Tae stood staring down at the piece of paper, dumbfounded.
“What? What is it?” Anna asked him.
“The three drawings. They do contain dates and locations, but…”
“But what?” She was stumped by his confusion.
“But they’re redundant. What’s the point?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, they sent me in a circle. Or more to the point, a triangle. The Willis Tower sketch has the coordinates for Navy Pier. Navy Pier contains the coordinates for the Art Institute. And within the sketch of the Art Institute the coordinates to the Willis Tower are hidden.”
“What? That does seem kind of pointless.” Anna furrowed her brow.
“Unless the point is the triangle.” Tae squinted his eyes in concentration.
“Huh?” Anna couldn’t quite follow his logic.
Tae opened his phone and typed the locations into his Google Maps app. He glanced up at her. “I need a plain piece of paper and a ruler. Or any kind of straight edge.” He mumbled to himself as he went through his kitchen drawers.
He finally found the needed supplies, then she watched him as he drew a triangle between the three landmarks on the map. Next, he drew a series of three lines to find the center of the triangle. “Glad I was paying attention in math class,” he remarked, smiling at her.
She looked at him sharply. “Don’t you teach math class now?”
He glanced at her. “Oh, yeah. I do!” He lifted the right corner of his mouth sardonically. “Got it!”
“What’d you find?”
“The center of the triangle is a place called Millenium Park. Hmm…wonder what on earth could be there?” He glanced at her. “Do you want to head back to New York City?”
“Head back to a life I don’t remember? When there’s a guy with a gun looking for me?” She shook her head fiercely. “No. I don’t. I want to solve the mystery too. I want my life back!”
Tae stood staring at her. “Should we go to Millenium Park and see if we can find another clue?”
“Yes.” She looked down at the pile of stuff from the envelope. “But what do we do with all that? Should we take it to the police?”
Tae thought for a moment. He shook his head. “No. We still don’t know what’s going on here.”
“But maybe I’m a missing person. Maybe the police could help me get home.”
Tae sighed. “Would you be willing to trust me for just a while longer? If we take this to the police, you might get in trouble. You can’t explain where the money came from.”
She nodded. “True.”
“Man!”
“What? What is it, Tae?”
“I was just thinking. Some birthday you’re having, right?” He was gazing intently at her out of his beautiful, chocolate eyes.
“At least I’m spending it with you.”
He smiled at her as his heart turned over. “Why was I your favorite?”
She thought for a moment before responding, “You’re quirky. You’re also incredibly sweet.”
Tae blushed. Anna was pretty sure this was true in this universe too.
Tae was at a loss for words. He wasn’t sure why he had teasingly asked her the question to begin with. But then he had an idea to make today a little more special for her. “Hey, why don’t we get you a birthday treat on the way to Millenium Park?
Her eyes lit up, but then she frowned. “You don’t think we need to hurry?”
He shrugged. “I don’t see why. We’re going with our own plan. No one knows what we’re doing, right? Might as well make it fun. At least as much as possible. I don’t want your special day to be full of only intrigue and mystery.” He tilted his head to the side. “Come on. Let’s go!”
“Where?”
“Do you like ice cream?”
She grinned. “Who doesn’t like ice cream?”
Before they left, Tae stashed the envelope with all its contents between his mattress and box spring. A few minutes later they walked through the door of The Three Dots. As they stood in line waiting to order, Tae stared at the store’s logo up on the wall behind the clerk. Three Dots. Three dots. They formed a triangle. Was this a coincidence?
“Huh.” Tae stared blankly at the sign.
“What?” Anna turned to look at Tae. He had drawn his eyebrows down towards his nose.
“Do you think it’s a coincidence that the logo of this ice cream shop is a triangle?”
“WHAT?!” She followed the line of his pointing finger. “Tae, this is kind of creeping me out.”
He shrugged. Nothing seemed to get to him. Mr. Cool.
“I want some ice cream. Wonder if there’s a flavor with little triangles in it. Maybe it contains a clue.” He scanned the case, looking through the glass at the many different colors of ice cream in the big drums. “That one is called isosceles!”
“NO WAY.” She wandered over to the case and stared down in awe at the blue ice cream. It was full of chocolate dots and pink sprinkles.
Tae spoke to the clerk. “I’ll take a cone with the isosceles.” He turned towards Anna. “What do you want?”
Anna ordered a dish of ice cream.
A moment later, Anna was handed a triangular carton full of chocolate chip ice cream. She stood staring down at it. “Is someone playing a joke on me? Is this some elaborate ruse for my birthday? Like I’ve entered some weird escape room the size of Chicago?”
Tae stared down at her, perplexed. “Hmm. That’s an intriguing idea. Maybe. But if they did, no one included me in the surprise.”
She gazed up at him. “You were definitely a surprise!”
He grinned down at her, and her heart felt lighter for a moment. Such a strange day. Waking up to the horrible realization that she had no memory of this world. But then receiving the amazing blessing of meeting Tae! Only to then be chased by a man with a gun before a mysterious rendezvous in a park with a secret agent man. What a conundrum! Tae was the only silver lining in the dark cloud that was today. Her eighteenth birthday.
Anna stared down at her triangle of ice cream. Dared she eat it? Or would she find she’d been poisoned by some unknown assailant masquerading as a friendly ice cream server?
Tae stood watching her. He could read the apprehension in her face. He grabbed a spoon and slid it through her ice cream before popping the bite into his own mouth. “We’ll wait a moment to see whether I’ve been poisoned before you taste it. If I drop dead, then don’t eat it.” He grinned crookedly at her before collapsing onto the floor and spasming, his ice cream cone still held firmly in his left hand.
Anna’s heart lurched into her throat. She gazed down at him as his body went perfectly still. His eyes were closed. He didn’t appear to be breathing anymore. She was terrified. She felt a scream floating up out of the back of her throat.