"X" it!
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“Pirates don’t sit on babies!” wailed Miss Rogers in her best pirate accent as she celebrated her most favourite line in her most favourite children’s’ book.
“No sittin’ on babies!” her young audience hollered back as they took on the part of the crew, responding to Captain Braid Beard.
Miss Rogers was performing “Pirates Don’t Change Diapers”, a book by Milinda Long. The students loved that story. They really enjoyed the way that Miss Rogers read it. As she continued to tell the story of Jeremy Jacobs and his baby sister Bonney Anne, the students learned about buried treasure, babies, maps, more about pirates and the magical ‘X’ that marks the spot.
Miss Rogers knew that it was very close to the lunch bell. This gave her great enjoyment as she prepared to bellow her second most favourite line in the story, “Strained spinach!”
The scurvy crew picked up their cue and roared back, “Aargh! Strained spinach!”
The noise brought the library to a standstill. Heads popped up out of their books and froze solid in shock from the horrendous sound that had blasted through the usually quiet study hall.
“Shiver me timbers!” yelled Miss Rogers. “Haven’t ye scallywags heard a good caterwauling before?”
Everyone stared at the mild mannered librarian with confusion and then returned back to their studies. Miss Rogers had a huge grin on her face as she continued to read the remainder of the pirate story. Bonney Anne, Jeremy Jacobs and all of the pirates survived their adventure. The last few pages of the book were held open so everyone could share the detailed illustrations. The book was finally closed as Miss Rogers announced in her pirate voice, “A vast me hardies! It’ll be five minutes shy of twelve bells and I’ll be casting ye a drift to forage for ye own vile-smellin’ swill. So use ye time wisely to find yer own tale to tell.”
Miss Rogers began to carefully step through the swarm of children that was slowly moving towards the bookshelves. She felt a soft tug on her hand.
“Miss Rogers,” whispered a soft voice.
She glanced down and discovered Graham.
“Miss Rogers?”
“Yes dear,” she answered.
“What was that stuff you just said?”
“That was pirate talk for ‘it’s five minutes before lunch, so quickly chose a book,”
“How do you know how to speak pirate,” asked Graham.
“I shared a secret about myself before I began the story. Do you remember my secret?” asked Miss Rogers.
Graham shyly shook his head back and forth, “No.”
Miss Rogers knelt down beside Graham and whispered, “My great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was a pirate.”
“Really?” asked Graham as his eye grew to the size of saucers.
“Really!” she reassured him.
“Wow!” declared Graham and scampered towards the bookshelves.
The farther Miss Rogers moved away from story corner the less she remained a pirate and the more she became a librarian. She quietly resumed her position at her desk behind her name plate that read “Miss Jolie Rogers welcomes you to the library. Please ask me for help if you need it.”
“Aargh! Strained spinach!” called out Chaz as he shuffled along the floor checking out the lower shelves for a new title.
“Shhh!” insisted Phoenix. “You’re gonna get us in trouble.”
“Aye laddy,” whispered Chaz.
Phoenix followed behind Chaz as they explored the bottom layer of books. The two boys came to the end of the bookshelf and turned the corner. Phoenix noticed a black clump of cloth. He was excited to find it because if it was a jacket that someone had dropped, he could take it to lost and found. Phoenix loved Lost and Found. It was like discovering buried treasure.
“Chaz! Check it out!” said Phoenix. “It’s a black something. Maybe we can take it to the Lost and Found.”
“No,” answered Chaz. “It’s Dolly’s black hoodie.”
“Are you sure?” questioned Phoenix.
“Ask her,” suggested Chaz. “She’s right over there.”
Chaz pointed to another section of the floor where Dolly and her best friend Kiki were searching through a stack of books.
“Hey! Dolly,” Phoenix shouted softly. “Is this your hoodie?”
Kiki responded first, “ Ya, that’s hers.”
Dolly quickly added a positive nod of her head. It was quite warm in the library so during the story, Dolly had taken her black hoodie off and placed it beside her on the floor.
“That’s too bad,” Phoenix whispered to Chaz. “I was hoping to take it to the lost and found.”
Chaz grabbed the balled up hoodie and called out, “Hey, Dolly catch!” as he flung the black sweater across the floor.
As the hoodie traveled through the air it flattened out and whirled like helicopter blades. It twirled onto the floor before Dolly could grab it. The two girls scurried over to the hoodie. Dolly was about to snatch up her black zippered hoodie when Kiki called out, “Hold it!”
“What?” asked Dolly.
“Check out the way the hoodie landed,” continued Kiki. “It looks just like the X that marked the spot.”
“You’re right,” agreed Chaz.
The two boys had run over to see what all of the commotion was about.
“It’s almost the same,” said Phoenix. “If you move the arm over here, it’s perfect.”
“Do it!” called out Kiki. “Move the arm! Mark the spot! X it!”
Phoenix carefully moved the arm into position and leaned over the hoodie as he pressed all of the bumps out. Suddenly the floor under the X began to change shape. At first it was a small bump. Then the bump grew into a hump. Phoenix was sprawled over the hump as it continued to grow.
“It kind of looks like a top of a treasure chest,” announced Dolly.
“Looks like! It is a real treasure chest!” realized Phoenix as he slid forward off of the hump onto the floor.
“There’s a latch but no lock,” noticed Dolly as she leaned forward to get a better look.
“Here, I’ll open it,” volunteered Chaz.
“It’s my hoodie!” declared Dolly. “I’ll open it!”
Dolly barely got the latch opened when with out warning, the lid of the mystery chest flew open. It startled everyone. They tried to step back but realized they were moving forward. The chest was sucking them in. First Dolly was drawn down into the chest. She grabbed at her hoodie as she fell in. Kiki grasped at the hoodie and Chaz and Phoenix joined in. They held on for a second then they were sucked in after Dolly. The lid of the chest slammed shut and disappeared. A stack of books toppled off of the shelves and crashed into a heap covering the spot where the chest had been. Miss Rogers looked up from her desk and scratched her head.
The four kids landed somewhere cold, damp, creaking and completely dark. Then suddenly…
There was a loud clunk followed with a bang, a hatch opened and a brilliant beam of light shot down from above. The bright light made it hard for the children to see. A dark shadow moved across the beam. A cold wind blew in stale air that smelled like old fish.
“You four,” a rough voice broke the silence. “Grab those buckets and mops. The Captain wants you to swab the deck!”
“What?” questioned Kiki.
”And who?” asked Dolly.
“Where?” asked Phoenix.
“I’d like to know how this happened?” asked Chaz.
“You best not be questioning the Captain,” hollered out the mysterious rough voice. “Now haul your sorry lookin’ selves top side an’ don’t forget the buckets and mops.”
“I thought we were in the library,” said Phoenix.
“We were,” said Kiki.
“We got sucked into that treasure chest,” said Dolly.
“And dumped here!” declared Chaz.
“Where ever ‘here’ is,” repeated Phoenix.
“If you four scallywags don’t be movin’ right quick, the only place you’ll be is over the side as we keel-haul ya!” shouted the rough voice.
“Come on, we better go,” suggested Kiki.
“I’m not going up there!” stated Chaz.
“How else are we going to get out of here?” asked Phoenix.
“How did we get in here?” asked Dolly.
“The treasure chest!” declared Kiki.
“It not here,” said Chaz.
“It first came from under Dolly’s hoodie,” said Kiki.
Dolly grabbed her hoodie and through it on the floor.
“Now what?” questioned Phoenix.
“It was an X”, shouted Kiki. “The hoodie was in the shape of an ‘X’ when it landed on the carpet in the library.”
“That’s when the chest appeared!” said Dolly as she began to shape her hoodie into an ‘X’. Suddenly a hump began to grow from under the hoodie.
“The chest is coming back!” declared Chaz.
“X marks the spot,” called out Kiki. “X it!”
Dolly took hold of the latch and opened the chest. The four friends looked at each other and jumped into the chest. Phoenix grabbed the hoodie as he disappeared into the chest.
The lid of the chest slammed shut and vanished. The four kids tumbled down on top of one another. They were heaped into a tangled, squirming pile.
“Ouch! Who is on top of me?” called out Dolly.
“I can’t move!” yelled Chaz.
“Where are we now?” asked Phoenix.
“Somewhere very small, but bright!” declared Kiki.
“I see blue,” said Dolly. “Is that the sky?”
“I feel like we are in a giant bucket,” said Phoenix.
“A bucket that’s swinging back and forth,” said Dolly.
It took a little bit of time for the children to untangle themselves. Finally they were able to free themselves enough to look around. The four of them stayed on their knees and slowly peeked over the edge of the giant bucket.
“Look where we are!” shouted Kiki.
“We’re so high up in the sky!” added Chaz.
“We’re in a Crows Nest of a pirate ship,” realized Phoenix.
“I wonder if we’re still on the same ship?” asked Dolly.
“We should be quiet,” said Kiki. “So we don’t attract any attention.”
“Too late,” said Chaz. “There’s somebody climbing up the ropes. I think he heard us.”
“He doesn’t look very happy,” said Phoenix.
As Kiki looked over the edge, she saw a big fat pirate with rotten teeth, scrunched up eyes, a crinkled up nose and a red face glaring at them.
“I thought I tode ya 4 scallywags to be swabbin the deck. Yous got to the count of 3 to get yous sorry lookin selves down!” yelled the pirate. Then he started to count to 3.
Dolly said, “We better listen to him ‘cuz I can’t swim.”
The four kids looked at each other and scrambled down the pole. Chaz and Kiki looked at each other and said, “Where do you think the mops are?”
Phoenix saw the mops over by a cabin. He told the others, “Over there.”
As the kids approached the cabin they heard a noise. “Psst, psst, psst over here!” whispered a voice.
Dolly said, “Whose there?”
The voice replied, “Over here, behind the door!”
Chaz tried to open the door, but it was locked.
A big ugly pirate hollered, “ Whatz yous up to now?”
“We’re swabbin the deck!” shouted the all four as they each grabbed a mop and started cleaning the deck.
The pirate warned, “Yous scallywags best be mindin’ you’ar own business and stay away form this hur cabin! There’s nothin’ but trouble in there, unless you’d like to walk the plank!!!!” He then sauntered away.
Phoenix asked, “What do you think that’s about?”
Chaz replied, “I’m not scared! Hey in there?”
The voice replied, in a whisper, “Can you help me get out as I am being held prisoner?”
Kiki asked, “Why are you being held?”
“I know where the treasure chest is located,” said the quiet voice.
“TREASURE!!” shouted Phoenix and Chaz.
“Shhhhh!!” said Dolly as she looked to see if any of the pirates were paying attention.
“The door is lock,” said Kiki.
The voice told them, “The key is on a chain around Captain Joe’s neck.”
“And just how do you expect US to get the key?” Chaz snapped
“You need to wait for him to go to sleep and snatch it. He’s a very sound sleeper. If you help me I will share the treasure with all of you,” replied the voice.
Kiki asked the others, “Well, what do you think we should do?”
Phoenix and Chaz reply excitedly, “We go for the treasure of course you silly!”
Dolly announced, “I guess we’re swobbin’ the deck unit the captain goes to sleep.
“Where’s the soap?” asked Kiki.
“We don’t need soap!” said Phoenix. “We need to swab the deck and be quiet.”
“My mom always uses soap when she’s cleaning,” said Kiki.
“Please, Kiki, just keep swabbing,” said Dolly.
“All I’m saying is that we need some soap!” called out Kiki.
“Just swab! We don’t need SOAP!” shouted Chaz.
“SOAP!!!!” hollered the pirate crew.
“Who said that nasty bad word?” asked the big ugly pirate. “Ya can’t be usin’ such language. If the captain wakes up to that dirty word, you’ll all be swimmin’ in a salty soup.”
“The captain is sleeping?” asked Dolly.
“I promise that we won’t wake up the captain,” promised Chaz. “We want him to sleep soundly.”
“Then take yer buckets and mops and start swabbin’ the deck towards the bow,” ordered the slimy pirate.
The four friends quickly moved to the front of the large ship.
“What are we going to do now?” asked Phoenix.
Kiki looked at Phoenix and said, “Swab the deck and don’t draw attention to ourselves.”
“Then we can quietly swab our way back to our trapped friend,” said Chaz.
“How are we going to get our whispering friend out of lockup? asked Dolly.
“Why don’t we use the black hoodie to release her? asked Phoenix.
“We could use the hoodie, but we have no idea where she would end up,” said Kiki.
We just have to carefully work our way back towards the captain’s cabin and get the keys before the captain wakes up! said Chaz.
The four deck swabbers quietly and quickly mop their way back to the captain’s sleeping quarters. They could tell the captain was still napping from the thunderous snoring that was coming out from behind the door.
“So, now what do we do?” asked Phoenix.
“We have to sneak into the cabin,” said Chaz.
“How?”
... Then Phoenix noticed that there was an open window in the Captain's cabin. He decided to climb in. He was as quiet as a cat. He snuck silently up to the snoring Captain. Then he spied it, around the Captain's neck on a dirty black chain was a huge rusty key with a skeleton on one end. Phoenix gently took the key off his neck. He crept out of the cabin window and joined his friends on the deck.
"Finally!!" they whispered.
They tip-toed over to the locked door. Phoenix gave the key to Kiki. She put the key in the lock and turned it. As the door creaked open the kids were staring wondering who they would see. Who was the person behind the whispering voice? There standing staring at them was Miss Rogers., their librarian!!
Dolly said, "So, you were the person who was locked up ??!!"
"Yes," she said, "now I'll show you where the treasure is.....
“The key is gone!!!!” roared the Captain.
Miss Rogers said, “Let’s head for a row boat, ‘cuz the treasure in on that island over there!” Miss Rogers pointed to her right.
The kids agreed to follow Miss Rogers to the small rickety old row boat as the crew was running to the captain to see what the problem was.
The Captain hollered, “There’s them theivin’ scallywags steelin’ a boat too!”
As the kids and Miss Rogers splash into the water, the pirates scramble into the other rowboats.
Kiki and Chaz started to row towards the island as fast as they could. Dolly asked, “How are we going to find the treasure?”
Miss Rogers replies, “I know where the treasure is.”
Phoenix announces, “The pirates are catching up! We’re never going to make it.”
It wasn’t long before the pirates had encircled Miss Rogers and the four children.
Dolly replies, “We need to use the hoodie to escape.”
Everyone agreed as Dolly pulled out the hoodie. She threw it down onto the floor of the boat. Phoenix flattened the hoodie out and placed it into the shape of an “X”. They all held hands as they shouted,
“X marks the spot! X it!”
A small bump appeared under the hoodie which soon became a hump and turned into a lid of a treasure chest. Dolly lifted the latch and the chest flung open. This time the chest wasn’t dark and empty, this time it was filled with water.
The children were surprised but knew that they had to go into the chest. Miss Rogers stepped up to the treasure chest and took Dolly by her hand. Kiki, Chaz and Phoenix grabbed each others hands. Everyone took a deep breath and jumped into the chest.
They fell deep into the water. Their feet touched a sandy bottom. Miss Rogers and the children pushed off of the bottom to make their way to the surface. They slammed out of the water and realized that the water was only up to there knees.
“Look!” shouted Phoenix. “The chest plunked us just off shore in the shallow water.”
“Come on, lets get out of the water,” suggested Miss Rogers.
Once everyone was on shore, Miss Rogers began to pace off steps. She walked and turned and counted until she stopped and asked Dolly to put her hoodie down on the sand.
Phoenix jumped on the hoodie and shaped it into a perfect “X”. The four adventurers and Miss Rogers stood close and chanted, “X marks the spot. “X it!”
The chest appeared and Dolly opened it to find a staircase down beneath the sand.
Miss Rogers told the children, “Don’t worry, just follow me.”
Chaz, Kiki, Dolly and Phoenix scampered down the stairs into a huge room full of gold and gems and heaps of treasure. The boys screamed with glee as they stuffed their pockets with everything they could put their hands on. Dolly and Kiki were frozen in disbelief.
“Put all of the gold back please,” announced Miss Rogers. “You can take one gold coin each as a good luck piece, but nothing else.”
Miss Rogers walked over to a small door, opened it up and said, “Here’s the real treasure.” and walked through the door.
The kids quickly followed. They entered a room that was wall to wall and floor to ceiling books. The books were all leather bound with very fancy writing on the cover and bindings.
“This is the REAL treasure collected by my great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather,” shared Miss Rogers. “I’ve been borrowing books from this room for years and now you can to. So please choose a book that you would like to read.”
The four scallywags scurried around the room and each found a magical book to borrow. Miss Rogers said that it was time to head home.
“How are we going to do that?” asked Phoenix.
Miss Rogers directed Chaz to pick out the huge book of maps and place it on the floor. Then all of the kids helped to open it the centre page.
“Look!” called out Kiki. “It’s a perfect X!”
“You know what to do,” said Miss Rogers.
They all crowded around the page and called out, “X marks the spot! X it!” and stepped into the book.
Miss Rogers and the four children instantly appeared back at the library, stuck underneath Miss Rogers’ desk. Dolly, Kiki, Chaz and Phoenix slowly crawled out from under the desk and joined their classmates in line to sign out their books.
Miss Rogers popped up and quickly leaned forward to accept a book from a student.
“That’s a great story,” celebrated Miss Rogers. “You could say it’s a real treasure!”
The End
