Finding Myself - 3. Chapter 3: Treasure Hunt

July 2 2017

I stood on the edge of the fishing boat, feeling a bit seasick.

“You okay?” Jake asked me. I nodded. Our friendship was still a bit tense after the previous evening’s events. We hadn’t talked much since the shower incident.

“I’m feeling a little sick.”

“Seasick?”

“Seasick,” I groaned a little, resisting the gag reflex.

“First time on a boat at sea?”

“Uh huh,” I nodded. “I’ve only been on boats on a calm lake.”

The sky was cloudy and drizzle rained down onto the boat. Land was a couple miles behind us. The wind was gusty as well, making the boat rock. The waves weren’t violent enough to damage the boat, but it was enough to trigger my nausea. “I guess this wasn’t the best weather for your first time.”

I shook my head.

“Focus on the horizon. It helps, buddy,” Jake patted my back.

“Don’t do that, dude,” I mumbled, coughing a little bit.

“Sorry,” Jake backed off. He wore a green sweatshirt and jeans with blue flip flops on his feet. It was a much cooler day today with the clouds and wind. I wore an orange hoodie and dark grey jeans with some brown sandals. My hood was up over my disheveled black hair. “We’ll be at the fishing spot soon. The bay isn’t that big.”

Jake walked away, likely to another section of the small yacht. His parents were crazy rich, so they could afford stuff like this. I felt the rain fall a bit heavier. It was a shower. A gust of wind caused the boat to rock a bit harder as the waves increased. Oh God.... get me through this, I squeezed my eyes shut. Closing my eyes only made things worse, sadly. I opened my eyes and breathed through my nose. Suddenly a larger wave hit the boat and that was what set me over. My stomach lurched up and I puked a little over the side of the boat. “Ughhnn,” I groaned. I felt a little better, but the rocking of the boat continued. I leaned over the railing to spit out the foul acidic taste in my mouth.

“Hey, are you alright,” I heard Jake say behind me. I nodded, gulping a little. I felt his hand on my arm. “It’ll be okay. The wind and waves have died down a bit.”

I saw the other side of the Cape appear in the fog a few miles ahead of the boat. Within 10 minutes we anchored in a small cove. There was a narrow gravel beach and beyond the beach was a forest of pines and shrubs. I eagerly climbed down the ladder to the dock and walked to the beach.

I immediately felt better getting off of that boat and onto the solid dock. “Aedan what are you doing?” Mr. Grant called to me.

“He wasn’t feeling too well. He got seasick coming over here,” Jake answered for me.

“Ah, ok,” his dad nodded. “Jacob, hand him this fishing pole.” Jake nodded and handed me the pole before he climbed down himself. “I’ll be up here fishing.”

“This is the best fishing spot on Cape Cod,” Jake smiled. “Sorry about the boat, it’s quicker getting here on boat. Roads get pretty crazy on The Cape during the summer.” I pulled off my sandals, pulled down my hood, and fixed my black hair that got mussed by me having the hood up.

“It’s fine. I feel a lot better now,” I smirked, taking a sip of ginger ale before putting some bait on a hook. I sat on a small boulder on the shore, with my bare feet in the cool water. My line went pretty far out past the shore. About fifteen feet. Thankfully we had a lot of line.

“That’s good. We can probably catch better fish from the boat since you can get fish from deeper water, but, it’s fine. We can chill down here. Also, your face looks a lot less green,” he laughed.

“Not as green as your hoodie,” I teased. Jake and I laughed.

“Hey, um, Aedan... I’m sorry about last night...” Jake apologized. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“It’s ok...” I fist bumped him.

About 20 minutes after arriving, the clouds began to clear. The wind was still blowing but not as hard. “Sun’s comin’ out,” I said, getting my hat on.

“Woo!” Jake pulled off his hoodie and accidentally his t-shirt came off too. I giggled. “Oh gosh that’s a little too chilly.” Jake laughed, putting his blue t-shirt back on. I also pulled my hoodie off.

“That feels better,” I laughed. “Starting to warm up.”

“What’s fishing like back in Tennessee?” Jake asked.

“It’s pretty fun. There was a fishing lake back on the farm or you could go down to the crick...”

“Crick?” Jake giggled. “You mean ‘creek’?”

“I can’t help my country accent!” I laughed, playfully punching him in the shoulder. “OH, I got somethin’.” I shouted a few minutes later. I reeled in a fish that was about 7 inches long.

“Ooh, nice, dude,” Jake pulled it off the line. “DAD!”

“Yes?” Mr. Grant came to the front of the boat to answer his son.

“Can we keep this fish or does he have to go back?” I asked.

“It’s a keeper. You have to throw back the ones that are less than 4 inches.”

I gave a thumbs up sign before setting the fish on the rocky beach. Most people weren’t too fond of fishing, since it does involve quite a bit of waiting, but Jake and I still found it to be fun. Most of the fish here were cod and haddock, which have soft white meat. Jake and I talked for hours while fishing.

By late afternoon, we had all caught quite a few fish. The fish that were large enough to not be returned were put in the freezer on the boat to keep fresh. The ride back to town was uneventful. Nobody puked from seasickness. The seas were pretty calm after the storm had passed. I was able to take a nap, as I was tired from waking up at dawn and then spending all day in the sun.

At dinner that night we ate some of the fish we caught. After the sun went down, Jake and I headed out, grabbing a couple flashlights from the laundry room after I had changed into a pair of shorts to continue our treasure hunt. “Where are you boys going?” Mr. Grant asked.

“Oh, we’re just going for a walk to enjoy the beach at night,” Jake said, which wasn’t a total lie.

“Alright. Just be back before 10 PM,” Mrs. Grant waved.

Jake opened the garage door from the driveway. “There’s some supplies in here we may need.”

“Like what?” I asked, stepping into the dark garage.

“This,” Jake held up a bucket. Inside were those toy beach shovels and sand castle molds.

I stifled a laugh. “Seriously? Those are TOYS!”

“If we have to dig....” Jake picked up a couple toy shovels. “They will be needed.”

We made our way to the whale bone area of the beach. “We can find it faster if we split up,” I suggested, taking a mini-shovel.

“Ok. Nice idea, bro,” Jake nodded.

I kicked off my sandals before stepping into the ankle-deep water. The high tide had submerged most of the area. The whale’s bones were sticking out of the water and provided plenty of hiding spots. We searched for a while, but couldn’t find anything.

“I think this is the wrong spot,” I sighed.

“Yeah... why would this guy bury his treasure in water??”

“Maybe we should check the dry sand instead,” I reasoned. Jake agreed and we began digging higher up on the beach.

After a while of digging and searching, I began to get tired. “Dude, come on, I give up. This treasure was probably found ages ago by someone else.”

“Aedan, we’ll find it. It just takes some time.” Jake reassured me.

I sighed. “Fine...”

We continued digging and searching for another half hour. “Jake, come on, let’s go home. It’s getting late.”

“We need to find this,” Jake insisted. “Come on, Aedan.”

“No. I’m done,” I huffed. “I can’t believe I got my hopes up. Me... having money? Pffft.” I kicked the sand at my bare feet. “It never was gonna happen. Let’s just go back.”

“No, Aedan, you DESERVE that tresure, and we’re gonna get it...” Jake demanded, and grabbed my arm before I walked off.

“You want us to stay out here all night looking?” I shrugged.

“The next place to check is that sand dune,” Jake pointed at a dune about 15 feet away. “You go check it. I need a water break.” I rolled my eyes and grabbed a shovel. Digging through sand with beach toy shovels isn’t an easy task for sure. Each scoop is maybe a half cup of sand, and sand dunes aren't exactly small. Jake came over to help me and we uncovered a cave going down into the rocks and cliffs. Jake, being skinnier than me, went in first to clear more sand so I could fit in.

“How did you know this was the right sand dune?” I asked, pulling off my sweatshirt and t-shirt to climb into the cave.

“That’s assuming the treasure is inside this cave.” Jake reached the bottom. He had left his sweatshirt, flip flops, and shirt at the top, as did I. The bottom of the cave had water in it. Likely from the tides washing in through the sand.

“You didn’t answer me,” I mentioned, my bare feet standing in the cool knee deep water. “How did you know this sea cave was here?”

“Let’s just keep looking,” Jake shrugged. The cave was pretty cool. Some salt crystals were on the rocky walls.

“The water is rising...” I said, noticing it was now slightly above my knees.

“Yeah, it’s a full moon. The tide is rising,” Jake said.

“I can’t drown in here...” I drawled.

“Yo, Aedan,” Jake pointed up. “I see the treasure! It’s still up there.”

“Still?” I asked. The water nearly up to my waist. “Jake... what’s going on?”

“Dude, let’s just get the treasure,” Jake pointed with his thumb. The cave was lit by our flashlights and a little bit of moonlight coming in through a hole in the ceiling.

“How?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.

“That ledge is only six feet up,” Jake said. “We can climb that. Not very steep.”

“Yeah. I could easily climb that.” I nodded, putting my hands on my hips. “We should go before the sea traps us in here.” The water was up to my belly button. “I’ll go first,” I said, walking up to the rocks. The water there was a bit shallower... only about knee deep.

“Be careful, the rocks may be slippery,” Jake said. He stood behind me to catch me if I fell. The rock wall above the water wasn’t slippery, and I climbed up to the sandy ledge. I then helped Jake up. “Thanks,” Jake sighed. He sat on the sand and grabbed a small box. “Here it is.”

“Sweet,” I removed the latch of the small wooden box. “This is pretty clean for a box that’s been sitting in a salty sea cave for 98 years,” I smirked.

“Yeah, weird,” Jake rubbed the back of his neck. I looked inside and saw some gold coins. I smiled. I picked one up.

“Wait... this is just plastic...” my jaw dropped. Jake blushed. “There’s a note...” I looked it over. Hey, Aedan, I know this may surprise you, but this treasure isn’t real. I created this scavenger hunt to do together as friends. You’re awesome, dude, and I hope the scavenger hunt was fun. Your best friend –Jake

“Aedan...” Jake reached out and put his hand on my shoulder after a minute.

“No...” I said, my voice trembling. “Why did you trick me?! I just wanted a fun beach trip with my best friend.”

“And you got that...” Jake smiled. “This was just a fun scavenger hunt. Did you actually think we were going to find ten thousand bucks?”

“Well, you got my hopes up,” I sighed.

“How about we go back to the house?” Jake offered. I nodded.

“How are we getting out of here?” I asked. “In case you forgot, I can’t swim.”

“We have to swim out, okay. It’s not any more than four feet deep.” Thankfully the wooden box and our flashlights were waterproof. Jake climbed down first. The water was up to his bare chest, nearly to his shoulders. “Dude, come on,” The cool sea water greeted my feet again as I stepped in. Jake grabbed my hand. I blushed a little.

The blond boy guided me over to the exit tunnel. We had to swim underwater a few yards until the slope up to the sand dunes. We quickly followed it up to the sandy beach, grabbed our stuff and walked back.

We got to the beach house at around midnight. We rinsed off the sand before coming in, with me covering my torso with a towel again.

“There you boys are…” Mr. Grant sighed when we entered. “Why are you out so late?”

“Sorry, dad, I… we… were finishing up a scavenger hunt. I’m sorry we’re late.”

“Just… go to bed. Neither of you can go out at night anymore. Understood?”

“Yessir,” I nodded.

After showering in silence, Jake and I got ready for bed. “Ugh… I’m sorry about my dad. He can be strict sometimes.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I turned off the lamp and rolled over onto my stomach to fall asleep.