07. Tings Nov 07

(7:50 am Nov 07, 2005)

Pirate. Teach. Bonnet, Morgan. Bonny. Watling. Catt. Jack.

Blackbeard's Tower. Morgans Bluff. Cat Island. Watling's Island.

The Stede Bonnet. A mail boat that made the Nassau to Abaco run in times past.

Nassau, and the rest of the Bahamas, has many ties to historical pirates.

Ezza had been dreaming and searching for pirate gold since his earliest memories. At first just in his back yard and in his imagination, but when he got a little older and was allowed to roam the island with his cohorts, he started in on Blackbeard's tower. Then, some of the other forts. Fort Winton, Fort Montague, Fort Charlotte, Fort Fincastle. The forts of Potter's Cay and the small cays close by.

Later, he started searching in caves he found in the bush. Again, he started close to home with smaller caves in the neighbourhoods near his home. Then others around the island including the big ones out around Clifton and Hunts Cave.

Later still, he got into scuba diving and did some explorations in the island's blue holes, and on the reefs.

(8:08 am Nov 07, 2005)

He had never to this date found anything except in his dreams. Oh, he had found a lot of treasure in his dreams. But here in the real world? Nothing doing. I mean, finding treasure is not that easy at all.

He was sweating now. The hole he was digging in his back yard was about five feet deep now. There was a large pile of soil and rocks growing next to the hole. On the other side of the hole lay the lifeless body of his doberman, The Knight. He loved The Knight dearly. He was crying as he dug. Anyone watching would be hard pressed to tell though as the sweat was running down his brow and mingling with his tears.

His shovel dug into what seemed like rotten wood. He noticed some green colouring to the soil. He bent down in the hole and began digging with his fingers. Something glinted. He dug some more. He found two gold coins and what appeared to be a cylinder of wax. His heart raced. His heart sang. His heart was broken.

He imagined that he had found two gold dubloons. He ran inside and got three large zip lock bags and put each item in a bag and sealed them. He ran them back inside and hid them in his attic before returning to his back yard to finish burying his friend.

(8:24 am Nov 07, 2005)

(5:29 pm Nov 07, 2005)

Ezza got home from work and went straight to his attic and took down the three plastic bags. He took them into his room and locked the door. He drew the curtains and engaged the force fields and his cloaking devices.

He carefully took out the coins and rubbed them a bit with a soft cloth. There was a hissing and the coin started smoking. In a swirling cloud, a genie appeared. (Just kidding.) It was a dubloon.

Next he started in on the cylinder. He used a knife and scraped off a little from one end. I was indeed wax as he had thought. He continued scraping the wax carefully.

On removing the wax, he was left with what seemed to be an animal skin of some kind all rolled up. He carefully unrolled it. On one side was some writing he could not quite make out. On the other was what appeared to be a map of some sort.

He knew in his heart that this was what he had been searching for since his childhood. Well, at least the key to what he had been searching for.

Marble.

You got marble tiles, marble counter tops, marble columns, marble cutting boards, marble statues. All well and good. Unless the statues don't have arms.

We will not concern ourselves with this sort of marble. Sorry I brought it up.

You got pippys, snakeys, tars, cat eyes, steelys, glasseys, cloudies. You got biggies, jumbos, double jumbos, triple jumbos.

You already know about top season and kite season. These are your weapons for marble season. Sometimes you need some wire for marble season as well.

(6:19 pm Nov 07, 2005)

When Bruddah Bing and Bruddah Boom walked in to see Big Sal, he was shooting marbles in the dirt with his son Frankie. He motioned to them to stand over by the garden wall while he finished his game.

They sauntered over the lush grass and stood in the shade of the high wall and watched the rest of the game.

Frankie was shooting and from the looks of things, he was way ahead. Big Sal generally took it easy on his young son. Letting him win in most things, sometimes by a big margin, sometimes making it interesting. Very rarely, he would win. A boy had to learn how to lose as well as how to win.

Frankie hit a few more marbles out of the ring. That kid was getting better all the time. Big Sal better watch out or he would be losing for real on a regular basis. Finally, he missed and Big Sal got down on his knees to shoot. Clack, clack, clack. He cleared the ring in short order.

Frankie's face fell.

"Go on inside now Frankie and finish your homework. I gotta talk with your uncles here for a while. I'll come in and get you when I finish talking and we can shoot some more if it is not dark."

Frankie ran across the lawn and into the cabana. Big Sal walked over. Bruddah Bing and Bruddah Boom stood a little straighter.

"What's this I hear that you two are so upset about? Some soldier captured by a human and when you try to free him, he turns on you tow and frees the human? Say it ain't so boys."

"Oh, it's so Sal. Uncle Albert wants you to give him a call and get him in on the meet."

"He knows about this?"

"Yea, we were talking to him on his cell on out way back down. He thinks it could be serious. Something about the old tales. Wants us to meet down in the cellars."

"OK, I'll call him. If he wants to meet in the cellars, it really must be serious.

Girls. Women. Island Gals. Now ya talkin. Bimini gal, Briland gal. Abaco gal. Exuma gal. San Sal gal. Long Island gal. Andros gal. Cat Island gal. Acklins gal. Eleuthera gal. Inagua gal. West End gal. Nassau gal. (Bain Town gal, Fox Hill gal, Valley gal, Adelaide gal, Gambier gal.) Sweet island women all.

But no longer. Melody, she was the one for Bruno. The only one for him. He was way behind on his word count now. So far today he had not written anything on his novel. There were any number of pages of gushy poems and love songs strewn about his table, but now words had gone onto his disk.

If he wasn't so happy, the doubts he had had several times today about his ability to finish his nano novel this year would have been on the verge of bringing him down.

What a pair they made. A Melody and a Beat. Sweet music. That's what they made together. That's what they were together. Bruno was eight miles high.

He had stayed out with Melody until the dawn and her insistence on leaving to get ready for work. Bruno had asked her if she could take a day off and she had smiled sweetly but said nothing doing.

And so he had gone home and crashed for a few hours of sweet dreams and woken up and made a slam bam and tried to work on his book. Nothing doing. An urge struck him and he took out paper and a calligraphy pen and some ink and had started in on his poems and songs.

Most he would probably not let her see. At least not for a while. He gathered them up now and placed them in a wooden box shaped like a small pirates chest and bound with bronze straps.

Then he fired up leo and abiword and tried to get into his book again.

(7:00 pm Nov 07, 2005)

He wanted to write but he wanted to rock. Perhaps some mood music might help. These days though, he was trying to spend his time with live music or free music pretty much exclusively. Live music was out of the question. He decided to tune in to bysa radio and see what they were streaming tonight.

---

Bing, Boom, and Sal were down in the cellar, waiting and tasting some wines when Uncle Albert showed up. He said he was so sorry for being late but that a traffic light had been on the fritz again and that traffic was backed up for miles as a result.

Uncle Albert was one of the oldest soldiers on the island. He was also one of the most knowledgeable and one of the sharpest. Both in terms of his wit and intellect and sometimes just as importantly, in terms of his biters.

He was the only soldier Big Sal would even consider giving way to on occasion.

Horse. Now Abaco has wild horses. There is a book for children called Jingo: Wild horse of Abaco by Jocelny Arundel. At least that is what Amazon has just informed me. I know we had it read to us as children in school. Nassau has horses. Freeport has Horses. Briland has horses.

There used to be a horse racing track in Nassau, but, no more. There used to be stables on Paradise Island, but, no more.

The google search temporal hole is threatening.

Now, why bring up horses in the middle of the scene with the four soldiers? Guess for yourself.

Sal took the lead. "Now boys, I know you are generally tow of the most reliable soldiers, but I find this crazy yarn of your somewhat had to believe, if you know what I mean."

"Sure, Sal, we know what you mean, we would not have believed it if someone was to have told such a cockamamie story to us. I mean, I know my first reactions would have been to wonder what it was they were drinking and in what vast quantities." said Bruddah Bing.

"Precisely, so you see the horns of this dilemma I find myself caught on."

"Yeah we know how hard it is to believe, but I know what I know, and I know that we are giving you the straight scoop Big Sal. Honest."

"Well, I probably wouldn't believe you even though I trust you guys with my life, but Uncle Albert gives me pause. Uncle Albert, why are you so interested in this cockamamie story that you would come here through major of traffic which I know you despise. I mean, it is impossible, right?"

Albert smiled and cleared his throat. "I am not so sure. There are old stories that we soldiers don't tell so much any more, this being the modern world and all. The old ways are falling out of favour. But I think I remember some strange stories from my earliest childhood. When I heard what these good boys had to say, I got goose-bumps."

"Wait, you think they are telling the truth?"

"They may be. That's why I asked to meat down hear in the cellar. Sal, I think you need to turn the key and pull the lever."

"Uncle, you should not even talk that in front of these two, you can't be serious!"

"No, I am deadly serious Sal. If what they say is true, and what I remember is true, we need them in the know, because we are going to need their full cooperation and their full commitment to what will certainly turn out to be the most dangerous time in any of our lives."

Big Sal looked like he wanted to argue further, but Uncle Albert gave him a look that froze his bones, well, his external bones as it were.

(7:41 pm Nov 07, 2005)