Chapter
1
If you are unfamiliar with Quinoa it’s a grain from south american, mostly around Peru and it’s pronounced key-n-wa. It’s kinda like rice, but it is smaller and pops in your mouth. But we aren’t at breakfast yet. I mention it because there was a lot of it in our breakfast the first day. But before we got to breakfast, first we had a long drive down through Massachusetts, crossed the big bridge and then rode the route 6 highway to reach our destination.
I was busy reading a book I got out of the library about the legendary pirate Sam Bellamy or Black Sam or Robin Hood of the Sea as he was sometimes called. He was a British sailor who was forced into service at the age of 13 and rose through the ranks to be a great sailor. He fought in several battles and ended up on Cape Cod and fell in love with a young woman named Maria.
Sam sought his fortune looking for treasure off Florida where he became a great pirate capturing ships loaded with treasure and freeing lots of innocent people in the process. He was so loved by everyone they made him captain. They soon captured the slave ship the Whydah Gally and upgraded its guns from 18 to 28 making it a formidable fighting ship with state of the art canons that sailed throughout the American seas capturing ships, looting treasure and freeing prisoners. He was perhaps the most successful pirate of all time.
When he returned to the north to Cape Cod to marry Maria his ship was caught in a terrible storm and crashed just off the shore. All but a few crew members of his pirate ship survived. In all over 100 men died. And the remains of Sam Bellamy and all his treasure were never found.
Maria was pregnant with Sam’s son and the story says the boy died very young. Maria waited in the town of Eastham for him to return for the remainder of her life. She was named Goody Hallett by the people in town who considered her a witch.
“Hey mom? What town are we staying in again?”
She replied, “Eastham.”
That was convenient. We could explore the coast and the towns where the shipwreck happened and maybe find some clues as to where the ship crashed and any possible remaining treasure.
Paul was staring out the window. I couldn’t tell if he was listening to me as I read parts of the book about Sam Bellamy and his adventures on the sea.
“So what do you think?”
Paul replied after a while, “I think I would have liked being a pirate. Open ocean. Adventure. No one to answer to. I could sink any ship that serves potatoes or french fries. I could get a decent drink now and then.”
“You love mom’s smoothies.”
“Argh, tis true. But I could really use sumthin stronger sumtimes lad.”
I inquired, “You going to talk like a pirate all week?”
“Argh.”
“Is that Argh yes? Or Argh no?”
Paul asked, “D’ya know what it is to keel haul a young sailor? Do ye?”
I took that as an Argh/Yes.
I pointed out the window, “There’s the bridge over the canal! Which one is it again mom?”
“Sagamore bridge”
I stared out the window as we crossed the very tall bridge. We soon landed on the other side and I saw the “welcome to Cape Cod!” sign on the side of the road.
***
We arrived at the house and I grabbed my backpack and Paul and went inside. It was a pretty standard cape house with weathered gray shingles and red shutters on all the windows. The screen door nearly took off my leg shutting so fast. I ran through the house looking for my room.. which would be whatever room was smallest. I was going to be sleeping upstairs and I opened, inspected, and closed all the closets and drawers. Just curious.
I unpacked all my stuff into the dresser and peered out the window. I could see the bike trail that ran through the area behind our house. Mom said we should have some bikes in the shed to use to explore the area and go to the beach.
But before any of that can happen…
My mom called to us, “Nicolas and Paul! Come down and get in the car. We’re going to breakfast.”
I yelled back, “we going to Viv’s?”
“No, new place that I want to check out.”
My mom had good taste. Whatever it was would be delicious.
***
The restaurant was called Machu Picchu after the famous ruins of Peru. Don’t confuse the name with Pikachu the Pokemon. My mom was born in Peru. So she should love any restaurant that was named after a place in her home country.
Inside the restaurant everything was brightly colored with pictures of landscapes of Peru, llamas, mountains and fields, birds and all sorts of things from south america. It was really cool. I noticed my mom smiled the moment she got out of the car.
I let my mom order for me. When the food arrived it had familiar ingredients from things my mom made. But it was very original, and maybe a little american-ized to be more appealing to lots of people.
I got a large plate of food that had a bed of quinoa, slices of ripe avocado, diced mango and papaya, cashew nuts, chicharrón(fried ham), mashua (kinda like a potato but a little spicy), and two fried eggs on top of it all. Oh and 4 different colored hot peppers (red, green, orange and yellow). The yellow peppers I have never seen before. My mom said they were ají charapita. A hard to find yellow pepper found in the jungles of Peru.
I was drooling. Even Paul was excited about breakfast!
Paul added, “Now that looks good. and no potatoes!”
It wasn’t completely authentic central/south american food. But PINEAPPLE it was delicious.
Chapter
11
According to all the books I read and the wikipedia pages about Sam Bellamy and the Whydah Gally, his ship sank off the coast of Marconi Beach. So that’s where Paul and I were headed. But before we were able to pack our provisions and hop on our bikes there was a knock on the door of our house.
<knock knock>
My mom answered the door. I heard her say, “Oh my goodness Jonathan? Come in. Nicolas and Paul are upstairs taking a nap after our big breakfast.”
I ran downstairs and greeted Jonathan.
“Dude! Why didn’t you tell me you were coming to the cape? We decided to come down for a few days and I was riding my bike on the path and saw your mom’s Subaru and sure enough here you are!”
I tried to calculate the odds that I would run into Jonathan. It was a really small number.
I grabbed his hand and pulled him upstairs to bring him up to speed on the wreckage of the Whydah Gally and Sam Bellamy. He took it all in. Nodded and got excited about our search for pirate treasure.
Jonathan finally said, “PINEAPPLE let’s go!”
***
We parked our bikes at the parking lot and walked down the stairs to the beach. The wind was strong that day and kept blowing sand in our hair and eyes.
When we got down to the beach I just stood and took it all in. The cool breeze blowing off the ocean and steady crash of waves was very soothing.
Jonathan was standing next to me and asked, “Paul have any ideas what to do first?”
I looked at Paul who was still sitting in the pouch of my backpack. He was thinking.
Paul spoke, “Argh. She be a beauty of a ship. Out there with theyre waves crashing over her. Secrets buried deep they are.”
Jonathan asked, “Should we grab a shovel and just wade out?”
Paul replied, “Nay. Sharks’ll eat us like chicken wings they will.”
I made a puzzled face, “Then how do we get to the treasure?”
“Patience. The moment will come,” he mused.
Jonathan starred at the sea for a while and then said, “Well while you guys are being patient and figuring it all out I’m going to go run into the water and cool off.” He paused to look at Paul and add, “Nice mustache dude.”
And then he did just what he said. He ran and dived right into the water.
I yelled after him, “watch out for sharks!”
I looked at Paul, “now what?”
“Patience.”
I left Paul and ran into the water after Jonathan. The water was cold, but it felt good. I submerged and just floated letting the push and pull of the waves move me back and forth. I let myself be one with the sea. It was then that patience paid off.
A sound. Then a voice.
Much of my treasure has been taken.
But some precious things still remain.
Some coins… and… A girl. I never knew. She has black hair. She is here. Look for the mermaid.
I surfaced and looked around. Jonathan was jumping waves a little ways away.
I just stood in the water looking out into the sea. Wondering if I imagined the voice or whether it was a voice from the grave. Was it the pirate Sam Bellamy?