by Tonya Kappes
I let out a little gasp from her gesture.
“We did get set up at another camp. Good luck on your hunt.” Sue Ann shrugged as if what she said was A-okay.
“We have no idea what we are doing,” Abby spoke up and took the map out of Agnes’s hand.
“Speak for yourself, child.” Agnes grabbed it back. “My Graham was a treasure hunter. God rest his soul.”
“Did he have any luck?” Sue Ann actually sounded like she really cared.
“Close.” Agnes wasn’t about to say that Graham had failed at anything.
“Close but no cigar,” one of Sue Ann’s crew members said with a tone of sarcasm. Sue Ann nudged him, and Agnes glared at him.
“Is that his map?” she asked Agnes and gestured with her fistful of weeds.
“No. This is one from the library we are doing this afternoon just to get our feet wet in hunting. We are going to use my Graham’s map tomorrow.” Agnes had so much pride in her voice.
“That’s wonderful. We are just hiking from the new campsite to get our surroundings since we don’t want to have to waste any time tomorrow.” She looked up at the trees. “It’s nice in here. Shady.”
“Why is it that you aren’t hunting treasure now?” I asked because it was obviously something she and Mason shared opinions about.
“Once you start the hunt, you truly don’t want to stop to go back to camp until the very last minute. As you can see, it’s pretty dark in here with the sun beating down because the trees are so thick, they shade not only the heat but the light. When you set up camp, which takes a good half a day, it’s hard to even go hunt and come back after a couple hours. You definitely don’t want to set up in the forest because of all the creatures.” She smiled.
“You mean the legend?” Mary Elizabeth quivered.
“Mason has you scared to death.” Sue Ann laughed, and so did her crew. “Not the legend so much as the bears. Can we see your map? Maybe we can hike with you.”
Agnes practically pushed all of us out of the way with her little eighty-year-old body so she could get to Sue Ann and show her the map.
“According to this map and Swift’s April fifteen journal entry, he left fifteen thousand crowns about twenty poles that way.” Agnes might not’ve gone treasure hunting with Graham, but she sure did sound like she knew what she was talking about. “There’s a blush-colored bush next to a rock that’s got three chop marks.”
“I think we’ve seen that bush near the forked white oak,” one of her crew members said.
“We don’t know about this one. Also, according to his journal, he had two horse loads of treasure there.” She smiled. “That’s where we are going this weekend.”
“You saw the bush?” Agnes asked with a lot of interest.
“We did a few months back. Remember, you’re looking at a journal that was written in April. Springtime.” She made a very good point. “With the seasons Kentucky has, a lot of those colors are turned green or even died all together.”
It was like she took a big needle and popped a balloon. That’s how quickly all of our bubbles burst with her words.
“Then we just need to go on back.” Mary Elizabeth twirled around to where we’d come from.
“Hold on there.” Agnes stomped her foot. “What kind of treasure hunter are y’all if you just hightail it back to the camp after a little, tiny setback?”
“Tiny setback?” Mary Elizabeth growled. “These journal entries are the only thing we have to go by, and that includes the colors of the bushes and trees.”
“We still have the map. We still have the three-chop-mark rock. That won’t change colors,” Agnes spat back. “Now, you can go back by yourself, or you can go with us.”
Sue Ann Jaffarian and her crew stood there as if we were a show to watch. They appeared to be entertained by the glee on our faces.
“Any words of advice?” I asked her.
“Okay, listen.” Sue Ann took the chance to talk to us. “Treasure hunting is hard. If everyone doesn’t like it, then one of you should head up to the information center back at camp.”
“Information center at camp?” Mary Elizabeth really liked that suggestion.
“Yes. I’m sure Mason has a tent set up at camp already.” We all nodded, and she continued, “In the tent is the information center. It’s got all the maps and locations he and his team, which I think is just Dirk this time, will hike to and hunt around. They’ve spent years on these locations and have stacks of places to look. Each time we come out here, we pick one or two locations to hunt. Every day they’ll come back and mark off places they believe where the Swift journals and maps have taken them. They will make notes about the places and log any sort of treasure they find.”
“No one has found any sort of Swift mine.” Queenie was very confident.
“Actually, several people have found a lot of the counterfeit crowns. We’ve found at least one every time we’ve come here to hunt. That’s probably what keeps me coming back. It does make me feel like his claims are true.” Her words got me a little excited to find something.
“Really?” I asked a little shocked.
“Are you not a believer, Mae?” she asked me. Apparently, I didn’t have a good poker face. Something to remember.
A beeping sound came from the pocket of one of her crew members.
“You get cell service?” Abby Fawn jumped on it. She must’ve been having withdrawal from her social media.
“No. It’s the walkie-talkie.” Sue Ann stuck her hand out, and he gave her the unit. “Please tell me you have one with you.”
All five of us looked at each other before we all felt ashamed and looked down at our feet.
“Go ahead,” she spoke into the device.
“Yeah, Mason is at it again. This new campsite said they got a complaint, and we need to move.” The voice on the other end came through very loud and clear.
“I swear.” Sue Ann’s face turned pink, but the more she talked, the more her blush turned to fire-engine red and dripped down her neck. “He’s going to give me hives.”
“What are we going to do?” one of them asked her.
“Kill him. He and I both can’t be treasure hunters.” She put the walkie-talkie back up to her mouth. “We are coming back. Don’t do anything until I talk to them.”
With that, Sue Ann Jaffarian and her crew headed back the way they’d come.
“What are we going to do?” Mary Elizabeth had the information center in her head now. There was no way she would let that go.
“I think we need to go back.” I looked up and tried to gauge where the sun was located in the sky. In no way could I even see through the trees, but I did know it was getting darker, and soon what little light there was peeking through the leaves would be gone. “It’s going to get too dark to find our way back.”
“It’s not the dark. I can do that with my compass. It’s the bears.” Agnes walked to the back of the line as I was holding up the rear. “My Graham said to never let a bear see ya in here. He said you’d never make it out alive.”
Goosebumps ran up my legs. Was Graham talking about being attacked by the bear or by the John Swift curse?
SEVEN
The closer we got to camp, the more something just smelled better and better. When we made it out of the forest and back into the clearing, my stomach was delighted to see Mason had taken instructions from Mary Elizabeth about getting supper together.
Mason, Dirk, and Ritchie stood around the roaring campfire. There was a big pot hanging across the fire and a grill plate set up next to it.
“Y’all are just in time.” Mason popped straight up from over the fire when he saw us walking toward him. “We are having steak nachos, grilling style.”
My mouth watered at the sight of the steaks he had in the skillet. They smelled delicious, and the sound of the sizzle was music to my ears. I wasn’t sure what it was about campfire food that made it taste extra good. Maybe it was the entire package of the sounds of
the night or just being in the open air, or even among friends, but there was no place I’d rather be than right here watching Mason cook.
“Did you find anything?” Dirk was placing the tortilla chips in the large pot hanging over the fire. He added some black beans, corn, and green chilis along with some shredded cheese.
Queenie, Abby, and Agnes had walked over to the cooler to get drinks.
“A whole lot of Sue Ann,” Mary Elizabeth said, making Mason look over.
Dirk didn’t stop layering the nacho ingredients on top of each other. He continued to look at the steak Mason was tending to, though he was Mason’s sous-chef and getting all the food prepared and cooked at the same time.
“What she means”—I shot Mary Elizabeth a look—“is that we were hiking and ran into Sue Ann and a couple of her crew members.”
“She was not happy with you.” Agnes had joined us at the tail end of the conversation. “She said you keep getting her kicked out of campgrounds.”
“You can’t do that. The forest and park are open to anyone. Even the campgrounds.” Queenie should have known since she was the president of the Historical Society. “Ritchie has to pay a fee, you know.”
“Ritchie wanted to keep the peace.” Mason flipped the steaks over. If I could’ve seen his face through the smoke from the steaks, I was sure he would look mad. It was the tone in his voice that told me he didn’t like hearing we’d seen his ex. “Besides, he didn’t kick her out.”
He was taking up for Ritchie’s actions as if Queenie were the camping police.
“What did she say exactly?” Mason took the skillet from the flame and put it on the rock next to us.
“She just said how the two of you dated and how you didn’t want her here.” I left out the part where she pulled her finger across her neck, wishing he were dead.
Not Agnes.
“She got word you had her removed from another campground, and she wished you dead.” Agnes giggled. “You done made that girl mad.”
“What’s that saying about a woman scorned?” Dirk nudged Mason. They both laughed.
Dirk took the steaks out of the skillet and placed them on a cutting board, where he cut them into strips. Mason had abandoned the meal altogether and was visibly upset with the news about us seeing and talking to Sue Ann.
“She stole my maps. She doesn’t deserve to be at this site.” He jerked his hand towards the woods. “She thinks she can just come in here when I’m here and follow my maps. At least she can come when I’m not here.”
Dirk looked at me from underneath his brows and rolled his eyes. He made me feel like this was an ongoing discussion between them.
“Did she honestly say she wished I was dead?” Mason’s brows furrowed.
Mary Elizabeth dragged her finger across her neck, giving me an expression I didn’t figure on.
“My pearls.” She jumped up. “Now that I’ve been out there, I can say I participated in the John Swift silver treasure hunt. I can put on my pearls and stay behind tomorrow.”
“Aren’t you going to eat while it’s hot?” Mason tried to stop her when he scooped up some of the layered nachos and topped them with the steak on a plate. “Those pearls can wait.”
“I’m good.” Mary Elizabeth hightailed it across camp to my camper. “I’ll be right back.”
Neither Agnes, Queenie, Abby, nor I needed any coaxing on having a plate. Just as we all sat down and got comfortable, the loudest shrieks came out of the camper followed by a frantic Mary Elizabeth.
“You stole my pearls!” she screamed to high heaven. “Where are they?”
“What? Who?” I put my plate down and walked to meet her.
“Him!” She continued to yell and point at Mason. “That sonofa…”
“Stop.” I pushed her arm down. “What did you teach me about pointing at people? It’s bad manners.”
“It’s bad manners to steal people’s things.” She spat and glared over my shoulder at Mason. “He took them, and I want them back.”
“I didn’t take anything.” Mason’s jaw dropped. He looked at everyone, put his plate down, and stood up. “I’ve been going over my maps and cooking. I didn’t even go near your camper.”
“You’re the only one who even noticed my pearls, and we had a discussion.” Mary Elizabeth stalked over to him and put her hand out. “You can give them to me, and we forget it, or I call Hank. Call Hank anyways, Mae.”
Now she wanted to be bragging on me and Hank, but earlier, she was trying to get me all hooked up with Mason.
“We don’t have cell service,” Abby reminded her. She hadn’t touched her food yet. She seemed to be waiting to see what was happening with the pearls. No way did this situation bother Queenie and Agnes. They were shoveling it in as fast as they could alongside Dirk.
“Let’s go look one more time,” I suggested, thinking it was a pretty good idea.
“Yeah. Maybe you don’t remember where you put them.” Mason had said the wrong thing.
“Are you calling me old? Are you saying my memory is gone? Because I remember fine how you offered me money for my pearls, and when I refused, you stole them when I turned my back.” She rubbed her bare neck. “I knew I shouldn’t’ve taken them off.”
“Just go back and look for them. Make sure before you go accusing someone,” Agnes grumbled.
Mary Elizabeth let out a few huffs and puffs before she gave in to all those who agreed.
“It’s not like he’s going anywhere,” I told her while I escorted her back to the camper. “Maybe they fell out of wherever you put them. It’s not going to take us long to find them.”
“I’m telling you I didn’t misplace them, or they didn’t fall out. I looked before I realized they were gone and came out here to get them back from Mason.” Mary Elizabeth was getting older, though I didn’t think she was getting Alzheimer’s or anything. Just forgetful.
“I forget things all the time,” I confessed. “Like keys.” I shrugged.
“Are you really going to try to sell that to me? Because I’m not buying.” She stomped up the step into the camper. We walked back into the bedroom. “I put them right here in the red velvet pouch after I changed my clothes. The red velvet pouch they came in, and it’s gone.”
“Let’s just look.” I took the bed covers off my bed and shook them. “Let’s look under the mattress.”
I knew it wasn’t under there since the mattress sat on top of some storage that was built into the camper. But if it was going to make her happy, I was willing to take everything out of the camper so we could find it.
“I told you Mason stole them,” she continued to say every time we’d move something or pull something up to look under it.
“I’m afraid I don’t see them.” I braced myself for the hissy fit she was about to throw as I watched her chest heave up and down from the breaths she took in and out of her nose.
“Maybe we can look again.” It wouldn’t hurt. “I just don’t think he took them.”
“Oh.” She threw her hands up in the air. “Are you going to tell me it’s the John Swift curse, and my pearls just vanished? Poof.” She was getting snarky now. “All good.” She brushed her hands off in front of her.
Her eyes narrowed. Her jaw tensed. Her fist clenched.
“I’m going to go into his camper and look. He can’t stop me.” She twirled on the balls of her hiking boots and left the camper.
“Lord, please help whoever took her pearls,” I said, wondering if we should just all pack up and head on back to the Happy Trails Campground, where we were all happy.
By the time I made it out of the camper, Mary Elizabeth had gone over to Mason’s camper with him on her heels. They were in an all-out cat fight.
“What are you going to do about this?” Abby questioned with a scared look on her face. “They don’t care.” She gestured to Agnes, Queenie, and Dirk.
All three of them were still crunching down on the nachos. I was jealous.
“What d
o you want me to do?” I snapped back at Abby. “The pearls are gone. I took everything apart in the camper. You and I both know she had them on. I did hear the banter between her and Mason where he tried to buy them off her. He even flirted with her.”
“It doesn’t make him a thief.” Abby was quick to not have any conflict. It was just her quiet nature.
“No, but it does seem fishy since he’s the one so interested in them.” I didn’t bother going to get between Mason and Mary Elizabeth because she’d take him and me down with one lash of her tongue. He would soon find it out.
Soon was real soon.
He staggered out of his camper from the top of the steps after Mary Elizabeth gave him a hard push backwards.
“She’s your mom.” He looked at me like I had three heads.
“Yeah. I know the consequences. Listen, if you took them, it’s best to just give them back.” I wondered if reasoning with him would work.
“If I took them? I didn’t take them.” He ran his hand through his hair when we all heard some slamming noises coming from the camper. “She’s going to tear my stuff up.”
“Just give them back.” There was truly no other explanation.
“What’s going on?” Ritchie had come over to the group.
“Mary Elizabeth’s pearls are gone, and she thinks Mason took them, since he offered to buy them from her.” Dirk scooped up a piece of steak with a nacho that dripped with cheese and stuffed it into his mouth.
“He was really wanting them, and if that’s the case, maybe he should leave camp,” Ritchie said. “I’m about to head home. Do you want me to call the police?”
“Yes. We do! Call the police! Call Hank Sharp!” Mary Elizabeth stood at the open door of the camper with her hands on her hips. “Tell them to bring the paddy wagon and take this thief away!”
“Yeah! Call the police!” Mason yelled at Mary Elizabeth when she marched down the steps and back to the group.