Doubloon!

I would like to thank my father for giving me his sense of humor and storytelling gift. My delightful wife, Becky, who took the white light of my story and, like a prism, turned it into beautiful colors like a sunset. My children, who are everything to me, helped with the content of this story both by their actions and their editing. Thanks to Becky and Olivia for their drawings.

—Bruce Rougraff

Contents

Dedication

Preface

Chapter 1 - Voyage

Chapter 2 - Trip

Chapter 3 - Florida

Chapter 4 - Hole

Chapter 5 - Coin

Chapter 6 - Marco

Chapter 7 - Smell

Chapter 8 - Persistence

Chapter 9 - Doubloon

Chapter 10 - Friends

Chapter 11 - Rain

Chapter 12 - Deception

Chapter 13 - Faker

Chapter 14 - Regret

Chapter 15 - Osprey

Chapter 16 - Mikey

Chapter 17 - Tortoise

Chapter 18 - Curse

Chapter 19 - Trip

Chapter 20 - Championship

Chapter 21 - Boat

Chapter 22 - Gasparilla

Chapter 23 - Ocean

Chapter 24 - Restoration

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Other cool stuff I learned

Preface

People say that we have a big family. I have three older sisters who are in high school: Marie, Ann, and Fran. Then comes Auggie, my big brother, then me, and finally my baby brother, Mikey. I’m Tommy, the fifth kid, and I’m in fourth grade. I really like my teacher, but she doesn’t think much of me. I’m good at math, but English and writing, not so much. My teacher is always after me for bad grammar, run-on sentences, and not knowing what a metaphor is. I never get better than a C in English. I don’t like to read much either. One question I never get right on tests is What would be the best title for this paragraph? I think stories with one-word titles are the best. A one-word title makes you think. Long titles seem too hard to understand and are confusing. But there is never a choice on the test for a one-word title. So I pick the shortest answer and get the question wrong every time. My sister, Fran, is really good at writing and reading and stuff. She knows what a metaphor is and other big words that I don’t understand. She loves to tell me how stupid I am to get Cs in English.

So you are probably getting worried about reading this book now, if I’m so bad in English. I’m sure not going to let my teacher read it! I know she would give me another bad grade, and then no one would read this book. And that would be a shame, because it’s a good story. Anyway, here goes....

CHAPTER

1

Voyage

There were three of them left alive. The last two survivors of the ambush were trying to escape. One was a small cabin boy, and the other was the young captain of the sinking ship. They were being chased by a huge, sword-wielding pirate. Their ship had been bound for Spain, carrying chests of gold coins and jewels. The greedy buccaneer wanted the last of that gold. He screamed at the cabin boy, Avast, ye! Gimme that sack of gold!

He had a red rag around his sunburned head and a patch over one eye. With sweat rolling down his face, he had a ferocious look in his one good eye. As he lifted his sword, the cabin boy noticed that the pirate’s teeth were surprisingly white. His lips were curled into a wicked sneer. He was limping, which made it easier for the cabin boy to dash away toward the captain. The two seamen quickly looked around the deck of the ship. There was no easy escape. The ocean around the boat was teeming with man-eating sharks. The water was alight with fire from burning, broken planks and tar that had spewed from the ship. The air stunk of burning flesh. The seamen’s noses stung from exploded gunpowder and smoke. The agonized screams of dying men in the water could be heard as the sharks began to circle them and bite at their legs. Birds soared overhead as well, selfishly waiting for a taste of the spoils. All of the crew and pirates who remained on the ship were either dead or dying. Blood was everywhere. The cabin doors were smashed and splattered red with blood. The ship’s wheel was broken into pieces and draped with a dead seaman’s body; a handle of the wheel stuck through a large, gaping wound in his chest. A dead pirate lay at his feet. Clearly, the seamen could not count on any help from their crew. The sound of water gushing into the ship’s hull was loud, and obviously the ship was going down. The seamen needed an escape. In a split second, the cabin boy grabbed a rigging rope and began to climb. As he made his way up the rigging to the crow’s nest, he heard the captain call, Catch the bag, boy!

The cabin boy looked down as the captain tossed him a leather pouch containing the last of the gold coins. The boy fumbled and then grasped the heavy sack and continued to climb. The ropes were slippery, but he climbed skillfully, as he had done a thousand times before. The captain clamored up the rigging behind him, stopping abruptly to take a swing at the pirate with his sword. He swung hard and fast at the scoundrel’s thick neck and drew blood. But this only made the pirate angrier. Aarg! he screamed at the two, which made them both stop for a second in their gallant climb to the crow’s nest. They were so young and fast that they were getting ahead of the savage pirate. The captain once again bravely paused to kick the head of the pirate with the heel of his heavy boot, connecting directly with his ugly patched eye. This worked, and the pirate released his hold on the rigging and fell on his back onto the ship’s deck below with a loud crash. The pirate shook his head and groaned. He glared up at the two seamen. The young boy was already in the crow’s nest, yelling for the captain to hurry up and join him. The ship continued to slowly sink. Suddenly, a hideous sea monster arose from the side of the ship and let out a blood-curdling sound....

What are you idiots doing in here? You are supposed to be packing your things for our trip! It’s a good thing Mom didn’t hear that crashing noise or you all would be in time-out, big-time!

Man, could my sister Fran be annoying! She loved to see us get into trouble. And if you don’t give me some of those gummy bears, Mikey, I’m telling Mom. She reached up to the crow’s nest, grabbed our sack of gold coins, and took out a handful of gummy bears. Then she abruptly stormed out of our bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

Auggie, looking defeated, took off his red do-rag and his old eye patch. He laid down his cardboard sword wrapped in tin foil. I think Fran is right. We need to quit goofing around and get packed for our trip.

Mikey and I climbed down from the crow’s nest (top bunk) and put our swords away. We ate some gummy bears and looked around our room at the mess we had made. We loved playing pirates!

CHAPTER

2

Trip

Believe it or not, I had never been on a vacation before. My dad said money was tight and we all had to suck it up and wait. So it had always been staycations for us. We always stayed home on holidays and over summers. But this particular year, I guess things were better with his business, so my parents decided to take us on a beach vacation for spring break. Needless to say, I was psyched!

My oldest sister, Marie, was going to graduate from high school soon, so she wanted to go to Cancún with all her friends for senior break. But Mom said over my dead body.

Mom insisted that this was going to be a family trip. It might possibly be the last chance for us all to go someplace together. Dad had some old friend, Ed, who found us a place to stay. Dad said, I used to go to this island as a kid with my family and have been there many times. Ed is a great old guy who I know very well. When I got older, I used to go on big fishing adventures with him and his brother. He is a very interesting man who you will love talking to. The cottage is next door to him and across the street from the beach.

Marie and Ann groaned. Is there anything else to do on this island besides talk to an old man named Ed? Marie asked.

Dad ignored them. It’s hard to find a place big enough for all eight of us to stay together. Hotel rooms are way too small. Even most houses would be a tight squeeze. But this house next to Ed has plenty of room for us to stay comfortably.

Well, anyway, we were finally gonna get to go on a weeklong vacation for spring break. And we were going to fly on a plane! Since we were having really cold weather at home with a lot of late snow, a warm trip to Florida sounded good. Not that I didn’t like snow. I loved to make snowmen and go sledding down our favorite sledding hill, just a few blocks from our house. I’ve even made some snow sleds of my own. Sometimes me and Auggie and our friends raced our sleds down the big snow hill. The cold weather gets old though, and the thought of going to a beach sounded great to me. Especially since I had never seen a beach before!

My sisters cringed when Dad explained that Ed’s island was a secluded one off the coast of Florida that you could only get to by a barge from the mainland. The island did not even have a bridge. My sisters were still whining about Cancún. Mom said to Dad, The good thing about this island is that no one can get into too much trouble or go too far away. We can all relax. When parents use the word relax, Auggie says they mean boring. I guess that’s why my sisters were all whining. Oh well.

Mom got really annoyed and told the girls to kwitcherbellyakin’ and to stop acting like little spoiled princesses.

Fran mumbled, We can’t be princesses raised in this lame family. Mom didn’t hear her. Fran was sure that she was not really meant to be part of our family. According to her, there was some mistake made in the hospital when she was born, and she was supposed to be an only child in a super-rich family. She was sure that her real parents were incredibly smart, like her, and that they loved the arts and classical music and reading books and sitting around discussing the hidden meaning of thick books with small print and things like metaphors and other big words that my English teacher tries to teach me, and that they spent every weekend in some cool foreign country on vacation. (Oops, I think that was a run-on sentence—sorry.) Anyway, I have more than a few siblings who agreed with Fran—she definitely belonged in some other family.

While we were getting ready for the trip, I found a great shovel in the garage and packed it in my suitcase. It was my grandpa’s World War II Army shovel. It was green and, when folded in half, fit in my suitcase perfectly. It was used for digging foxholes in the Army. My grandpa fought in World War II. He was a radio operator in the US Air Force, so I don’t know why he needed a shovel to dig foxholes. He never explained that to me. The shovel was old but looked almost brand-new, as if it had never been used. I decided that if I was going to go to the beach, I was going to dig the biggest hole ever! This shovel would be perfect for digging holes on the beach. Why else would you go to a beach? Beaches are for digging holes, right?

My sister Fran told me that I was stupid because I would never get Grandpa’s shovel through security. The police would arrest me at the airport. I guessed that the pirate swords were a no-go too. We were going to fly on a plane to get to this beach vacation. I had never been on a plane before, so I didn’t know about airplanes, security, or any of that stuff. I’m only in the fourth grade. Obviously, I did not want to be arrested. So I asked my dad about bringing the shovel, and he said we could buy one when we got there. He seemed like he was busy thinking about something else. I reminded him again the next day about buying a shovel. He said, Sure, son. That worried me because Auggie taught me long ago that when a dad says Sure, son, he really means Ain’t gonna happen. So I tried to keep reminding him, but after a few more times, I forgot. I’m only nine years old, so I can’t be expected to remember stuff. It’s not my fault that I forgot to keep reminding Dad more about the shovel. Spoiler: my dad never did buy me that shovel.

I packed my Batman swimsuit, a few T-shirts, and my toothbrush. Auggie was bringing a book, but I definitely wasn’t. I was on vacation with no homework and nothing that I had to read! Fran packed three books. She said that they were classics, whatever that meant. They were really thick books with lots of pages, small print, and big words. I packed my baseball hat and my favorite flip-flops. I got out my Batman backpack and put my flashlight inside. Batman was the coolest! Then Fran dumped one of her fattest books into my backpack. She said that I had to carry it for her because her suitcase was full. My suitcase was small and still mostly empty. So Mom made me fill it with shorts, socks, underwear, and dress-up pants and shoes. Really? Who wears dress shoes on a beach? She thought we might go out to a nice restaurant. I had never been to the beach, so I didn’t argue. My sisters had huge suitcases, and they were packed so tightly that Auggie had to sit on them so that they could zip them closed.

Auggie asked, Geez, what have you guys got in these? My suitcase isn’t even close to this full.

Marie said, Boys just don’t get it! We need a swimsuit for every day, a different dress for every night, and shoes to match. Plus, we need a cover-up for each swimsuit. We need makeup and perfume and hair wraps and blow-dryers. See what we girls go through so boys will notice us?

I mumbled, I’m not sure that stuff matters to boys. Ann said, That’s because you’re nine. You’ll change your mind when you’re older. The girls giggled and started adding some of their extra clothes to Auggie’s suitcase.

Wow!

Finally, after weeks of planning, packing suitcases, and waiting, it was time to go. We took an Uber to the airport. On the way, Mom asked us, Does anyone have any liquids in their carry-on bags?

Fran answered, No, Mom, we aren’t idiots. We all know that we can’t have liquids in our carry-ons. Seriously, you guys, if anybody has liquids in their bag, they should be arrested just for being so stupid!

I thought about this carefully, and I was sure that there was nothing but my flashlight and Fran’s book in my Batman backpack. The last thing I needed was Fran calling me stupid or to get arrested at the airport!

The Uber driver dropped us off at the entrance to the airport, and we got out with our suitcases and bags. The airport looked huge! Auggie and I were gonna be tired: we had to drag our bags and our sisters’ bags and carry our backpacks too. But I didn’t realize that we got