by Caleb Wygal
“Anyone ever find anything?”
She shook her head and gave a gentle laugh. “No boys. They go out there and dig holes in hopes of finding it, although I don't think anyone ever will.”
“Why is that?” Lucas asked.
“Because now that whole area is now privately owned and gated off, unless you live out there. One of the locals retired, passed his shipping business onto his son, and bought the whole thing.”
“The whole thing?”
“Yes, he put a gated community out there. It was something he'd wanted to do for years.” She stopped suddenly, and furrowed her brow. “You know, someone did find something out there one time, long ago.”
Lucas and Darwin shared a look. “When was this?”
She scratched her chin. “Probably about thirty years ago. The early-eighties, maybe.”
“Sounds about right. I don't know, it wasn't Teach's Point, though,” Darwin said.
“What sounds about right?” she asked.
“Ma'am—,”
“Please call me Alethia,” she said, cutting Darwin off.
Darwin cleared his throat and continued, “Alethia, I work for the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh as an archivist, and I was going through some old storage rooms and found a box labeled Plum Point Dig – Bath, NC. Is Plum Point anywhere around here?”
She smiled. “Why yes. Teach's Point is also sometimes called by that name, Plum Point.”
10
Lucas and Darwin shared a look.
“Do you remember what it was they found?”
She looked out the window, searching her memory. “I'm not sure, really. They found a few things such as some stoneware, pots, and utensils if I recall. You know, it might have just been one person out there. Usually they come in groups.”
“Do you remember anything about a diary or journal being found?” Darwin asked.
She shook her head. “No. No I don't. What sort of journal?”
Darwin hesitated before answering. “The diary of Mary Ormond.”
“That would be quite a find,” Alethia said.
“Well, there was one in the box,” Darwin said.
She covered her hand with her mouth in surprise. “Oh, my. That's amazing.”
Darwin told her the circumstances of the find and a few details of what the book contained.
“I don't believe anyone has ever found anything written or created by her or Teach,” she said, referring to Blackbeard's real surname. “Why was it in the box?”
“I don't know ma'am.”
“Alethia,” she corrected.
“I'm sorry. Alethia. I'm not sure. The museum had a lot of field research going on during that time period, and maybe it just got overlooked. I don't know why though. The person conducting the dig should've known the enormity of the find.”
“I've lived here my entire life,” she said, “and I can't once remember anyone finding something such as that. They’ve found various doo-dads and knick-knacks. Nothing of any importance. You're here for the treasure, right?” They nodded. “Does she talk about it in her diary?”
“We didn’t get a chance to go through it, but not that we saw,” Lucas said. “There was a map.”
“A map! How wonderful. So, where's his treasure?” she asked.
“We don't know.”
“You don't know?” she repeated. “Isn't that what the map is for?”
Lucas smiled. “Well, that's the thing. The map is vague. It looks as though it was drawn by Blackbeard, however he didn't have anything written on it that tells exactly what area is represented.”
“Can I see it?” she asked. “Maybe I can tell you. I'm familiar with the waters around here.”
“Yes, absolutely,” Darwin said. “I have a copy of it out in our car.”
“Where is it? Your car?”
“Just right out there at Bonner's Point.”
She smiled again. “Well, if you'll escort me out there big fella, I'll take a look at it.”
“I can just go get it and bring it back here if you'd like.”
“No,” she said. “It’ll do me good to get out in the neighborhood every once in a while.”
When they got out on the street, Alethia reached up and took Darwin's arm as they walked down the sidewalk towards the end of the street to the calm waters of Bath Harbor. Lucas lingered a few steps behind.
“Alethia?” Lucas asked.
“Yes, dear.”
“I'm sure since you've lived here for so long and you have the Pirate Treasure Gift Shop, you probably know a thing or two about Blackbeard.”
“I suppose I know a few things. There are others around who know more. Is there something you want to know?”
“Well, there are many things I'd like to know,” Lucas said. “One thing I was wondering was if he was born around here? Some say he's not from England, but from here.”
She turned to look at him. “No, I've heard those rumors. They've been batted around here for nearly three-hundred years. They're not true. He's from Bristol, England.”
She made the statement in such a way that prevented any further discussion on the matter. Lucas believed her.
They made it to Bonner's Point, and Darwin passed her to Lucas while he dug in the Jeep for a copy of the treasure map. While he did that, Alethia and Lucas looked out over the calm water. The small amount of fog rolling over the water had dissipated, and the sun was trying to peek out from behind the clouds.
“It's beautiful, isn't it?” Alethia asked. “I've lived in that house almost my entire life, and I used to come out here every day and sit and read on the bank. I like watching the sailboats pass by; the seagulls fly overhead; the sounds of the water lapping against the bank always kept me calm. I can't think of anywhere I would have rather lived.”
“Hawaii?”
She considered it for a moment. Then in her fairytale voice said, “No. Not even there. It's just so peaceful here, Lucas. You young people get so wrapped up in school, your careers, and your family – although family is okay – that you fail to take the time to enjoy some of the nicer things outdoors. You look out over that water, Lucas, and tell me the last time you spent more than a day enjoying something like that.”
Lucas winced. The last time he went to the beach, he was with Kristen. He didn’t want to bring that up, so instead he said, “When I was a teenager, my family and I would go to Emerald Isle every summer.”
“That's near here. I love that area just across the sound from Morehead City. You should really take the time to get outside and enjoy things like this. I think you'll live longer.”
“I appreciate the advice,” Lucas smiled, reflecting on where he was in life. “I should.”
“You should,” she said in a tone that reminded him of his mother.
Darwin found the map and walked beside Alethia. He handed it to her.
“Oh, my. This is extraordinary,” she said. She traced her finger over a few of the lines and mumbled to herself.
“What do you think?” Darwin asked.
“And this came out of Mary Ormond's diary?” she said. Darwin nodded his head. “If this is something she got from Teach, then I bet you could find his treasure if you found the X.” This encouraged the two young men for a second until her next statement. “The problem is that this isn't from around here. In Bath, that is.”
Darwin's shoulders visibly drooped. “Where do you think it is?”
“I don't know. Could be anywhere.” She pointed at the X on the part of land resembling a kidney. “You see here where he's drawn these squiggly lines that look like they're probably streams or creeks?”
“Yeah.”
“Bath doesn't have anything such as that. And this line here,” she pointed at the shoreline drawn to the left of the kidney island, and then pointed out to the land on the left side of the water from Bonner's Point. “They're different. If he drew this from his ship, he wouldn't have drawn it that way.” She handed the map back to Darwin. “No
, this map isn't of Bath.”
Darwin looked dejected. Lucas let him know it wasn't the end of the world. “Well, we knew there was a possibility this wasn't from around here, although there are some similarities. We were just hopeful we could come here and find it quickly.”
“I'm sorry boys,” Alethia said. She watched the waves pass by for a few silent seconds. “You should go see Hugo.”
“Who is Hugo?” Lucas asked.
“He's the son of the man who bought Teach's Point.”
“Why him?”
She eyeballed Lucas as though trying to explain something complex to a five-year-old. “Well, he now owns the shipping company and knows the waters along the East Coast quite well. Maybe he could let you look at some of the ruins and help you with the map.”
“That would be nice of you and him.”
She laughed. “Oh, and he's probably our foremost expert on Blackbeard.”
That perked up Darwin. “Hey, that'd be great. How does he know so much about Blackbeard? Did he study him in school or something?”
“He may have, I don't know where he got his knowledge from. All I know is that if people have a question about the pirate, they go to him.”
“Sounds perfect,” Darwin said.
They walked slowly back to her house. There, she picked up an old corded phone and dialed a number. After a few seconds she said, “Hello, Hugo . . . Yes. Its Alethia . . . I am well. Thank you. Are you nearby this morning? . . . Ok. I have a few gentlemen here would like to talk to you. . . . About Blackbeard. . . . Okay. Great. Are you over at your usual spot? . . . Thanks. I'll send them over. Goodbye.”
She put the phone back in its cradle on the wall. “That Hugo is such a nice man.”
“That's good,” Lucas said. “So, he'll see us?”
“Yes, he said he wasn't doing anything except sitting out on the deck, trying to catch dinner.”
“Sounds nice,” Darwin said. “To have a house close enough to the water that you could catch your dinner on the back porch would be very convenient.”
She looked at him oddly. “Oh, it's not quite his back porch. You'll see.”
She gave them directions to where they could find this Hugo. Lucas selected a small statue of Blackbeard from a shelf near the front door. The figure was posing with the barrel of a musket in his right hand and the stock of the gun going all of the way to the wood on a portion of what was probably meant to be wooden post on a pier and his left hand on his hip. To Lucas, it reminded him of the famous rum icon Captain Morgan. The figure in his hands wore a black long-coat, a tri-point hat, and brown boots that came to his knee. Three pistols in separate holsters were in a gun sling wrapped across his midriff. Another gun was stashed in his belt and sword hung from his right side.
The most striking feature was, of course, the full black beard. The coarse hair was tied off into five sections, bundled at each end with a red ribbon.
Lucas thought of the period in which Blackbeard lived. At six-foot one inches tall, he was well above average height for that era. Lucas remembered that the dreaded pirate lit long hemp fuses hanging from his hat before going into battle. The pall of the intoxicating dark smoke cast an intimidating figure.
“Good choice,” Alethia said when Lucas handed it to her for purchase. “This is a close representation of what he probably looked like. Except for one thing.”
“What's that?”
“His hat.”
“What about his hat?”
“He wore a fur hat,” she said.
“A fur hat? In this climate? I bet he had to stay hot,” Darwin said.
She looked up at him. “He probably did, and everyone else during that day probably knew that too. I figure he wore it to show he was much tougher than everyone else. That he could take it.”
Lucas handed her the doubloon and picked up a small black flag with the famous skull and crossbones.
“Now you know,” she said, “this flag is called the 'Jolly Roger.’ Everyone knows this as a pirate flag.”
“Yeah, Blackbeard used it didn't he?” Lucas asked.
She shook her head. “Some pirates did, although Teach had one of his own design.”
“What did it look like?”
“Hold on,” she said. She went somewhere in the depths of her house and returned a few moments later with an old leather-bound book. She flipped though the book for a few seconds before finding what she wanted. “Here it is,” she said and handed the book to Lucas.
At the top of the right-hand page was a black flag. It had a skeleton with horns holding a spear in one hand and an hourglass in the other. The spear pointed to a heart dripping three drops of blood.
“Quite a fearsome flag,” she said. “The skeleton is the devil. The hourglass tells others their time for living is running out. The heart pierced by the spear symbolizes a merciless death while the spear itself shows a violent death. The leaking heart represents a drawn out and torturous death.”
The two men stared at the flag for a few minutes, taking in its many meanings.
“So basically,” Darwin said, “when pirates put up their flags near other vessels, it signaled to them to surrender or die?”
She agreed. “Yeah, that's about it. Blackbeard's incorporated several elements to inspire terror. Hugo can tell you more about that though.”
They thanked her for the information. She wrapped the statue for Lucas and placed it in a cardboard box before putting it in a plastic bag. She tucked the flag in along the side. Lucas took the doubloon and stuffed it in his pocket.
They thanked the elderly woman for the information and her time and then walked out to the sidewalk. Hugo's place was on the other end of the street, right where they arrived in Bath. Lucas took his package to the Jeep while Darwin waited on the sidewalk. They decided they’d take advantage of the weather and walk to Hugo's place. It wasn’t far.
When Lucas returned, Darwin was coming out of Alethia's house.
“Forget something?” Lucas asked.
“Oh, nothing. I just asked her if it'd be okay if I came back next spring and helped her. We exchanged phone numbers and said we'd keep in touch.”
“She was nice,” Lucas said.
They walked along the sidewalk to the start of the street. Alethia told them they could find Hugo at the end of the last driveway on the left-hand side. She said they couldn't miss him. He was in the big one at the end—whatever that meant.
The driveway at the end of the street had a house on the left side and a white speedboat with a “For Sale” sign taped to its side. The driveway was twenty yards long, terminating at the water. At the end, they could see the bridge they crossed to get to Bath on the right and a small shack was next to the water on the left. It had a gas pump at the end of a small dock.
In between the bridge and the shack was a marina. The marina had eighteen slips that normally accommodated thirty-six ships. It stuck out in the water like a trident: a long dock split off into three prongs with slips spaced evenly apart. A fifty-four foot long gleaming white yacht occupied one of the slips at the end near the bridge.
“Well, she said we wouldn’t have any trouble figuring out which boat was his,” Darwin said.
There was a middle-aged man readying himself to cast off in a small fishing boat tied up in a slip on the left side. Other than that, there was no one else present. Just another quiet day in Bath, Lucas supposed.
They made their way to yacht, but found no one above deck. They stepped aboard, the boat rocked slightly with Lucas and Darwin's weight. Lucas rapped on the cabin door.
From within, they heard a voice call something unintelligible. They waited patiently for a minute, satisfied someone was coming.
When the door opened Lucas and Darwin found themselves looking into the eyes of Blackbeard himself.
11
The man who answered the door obviously wasn't Blackbeard. The figure Lucas had just purchased from the Treasure Shop wasn't cast from the man in front of them altho
ugh it could have been. This man was six-feet tall and had long, dark hair. He wore a long blue coat and had leather boots that came to his knees.
Blackbeard's most striking feature, his beard, was present on this man, although it wasn't as menacing. It hung, Lucas figured, about four inches from the bottom of the man's chin. It was full and black. Not grown to strike terror in the hearts of men.
His piercing blue eyes, on the other hand, did. They seemed to penetrate through the tall duo standing at his door, as though they were carving knives stabbing into an inanimate object. They pierced through the surface and into the core, doing their best to intimidate Lucas and Darwin.
“Yes,” the man said in a sonorous, gravelly voice, “what can I do for ya?”
Lucas could imagine the real Blackbeard possessing that voice and those eyes. If he had lived into his fifties. Lucas hesitated. “Good morning, sir. The woman at the gift shop called ahead.”
The man smiled. It was somewhat frightening. “Yes, dear Alethia. How was she this morning? Was she having trouble getting around?”
“No,” Lucas said. “It took her a moment to get to the door, but she explained she was in her backyard tending to the garden.”
“Good, good,” the man said. “She is a fine woman, that Alethia. A pillar of our small community here,” he said with a wave of the hand. Lucas noted frilled sleeves coming out of the cuff of the jacket. “She said you boys wanted to ask a few questions about Blackbeard?”
Lucas felt a small slight at being referred to as a boy. He was in his early thirties. He replied, “Yes, sir. I drove up from Concord and picked up Darwin here in Raleigh. We were interested in finding out more about Blackbeard, and wanted to speak to someone who might be able to shed some light on his life, maybe things that aren't written about him.”
The man stood back at the question, his eyes boring into Lucas and Darwin. “It's odd that a couple of young pups such as yourselves would come all of the way out here out of the blue, on a weekday, with interest in Teach. Why is that?”
