Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Friday

            The smooth ocean waves rolled calmly across the ocean and rode gently onto the beach. Seagulls flew across the sandy beach and lazily. There were faint calls from the surfers who were cheering to each other after one would catch a wave and come rolling to the shore on the wave. As the morning sun came up it turned the water white. Katie, Red and I stood watching the water. I felt calm here, like everything was instantly solved. I loved the ocean.

“What does the map say?” I asked Katie.

            She flipped opened her bag and unrolled the map, “Uh… Seguir la costa hasta la cueva alojada tres.” She said fumbling with the words.

“Well, costa means cost so like, the shore.” Red said.

“Tres is three.” I added.

“Great.” Katie said sarcastically, “So we got cost and three.”

“I think we need to go to a drug store and get a translating book.” I said.

“Yeah.” Red said.

“Well there’s a gift shop over across the road a’ways” Katie pointed out. I turned.

“Alright let’s go.” I said.

             We walked across the road and into the shop. There was one other person a child in the store he was wearing a wet suit and buying a t-shirt. On the floor next to the barefooted boy was a surfboard.

“Hey kid, aren’t you supposed to be in school?” Red jeered.

            The kid turned and brushed the sandy beach blonde hair out of his eyes, “You should know, Friday’s we don’t have school.” He grabbed his shirt and picked up his surfboard and left.

“What was that for?” I whispered to him.

“No one knows about us, he’s a kid, kids watch t.v and what’s on t.v?”

“Us.”

“Right, and if he didn’t recognize us then we got the cops off our back.”

            I smiled, “Good thinking Red.”

“I got it.” Katie said she came walking over with a book in her hand.

“You touch it, you buy it.” the man from behind the counter told us.

            Katie looked at the man smiled and handed him the book. He quickly rung it up and have it back to her. After that we left and went back to the truck.

“Okay seguir la costa hasta la cueva alojada tres means follow the shore to the three ledged cave.” Katie said.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“How should I know?” she said.

“It could be a cave by a ledge.” Red chimed in.

“Yeah maybe.” I said, “Let’s ask around, since we don’t know the area maybe someone else does.”

“Okay, how about those surfers?” Red said.

“Fine let’s go.”

            We climbed down the dirt path to the beach. We met a few people who were no different than the boy at the gift shop. We asked him if there was a cave near any type of cliff. As they had put it there were some ‘crazy gnarly waves near a huge cliff that always looked as if it would fall over about a mile away’. We thanked them and left.

            We drove a quick 4 minute drive up the coast climbing higher and higher up the cliff. We got out and walked over to the edge of the cliff. The wind blew us hard while we leaned over the edge. A few yards down was a ledge coming from the top you could see the tips of two others sticking out from the top ledge.

“The three ledged cave.” I said.

“Brady!” Katie screeched.

            I turned and saw Shaw and four of his men standing behind him. Two of them held Katie and Red’s arms behind their backs.

“What do you want Shaw?” I snarled.

“Shaw?” he chuckled, “My name is Nathaniel Davri.” It still sounded like he was a snake to me.

“What do you want with us?”

“Only the map.”

            I narrowed my eyes as Davri walked slowly around me like I was his prey. He kept a sleazy smile on his face.

            I heard one of the others take a step towards me. I whipped around and punched him in the jaw. He had been taken off guard and in the other’s shock Red jabbed his elbow into his captor’s stomach and got loose. There was a full blown fight now, and as the others threw punches at Red and I, Davri stood at the edge of the cliff watching it.

            Before I had a chance to throw another punch, the man had me pinned on the floor.

“Brady!” a cheerful call came from the road. I heard footsteps come running and now there was more punching and grunting.

One of Davri’s men fell to the ground next to me, unconscious. I looked back and raised my knee into the seat of the man’s pants hard. He fell over and I got up fastly, he did the same. The man threw his arm sideways at me, this time I ducked and jammed my fist into his stomach. He kneeled down and I bashed my elbow into his back. He finally fell to the ground unconscious.

I looked at Davri as the last of the punching stopped.

“I will never give up on you two, you’ve already led me to the first clue.”

“Us two?” I said but my words were swept away in the wind. I stepped towards him furious. Before I could do anything he used my momentum and punched my back. Now I was falling off the cliff plummeting to my death.

            I landed with a grunt on the ledge, after this breathing came hard to me. I lay there for a few seconds, trying to regain my breath. I was shaking and blood was coming from my knuckles and my face.

“Brady?” the voice called from above.

            I looked up and there he was, my knight in shining armor, “Shoot you got a lot of explaining to do Scott!” I called up to him.

“Speak for yourself!” he said.

            I smiled, still not sure if I should be mad or happy with him. I stood up and looked into the cave but it was only a few feet in and then it ended.

“Wait this can’t be right.” I said, I stepped in and pushed against the wall of rock.

“What’s wrong Brady?” Katie asked.

“Isn’t this the cave?” I called.

“No.” Scott said.

“How’d you know?” I asked.

“I’ve been waiting for you more or less.” Scott said.

“Answer my question Scott.”

“Your map is a fake.”

“And how’d you know that?” I asked.

“Because I’m the one who made it.”

            Scott wouldn’t tell me any more until we were got to a hut he had been renting further down the coast. Him, Red and I were pretty messed up. Our blood stained the seat of Rickey’s car, Katie refused to sit in the cab with us so she sat in the bed like a lot of other teenagers would do.

            Scott led us to a tiny two room hut that was well equipped with sea shells that hung from the ceiling, fish that had been framed and placed on the wall.

            We stood in the kitchen while we used rags to wash the blood away from our hands.

“Okay, so after I left the warden’s house I got an apartment.” Scott started.

“This much I know.” I said.

“Yeah, and when I was moving in I dropped a bottle of shaving lotion and it rolled under the bed. When I went to get it I saw a piece of cloth coming from the floor. I thought that was weird, so I moved the bed and pried up the floorboards. Then I found this cloth scroll.”

“The map.” Katie cut in.

            Scott nodded, “I did a lot of research on this map. There are so many stories about what happened with this but none of them really seemed to be right. Then I met up with a lady who was the former curator of a museum that used to have this map.”

            Red nudged me, “The museum gal.”

“What about Davri?” I asked him.

“Well, when I met with the curator he overheard and told me he could help. But he seemed a little off, if you know what I mean. I told him to scram, but he wouldn’t leave me alone. Soon I kept seeing him and seeing him. Then I saw more of them, following me.”

            I remembered back when that happened to us and how eerie it felt.

“You okay Brady?” Scott asked me.

“Yeah, I’m…just glad to see you.” I told him.

“So anyways I just got fed up and left. I planted a fake map that was pretty close to the original but it didn’t have the same directions. I figured one of you would find it. The only problem is that the real map is too confusing.”

“It’s supposed to be.” Red said

“What does it say?” Katie asked.

“Let the waves guide you to the closed cave, I already translated it. The thing is, is that there could be hundreds of caves all in San Clemente.”

“That’s annoying.” Katie said.

“You bet.” Scott said. He got up and started towards the kitchen, “Yall must be hungry.”

“Yeah.” Red answered. I looked over at him.

“Let me introduce you to Red.” I said to Scott, something I had been wanting to do for 3 weeks.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

            While Katie and Red ate in the kitchen I led Scott to the one other room in the hut. Once he was in I shut the door, “Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?” I asked him.

“I did.” He said.

“A post-it note?”

“Look Brady I couldn’t.”

“Why? What was holding you back?”

“I’ll show you.” Scott said he opened a drawer to a nightstand that sat next to his bed and pulled out a folder, “Look here.”

He tossed the folder to me. I caught it and took out the photos. They were of me. They were all blurry and at a distance. Scott was with me in most of them. I quickly started to flip threw them anxiety growing with every photo. The last one was taken from the ground below my bedroom window and it had an x across my face. I let them drop to the ground as I sat on his bed.

“I take a pretty good picture, don’t I?”

“I found them on my door after I came home from work.” He told me. I looked at him, his golden eyes were frantic.

“But why a note on the fridge? You couldn’t give me a call?”

“Brady I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that last one.”

“What about the cops?”

“Would they really believe a kid like me? No one listens to orphans.”

“Well-“

“Come on Brady! A treasure map? How would I explain any of this?”

“You’re right forget I ever mentioned it. How’d you know I was gonna find it?”

“I didn’t I thought if Davri would leave those pictures he would know where the map was and come and I could-“ he stopped, “I don’t know what I’m thinking any more. He’s driving me crazy. He got me to run Brady, I don’t run.” He flopped onto the bed and lay on his back, “What would mom and dad think? You know, they spent 16 years raising a kid that would run away from his problems.”

            I had nothing to say to him. For years he had been my protector from practically anything. He seemed like a god to everyone he met, Scott really was my knight in shining armor.

“Common Scott, it was one time! You’ve been doing great ever since they died. You’ve been doing great ever since they died. You’ve been my hero ever since birth. Scott you helped me through all my problems.”

“You’re probably right, but I’m not used to this ‘running’ thing.”

“I am.” I said.

“You’re you.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothin’” I looked at him as he lay on the bed looking so low, so I gave him a playful jab in the gut.

“Ow! Hey!” he sat up and rubbed his stomach.

“Where’s the real map?” I asked him.

“Guess.”

            I looked around the crampt room. There was the night stand, a closet, and a bed. The bed.

“Get up.” I told him. He smiled and got up.

            I moved the bed aside and knelt down. I knocked on the floorboards until there was a satisfying thump of the hollowed out floor. I pulled from my back pocket the switchblade and pried up the board. The scroll was placed gingerly inside of it. I pulled it out and gingerly unrolled it. Scott was right, it wasn’t much different than our paper map, all except for the instructions.

“Let the waves guide you to the closed cave.” I recited. I stood up and re-rolled the map, “Let’s down to the shore.” I put the map into my bag and led the others to the shore.

 

Author's Note

SCOTT CAME BACK!!!!!!!!