“Happy Birthday to you…” erupted from the entire house. Mom brought the chocolate princess cake with sprinkles out from the kitchen. It’s a long-standing joke from when I was five — I cried the entire day about wanting a princess cake, but at that time, we didn’t have any money. We managed to get a poor version, and as we were going home, we came across an orphanage that was throwing a birthday party without a cake. Of course, I had to intervene. Ever since then, I always get the princess cake. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself — I am Amy Sanders, and today is my 22nd birthday (yes, a 22-year-old with a princess cake).

I looked around the room and smiled. I feel blessed to be surrounded by people who love me and Josh — my cousin who travels the world. He called me out of the blue a few days back, saying that his father, my uncle, hid a note from our grandfather’s will and that he wanted to make amends. When I asked Mom, she grew silent. My mom never talked about Dad and his family. It was like Dad took the spark with him when he died. I was two years old when he died in a car accident, and my mom shut that door for us.

So when Josh called, I was curious to know the whole story, and I extended the invite for him to attend my birthday celebration. He didn’t have any siblings and told me that this would be his first birthday party that he was invited to. Apparently, his family doesn’t do birthdays. Weird, right? Josh was my age and looked a lot like how my dad would have looked if I had the chance to meet him. I miss him, but can you miss a person if you never got the chance to meet them?

I spent most of the night chatting, dancing, and talking to Josh about his archaeology major, and I joked about how history ran through our family since I am a history major. He said something about our ancestors having old Aztec blood. After a while, he grew quiet and handed me a parcel. He said to open it only when I was alone and left the party with a quick, “Happy Birthday, sis.” It was strange, and of course, my curiosity took hold of me. I quietly slipped back to my room and sat by the study table. As I was unwrapping the parcel, I noticed very old paper with some symbols — ancient Aztec, probably. I noted a few symbols that loosely translated to teocuitlatl. There were lots of hidden treasures in that era, with Montezuma’s Treasure being the most famous one, though a lot of them were just stories, and no one was ever able to find them. I examined the paper and thought that Josh had just got this for me as a joke. He once told me on a call that he became an archaeologist to be like Indiana Jones, and I joked about how thrilling it would be to find a treasure.

Just as I was about to fold the paper, I noticed some scribbles on the back. I took my magnifier from my desk drawer for a closer look, and anxiety took over me. Ever so faintly, I saw my dad’s name and a note asking him to go to the below numbers, probably coordinates.

_“Everett, the answer lies here — 19 2_ N _9 E W”_

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_— Love, Lily_

I sat there, baffled, unable to comprehend the piece of paper in my hand. Why hadn’t my mom ever mentioned this? Did she know? Is this the reason why my mom never talked about him? And the more nagging thought —

_My dad was a treasure hunter, and this was the map to Aztec treasure._

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