Burden

I was euphoric walking home in the cold. Did I have a plan? No. Did I really think we could find the treasure? Who knew? We had a better starting point than many, considering we had the book. Cian had two weeks off, but he needed to finish emptying the apartment. I needed time to read up, and I had to ask uncle for some days off. I hadn’t taken a vacation in years, I was due.

I usually took a taxi home, but I needed to walk off some energy, and I needed to sober up. I wanted to read more to see if I spotted any clues, this whole adventure wouldn’t happen if we didn’t know where to start. On my way, I thought about Cian. Could I trust him? He seemed like a good guy, but I knew looks could deceive. We hadn’t talked about what we would do IF we actually found a treasure, the thought of that too fantastic to dwell with right now. I just knew I wanted to try. I googled Cian on my phone and what I found matched with what he`d told me. I found a video of him and some mates on a pub, presumable in Mullingar, where they played guitar and sang, he was quite good at it. The golf-course he managed looked respectable, and his family looked normal. The things you could find out with just a phone today astonished me. Then I had a thought and googled myself. Nothing untoward there, pictures from me in school happenings and from work. Cian wouldn’t find anything that would put him off this if he googled me. We had agreed to meet up the next day, to look over our options and lay some sort of a plan. Struggling up the last hill I realised I felt like Bilbo, running out his door, going on an adventure.

Early next morning, I had coffee and tea ready. Uncle Callum hadn’t showed yet, and that was good, I didn’t need him to push his nose into all this. There was a knock on the door, and I went to unlock it, we weren’t open for business yet. Cian had sleep in his eyes and yawned as I let him in. “Please, can you verify to me that what we talked about yesterday wasn’t a dream?” His voice was gruff in the morning, it seemed he just had rolled out of bed. I smiled as I hung up his coat, “You mean the part where I asked you to come treasure hunting with me?”

“I still can`t believe I said yes to this, we have nothing to go from, except a book that might be legit.” He gave a little laugh in disbelief. I grabbed my coffee, feeling more confident today. “I`m 99% sure it is legit. Maybe you can ask around in your family, so we can find out why your aunt or uncle had it? That might help us.” He frowned, “I think auntie Maggie was normal, I can vaguely remember her from family gatherings. But Uncle was a bit of a clown, he wasn’t from Ireland, so I guess maybe our family didn’t like him because auntie married out of the country.”

I took a sip of coffee and a scone, while I gestured to Cian to help himself. “How did they end up in Scotland, and why did you inherit the apartment?” He chewed fast to reply; “Uncle got a job at a school here, he was originally from Cornwall, where he met auntie while she was on a school trip, as I recall the stories. For the apartment, well, it`s a bit strange, it was a clausula in her will that it was to go to the last child of the line over 18 that wasn’t married or had children. And that happened to be me.” I listened, but it was one thing that caught me ear. “Cornwall?” He nodded with his mouth full of scones and strawberry jam. “You know, Cornwall isn’t that far away from Newton Ferrers, where Henry was born. There are tales of his treasure being hidden somewhere between there and Cornwall, like at Lizard`s Point. But there`s been so many to have searched the area, no one has found anything. Maybe it`s your uncle who`s the owner of the books.”

“He might be, the books were…well, not hidden, but definitely stoved away. He died four years ago.”

I put the coffee cup down. “Now, I want to tell you what I found last night.” I took the book up from the pouch I had around it to protect it, I was planning on take a photocopy of the pages, so we didn’t need to use the book, it was old and fragile after all. He wiped away the remnants of my small breakfast and leaned forward.

“Henry goes ashore in Dunfanaghy, I don’t know how much you know about that area but it`s a small town that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean.” Cian nodded, “I haven’t been there, but we`ve driven around in the area. There is a good golf course there.” I rolled my eyes at his remark. “It was also a good place to set foot, considering Every was wanted pretty much all over the world. He tells about bribing the locals, I guess the harbour master, and spending some days there before they leave. The men travel together for 6 miles before Henry bids farewell and continues on his own. Again, this is something we already know about. What we don’t know is where. The book doesn’t quote names, but there is description of the landscape. I think that in a so remote area of Ireland, it hasn’t changed that much so we have a chance to follow his trails.”

Cian nodded and listened, before he stood up. “Sorry, Jamie, so you`re saying we should travel to Dunfanaghy and follow the descriptions that you think makes up his route. Route to what? The plan is to just follow his footsteps? We know where he ends up, he ends up in Devon. Why not go straight there?” The questions were valid. “Because of this.” I showed him the page of the book I was holding.

I have split ways with the men, God will decide if I ever meet them again. I was sad waving my goodbyes, we have shared so much. You form a bond like no other out there on the sea. First stop on my way home is a place I know I can relieve myself of some of my burden. The minister there happens to be an old friend of mine, that grew tired of life at sea. Who would have known, from a pirate to a minister. I guess God does forgive.

Cian was confused, and I leaned over him and pointed at the important part. “You see here, “relieve myself of some of my burden.” He smelled nice, like apples and strawberry. “You think it`s the treasure he`s talking about?” I removed myself, didn’t need to get distracted now. “Yes, think about it, that much gold? It would have weighed far too much for him to bring it so far a distance. He was on the run; he didn’t need things to slow him down. We need to find a church which stood in 1696 between Dunfanaghy and Belfast, where he takes a boat over to Scotland.” Cian threw his hands in the air, “Easy peasy. Churches in Ireland, not so many of them.” His sarcasm shone through.” I was calm, “Not that many in 1696, and we have the descriptions of the road he took, some of the locals may help us. I`m not worried that we won`t find it, I`m worried if it still stands today. And if it doesn’t, what happened to the place and the artefacts.”

“It is a start, anyway.” I sat on my hands, nervous. Was he backing out? He looked at me, I couldn’t read his eyes. “You really believe there`s a chonce?”

“If there`s a chance? Yes, I truly believe that. The gold has to be somewhere.”

“Fine, give me two days to wrap things up here and we can go. I`ll even call mum and ask if we know anybody in that area. Heck, I might have family there for all I know.”

I couldn’t help myself from smiling, this was really happening. I jumped up from the sofa and gave Cian an impromptu hug. “Thank you, thank you.” He laughed, a bit shy now, but hugged me back.