Museum
Hermosa. Astoria was beautiful.
Marina Moreno arrived in Astoria, Oregon, the quaint, bustling seaside town in late June, ready to kickoff the summer season with furthering her research. Beaming, she strode into town.
Her room at the local bed and breakfast had a lovely view of the main street, the ocean stretching on far beyond. It wasn't difficult to picture an old ship sailing those waters, let alone a fleet of them.
She sat on her bed, looking over the map - well, half of the map - for what seemed the millionth time.
Here she was, on a quest, on a mission. She was here. What she was doing was risky and not altogether approved. But she was here now - this was really happening and there was no turning back, not now.
She moved to the window again, to that gorgeous view, clutching her family pendant in one hand, and the half of the map in the other.
"I know you're out there," she whispered. "I just know it."
The next morning, she awoke early out of excitement, had a quick breakfast, and headed right to the local museum, full of pirate-related treasure and information.
Meanwhile, Mikey had been able to convince everyone to join them at the museum - mostly due to the pastries and coffee, but the Goonies were still very proud of their discovery of the treasure and saving their homes, so the early-morning work didn't take as much convincing as one might have expected. For the First Generation Goonies at least, the Second Generation was another story.
"Hey Honey," Mouth called to Stef. "How do I look?" He had put on a pirate hat with an attached wig on his head.
"Old," Stef replied.
"Hey Mouth! That's an artifact, not a toy!" called Mikey.
"Sure it's an artifact. You could get this at any costume store."
"I'm here!" called Max. "Bright and early. Now where's my coffee and doughnuts?"
"Over in the office," he uncle informed her, "You'd better hurry though, your friends are already there and it's not likely they'll leave anything for the rest of us."
"Should have gotten to the snacks first, like me," said Chunk with his everlasting sweet tooth.
The Walsh brothers chuckled as Max rushed off to find her friends and the early-morning treats.
"For the record, I'm only here for the snacks as well," Brand said.
"Sure. But really, deep down, you're here for the treasure," Mikey insisted. "Chunk, be careful with those!" he then called to his friend who held a box of breakable items, of course.
"I'm fine, Mikey, it's fine - whoa!" he narrowly missed bumping into a display case. Mikey face-palmed.
"Dad, again with the boxes!" cried Brand as their father once again had his arms full of supplies.
"I'm fine, Brandon!"
"Don't make me tell Ma."
Irving Walsh's eyes went very wide behind his glasses. "You wouldn't."
Brand just gave his father a pointed look.
"So you'll never guess what I discovered last night," Max said as her and the other Second Generation Goonies huddled in the museum's main office over their promised coffee and doughnuts.
"What?" they asked eagerly.
"My dad's started up a dating app."
"Shit, really?!"
"What?!"
"No way!"
"How did you find out" Lily asked. "Did you sneak onto his phone? We should hack into his account..."
"I came downstairs to get some water last night and overheard him and Uncle Mikey talking about it."
"What were they saying?" pressed Kate.
"Everyone else had gone to bed and Uncle Mikey was all like, 'so how's the dating?' and that was news to me so naturally I had to listen in."
"Naturally," said Cassie.
"Then Dad said something about apps being confusing and stuff. Then Uncle Mikey asked if he was sure this was the way to go and Dad said this was what everyone was doing these days."
"Not everyone."
"No, not everyone. He's just trying to be 'cool' and 'with the times' or something like that." She did air quotations around her words. "I can't believe he's actually on a dating site!"
"Well, good for him, putting himself out there," said Leah.
"Yeah, I guess so..."
"How do you feel about this, Max?" asked Cat.
"Okay, I guess... I don't know. It's weird to think about my dad dating. I just wish he'd tell me about it."
"You're allowed to have mixed feelings. Maybe he doesn't want to tell you unless things get serious, not to work you up over nothing."
"Yeah, maybe. But I mean, who's he gonna date here? We basically know everyone in town anyways."
"Maybe he's feeling lonely now that Andy and Greg are off on a romantic getaway to Australia together," offered Kate.
"Don't remind me." Max scrunched up her nose in response.
"Hey, did you leave some for the rest of us?" The door that was only open a crack was suddenly pushed open and none other than Brand walked in. He stared confused back at the girls who had suddenly gone silent and were staring at him. "Everything all right here?"
"Yes, Uncle Brandon."
"Yes, Mr. Walsh."
"We were just talking about - dating!" cried Cassie and Max instantly shot her a look.
"Oh - aren't you all a little young-"
"DAD!"
"Well not actual dating," Cat stepped in for her twin. "Who we think are the most attractive people at school," she quickly covered.
"Ah, well, I'll leave you to it then." He grabbed a doughnut and headed back out, shutting the door and leaving just a crack open as he had found it.
"Nice going!" Max swatted Cassie's arm when he was gone.
"Well it was the truth, we were talking about dating. It wasn't a full lie."
"You definitely fully lie in these situations!"
"That was close."
"I still think we should hack into his account," said Lily. "Which app was it?"
"I don't know!"
"Time to do some digging then." Lily whipped out her own phone and began a search of dating apps, her friends crowding around her, eager for more info.
Meanwhile, the First Generation Goonies and their wives were doing the bulk of the work in the museum while their daughters discussed Max's newfound gossip.
Marina arrived at the museum in awe. I'm really here - I can't believe I'm really here!
She headed up to the small front desk. "Excuse me, I'm here to see Mr. Walsh," she told the lady behind the counter.
"Which one?"
"Uh-" She wasn't expecting this.
"All three Mr. Walsh's are over there." The woman gestured into the main gallery where it looked like a group of people were reorganizing the displays.
"Oh, okay, um, thank you. I think I'll be able to find the one I'm looking for." With that Marina headed over to where the older and two more middle aged men were working. "Excuse me, Mr. Walsh?"
"Yeah?" All three turned to face her at once.
Oh - okay, she could work with that. "I'm Marina Moreno - I'm here about the treasure."
I'm having so much fun writing this! Hope you're enjoying reading it too :)
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed ! :)
