The Fern Knew.

Transplanted

Charlie called the move from New Jersey to South Carolina a fresh start.

A battered relocation box tells a different story: torn hometown sticker, one fern frond trapped beneath the tape, and RETURN TO SENDER written across the side.

Fernando wanted to go home before he had finished arriving.

Homesick

Two individuals were homesick for entirely different reasons.

Charlie missed North Jersey hot dogs. Fernando kept returning to a worn photograph from the New Jersey Botanical Garden. The picture was old. The fresh damage around its edges was not.

One missed lunch. One missed home.

The Incident

HG-001 worked. What happened next remains disputed.

Fernando's workstation held formula notes, rejected routes home and an ingredient container with one label covering another. Nearby, a getaway plan had already been completed.

Accidental contamination was considered unlikely.

Leafing So Soon?

By the time anyone looked for Fernando, his lab locker had already been abandoned.

The coat, badge, hat and mug looked ordinary. The disguise advertisement and marked hitchhiking route did not.

Departure was planned. Destination unknown.

Tropical Relief

Weeks later, an anonymous envelope appeared at the police department.

No postage. No return address. Inside were sand, plant material, a shell fragment and exactly enough information to prove Fernando was somewhere warm—and still watching.

Vacation or alibi? Location unconfirmed.

the News

A television at the Loose Stool Beach Bar reported a fatality connected to HG-001. The victim's identity had not been released.

Claude remembered Fernando watching in silence, finishing his drink and leaving. His cigar, receipt and an otherwise undisturbed table were left behind.

For once, Fernando may not have known what came next.

the Plan

Fernando's motel room appeared clean after checkout. The blank notepad was not.

Graphite revealed four writing impressions from the missing page: FERNANDO. AUTHORIZED PICKUP. PACKAGE DD-7843-219. DEADLINE DELIVERY.

Whatever he planned to retrieve was worth a very bad idea.

the Heist

Fernando arrived at Deadline Delivery with authorization paperwork for a secured package. The request was denied.

The form was recovered from the delivery-service floor after a disturbance among scattered paperwork, soil and fern fragments. Minutes later, a Deadline Delivery van and one unidentified package were missing.

Permission denied. Fernando remained unconvinced.

the Escape

The stolen Deadline Delivery van crossed into New Jersey on I-78.

A traffic camera caught the van, but not a clear view of the driver or its cargo. Fernando had spent months getting away. Now every available clue pointed home.

Why was getting home worth all this?

HOME

The unidentified package was finally opened.

Inside was Charlie's urn. Charlie had died following the HG-001 incident. Fernando crossed the country, stole him back and returned him to the place they had both missed from the beginning.

One Jersey diner. Two all-the-way dogs. Charlie home beside Fernando. Police lights reflected in Fernando's glasses as the officers arrived.

Turns out the fern knew exactly where he was going.