EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction, written by a contributor to The Parthenon. This does not reflect The Parthenon’s views. 

On a Sunday morning, not chilly but not quite warm either, two boys were riding their very old and beaten up bikes around town. Ty and Jake normally spent their Sundays getting as much play time and adventuring out before the school week starts up again. Today, they thought it would be a good idea to ride their bikes through one of their favorite bike trails, which was a pathway to the creek where they often spent their time.

Upon their arrival, the creek was soft in its current and cold to the touch. The sound of the ripples carried through the scenery around them; as much fun and excitement they had there with their friends, it was rather relaxing for them. After plopping themselves down in the grass, Ty couldn’t help but notice something glimmering in his peripherals. It was a glass bottle nudged between two rocks at the creek’s edge, catching the sunlight just perfect enough to shine it right in his eyes. To his curiosity, he inspected the bottle. It was green, most likely an old naked wine bottle.

“Yo, Jake, come look at this,” Ty said to his friend while examining the bottle, to which he noticed something odd about it. It wasn’t empty; the contents inside was simply a slip of paper and a keychain that looked oddly familiar. It was a sailboat, he shook and patted the bottle against his hand to get it out, but much to his dismay he had to pry it out with his skinny fingers. The paper was slightly water damaged, but while unraveling it, the words inscripted on it were untouched.

“What is that, what’s it say?” Jake asked eyeing the odd piece of paper in Ty’s hand.

“I think it’s some kind of message in a bottle, it says, ​“Meet me at this address.”​ with a heart and J at the end.​” T​he address listed below wasn’t far from Ty’s house; it sounded familiar as well, it was his grandpa’s old house long before he was born.

“Should we go? I mean it’s right by your house.” Jake asked and somewhat suggested. The “message in a bottle” was very vague to him, and sketchy.

“I guess we could check it out, but no one lives there anymore. Let’s take it to my grandpa first,” Ty said.

The boys rode their bikes all the way back to town looking for Ty’s grandpa, which they knew where he would be, it’s where he always is on a Sunday morning. He’s just leaving church, where the boys should be if they weren’t out being kids on this particular Sunday. They approached the church in perfect timing as it was being let out and church members were scattered about in conversation with one another. Ty’s grandpa was spotted laughing with the pastor on his way out.

“Grandpa!” Ty hollered from across the crowd of people while an abundance of known grandfathers in town turned their heads at the boys. Ty and Jake made their way up the church stairs to his grandpa.

“Hey you’re a little late to church don’t ya think?” His grandpa chuckled out.

“I have a question, me and Jake were by the creek and we found this.” Ty stated holding the bottle towards him in one hand and the note and keychain in the other. His grandpa’s eyes glimmered at his grandsons findings, as he knew all too well what it was.

“My my, now how in the world did you find that?” He asked as he gently grabbed a hold of the items, but sticking the sail boat in his pocket for safe keeping.

“What is it?” The boys asked almost in unison.

“I wrote this, for your grandma. A long time ago before we ever married, we lived a creek away from each other. So I’d send her messages downstream and she’d find me at school with a hug, and if I was lucky a smooch. I always wondered what happened to this one, I’ve kept the other matching keychain with me all these years. If she was here today I know she’d be excited about this. We used to always send each other nick nacks, but her favorite was waiting for my messages. I sure do miss that women.” He said with a reminiscent smile on his face.

“Wow grandpa, that’s crazy that we found it, after all this time.” Ty said in amazement. “Love is like that, it always comes back to you.”