The Longest Halloween, Book Two. Frank Wood

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 of this treasure since that time.”

      “That’s it?” Dreyfuss asked, incredulous. “You’ve got to be kidding me, right? It ends there?”

      “What do you expect?” Jasper said. “Wikipedia.”

      “Say, if the treasure chest was cursed to open on Halloween every one hundred years,” Dreyfuss began, “and the first time that it was opened was when the witch stopped the King’s demendents …”

      “You mean descendants,” Jasper cut in, “and that was on October thirty-first, nineteen-thirteen.”

      “Then the second hundred years would be one hundred years from nineteen-thirteen,” Dreyfuss went on. “So that’s …”

      “Halloween this year, I know,” Jasper said.

      “What about Halloween this year?” Joel’s voice startled the boys from their study.

      “Joel, come look at this,” Jasper said, “It’s all about that pirate, Sebastian Silverbeard.”

      “Are you guys still on about that treasure map thing?” Joel asked.

      “It’s more than just a map, Joel, there’s a whole story behind it,” Jasper replied.

      “And it’s epic, too!” Dreyfuss added.

      “Look,” Joel said, “I don’t think you guys should get your hopes up about that map. Even if it is real, what makes you think that there will still be a treasure? And if there is, it probably won’t be worth anything. Treasures don’t usually just sit for one hundred years—somebody, sometime before then, would find it. Remember all that excitement and energy over that dead gangster’s safe? Once they opened it up, it turned out there was nothing in there but some lint and rust.”

      “You never know, stranger things have happened,” Jasper returned weakly.

      “Jasper, you’re not going to become super-duper rich off of some old treasure map,” Joel shot back. “Dad always used to say that nothing worthwhile in life comes easy—and if it does, don’t trust it!”

      A knock came at the door and Joel rose to open it for Ellis. “What’s up, El?” Joel greeted his best friend.

      “I don’t know, what’s up with you, Jo-el?” Ellis loved to emphasize the last syllable in Joel’s name. “You took off mighty quick after last period.”

      “I told you I was interviewing for a job this afternoon,” Joel said.

      “And he got it, too.” Joel’s mother came flurrying into the room wearing her outer coat and carrying a heavy bag.

      “Oh, hello, Mrs. Franklin,” Ellis smiled sweetly.

      “Ellis, why do you always remind me of Eddie Haskell?” she asked.

      “Who?” Ellis asked.

      “Skip it,” Joel’s mother smiled and then turned to Joel. “Joel, I’m off to the church. You boys have plenty to eat in the refrigerator. Keep things quiet around here and stay inside until I get back.”

      “Yes Ma,” Joel said.

      “No other guests, Joel, am I understood?” Joel’s mother asked.

      “Yes