Islet Of The Ibis

On the ancient sandy shore of the island paradise in Aswan, Egypt, a father and son explore the grounds of a botanical garden. Royal Palm Tree groves reaching up to clear blue skies and exotic flowering plants imported from India and Africa, peacefully sway to the warm summer breeze blowing off the Nile River. Rays of sunshine beaming through the palm leaves spotlight the brilliant foliage, enhancing the colors and glistening dew of every flower it reaches. In the distance, Egyptian Egrets and Ground Geese can be heard squawking at the fisherman returning to the Warf on Felucca vessels with their day’s catch.

There hadn’t been much time for adventures in many years. Jabari, an archeologist and single father, had done his best to provide for his son, Mohamed, after a tragic accident took the life of his wife, research partner and mother of his only son, when a tunnel collapsed during an artifact excavation. Mohamed, now twenty-one and attending college following in his father’s footsteps, is thrilled when Jabari plans an outing for them to visit Kitchner’s Island. It had been his mother’s favorite place to visit when he was a boy. She delighted in the exquisite and abundant flower varieties, as well as bird watching the many indigenous species that called the island home.

After arriving mid-morning by boat, Jabari and Mohamed set out on a relaxing stroll through the garden sanctuary, talking and reminiscing of a life long since passed. They find a perfectly shaded bench to take a rest and have a picnic lunch. Jabari sets up the wooden table with a red linen cloth he retrieves from his backpack, along with grilled liver sandwiches on pita bread, also known as Kebda, and pickles. He hands Mohamed a cup and fills it with Karkadeh, a tea made from red hibiscus flowers and sugar, sharing stories about the new digs and artifacts being discovered, challenges of college and their passions of treasure hunting, which far out lasted their meal.

Close by, Mohamed could hear the sound of a bird screeching in desperation. He quickly gets up and follows the loud cries with Jabari close behind him. The search leads them to a young fowl, the sacred Ibis, entangled by a large string hanging off of a half-covered, dilapidated old burlap bag. Mohamed holds on to the flailing bird untangling its leg, who must have been gathering things to build a nest, while Jabari begins digging out the sack. As he gives a strong tug, a skeleton head comes flying out towards his son, who gasps and falls backwards in fright. The Ibis, now free from the trap, takes off in flight towards the river. Composing himself and brushing off the fallen smut and earth, he takes a closer look at the discovery. It looks to be a buried treasure belonging to the deceased partial corpse. With further soil removal, a rusty old metal box containing a cracked spyglass, an empty whisky flask and a small black notebook is discovered. Upon brief examination, the notebook is not dated, but entitled “Galleon’s Vade Mecum” or ship’s handbook. The term galleon was used to describe ships somewhere around the 16th Century.

Carefully thumbing through the time worn pages, Mohamed stumbles upon a message that says, “Avast ye, this here notebook holds the key to me coffer of doubloons! If ye are reading this, then I just ate me last breakfast. Here lays Buccaneer Slim Pete of the wench, Brandy Galleon. Any spineless landlubber to be thinking he wants to hornswoggle and pillage me loot, is a scurvy dog not worthy of a bone! Any swashbuckler who has the backbone to crack the code and look for me treasure chest buried under the watchful eye of the Great Temple of the falcon, return the booty to Captain Jake Black, if ye wants to live!”

He hands the notebook to his father, who swiftly glances at each page hoping to find a map. Finding nothing, Jabari concludes that there must have been an inserted page containing the whereabouts of the treasure that is now lost or stolen. Holding onto the notebook, they walk back to the picnic table and gather their things for the journey home. They also had to stop by the research center, located in the center of the island, to report their findings before leaving.

As they ascend the steps leading up to a small building with vast windows on every side including the ceiling, a young woman with deep green eyes and a welcoming smile waits for them at the entrance. When she inquires as to their visit, Mohamed shows her the notebook and explains what happened, when they found it. She introduces herself as Akila, and asks them to come in and have a look around. Her education and training was as a botanist, but she developed a passion for treasure hunting while growing up in Egypt near huge excavation sites.

After admiring the pictures and literature throughout the visitor center, Akila offers them coffee and Egyptian sweet cookies. Mohamed and Akila share stories of lost treasure with little known provenance, as well as pirates of unknown origin that traveled throughout Egypt and their secret voyages from Africa and the Mediterranean that were untold to the rest of the world. She opens the notebook to the page where the message was written and tries to decipher the code.

Jotting down notes on a piece of paper, she looks at the words, “buccaneer” and “last breakfast”, which indicate that the writer was indeed a pirate who was in fear of his life. Mohamed then comments that the word, “doubloons”, mean Spanish gold. They both then surmise that the phrase, “this notebook holds the key”, had to mean the map was hidden inside the notebook. Last, and most important were the key words, “spineless” and “backbone”, leading Jabari to the spine of the notebook, where he broke the edging and lifted it back to reveal the hidden map.

Teaming with excitement, Mohamed starts dancing around the room and shouting about riches, hugging his father and Akila. Much to his dismay, Jabari has to break the bad news that any found articles of value would have to be turned in to the proper authorities and an autopsy would need to be performed on the skeletal remains. Seeing the let down in Mohamed’s face, Akila shares her understanding about a finder’s fee measure enacted that gives a reward to anyone discovering items of potential worth. She calls the Ministry of Antiquities and reports the find, along with gathering any pertinent information that is requested. After handing over the small black notebook to Akila for safekeeping, Mohamed asks her out to a celebration dinner and she accepts.

Six months later, Mohamed gets a phone call from his father sharing the good news that The Egyptian Archeology Society had unearthed the treasure and sent them a check for $20,000. Jabari gave all the money to Mohamed as a wedding gift for his upcoming marriage to Akila. He thanked his father with a grateful heart for that special day they spent on Kitchner’s Island, and explained a lesson learned from the experience which is, “in the end, everything gets left behind, but the real treasure is finding love.” Mohamed went on to be a great archeologist and adventurer, with Akila by his side.

The End