The countryside sped past the window and Connor leaned back in his seat. While his friends spent the summer swimming and playing ball, he would be trapped on a boat, island hopping with his parents. To make matters worse, he was going to miss the annual neighborhood treasure hunt. Old Ms. Wendor hid an egg of money every year somewhere on the block, and this year the whole seventh grade had been talking about the bonus treasure she had planned to hide.
Rumor had it Ms. Wendor possessed a treasure once owned by the fiercest pirates to ever sail the seas, and after all this time she was finally giving it up. Connor could just picture his best friend now searching for the long forgotten booty, while he was stuck on vacation. He grit his teeth and laid his head against the window. This was going to be a long trip.
“Late, late, late. We left late as usual and now we’re stuck behind this bozo. The speed limit is forty-five, can’t you read a sign!” Connor’s father hit the steering wheel and honked the horn. Sending a chill up Connor’s spine.
“Shawn! Do you have to do this? It is what it is, you can’t do anything about it now.” His mother snapped, bracing herself against the dashboard.
“That’s easy for you to say Naureen, if you would have helped Connor and I load the car this morning instead of doing your hair maybe we would have left on time!”
Connor rolled his eyes and reached for a pillow from the backseat. The fluffy covering wasn’t enough to drown out the shrill cries of his mother, so he closed his eyes and imagined he was somewhere far away from his parents. A place where he could relax by the pool with his friends and play baseball all day. Before long he drifted to sleep with the pillow over his face and fingers in his ears.
“Connor…Connor.” Connor’s eyes fluttered open to see his father standing over him and a stern look on his face. “Get up, I need you to help me unload the car.”
With a reluctant sigh Connor slumped out of his seat and grabbed the bags from the back of the car.
“Oh Look a crab!” Connor turned to see his mother waving wildly in the direction of the crustacean before chasing after it with her camera in hand.
“Why doesn’t she have to help?” Connor asked in frustration.
“Leave your mother alone, she does a lot and deserves a break.”
“More like she does nothing.” Connor grumbled under his breath, dragging the luggage behind him.
The small vessel bobbed up and down in the water and Connor hesitated before stepping on board. Instead of the large yacht in his head, he found himself stuck aboard a houseboat with a foreign couple and his parents.
After dropping their baggage in the one room cabin, Connor trudged back up the stairs and leaned against the railing of the deck. The salt air brushed over his face and the water slapped against the bottom of the boat as it skid across the surface.
“You know if you stick a wish in a bottle and somebody finds it your wish will come true?”
Connor’s mom put her hand on his back and looked out over the ocean water. For a moment everything between them was as it had been before. No frustration, no resentment. Just his mother telling him a little piece of lore like she used to when he was younger. She even fixed his shirt and brushed away the dust in the same protective way. Connor smiled and watched a seagull fly by with a crab clutched within its beak. His mother shoved her elbow into his side and pointed to the sky.
“Can you get a picture of that for me? I don’t know how use my camera very well.”
The camera dangled from his mother’s wrist and Connor roughly snatched it away, leaving a line of pink along the inside of her forearm.
“That’s stupid.” Connor said focusing the camera. “The chances of anyone finding a bottle cast into the ocean are slim to none.”
“That’s true I guess.” His mother said thoughtfully. “But don’t you believe in miracles?”
“I’m twelve mom. Not five.” Connor snapped the picture and shoved the camera back into her hand. “How old are you?” He asked as he turned and walked away leaving her all alone.
Desperate to be by himself, Connor sauntered down into the humid cabin and pulled out his favorite book about a young boy who becomes a ninja. His parents had bought him the series when he was nine and he had obsessed about pirates and ninjas ever since.
“You’re lucky.” Connor whispered to the wrinkled pages. “I’d give anything to have never known my parents.”
The boat jostled tossing Connor to the ground and hurling the contents of the family ice chest everywhere.
“Of course.” Connor said with a roll of his eyes. “Just my luck.”
Setting aside his book, Connor picked up the discarded water bottles and placed them back inside the unreliable chest. When he finished putting the last bag of grapes in place, his eyes fell on one of the many water bottles that had fallen to the floor and he bit the inside of his lip.
The constant bickering of his parents traveled down the cabin stairs and Connor shook his head. He didn’t know what he was waiting for. Nothing was ever going to change. Besides it couldn’t hurt to try. Connor reached into the chest and grabbed one of the ice-cold bottles. He unscrewed the cap and chugged until every last drop was gone.
Slipping a small message inside the empty container, Connor stumbled to the window and pushed it open. The waves sprayed him in the face and stung his eyes. Determined to follow through, Connor reached his hand out and let go, dropping the small bottle into the water.
“Who knows.” Connor whispered. “Maybe wishes do come true.”
[…] Pirate Ninjas-Part I […]