss. It had been the first house of its kind built in the village, and even now, it still looked impressive.
I could faintly hear my mother, Laura Whitaker, chatting in the courtyard with my aunts as they sat in the sun. I didn’t alert them. Instead, I quietly circled around to the old family house.
Grandmother had died young, and the place had stood empty since Grandfather passed away. After a violent rainstorm two years ago, the house had been declared unsafe. Dad and my uncles had agreed to wait until it collapsed before building a new one on the land.
Somehow, the crumbling ruin was still hanging on.
The courtyard gate wasn’t locked. Weeds had swallowed most of the yard, and the evergreen tree I remembered from childhood had long since withered. I had no time for nostalgia. I headed straight for the main room, toward the place Grandfather had said the gold was hidden.
The wooden door had warped badly. When I dragged it open, the hinges gave a long, piercing creak.
“Start at the southeast corner of the wall. Count three rows up from the floor, then seven bricks from right to left. The gold is hidden behind that brick.”
Grandfather’s words echoed in my mind.
I brushed away the cobwebs and found the brick. It had been mortared firmly into place, so I couldn’t simply pull it out. Using my house key, I began scraping at the edges, widening the gap a little at a time.
Half an hour later, I carefully eased the brick free.
A round golden disc gleamed inside the hollow.
I lifted it out and weighed it in my hand. It felt close to half a pound. Covering it with my sleeve, I bit down on one edge.
My teeth left a clear mark.
It was real gold.
My hands began trembling uncontrollably. I pulled out my phone and ran the numbers through a gold-value calculator.
The disc was worth just enough to buy the car I’d had my eye on, in cash.
In an instant, all the misery of losing my job vanished.
Chapter 3
When I returned to Uncle Richard’s house, I brought premium cigarettes and liquor with me. I bragged that I was going to take my parents on vacation, then buy the car as soon as we got back.
Claire kept her eyes lowered as she cracked sunflower seeds between her teeth, the discarded shells piling up in front of her.
“Nathan’s the only one in the Reed family who ever amounted to anything,” she said.
I drank a couple of rounds with my father and uncles before going to bed.
At first light, a thunderous crash jolted me awake.
A heartbeat later, Claire’s scream tore through the house.
“The old house collapsed! Someone’s dead!”
The dead man was my younger uncle, Derek Reed. He had been digging around the foundation of the old family house when the walls gave way, crushing him beneath a mountain of brick and stone.
An elderly villager stood nearby with his grandson, watching the commotion. Dad grabbed my arm, dragged me home, and locked the door behind us.
“Nathan, your uncle must have overheard us!”
“Overheard what?”
“What else? The gold!”
My mind went blank. Then I saw the grim look on Dad’s face, and a chill shot through me.
After my uncles left last night, I’d had too much to drink. I’d pulled out the gold disc in front of my parents and bragged that it was part of the inheritance Grandfather had left me.
Derek had come back later for something he’d forgotten. He must have overheard that there was gold hidden in the old house. Instead of telling anyone, he’d gone there alone and started digging.
That was what had gotten him killed.
Sick with regret, I slapped myself across the face. When Grandfather appeared in my dream, he had specifically warned me not to tell anyone. If I’d kept my mouth shut, Derek would still be alive.
Outside, Claire fainted twice from crying.
“You heartless bastard!” she wailed. “What could possibly have been in that old house that was worth dying for? What are your son and I supposed to do now?”
I’d known since childhood that Derek often beat Claire. But their son, Toby, had severe cognitive disabilities, and Derek had been the family’s sole provider. With him gone, their lives truly had fallen apart.
My mother, Laura Whitaker, couldn’t bear it. She tugged at my sleeve.
“Nathan, did your grandfather really leave you only one gold disc?”
My eyes shifted as I prepared to answer.
Then more news came from the village.
When the villagers dug Derek’s body out of the ruins, they found another set of remains beneath the old house.
A human skeleton.
One of the elderly villagers suddenly remembered something.