A Fearsome Four Adventure

“Meow!!” Jimmy’s eyes shot open. Seeing what it was he let out a sigh. The alley cat had come to wake him up like clock work, hoping to have found something to nibble on.

He scrunched up his face in an apologetic fashion, saying, “I’m sorry. Same as yesterday. Still nothing.”

The cat scurried off and he laid his head back down. The sun was shining down on his face through a crack in the wall. It was already daylight. He let out a gasp and shot up, he was late. He was to meet the rest of the group. His heart started to race and sure enough, a yell from outside the makeshift hut came aloud.

“Jimmy you up?” There was a knock like something had been thrown against the room. “Hey?”

“What does Doggy want?”came a tired voice from the otherside of the hut. He could barely see his mother, sitting up on her forearms looking extremely tired. She had been out again all night it seemed. He didn’t want her to keep doing that to herself but money was tight and being in their situation didn’t help it either.

“It’s nothing momma.” He said, in a reassuring tone. “The gang is getting together today. We’re planning on going to the beach today.”

His mothers head had already hit the pillow and snores could be heard. She managed to put her thumb in the air and the unmistakable murmur of, “be… careful…” slipping out of her mouth before sleep over took her again.

He smiled at her and went over to her, throwing on his shirt. He leaned down and pulled the blanket over her, tucking her in. He then placed a kiss on her forehead and whispered, “Get some sleep.”

Another thunk hit the hut. “Hey! Jimmy, come on! We’re going to be late!”

“Coming!” he called back. He then stood up and opened the makeshift door that led out into the alleyway of Montego Bay. Before closing the door, he grabbed his oversized boots.

There they were. Doggy, or his real name Barkly, stood over Teddy and was skinnier than Jimmy. He had long knotted brown hair with streaks of blonde etched in that he kept pushing out of his eyes. Just like Jimmy, he too wore a white shirt, although you couldn’t tell that it was white from all the dirty patches sewn on. Next to him, Teddy, he was the shortest and widest of the group. As usual, he was munching on something that was hanging out of his mouth. Jimmy himself stood a few inches taller than Teddy but not by much. They both had big grins on their faces but Jimmy knew otherwise. They were all in the same situation.

“You ready?” asked Doggy.

“Yeah.” replied Jimmy, looking at the group. “Where’s Cod?”

“Oh he’s going to meet us at the edge of town. Let’s go.”

And they were off, running down the alleyway to the main street that led out of town. When they reached the dirt road, full of carts pulled by horses and carriages of people stepping out to do their shopping of useless trinkets, they turned left and headed west towards the edge of town.

They ran full speed until they reached a sign that said, “Welcome to Montego Bay.” A boy leaned on it, a piece of straw hanging from his mouth that split into a giant grin as he saw them approach. He uncrossed his arms and greeted them.

“Hey!’ yelled the boy. “You guys made it. The Fearsome Four, at it again!” He exclaimed loudly, reaching out to them all.

A grin stretched across Jimmy’s face as he high fived his friend. He then asked, “What are we going after today, Cod?”

Cod looked serious now. He began to speak in a low voice, in case not to be heard from anyone else but his closest friends.

“You know how the tide has been lowering?” They all nodded. “Well,” he continued. “I was down on the cliffs by the beach and I saw a mast sticking out of the water.”

They all grinned. “You think…?” Teddy began to speak but trailed off as his mouth hung open.

“Oh yeah,” Cod began to nod with a giant grin. “We’d be the first to find it.” He pulled from his pocket a piece of cloth. “This was part of a flag that was still dangling from it. Imagine what we could find!”

Imagine they did. Gold, rubbies, emeralds, diamonds. They wouldn’t be homeless anymore. Jimmy looked around. They all had the same serious expression now. He turned his attention back to Cod who was looking at them all. “Let’s go do this.” They all nodded in agreement and then they were off, heading west along the coast.

As time passed they began to imagine what the ship actually was, was it really a pirate ship or was it just some fisherman’s boat that got stuck and sunk there. Either way, it was an adventure they didn’t want to pass up. An hour went by and the coast started to curve eastward.They followed it, running in the waves as they went. Soon though they had to break off from the beach and follow a path that wound it’s way upwards.

At the top, Cod pointed down. “Look,” he said, standing at the edge of the cliff.

Standing at the edge of the cliff, Jimmy looked down. Sure enough, a long pole stuck out of the water, its black mast still bobbing on the surface of the water with the unmistakable black and white cross bones. Other pieces of debris seemed to be floating nearby or the waves were bashing them into the rocks below. The cliff itself looped around the area creating almost half circle with only one way in. Along the walls, spiky rocks stretched out like daggers from the depths.

Excitement lurched again in the pit of his stomach and rose through him like a flood. He looked around for a way down but saw none, what he did see was a large gap in the cliff wall where the debris seemed to be coming from. He pointed this out to them and they agreed they’d start there. But how would they get down? Cod said the only way he got to it was climbing down.

Cod stretched himself and leaned over the cliff. Using his arms to hold himself up, he lowered himself onto the rocky surface. The others followed his lead. At the top the rock was reasonably dry but the closer they got to the water it became slippery and grimmy, making it difficult to hold on or find foot holds. Several times Jimmy nearly fell.

Cod called out to them. “We have to jump, there’s no ground.” Teddy let out a moan.

Jimmy looked down. He wasn’t far from the water but the prospect of just falling into the water without knowing what was in it frightened him. A little way to his right, Cod let go and dropped into the water. Doggy gave out a yell and let go of the wall. Teddy on the other hand looked as if he had frozen onto the rock, he was shaking and Jimmy knew it wasn’t from the icey spray of the water splashing on the rock.

“Teddy!” Jimmy called out, reaching towards him and grasping Teddy’s shoulder. “It’s okay.” He continued. Teddy nodded but still looked fearful.

“Give me your hand.” Jimmy said. “We’ll jump together.”

Teddy nodded and slowly removed his hand from the wall. He turned his head as Jimmy took his hand. “On three?” Teddy asked.

“On three.” Jimmy replied in a reassuring tone.

Together they counted and on three they let go of the wall and pushed off from it. They plummeted into the water below. The water was clear underneath it, he could see dark rocky shapes in the distance underneath but everything else was obscured in the darkness. He closed his eyes again and kicked his feet hard, pushing the water with his arms.

He broke the surface and drank in the air. He whipped the water from his face and looked around towards the cave mouth. Cod and Doggy had already made it to it. Teddy was swimming as fast as he could to them. He followed Teddy. When he reached Cod and Doggy, Doggy was already pulling Teddy out of the water. Cod reached out to him and together Jimmy was able to get up onto the slippery mass of rock that led into the side of the cave.

The cave itself was wide. The path they walked on was narrow and dipped into the water a few times. The rest of the cave was filled with water that carried chunks of wooden boards and barrels. The path led to a room, a large room filled with the most amazing sight that made them stop. Their mouths falling open, their wide eyes taking in a vast ship, parts of it broken off and splintered. The ship itself was speared on a giant rock that stuck all the way through it.

Jimmy couldn’t believe his eyes. It was amazing. He leaped into the water and swam to it. At the ship, he found hand holds where he pulled himself and then climbed up onto the deck. The deck was splintered and chunks of boards were laying everywhere. The big rock spear jutting out over the deck, casting it’s vast shadow over the water.

Jimmy walked around the deck, turning and taking everything in. He stopped at a door that hung off of it’s hinges, a sign on the door was still legible even though most of it was warn away. Captain’s quarters it read. He stepped into the room and looked around. There was a bed in it with a few cabinets that no longer held it’s contents. In the center there was a table with a plate and goblet still sitting like nothing had happened. It was dusty though. Jimmy took a step closer to look at it and to his disbelief there were gold coins on the table, four in fact. He picked them up and began to yell. “Hey…!” but before he could continue calling for his friends the floor beneath him cracked and he fell through the floor.

He coughed as he rolled over, rubbing his head. He looked around and gasped with surprise. Before him was an old desk and at the desk, sitting in a chair was a skeleton.

“Jimmy?!” came a shout.

“Down here..” he said back, taking a step towards the desk.

“You okay?” Cod’s head appeared through the whole. “Wow!” he exclaimed as he saw the desk and the skeleton. “Ouch!” Doggy and Teddy had fallen next to him. Teddy let out a shriek of panic.

Jimmy was circling the desk now. In the skeleton's hand was quil and below it was a book, still open. He couldn’t make out the writing so he got closer. Uneasy though he pulled the book from underneath the skeleton's arm. The book was little and the binding of it was black with a gold thread on it’s spine. He turned to the first page and read aloud.

“My love, how I miss thee. I fear I will not be able to return to you. The cave has collapsed and there’s no way that I can free our ship. I fear I am doomed to die here and the hope of you ever finding me will probably die with me. If you are reading this, I have found it. I know how you love clues and to protect what you have sought for so long, I have left clues to its location. Your first clue is in this Little Black Book.”

He looked up at his friends. Large grins were on their faces as they looked back at them.