Stone
The trip out to Ross Island was quick, less than thirty minutes. I decided to see if I could get her to open up. So far it had been easy. She tried to hide things, but she was at heart honest. Open. And I feared trusting. Way too trusting. Kevin Potter was taking advantage of her. I knew it. He was taking advantage of everyone in this town.
“So how is it you own and island?”
“My brother didn’t want it.”
“No?”
“No, he’s the practical one and honestly was closer to Mom than I was. Dad and Estelle are brother and sister by the way.”
“So she’s a Ross, got it. Where is Mom?”
“Last I heard Brazil. She left us when we were kids, and Jason never forgave Dad for it.”
“But you did?”
“I guess so. I was closer to my Dad than anyone,” Kara’s eyes lit up talking about her dad. It was a beautiful thing.
“He was tall, dark, very much had the pirate look about him.”
“And mom is blonde?”
“Yep, how’d you guess? Jason’s hair is light. I just figured.”
“Yeah, so Jason thought my Dad’s pirate stories drove Mom away. And he really didn’t want to hear it.”
“But you did.”
“Yes, I did. So when he died, he left me the island.”
“And not Estelle? Seems like everyone in the family might think the island is cursed.”
“Yeah, maybe. I plan to hold on to it any way I can, though.”
“Why so fierce?”
“Because it’s unspoiled and it is historic, even if I never find so much as a piece of driftwood. Ross Island is connected to my Dad, to our history, and I’m not going to lose it.” She had a fire in her eyes when she said the words. I had no doubt she would do everything she could. It made me wonder about her contact with Kevin Potter and how he pawed at her. How far would she go to keep him happy? I shuddered to think.
“Okay, well we’re almost there.” Up ahead was the small Ross Island. Beaches, trees, and scrub. The center of the island rose up I’d seen from our mad dash to find her bird dung. It didn’t look like a mountain in the center and wasn’t too hard to climb up to, it was more like an elevation, or a plateau. I could see very well about how great a resort would be out here.
Kevin Potter was going to get Kara Ross and her island one way or another. The thought made me sick. I’d had the urge to push him in the water when I’d seen him hovering over Kara this morning. But after Butchie, I thought it wise to limit my violence to one assault a day.
“See the west side there, between those two outcroppings of shoreline? That’s the lagoon.”
“Yep.”
“We’ll tie the boat off there like yesterday.” We drove into the lagoon slowly.
We tied off the boat, and I could see it. Somehow, my imagination could fill in the blanks. If I were a pirate trying to hide or enjoy my rum, this would be a good place to do it. Yesterday had been a mad dash to follow birds on the wing. Today I could really take in Ross Island.
The treasure was the island. That I could see. Not what Kara or her crazy Dad thought was buried there. It was crazy that the family hadn’t fought each other to keep it.
I hoped she realized what she had. I think she did.
“So why don’t you tell me about your map and what you’re really looking for?”
I stopped her as she unloaded a backpack, which I’m sure had her map inside.
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit.”
“Historical artifacts. Maybe if I can find that we can set up a museum or something like that.” She seemed to be grasping at straws and telling me half-truths. But it was okay. I wasn’t interested in pirate booty.
She did, however, share her map. She knew I’d taken a good look at it already so there was no need to lie about that at least.
“This isn’t a treasure map. I know you think it looks like one. It’s just a map of the settlement of Ross Island’s Pirate Colony. The government ran them out of here in the early 18-hundreds. They fled, probably with their treasure. I just want to reconstruct the village. Maybe it could be an historical field trip for kids or something. It sounds nuts. But I just need some evidence that it existed here.
“How do we do that?”
“With this!” She held up a metal detector and her iPhone. So we were going to hunt. She insisted it wasn’t for gold, and I wasn’t going to argue. A man who argued with a beautiful woman while they were exploring a deserted island together was a fool. I was no fool.
“Lead on Pirate Queen.” We spent the day looking at nothing. I mean I didn’t see anything anyway. Other than a beautiful beach and aqua blue water.
She’d put this or that in her backpack and then move on to the next spot. She’d given me a shovel, and occasionally I’d dig here or there when she pointed. It went on for a few hours. I began to see why her brother thought their dad was nuts. A few days of this could drive you crazy.
Kara used the GPS to delineate and double check a location. And all of a sudden her demeanor changed. She lifted up her map again and seemed to be highly agitated. Or excited.
She was on to something.
Which was when she tried to get rid of me.
“Look, Stone, this is going to be very boring. Why don’t you go in the shed there, the keys are on the lantern, and eat? I’ll be up later.”
“You know. I’ll stick with you. I’d like to watch you.” I raised an eyebrow.
“Well, you may as well get some beach time. It’s your vacation or whatever.”
I decided to do as she asked. She was desperate to have a moment or two alone. And when I decided to give her that she seemed relieved. I picked a spot on the beach and laid down. She was on fire with her mission, and I wanted to see how that played out.
I pulled the bandana I always had somewhere on my person and laid it over my eyes. Then I watched her while I soaked up the sun on Ross Island Beach. She tracked up and down. Over and back. Then six inches over. Up and down. Over and back.
I watched her do a systematic sweep in and out of the tree line and farther from the beachhead.
At one point, she stopped, and it was clear. She’d found something. I saw her mark the spot with her phone. Take measurements and then sure as shit pocket something.
The Dread Pirate Kara Ross pocketed something that flashed in the sun.
What neither of us noticed while she was focusing on her search was weather rolling in.
A crack of lightening in the distance had me sitting bolt upright. Kara looked up but did not seem to care. She was focused on the sand and her search.
She was intent on her task, not her physical safety. That was going to have to be my job it appeared.
Beach time was over. I got up and headed in her direction.
“Kara.” She jumped a foot in the air.
“Oh, you. Yeah, I’ll be done in about fifteen minutes.”
The wind whipped around us, and the temperature had dropped several degrees. She’d ignored the shift in weather, and I’d ignored everything but her.
“You’re done now.”
“No, I can’t.” This time, lightning hit the beach several hundred yards away, but it was enough for me to see we needed to get to shelter.
The skies opened up, and rain started to pour down on us.
“You don’t understand.”
“We’re going to have to take cover in your shack there.”
“IN a minute, go up there, I’ll right behind you.” And she took off running into the trees again. What the fuck was this chick up to?
Of course, I followed.
“What’s so important you’re going to risk getting hit by lightning?” She ignored me.
“I just have to keep looking I have to mark this area. And then put a grid together.” We were yelling now as the wind and rain had started to roar.
I looked out at the boat, moored to the dock, and bobbing up and down in the now much more violent water.
“Jesus, hurry up.” Several tree branches cracked off from the canopy above us. Outside was not a smart place to be, and under trees in a storm seemed insane.
She was a woman possessed at the very least.
Lightning crashed again, and I was done letting her do what she needed to do. I picked her up off her feet and put her over my shoulder. Her legs were slick with the rain, and she squirmed, but she was really no match for me.
I headed to the shack. The only structure that I could see on Ross Island besides a few areas of trees.
“This is not fucking necessary. I can walk.”
“You’re trying to get hit by lightning.” I walked up to the front of the shack to see a padlock on it.
I plopped her back on the ground.
“Open the lock,” I ordered her.
“Fine.” She yelled and held fast to the stuff she’d retrieved.
She got out a key that had padlocked the door and opened it. She stepped in, and I followed.
It took all I had to keep the door from blowing off the hinges and then to get it closed from the wind fighting in the opposite direction. It was now roaring.
I closed the door.
“Here.” She pulled a bolt shut and finally you could hear yourself think. The wind howled through the structure, but it was a damn site better than being out in it.
I looked around.
The beach shack was rickety, small, and dark. But it was out of the lightning, and that’s what mattered.
“I’ve got a kerosene lamp in here.” She put her stuff on one of those tables like from the 1950s. There were two chairs. The place had a couch, another chair, and a cot.
“Yeah, it’s not pretty, but my Dad loved it.” Kara worked on lighting the lamp and soon a small flame illuminated the space. On the walls were various fishing poles and nets.
“Dad a big fisherman eh?”
“Yep, it was the only thing that calmed him down. Unless he was passed out drunk. Then he was really calm too.” A look into Kara Ross’s not too distant past was strange and made me curious for more.
The place was dark. There were windows, four windows I counted. But they all had storm shutters. It would make sense. Especially on the tip of the world which is exactly what this felt like right now.
“Are you always so reckless? It’s a fucking tsunami out there?”
“It’s fine. And are you always such a grandma?” She shot back at me.
“What’s so important you can’t come inside in a storm Kara Ross?”
“You wouldn’t understand.” Kara’s clothes were soaked through. I could see the outline of her bra. I wanted to argue with her, and I also wanted to strip her wet stuff off. It was one-hundred percent a turn on.
“I think you found something. And I don’t think it was, what you call it? Crockery?” And I put a hand in her pocket and tugged her forward toward me. I pulled out what felt like a stone but wasn’t.
“Give me that back.”
“So what is this Kara Ross?”
“It’s just garbage, junk, sometimes I pick up junk. Now hand it back.” I handed it back to her as I did I curled my hand around hers.
She was excited whatever this little coin meant it had her worked up.
Her eyes were flashing in the kerosene light. She was a pirate at that moment as sure as I was a biker.
I pulled her forward again and kissed her on her wet mouth.
There was no one but us, the storm, and a tiny bit of pirate gold on that island.
If that wasn’t a sign from the universe that I should be Kara Ross’s first. I didn’t know what was.