“Of course it’s real!” her mama told her two years ago. They were in Olive’s room, doing spring cleaning—taking down the curtains, washing the windows and woodwork. Olive loved spring cleaning. She always kept her room neat and organized, but it was even better after she and Mama scrubbed everything down. Everything glowed, and the lemon cleanser smell made Olive feel bright and warm.

“She knew they were coming for her, see, and she took all the gold and silver, all the jewels, and buried it in a secret place,” Mama explained as she pulled back the bed so they could scrub the floor underneath. “Somewhere in the woods that border the bog. Then, once the treasure was safe, she tried to run, thinking she’d come back for it later.”

“But they caught her,” Olive said, dipping her mop into the sudsy bucket.

“They sure did. Her own daughter led them right to her. That’s what folks say.”

“I would never do that to you, Mama,” Olive said, wringing out the mop.

“I know you wouldn’t.” Mama ruffled Olive’s hair. “And there’s something else I know, Ollie Girl; something I’m absolutely sure of. You and me, we’re going to find that treasure. It’s our destiny.”

Olive loved this: knowing they had a destiny. That they were a part of something that was bigger than them, connected to events that had happened lifetimes ago. She could see it so clearly that day as they cleaned together: her and Mama finding that treasure, digging it up out of the ground. They’d be famous. Rich. Mama said they could use that money to pay off all their bills, pay off the mortgage even, then go traveling around the world—just them and Daddy. Olive pictured it: how all the kids at school would turn on the TV at night, and there would be Olive, smiling out from the evening news, because she and Mama had found the treasure that no one believed was real.

But then something changed. Mama discovered a different destiny for herself—one that didn’t include Olive. It started small: she got quieter, more secretive. Olive couldn’t pinpoint when it started, but Mama stopped talking about the treasure. Once, at dinner, when Olive asked about it, Mama laughed at her like she was stupid, said, “There is no treasure, Ollie. Not really. It was just a story I told you when you were a kid. But you’re getting to be too grown-up for silly stories like that.”