‘So all along they’ve been looking for this buried treasure?’ Petra asked. They could have just asked her! Those fools, she thought. And then it dawned on her that they’d had the answer in her diary for weeks but hadn’t even found it. She shook her head angrily.
‘What’s wrong?’ Cousin Mark asked.
‘Nothing. My friends. They are so silly.’
‘So what happens now?’ Mark asked Mr Brown. ‘Is the treasure gonna be taken out of here?’
Mr Brown shook his head. ‘No. The treasure is right here. It cannot be taken from the land. It’s part of the land. And I’m the gatekeeper.’
‘So how do these boys get it if it’s theirs?’
Mr Brown shrugged. ‘I don’t know. We will have to see what they do next.’ He looked up to the top of the hill. The smell of sulfur was still strong in the air but it was completely dark now. ‘Let us go back to the house,’ he said. ‘I think there will be bad spirits up there tonight.’
Petra stayed close to Mark as they walked down the dark path to the village of Hethite where Mark’s warm, dry house waited for them. She hadn’t seen Mackey and his men be sucked down into Lake Mashal. She didn’t know that there really were bad spirits up on the mountain that night.
Chapter 23
Petra stood watching as James and Jerome packed their belongings into the waiting car. ‘I found it first!’ she said as James carried his suitcase past her.
He shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ James said. ‘I don’t care about that treasure.’ He put his suitcase down and approached Petra.
‘If I e-mail you, will you answer?’
She looked away toward the mountains in the distance and sniffed. ‘Maybe.’Then she unfolded her arms and said: ‘Yes.’
‘OK,’ James said and picked up his suitcase again.
She walked across the street to her house, to write in her diary that she would miss James, even though he really needed a haircut.
***
The boys stared out of the windows of Uncle Peter’s car as it sped toward the airport. This is it. They were leaving for America. For Jerome, it finally seemed real and he was actually excited. He couldn’t wait to start his new school, make new friends, find great books on astrophysics and maybe anthropology. He glanced at his brother, who was also staring out of the window as they passed by their old school, the market place, looking strangely naked now that the remains of the crumbled tower had been swept away, and then onto the mini-highway to the airport. The last time they had been on this road they’d been searching for treasure.
They didn’t talk much about it anymore. It would take a long time before they got over the image of Julius Mackey and his men disappearing into a lake of boiling hot water. That had cured any curiosity about any gold or diamonds buried or elsewhere on the island. John-Boy had done the work and found out that what they thought was Lake Mashal was actually one in a series of hot springs and lakes that occasionally cropped up in the volcanic mountains. It was just a freak natural occurrence that the lake dried up and replenished itself so quickly. Unfortunate and unexpected.
Unexpected as the kiss on the lips Edwina had given Jerome on the front porch that morning. ‘Make sure you e-mail me,’ she’d said. ‘I cannot wait to see you when you come back on holidays.’ Jerome had buried that feeling deep down inside where no one could ever find it, and he’d keep it there forever.
Then they’d said goodbye to a gloomy Charlie, who looked Jerome straight in the eye as he said: ‘I guess I’ll have Edwina to talk to at least.’ Cider wept profusely as if it were her own two best friends who were leaving the country. Granny did her best to provide comfort.
Surprisingly, Father Mackey’s health had improved. They saw him the day before they left and he seemed energetic and youthful. He had sat the boys down in his study and told them the history of Abraham Mackey, Jeremiah Mackey’s slave.
‘I’m so proud of you boys for following this all the way through,’ he said repeatedly. ‘Abe Mackey would have been proud of you,’ he said. ‘He probably is looking down from heaven smiling at you right now,’ Father Mackey said.
‘Father Mackey,’ Jerome started. ‘Why you didn’t tell us in the beginning that it was our ancestors’ treasure we were looking for?’
Father Mackey shrugged. ‘I wanted you boys to do this because you wanted to, not because you felt that you had to. You had nothing to prove to me or anyone, yet you saw it all the way through using your guts and your minds.’
‘But we still don’t have it,’ James said. ‘We saw the gold but…’
Father Mackey laughed and put up his hand. ‘James, one day you will realise just what it is you’ve found.’ James shook his head not quite understanding. More mysteries. It would never end, he thought.
They didn’t raise the topic of Julius Mackey’s death. Father Mackey said that he did not want to dwell on that fact. ‘My brother and I were never close. He was too greedy for his own good.’
‘We’ll miss you,’ Jerome said.
‘Oh, I won’t be too far away,’ Father Mackey said smiling. ‘I’ll always be here for you boys. You two have brought so much to my life. So much. I could never repay you.’
‘Granny, do you think you’ll go back to work for Father Mackey?’ James asked Granny who was sitting in the back seat with them. She’d agreed to spend the boys’ first three months in the United States with them. Just to make sure they wouldn’t cause John-Boy and his wife too much trouble.
She shrugged. ‘He still needs to eat.’
‘Aren’t you excited to be going to America, Granny?’ James asked for the umpteenth time.
‘I’m not going to be living in America,’ Granny said firmly. ‘My home will always be here.’
John-Boy looked back at his boys and winked. Maybe, just maybe, they could change Granny’s mind.
The car’s engine groaned as it climbed the mountainous road. The airport was only a few miles away. Jerome could see a figure standing on the side of the deserted mountain road.
‘It’s Mr Brown.’ Jerome almost whispered this as the memory returned of a legless Mr Brown suddenly walking on his own two feet after the tower crumbled.
‘What’s he doing out here on the road by himself?’ James asked.
‘He’s not by himself,’ Jerome said.
A tall, dark man had come out of the bushes and was standing next to him. He was wearing a big straw hat, a long-sleeved white shirt and durable, high-waist trousers.
Uncle Peter slowed the car as they drew near.
‘You want a ride somewhere, gentlemen?’ Uncle Peter asked. ‘You could maybe squeeze in.’
‘No, boy. No ride.’ Mr Brown never looked at Uncle Peter, instead he fixed his gaze on the boys. ‘I’m waiting.’ The man standing next to Mr Brown was silent and was also staring intently at the boys.
‘Waiting for what?’ Uncle Peter asked.
‘Just waiting,’ Mr Brown said. He and the tall man waved as they drove away.
Also Available
Front Matter
Title Page
Legal Information
By the Same Author
About the Author
Dedication
Body Matter
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
> Back Matter
Also Available
Abraham's Treasure Page 15