you worked for Mr. Grisson, it was over the summer; but it’s fall now, so you need to stay on point,” she went on. “And we’ll probably need to drop by the store and get you an extra set of jeans. Mrs. McClafferty said she already had a pair of gloves and some boots that you could borrow.”
“That’s lame, don’t you think?” Joel asked.
“Joel you’re working in a pumpkin patch, not the Gap,” his mother said.
“Yeah but …” Joel began.
“Joel, you’ll be fine,” she said, “it’s not a fashion show.” She took a deep breath and the tone of her voice changed. “I also heard from the vice principal today,” she said.
Joel rolled his eyes. “Really?”
“He said that you and Ian Samuels were getting into it at school,” she said.
“Ma, it was his fault,” Joel exclaimed. “He’s a bully!”
“I’m not denying that, Joel,” his mother said. “Just keep your distance. Mr. Hairston said that if he didn’t know you, you’d be spending this weekend in detention.”
“Ma, I don’t know what you expected me to do. He called me out in front of everybody!” Joel protested.
“That’s pride, Joel,” his mother said, “and I’ve told you about pride … it goeth before a fall.”
Joel’s phone sounded and Polly’s face appeared on the screen. Good save; he knew that once his mother started quoting scripture, the disagreement was over.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me,” Polly’s voice sounded. “So look, I just want to clear the air between us … especially now that you’re going to be working at Ian’s family’s farm. I just don’t want things to be weird is all, Joel,” she said.
“Me either, and they won’t be,” he said. “It’s not like you’ll be out in the fields moving pumpkins.”
“Right,” she agreed briskly. “I just wanted to check, is all … and to say congratulations on geting that job.”
“Thanks,” Joel said.
Polly went on, “Ian’s not all that bad, Joel. I think if you gave him a chance, you’d really like him.”
“I think I’ll pass,” Joel said, “and you need to be really careful, Polly. I trust that guy about as far as I can throw him!”
“Which isn’t very far, is it?” Polly said snarkily, then bit her lip. “I’m sorry Joel, that was mean.”
“You always were quick with the comeback,” Joel said.
“Joel, I am sorry,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Joel said, “I’ve got to go anyway.”
“I guess I … uh’ll see you around, then,” Polly said.
“I guess so,” Joel said, “thanks for the call.”
“Sure … we’re still friends and all, right?” she asked.
“Of course,” Joel said, “see ya.”
“See ya,” Polly replied and clicked off. Joel ended the call on his end and heaved a sigh.
“You all right there, son?” his mother asked gently.
“Yeah, fine,” Joel said. “She just wanted to say congratulations is all.”
“That’s nice of her,” his mother remarked.
“I suppose,” Joel returned. “Better get this trash out.”
“Jasper, don’t forget to take a bath this evening,” Mrs. Franklin called into the back room.
“All right, Mom!” Jasper called back.
“Dreyfuss, do you have a towel and washrag?” she continued.
“Yes, ma’am,” Dreyfuss called back.
“My mom’s really big on staying clean,” Jasper said to Dreyfuss. The two were seated in front of the laptop shared by the brothers.
“Mine is too,” Dreyfuss replied. “Must be a mom thing.”
“Here it is.” Jasper’s deft little fingers flew over the keyboard of the small laptop, which cast his and Dreyfuss’s faces in a warm blue light. “Sebastian Silverbeard was a feared and terrible pirate who spent his last days of villainy here in the quiet port town of Portersville before disappearing sometime in the early nineteenth century,” Jasper read aloud. Jasper was an excellent reader. “Many in the town never knew his sordid background and his life as one of the eastern coast’s most vicious pirates.”
“What’s sordid mean?” Dreyfuss asked.
“I think it means bad,” Jasper replied and continued reading. “While his exploits were many, the story that has become most associated with him was that of the great Halloween Face-off with the king whose land Silverbeard had plundered.”
“How come they don’t teach us history like this in school?” Dreyfuss asked.
“I know,” Jasper agreed.
“The details may never be known,” Jasper read on, “but legend has it that Silverbeard and his crew, exhausted from their flight from the authorities of the day, came to rest in a small town near Lisbon, Portugal. The citizens there were kindhearted and took the pirates in, fed them, gave them clothes and a place to sleep. But the pirates repaid their hospitality with wickedness when they raided the city’s one bank and made off with the city’s prized treasure.”
“What jerks, huh?” Dreyfuss commented.
“When the king of that city returned and learned what had happened, he swore vengeance on Silverbeard and all his crew,” Jasper read on. “The king, who was also rumored to be a powerful sorcerer, cast a spell on the treasure chest that the pirates had stolen, forbidding it from opening for a hundred years. The king had ten sons, all of whom were werewolves. He sent these sons after Silverbeard’s crew, and one by one, every crew member was found and destroyed by these werewolf princes … everyone but Silverbeard and his cook, who managed to escape with the treasure chest that could never be opened for a hundred years.”
“The King never heard from his sons again, and became so consumed with capturing Silverbeard that he left his kingdom one Halloween to travel to America. His ship went down in a horrible storm,” Jasper read. “Little is known of what happened to the king after the storm, and his body was never recovered.”
“At the conclusion of the first one hundred years after the curse had been pronounced, apparently there was a scuffle related to the treasure in which descendants of the king attempted to procure the treasure, but they were stopped by a courageous witch who hid away the treasure at great cost to herself,” Jasper continued. “Nothing more has been ever heard
