Aedan's Story - 3. Chapter 3: Clues At The Boardwalk

It was about a couple hundred yards north to the pier. There were a few people fishing off the end of the pier. On the boardwalk there were a few rigged carnie games and a few food restaurants in the square.

"Wanna eat first?" Jake asked.

"Sure," I nodded, my stomach growled. "What do you want?"

"The deli is pretty good."

I opened my string bag to get out money to pay for my lunch until I realized that I left my wallet with 20 bucks at the beach house.

"Oh crap, I don't have money."

"Don't worry dude," Jake patted my shoulder from behind. "I got you."

"I'll pay you back later," I said as Jake opened the door.

"Bro, don't worry about it. I have plenty of cash."

"Thanks, Jake," I smiled and blushed. We walked up to the counter and ordered a wrap and a soda for each of us. I got turkey and he got tuna.

We relaxed and ate for a bit at a table outside. We finished all our wrap, chips, and soda. "Did you like it?" he asked, in reference to the wrap.

"Yeah," I stretched, my stomach feeling very full. "That was really good."

"Ready to find the next clue?" Jake stood up and grabbed his stuff. We explored the boardwalk/pier area, which had shops and gardens and such. It was a pretty cool place to hang out for the day.

We began walking down the pier. Soon, we were out over the choppy water of the Atlantic Ocean. "Where is the highest point?" I asked.

"That would be the lighthouse tower," Jake pointed to a tower structure.

We walked along. The tower was about halfway down the pier. We climbed up the wooden steps inside the tall brick structure. The top was about thirty feet up. We reached the top deck of the lighthouse, the square path that encircled the large lightbulb at the top.

"The note said we must look down. What the heck does that mean?" I asked.

"It means we have to look down, you doof," Jake playfully punched my shoulder.

"I meant what does he want us to look down at?" I shoved Jake's hand away. I looked down at the turquoise green water below. I saw something sparkle on one of the posts of the pier. I used a telescope mounted to the railing to get a better look. There was indeed another glass bottle tied to the post.

"How does someone miss that?" I asked.

"It was pretty well hidden. Nobody would think to look under the pier for anything but barnacles and saltwater taffy." Jake said as we began to descend the tower and back to the boardwalk. "Do you remember which pillar had the bottle?"

"It was the fifth wooden pillar from where the water begins," I replied.

When we got to the beach, Jake took off his shirt and waded out into the water. He had to swim a little bit to reach the spot. "I see the bottle, but it's about 4 feet down!" Jake called out.

I gave him a thumbs up sign before he submerged under the waves. About ten seconds later he came back to the surface. A green bottle in his hand. He returned to shore, soaking wet. I handed him his blue towel from his bag before I opened the bottle to get the note. Jake sat down on the sand

"Here's what the note says," I began. "This next clue may strike you with fear. The place with bones can be found near. Go there at night, when the full moon is clear. Look for the chest that I found dear."

"That's cryptic," Jake sighed. "Place with bones could mean two things. The whale skeletons or the old graveyard."

"The treasure depends on the full moon," I reasoned. "I'm guessing it means the whale bones, since the tides are on the beach."

"That makes sense," Jake nodded. I placed the note in his backpack where the other one was.

"Cool," I stood up. "Wanna head back to the house?"

"Yeah, dude," Jake nodded.

About fifteen minutes later we arrived at the house. I changed into some basketball shorts while Jake took a shower to clean off the sand and salt. While he did that, I sat at the small desk in the bedroom and pulled out my sketch book. I improved on my drawings from the previous day. Jake came out, dressed in khaki shorts and a blue t-shirt.

"Hey," he said, peering over my sunburned shoulders at my drawing. Jake sat on his bed, which was next to the desk. Jake pulled out his laptop while I continued drawing. "Woah! Come check this out dude," Jake said a few minutes later. I put down my pencil and climbed onto the bed next to him.

"What is it?" I asked.

"The next full moon is Sunday night! That's in four days"

"Oh, sweet. We can go get that treasure!"

"Yep. It'll be awesome."