“That’s it! Just gather around right here!” Bones called. He spotted the few who were hanging back near Dane. “You folks as well, please! I want to make this a moment that my lovely lady will never forget.” At these words, the confusion in the crowd melted away, and everyone hurried toward Bones and Kaylin. Wishing he could spare time to watch the spectacle, Dane took a last look around, took a deep breath, and vaulted the rail that surrounded the memorial.
“That’s right! Video it for us. You can even put it on the internet. I want the world to know how I feel.”
Dane grinned and kept moving.
“When I first met this beautiful young woman, I knew then and there that someday she would be my wife!” Everyone had gone silent, listening raptly to Bones as he proclaimed his love for Kaylin.
Dane sprinted toward the monument, closing the distance in a flash.
“Of course, when I asked her out, she told me she wouldn’t go out with me if the world was covered in ‘my dung,’ to put it delicately, and I had the last roll of toilet paper.” The crowd laughed and jeered as Kaylin, playing along, protested that she had said no such thing.
Dane took the steps two at a time, and soon found himself beneath the canopy where Prince Albert sat gazing off into the distance.
“As you can see, she didn’t hold to her vow, and I’m the luckiest man in the world for it. And so…”
A sigh escaped the spectators gathered around Bones and Kaylin, and Dane was certain the Bones had gotten down on one knee. An unexpected feeling of envy crept up inside of him. There had been a time he had envisioned the day when he would propose to Kaylin. Of course, that was a long time ago, and they had both moved on. He shoved the thought out of his mind and clambered up onto the statue of Prince Albert. He hoped no one was watching, but if so, it was too late now.
Bringing his head level with Albert’s, he stared out across the lawn, trying to follow the prince’s line of sight. In the distance, he could clearly see an old brick building. It was as if someone had cut a passage through the sparse trees so that the structure was framed by wooded patches on either side.
“Kaylin, you have made my life worth living. And I have never minded that you’re transgendered.”
Dane choked down a guffaw and almost fell off of the statue. Internally cursing and laughing at Bones, he moved his head directly above Albert’s, just to be certain his line of sight was correct. It was.
“You know I never wanted kids anyway. So…”
His heart pounding with excitement, he sprang down, and dashed down the steps.
“Will you marry me?”
As Dane sprang over the rail, he heard polite applause ring out, and knew that Kaylin must have said ‘yes.’
“Thank you!” Bones shouted. “And I was kidding about the tranny thing. I took one home once, but that was beer-related.” More laughter, and a deeper round of applause.
Dane felt a tug at his elbow. He looked around to see a freckle-faced young boy looking up at him.
“What were you doing up there?”
“Oh, I was checking for… rust.”
The boy considered this for a moment before nodding sagely and walking away. Breathing a sigh of relief, Dane made his way through the dispersing crowd, and back to his friends.
“Congratulations,” he said. “When’s the big day?”
“Oh, we haven’t set a date yet.” Kaylin was looking at Bones with an expression Dane knew all too well. It was her ‘I’m pretending to be happy because we’re in public, but you will pay later’ look. In the time the two of them had dated, she had only given him that look twice, and he had forgotten neither incident. Both had been caused by Dane giving his honest opinion on her friends’ artwork: one a so-called sculpture titled “Patriotism” that consisted of strips of the American flag wrapped around toilet paper rolls; the other a performance art piece that he still could not wrap his mind around, though he did remember a country song played backward, and lots of grunting.
“I think I’m onto something,” he said. “Follow me.” He headed off in the direction of the building he had spotted. Bones and Kaylin strolled along in his wake, holding hands and doing a reasonably good job of acting as if they’d just gotten engaged. When they were back on the main street, Kaylin yanked her hand away and rounded on Bones.
“Tranny? How’d you like to be a eunuch? I dare you to go to sleep…”
“Not now!” Dane hadn’t intended to bark an order like that, but he’d been a military man, and some old habits die hard. “We don’t need you calling attention to us,” he said in a calmer voice. “Yell at him later, if you need to.”
Kaylin directed a contemptuous glare at Bones, but said nothing.
“The statue of Albert looks directly at that building right there.” He pointed across the street to their destination.
“What is that place?” Bones asked, stepping out into the street and almost being run down by a passing car. He ignored the blaring horn and kept walking.
As they drew closer, Dane could read the sign by the front door. “Royal Institute of Navigation. No way! My dad talked about this place. He visited here when he and Mom were still dating. She spent the day seeing the sights, and finally had to drag him out at closing time.” After all these years, the memory of his parents, and of their tragic deaths, was still bittersweet.
“My father came here as well, looking for information on the Dourado,” Kaylin said, her voice thick with emotion. Her father, a former officer and friend of Dane and Bones, had been murdered a few years before, and the three of them had completed his quest for the lost ship and its unbelievable cargo.
“So what do you figure we’ll find here?” Bones asked. “Doesn’t seem like a Fawcett kind of place.”
Dane and Kaylin suddenly exchanged excited glances, each arriving at the same conclusion. “The ship in the picture,” they said in unison.
Dane drew the picture from his pocket and looked at the portrait of the ship hanging in the background. The two-master, with its single smokestack, was the only possible link between their single clue and the Institute of Navigation. Hope rising anew, he led them inside. As he stepped through the front door, Dane was actually relieved to see an elderly man working the front desk. He didn’t think he could handle two cougars in one day. The man greeted them warmly, and when Dane asked if anyone on staff was versed in early twentieth century British ships, he directed them to the Cundall Library of Navigation, where shelves strained under the weight of aging tomes. The smell of old paper pervaded the room.
“Good afternoon. How can I help?” The speaker was a plump woman of middle years, with silver-streaked brown hair and a sharp nose that contrasted with the dull look in her eyes. She pushed a pair of black-rimmed reading glasses up onto her head, where they joined the two matching pairs that were already there. She did not quite meet Dane’s eye when she looked at him. All told, she gave off an air of casual disinterest.
“Yes,” Dane said. “We’re doing some research and I was hoping we could find something out about this ship.” He handed her the picture and held his breath. Unless this vessel was famous, he was searching for a single grain of sand on a seriously large beach.
The woman squinted at the photograph, held it out at arm’s length, and began patting her pockets.
“Bugger it all! Where did I leave my glasses? That’s the third pair I’ve lost today.”
Suppressing a smile, Dane pointed to the top of her head. Neither thanking him nor noticing the two other pairs of glasses atop her head, she pulled them back down over her eyes, and held the picture up again. “Ah! Quest!” she proclaimed.