Fish Finelli Book 1: Seagulls Don't Eat Pickles (13 page)

T. J.’s eyes widened and he started to mumble. But his mouth was too full of fireballs for us to understand a word.

“Keep digging, guys,” I said, tossing out another shovelful of dirt. The sky had gotten darker, and it looked like it might rain any second.

“Fish, I hate to rain on your parade,” said Roger, grinning as he pointed up at the clouds. “But what if the treasure isn’t really—”

Just then my shovel hit something hard. The three of us stared at one another. “Whoa! I think it’s the treasure chest!”

Excitedly, we dug away the dirt. Sure enough, the edges of a chest began to appear. We pushed away the rest of the dirt with our hands. There in front of us was an old wooden trunk with a rusty padlock. Captain Kidd’s treasure chest at last!!!

“Yo-ho-ho! Way to go!” whooped Roger.

“Woo-hoo!” I shouted.

“Yippee!” yelled T. J.

SPLAT! All the fireballs in his mouth landed right on top of Captain Kidd’s trunk.

“Dude!” shouted Roger, jumping back from the fireball explosion.

“Oops!” said T. J. “I forgot you can’t talk with fireballs in your mouth.” He swallowed hard a few times and took a few deep breaths. He wiped up the mess with the bottom of his T-shirt.

“Man, T. J., I don’t know how you can fit so many fireballs in your mouth,” I said.

“Fifteen is my limit,” said T. J.

“You know what they say?” joked Roger. “Fifteen fireballs on a dead man’s chest. Yo-ho-ho and a—”

Suddenly there was a clap of thunder. It sounded like it was right over our heads. Lightning streaked across the sky.

“If we get zapped, we’re toast,” said Roger.

“Not necessarily,” I said. “Lightning is more likely to strike the tallest things around, which in our case would be trees, not—”

“Forget the lightning, Fish. We are
so
toast,” said T. J. “Look who’s coming!”

Roger and I looked up. Our mouths dropped open. Striding toward us were Mystery Man and the librarian with the red glasses. And right behind them under a big white umbrella was none other than the Lioness.

“Not just toast. Burned toast with no butter or jam,” said Roger. “That’s us.”

“White or wheat?” asked T. J.

“You look more like a burned bagel or cinnamon bun, if I had to pick a bread type,” said Roger, who talks a lot when he’s nervous. “Now, Fish would be a toaster pizza, and I would be . . . ”

The surprise party of three reached us, and I took a deep breath. I was about to explain everything. Before I could even open my mouth, T. J. said, “See, I told you the partner was wearing a mood ring.” He pointed to Red Glasses’s hand. “When it turns red it means love, because she’s in love with Mystery—”

“Mann!” Roger put in. “Mr. Mann, sir.”

And everyone started talking at once.

Here We Go Again!

A few days later, my dream came true. Roger, T. J., and I were lugging the Seagull motor down Main Street in Feenie’s red wagon. We agreed to use the money we got as a reward for finding the treasure to buy the Seagull and fix up the Captain’s boat. You probably want to know about the bet.

Hold on, I’m getting to that.

First, I need to tell you about the treasure. It sure wasn’t what we expected. There were a bunch of old papers, a pair of long johns (I guess even pirates wear long underwear), and at the very bottom, a busted-up silver teapot and a bunch of silver spoons. That was it. No pieces of eight. No gold. No bars of silver. No diamonds or emeralds or rubies. Captain Kidd’s real treasure is still hidden somewhere.

The good news is that Lyons Island is now a historic landmark, so the Lioness gets to keep it just the way it is. And T. J. was right about the mood ring and love and all that, because Mystery Man and Red Glasses—I mean, Ms. Valen—are engaged. They were very excited about the treasure. Old papers really are pirate booty to them. Mystery Man actually shook each of our hands and told us how impressed he was with our treasure hunting skills and our perseverance.

Turns out he is a real live treasure hunter. He actually went to where Captain Kidd’s honest to goodness pirate ship, the
Quedagh Merchant
, was discovered off Catalina Island (that’s in the Dominican Republic). And he went scuba diving to look for the treasure. There wasn’t any. Just a bunch of old cannons. Captain Kidd’s treasure is still out there somewhere. Mystery, I mean, Mr. Mann invited us to come to the library’s Special Collection any time we want, and he framed a copy of the newspaper article about us finding the treasure and put it up in his office.

“Your turn,” said Roger. He put the wagon handle in my hand just as we passed the library.

“Hey, did you ever pay that fine you owed?” asked T. J. He shoved an AirHead into his mouth.

“Mystery Man said I didn’t have to,” I said, grinning.

My library card was the clue that led Mystery Man and the Lioness to us. See, he found it in the Lioness’s basement at the end of the garden party. It turned out that she remembered seeing a trunk like the one he talked about when the stuff in the basement got moved after the leak. So she and Mystery Man took a trip to the basement and found the same trunk I did. The next day (the day we dug up the treasure), he went to my house. Feenie told him I was on a hunt for “some kid’s” treasure. Mystery Man put two and two together. Then he called the Lioness and met her in town and they hurried to the island to find us. The light I thought I saw at the top of the Lioness’s house when Roger and I went to get the shovels really was a light. It was coming from the widow’s walk, where Mystery Man and the Lioness were standing, looking for us, because you can see almost the whole island from up there.

Just then Roger nudged me. Rounding Town Pond were two boys. One of them was wearing mirrored sunglasses and pushing a red scooter.

“It’s time, Finelli,” said Roger.

All three of us started to run, pulling the wagon behind us. We caught up with Bryce and Trippy by the flagpole at the far end of the pond. It’s a popular spot to watch the swans, or to bike and skateboard. There were a bunch of people there, but I barely noticed. I was too busy thinking about what I was going to say to Bryce.

“Hey, Bryce!” I called.

“Yeah, loser,” Bryce sneered.

“I won the bet!”

“Yeah, Bryce,” Roger piped up. “Fish found the treasure, so he wins.”

“It’s been more than two weeks,” said Trippy.

“I know,” I said. “But the day we found the treasure was the fourteenth day. So it was exactly two weeks.”

By this time, a bunch of people were watching. There were some kids from our class and a group of older kids from Marine Middle, including Roger’s sister, Summer, and Beck Billings. At the very back of the crowd was my mom. She was holding a loaf of bread that Feenie and Mmm were feeding to the cygnets. Everyone had their eyes on us.

“It’s all over, Bryce,” said Roger. “Fish found the treasure. Now give him the sunglasses.”

Bryce frowned and looked at Trippy, who shrugged.

“He found Captain Kidd’s treasure in two weeks, just like he said,” Roger went on. “That means he wins. So give Fish the sunglasses.”

“Give Fish the sunglasses!” someone in the crowd yelled.

“Give Fish the sunglasses!” called another voice.

Bryce had no choice. A bet was a bet, and I had won it fair and square.

Reluctantly Bryce pulled off his mirrored sunglasses. He threw them at me and I caught them.

“Put them on.” Roger nudged me.

So I did, and everyone clapped. Feenie and Mmm waved their magic wands. My mom smiled. So did Summer. The crowd started breaking up.

“It’s just a pair of sunglasses,” said Bryce. “It’s no big deal. You’re still a loser.” He nodded toward the wagon. “You gonna fix your dad’s broken-down truck with that old motor?”

“For your information, this engine isn’t for a car or a truck at all. It’s a Seagull motor, one of the finest motorboat engines ever made. The British used them to power light assault craft during World War II, as a matter of fact.”

“Read my lips! Who cares?” said Bryce.

“You will, when we use it to bury you at the Captain Kidd Classic.”

Bryce snorted. “Beat me? With that old thing? You must be kidding.”

“No, I’m not kidding. We’re not just going to beat you. We’re going to win the Silver Cup.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah!”

“I dare you, Fish Finelli,” said Bryce. “I double-doggie dare you.”

“Just you wait! You’ll be eating our spray.”

Roger and T. J. looked at me, eyes wide. I knew they were thinking of Bryce’s brand-new whaler. His top-of-the-line, superlight, super fast boat with the 9.9-horsepower Mercury FourStroke engine.

“You losers must be kidding,” said Bryce. “You couldn’t beat a canoe with your old boat.”

“Just watch us!” I said.

“
The Fireball
can beat anything,” said Roger.

“Later, losers!” said Bryce, as he and Trippy walked away.

“
Fireball
?” T. J. and I both looked at Roger.

“Great name for our boat, right! Remember what happened when we dug up Captain Kidd’s trunk?!”

I smiled. “
The Fireball
. I like it.”

“Oh, you mean when I . . . ” T. J.’s voice trailed off. “I get it!”

Roger whooped and held up his hand. T. J. and I started whooping, too.

We did our secret handshake. And we said our secret password—“S.D.E.P.”—and bumped fists.

“Here we go again,” said Roger.

10,000 WAYS THAT WON’T WORK