He looked up at them suddenly, meeting each of their eyes. "There is a legend you must know."
They narrowed their eyes at him.
"In Naples, Italy, during the last years of King Henry VII, a notorious pirate was trying to hide all of his treasure from his enemies, during a war. He hid the treasures on three different islands for his three complicated and selfish daughters. They were about your age, between sixteen and eighteen."
"I'm nineteen," Jane snapped. "Those two are eighteen." She pointed at Alex and Marty. How dare he accuse them of being selfish and complicated?
"Ah, well, you're all so young and pretty, anyone could make that mistake, eh?" He smiled warmly.
They blushed.
"Now, where was I?"
"He had three selfish daughters..." said Marty.
"Oh yes! But he loved them very much. As a result, he used one island for each girl, well one treasure pile for each girl. However, when his daughters started falling in love with men from Greece, Venice, and Algiers, they started to...not get along and refusing to see each other. So, he decided to go with his original plan of using this one uncharted island to put their ultimate treasure on, in hopes that they would find it together. Unfortunately, they all died before seeing the treasure."
"Oh. Sad," said Alex seemingly deeply moved by the story. "Did his daughters even know about the three islands?"
"Oh no! He told them nothing until he gifted each of them with a gem that he had made special for them. And even then he was discrete about it, because he did not want anyone else to find the treasures. But yes, they did find the islands."
"So did his daughters find their treasure?" asked Marty.
"No."
"How do you know all this?" Jane asked suspiciously. "And how do we know this is not just some old-wise story?"
"Let's just say that, I and some friends of mine have been around long enough to learn from some people that lived during the right time. And it is a true legend to be certain."
"Oh, right..." said Jane with distrust.
"Did...Did you find the treasure," asked Alex. "You and your friends, I mean?"
"No." He got up and started hobbling across the room to his bed.
"Has anyone found it...the treasure." asked Marty.
"No one has found their treasure." Stopping before his bed and the barrel he picked something up.
"Why not?" asked Jane. 'The islands are charted are they not?"
"Because I only have seen a third of the map."
"You mean the map is not all in one piece?" asked Alex.
"Aye. There may be one more or two more pieces to the map."
"Do you have part of the map?" asked Marty.
"No. And no one has been fortunate enough to maneuver the islands safely. Even with the letters."
"The letters?" asked Marty. "Where are they? What can they do?"
He turned around holding a book. "I have found most of them."
"So...where are the islands then?" asked Jane watching him hobble back.
"You need the..."
"The what?" asked Marty.
"I am certain that you will figure it out. By the way, follow it," said he offering Jane the book of all the books. The Bible.
"Me?" asked Jane, setting her cup on the ground next to her and taking the book."
"All three of you."
"This book?" Marty looked up from staring at the book.
"But it's a Bible," said Alex.
He chuckled. "I am pleased you girls know of the Book."
"What are we to do with it? It's naught but words of randomness," said Jane, handing him back the book. "How is it a..."
"A key?" he suggested.
"Yes," they said not in unison.
"Indeed. This is a key." He handed it back to Jane.
They gave him a quizzical look.
"Those random words have clues. They have answers," he said the last sentence with big eyes.
"How do you know? You have not even found their treasure yourself," Jane stated.
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| Re-created parson's softcover Holy Bible from the 17th century |
hmmmm....and the mystery begins....
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