The Treasure of Pirate Dad Mark Cohen "C'mon
boys," my father urged, "time to get up." My brother and I slowly came to life. "I've found a treasure map," he
continued, "but we've got to start right now -- before the pirates come
back for the treasure." It was a
sunny morning in the summer of 1964 and we were vacationing near Gloucester,
Massachusetts. I was six and Roy was
three. The
thought of searching for buried treasure got us hopping; every child knows
about buried treasure, but how many are fortunate enough to come into
possession of a genuine treasure map?
We were ready in an instant, but after discussing it with my mother, my
father decided we had time for breakfast before we set out on our journey. "Show
us the map, show us the map," we sang in unison. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, my father
carefully removed the map from his shirt pocket and revealed it to us. It was old and wrinkled; dotted lines
traversed it and a giant "X" marked the spot where the treasure was buried. "Where
did you find it?" I asked. "I
bought it from an old sea captain," said my father. My brother and I were in awe. Dad
paid for breakfast and we drove to the beach.
We exited the green Buick station wagon, eager to begin our quest. "Aren't you boys forgetting
something?" my father asked. My
brother and I looked at each other.
"We're going to need some shovels to dig up the treasure; you'd
better take your shovels and pails."
We gathered our plastic shovels and beach pails. "Alright,"
said my father as he examined the map, "the first thing we have to do is
find the rock with the dragon painted on it." "There
it is," I said as I pointed. "Over
there," said Roy. The three of us
walked to the dragon. My father
examined the map closely. Dad was sure
smart; he could even read old pirate maps. "Now
we have to walk twenty paces to the piece of driftwood," my father
said. We carefully walked twenty paces
and, sure enough, we ran smack into a piece of driftwood. "Now
whadda we do?" I asked. He studied
the map. "Now
we must face the sun and walk fifteen paces in that direction." He showed us the map; there was a drawing of
the sun on it and a dotted line connecting it with the driftwood. We began walking, counting our steps out
loud. "Giant
crab!" my dad shouted. My brother
and I jumped sky high. "Dad,"
I said, "don't do that. Let's find
the treasure." My brother started
crying and it took my dad a minute to get him calmed down. "Well,"
he said, "it looks like now we have to go forty paces toward the tallest
tree on the far side of the beach."
He showed us the map and we walked it off together. When we completed our forty paces, a giant
"X" appeared in the sand.
"Start digging," my father smiled. In
an instant my brother and I were hard at work with our orange plastic
shovels. We dug pretty deep, but found
nothing. "I don't think it's
here," I said. "Me
neither," echoed Roy. "Should
we give up?" my father asked.
"The pirates probably buried it pretty deep to make sure nobody
would find it." We resumed digging
and soon hit something hard. We scraped
at it with our hands and saw we had found a flat wooden surface. As
we dug more, we realized we had struck a wooden chest -- about one foot long
and one foot deep. With help from my
father, we removed the heavy wooden box and set it down in the sand. The only problem was there was a lock on it. "The
sea captain gave me this key," my father said. He handed it to me, but I couldn't open the lock. "Let me try," said my dad. He jiggled the key and the lock popped
open. We opened the chest and saw more
coins than we had ever seen -- pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and
half-dollars. That
was years ago. As I got older I began
to question whether my father hadn't staged the whole episode. After all, pirates probably stopped burying
treasure long before the U.S. Mint started producing Kennedy half-dollars. The ancient treasure map could have been
aged by pouring coffee on it. And why
wouldn't the sea captain have gone after the treasure himself? Well,
maybe my father pulled the wool over our eyes, but it was a great adventure for
two little boys. And I still have the
chest. © 2001 Mark Cohen Mark Cohen earned a BA in Economics from Whitman College and earned his law degree at the University of Colorado in Boulder. A former Air Force Judge Advocate, he now works as a part-time prosecutor. He lives in Nederland, Colorado, with his wife, Tana, their daughter Natalea, and three dogs -- Pepper, Scrappy, and Bear. His non-legal articles have appeared in magazines such as Inside Kung Fu, Camping & RV, and Modern Dad. His novel, The Fractal Murders, is on the SouthernCross Review e-book list. |