The Pirate's Key

It was a sunny day. It was also a Saturday, which meant Ripley should have been happy. Instead, he was sad. Very sad. So sad, in fact, that his toes dragged across the sidewalk and his arms hung at his sides like balloons without any air.

Ripley had been sent outside by his mother who had said the fresh air would be good for him. That was a silly thing to say, he thought. What did that say about the air inside the house? Was it poisonous? Dangerous? He had been breathing it all morning and he felt fine. But Ripley knew better than to argue with his mother, so he went outside. He wasn’t happy about it, but he did it.

The problem was. He was alone. Very alone. Billy had gone on a camping trip with his dad, Marlow was at Karate practice, and Sienna was dancing at her first recital. Even the dogs and cats in the neighborhood seemed to be busy.

Ripley had no idea what to do. He walked back and forth in front of his house. His mother was inside cleaning, but he hoped she would walk past the front window and see how miserable he was. He tried to look extra miserable just in case. He had walked back and forth for at least three hours (or maybe five minutes) and had made about 300,000 trips (or maybe ten). He was exhausted. He was going to have to find a different way to be miserable.

Rip walked to the backyard to try again. This time he sat on the back step. The kitchen window was open so he decided to sigh as loudly and as often as he could. He sighed over and over again until his throat hurt a little. It must have been at least an hour later by now, he thought. Surely an hour of fresh air was enough. Ripley stepped on his tippy toes to see the kitchen clock. He had been sitting on the step for three minutes. Aarrgh! How could three minutes take so long?

He sat back down and sighed. This time the sigh was for him, not for his mom. He looked out at his backyard. There were the trees, the garbage can, and a pile of dirt where Ripley had been digging with Marlow. And a small shiny thing. Wait. A small shiny thing. Ripley didn’t remember any shiny objects being back there. He jumped off the step and raced to the back of the yard.

There sitting in a tall patch of grass was a single silver key. There was no key ring. No other clue. Just the key.

Ripley plopped down on the grass to think. He thought about all the keys he knew about: his mom’s house key, the car key, the key to the garage, and his mom’s work keys. He thought and thought. But nothing else came to mind. He looked down at the silver key in his hand. He knew it wasn’t the house key because his mom often gave him the key to open the door when she had her hands full. And it didn’t look like a car key. There is no way his mother would leave her work keys in the yard. So, that left the garage key. He ran over to the garage. But when he got there he realized this couldn’t be the garage key either. The lock needed a much smaller key.

Ripley sat back down to think. Where could this key have come from? Aliens? Probably not, he thought, although it would be cool. A friend? The only person over had been Marlow and Marlow didn’t have any keys. Rip was sure of it. He tapped the side of his face as he thought.

There was only one logical explanation. The key must have been left by a pirate. Ripley knew how that sounded, but it was the only reasonable option. The silver key seemed old but well taken care of. It didn’t belong to anyone he knew. And, of course, the most important clue, the key was found by the mound of dirt that was left when Marlow and Ripley were digging. Who else would be interested in digging? Pirates. The silver key had to belong to a treasure box. And Ripley had to find out where it was.

Rip knew a lot about pirates. He knew about their parrots, their eye patches, their hooks, and of course, how they made people walk the plank. That was Ripley’s favorite part. He also knew that pirates would do anything to protect their treasure. So wherever the treasure was, it was well hidden. That was for sure.

Ripley needed a plan and without a treasure map, he would have to use any other clues he could find. He went back to look at the mound of dirt and patch of grass where he had found the key. He looked closely at each blade of grass and then he started sifting through the dirt with his fingers. He was just about to throw in the towel and call it quits when his fingers touched something hard and round. He pulled it out of the dirt and brushed it off. He looked at it and knew right away it was a bottle cap from a container of grape soda. He smiled slyly. He knew exactly where to go next. The only place in the neighborhood to get a grape soda was Mrs. Jenkins’ house. The pirate must have been there.

Mrs. Jenkins lived three houses down. She was old and grey. She didn’t have any kids of her own here in town so she said the kids on the street were her adopted kids. Ripley thought she was fine for an adopted Grandma. She was nice enough, and the best part was she always gave out grape sodas when the kids helped her pick up the yard.

Ripley raced right up to the door and knocked as loudly as he could, partly because he was excited and partly because Mrs. Jenkins was old. It took Mrs. Jenkins a minute or two but then she appeared through the curtained window near the front door. She smiled when she saw Ripley and Ripley couldn’t help but smile back. She had barely gotten the door open when Ripley started talking.

“Have you seen any pirates? Did you give them grape soda? Have you seen the treasure?” Ripley was talking so fast he was kind of sure he’d spit on Mrs. Jenkins. He couldn’t help it. He was too excited.

Mrs. Jenkins looked at Ripley with a very serious expression as if asking about pirates was entirely reasonable. (which Ripley thought it was) Then she answered very matter-of-factly.

“I have not seen any pirates and I did not give them grape soda. But I did notice the back door to the garage was open earlier and, I can’t be sure, but it is possible a grape soda is missing from the refrigerator.” Mrs. Jenkins winked at Riley.

That was all Ripley needed to know. He raced around the side yard yelling thank you over his shoulder. When he got to the garage he flung open the door and sped to the refrigerator. Then he stopped to think. He needed a clue. He looked around the fridge but nothing seemed out of place. He decided to open the fridge. At first nothing seemed out of place in there either, which made Ripley a little sad. But then he saw it. Sitting next to a row of grape soda bottles was a tuft of hair. Black puffy hair. He would recognize that hair anywhere. The hair belonged to Stanley. Stanley the dog. But why would Stanley need grape soda? Then it came to him; the pirate had been to see Stanley. He got fur on him and then came to get grape soda. That could only mean one thing. The pirate must have been looking for a place to hide his treasure and who else to ask than a dog as good at burying bones as Stanley. He knew where he was going next.

Rip grabbed a grape soda to go, knowing that Mrs. Jenkins wouldn’t mind. Chasing after a pirate was making him very thirsty. It only took him a few minutes to get to Stanley’s house since it was just across the street from Mrs. Jenkins.

Stanley greeted him with a deep bark and a bounding jump against the fence. Ripley threw his arm over the fence and unfastened the latch. Then he sat down in the grass to talk to Stanley. He had to wait a minute or two since Stanley was so excited to see him. He wiped the dog slobber off of his face and told Stanley to sit. The great thing about Stanley is that he would listen to anyone. This also made him the perfect friend to a pirate.

“OK Stanley. I need you to concentrate.” Ripley held Stanley’s head in his hands and looked right into his eyes. Stanley tried to lick Ripley’s face but Ripley was faster and pulled his head back before Stanley could get him.

“Stanley, you need to focus. You have to show me where the pirate went. Are you ready? I’m going to let you go and you have to take me to where the pirate was. Ok boy. Here we go.” Rip let go of Stanley’s face, but Stanley just sat there and wagged his tail. Ripley gave him a minute but he didn’t move. Ripley sighed. This was not going to be as easy as he thought. Ripley clicked his tongue as he thought up a new plan. He knew what to do. He got up on all fours and walked around like a dog. If Stanley wasn’t going to help him, he was going to have to help himself. This way he could see what Stanley saw and smell what Stanley smelled. Stanley liked this new game a lot so he started following Ripley around the yard. Ripley crawled around the entire yard. It was getting tiring. It was also not as much fun as he thought it would be. He felt sad for Stanley. Ripley was about to give up. But then he saw a clue. Sitting in the corner of Stanley’s bed was a long, red feather. A feather. This could only mean one thing. A parrot was here.

Ripley was so excited he pushed Stanley over to get to the feather. He apologized as Stanley looked at him with sad eyes. Then he held the feather in his hand and thought. This was a good clue. A big clue. But what did it mean?

Then Ripley knew what it meant. If the pirate brought his parrot then his parrot would have needed food. A parrot can’t go on an adventure without a snack. And if a pirate was going to get a snack for his parrot there was only one place he would go. Mr. Bernard’s. Ripley patted Stanley on the head and raced out the front yard making sure, of course, to close the gate behind him. Sienna would be furious with him if he let Stanley out.

Mr. Bernard owned the corner house. It was a big, old house with big windows and creaking steps. When the kids were little they used to say it was haunted, but now that Ripley was a year older, he knew it was just the boards being old. Besides, Mrs. Jenkins herself said that when things get old, they begin to creak. And Mrs. Jenkins would know.

Ripley raced up the creaky stairs and knocked on the door. He remembered to use his “polite” knock just like his mother had taught him. Mr. Bernard was very particular about kids in his yard. He didn’t like them to help and he didn’t have grape soda. Usually Ripley just waved to him from the sidewalk, but today was an emergency. He knew Mr. Bernard would understand.

When the door finally opened, Mr. Bernard looked at Ripley like he had swallowed a whole lemon. Ripley started to think that maybe it wasn’t an emergency after all. But then he took a deep breath and tried to talk with confidence. That was something else his mom had taught him.

“Mr. Bernard, sir, I need your help. I was wondering if a pirate came by today to feed his bird. I know you have the best bird feeders on the street and well, I really need to find the pirate. I have his key.” Stanley held up the key and smiled at Mr. Bernard. He thought about what he had said. It wasn’t exactly a lie, but then it wasn’t exactly the truth either. Ripley was really hoping to find the treasure chest and not the pirate, but if he did find him he would definitely give him his key, especially now that he had told Mr. Bernard he would.

Mr. Bernard looked confused and maybe just a little frustrated. But then he spoke.

“No, son, I have not seen any pirates. I don’t reckon, though, that a pirate would come and ask permission if he wanted bird seed. He would probably just take it, seein’ as that’s what pirates do. So if you’re lookin’ for a pirate, I suggest you look by the back shed where I keep the extra seed. Just go ‘round the side and don’t cut through the yard.”

Ripley looked up at Mr. Bernard and nodded enthusiastically. Of course the pirate wouldn’t ask. Rip thanked him and then scooted back down the steps and around the corner to the alley. Ripley found the birdseed leaning against the back side of the shed. Ripley had only been back in the alley once or twice when the boys were riding bikes. Billy loved to ride bikes everywhere, but Ripley really preferred the sidewalk. When he got closer to the bird seed he realized that something smelled really bad. At first he thought it was the seeds, which didn’t make a lot of sense and made Ripley wonder about birds, but then he realized it was what was sitting next to the bird seed that was smelling up the place. There tucked into the side of the shed was a small pile of rotting pears. Rip stood there confused for a minute and then he realized he had made a mistake.

Up to this point he thought the pirate must have lost his key at the end of his trip and Ripley thought if he followed the clues they would lead him to the treasure, but looking at the pears he realized that wasn’t the case. Because the only pear tree in the neighborhood was at Ripley’s house. Now he knew what must have happened.

The pirate was looking for a good place to hide the treasure. He must have known the dirt at Ripley’s house was good for digging, and so he went there to bury his loot. But he probably got hungry from all that digging. He took a pear or two from the tree as a snack, but that must have made his bird jealous, so he went to get some bird seed. While he was there his bird ran away, probably because the creaky stairs scared her, and she flew around until she landed in Sienna’s yard. That was a big mistake because everyone knows that Stanley takes a long nap in his house whenever Sienna’s gone. So when the bird tried to land there, it woke Stanley right up. The pirate obviously got into the house, too, to save the bird and ended up getting fur all over him. After that, both he and the bird were thirsty so they went to Mrs. Jenkins’ house for grape soda. Once they felt better, the pirate remembered his treasure and decided to go back for it. Only when he hopped over the back fence to take a short cut he lost the key in the yard. He probably was running around just like Ripley looking for his key.

Rip smiled as he walked home. All this time the treasure was in his yard. He should’ve known. When he got to the front walk of his house, a car honked its horn behind him. Ripley spun around. At first he thought it was the pirate, but he didn’t know any pirates with cars so he wasn’t surprised when, instead, it was Marlow back from practice. He hollered out the window to see if Ripley wanted to play. Ripley smiled. Boy were he and Marlow going to have a good time digging this afternoon. He was sure they were going to find a treasure chest.