Entry 13
When I awoke the next morning, I remembered my conversation with Charlotte like it was a dream I’d wished into reality. Today we would find a way onto the island together.
I rushed through my chores before Papa was up, then ran to the Cuthbert farm. Charlotte was waiting at the gate. She was wearing the dress that looked like Mama’s—but today her red hair was loose, blowing in the breeze.
“Hello,” I said, stopping short and shielding my eyes. There was no sun, but the cloudy sky was bright, the air still and sticky. “I wasn’t expecting you to be outside.”
She offered me her arm and led me away. “I didn’t want to waste time. My husband is fixing our porch while Valerie sleeps, so I slipped away.”
“Valerie? I thought her name was Virgina?” I said, confused.
“It’s Valerie,” Charlotte confirmed. “Let’s get on this island!” She was like a kid, pulling me along down the path. “It has been calling me back for so long.”
Back? The hair on my arms prickled.
“Tell me where you were standing when you first heard it, and don’t leave out a detail,” Charlotte squeezed my hand. “Let’s start there and see if it appears. If not, we’ll walk along the water’s edge till a new entrance appears.”
“What makes you think it will?” I asked anxiously.
Charlotte looked straight ahead, her smile revealing a dimple in her cheek. “I just know. Now come on. I don’t have all day, and neither do you.”
I laughed at her bossiness. We rushed to the shore.
“See anything?” Charlotte asked.
I shook my head disappointedly. “What about you?”
Charlotte looked out at the water, the breeze making her skirt lift, revealing battered brown boots.
They were worn, the laces up to her knees.
They were unlike any boots I had ever seen.
“I always can. I just can’t find a way on,” Charlotte said, her voice somber, as thunder rumbled in the distance.
“Let’s keep walking. Until the weather turns, we can find it. I have a good feeling.”
“Aggy spoke like that,” I said following her footsteps. “She had the gift of sight.”
“Did she now?” Charlotte’s voice carried on the wind. “And she didn’t see this happening? You unable to get back on the island when she was trapped?”
She did, I realized. That was what Aggy had been trying to tell me. For some reason I kept this from Charlotte.
“Maybe she wanted to keep the treasure for herself,” Charlotte said suddenly.
“Aggy wouldn’t do that,” I insisted. “I think she knew what would happen when she took a coin, but she also seemed to know this was the only way I could save her and our friends.”
“Maybe you don’t know her as well as you think you do.
” Charlotte turned, walking backward. “If there really is a treasure on this island, one that could keep a person from growing old and allow them to live forever, why would anyone share it?” She smirked.
“Unless they were savvy and wanted to sell coins to the wealthy. I bet there are hundreds of coins in that chest. If we sold every last one, well, we’d be richer than President Madison! ”
I frowned. “You mean President John Adams. He took over in March.”
She smacked her forehead. “Adams. Yes. You know what I mean, don’t you?
” She reached for my hands again and spun me around as the sky darkened.
I could see rain over the water where the island should be.
“If we found that treasure, think of what we could do with it.” Her eyes flashed.
“We could leave this place. We’d travel so far away no one would find us, and then we’d carefully spread word of a treasure that could make the ill well.
That would allow you to live forever.” She looked at me.
“Can you imagine? Living beyond our lifetime? Seeing what this world will become? Staying young and beautiful forever?”
I shivered. “Some would say staying the same age forever is a curse. Kimble said—”
“Oh, Kimble!” Charlotte let go of my hands in a huff. “That man sounds infuriating! He gets to live forever, but no one else should?”
“He doesn’t want to live forever. He wanted to find the lost pieces so that he could break the curse,” I said, wondering if I’d forgotten to mention that part. “But I double-crossed him and ruined his plan.”
“Unlikely. There is only one way to get the final piece of treasure, I reckon, and I suspect he won’t want to do it.”
I stiffened. What did she mean by that?
Charlotte came closer once more, her smile returning. “You did what was best for you. You’re like me. Which is why, we get on that island, take all the treasure we can carry, and leave together so that no one ever finds us.”
Walk away from my family and friends? My heart felt like it was fluttering fast. “But your husband and daughter. My family.”
The wind rustled through the beach grass like whispers. She touched the green ring on her hand. “Listen to me, Evelyn. You have to take care of yourself. And no one else. I learned that the hard way. Take what you can get, and leave nothing to chance.”
I knew then she was no mother. What mother would become immortal and leave her child behind?
“Don’t overthink this! I’m offering you forever. Say yes.” I hesitated and her expression darkened. “I hope I haven’t made a mistake in trusting you, dear. I’ve never looked fondly at those who try to cheat a woman.”
“Cheat?” I didn’t understand.
“If you’re thinking of keeping the treasure for yourself”—she raised her voice—“of getting on that island without me, I will see to it that you and your family have no future.” Charlotte’s once beautiful face looked ugly.
I realized then I’d made a mistake confiding in this stranger. How could she believe a story about a treasure that could make one immortal unless…?
“You’ve been to the island before, haven’t you?” I realized.
A large gust of wind nearly knocked us both off our feet. We both stood our ground, staring at one another.
“I knew you were smart when I met you.” Her voice was quieter now.
“Of course I’ve been. Do you think I’d be out here talking to a child if I didn’t need help?
I’ve longed for that treasure for two hundred years, and I won’t miss my chance to get it again.
” She grabbed my wrist hard. “Now you’re going to help me get it back. ”
Welcome home, Evelyn Terry! Welcome!
My ears pricked up. The island was calling to me. I glanced at the water but still couldn’t see it. Charlotte didn’t flinch. Could she hear the island too? I licked my lips before I had the nerve to say what I was going to say. “Why would I help you?”
“Because you want to rescue your friends, do you not?” She smiled wickedly. “And to do that, you need me. The island will only let you return if you have something it wants, and I do.” She pulled something shiny out of her undergarment.
I gasped. “The treasure.” The coins looked identical to the pieces of eight I’d stolen. I reached out my hand to touch the gold.
Charlotte held it out of reach. “You didn’t think I would just give you a piece, did you?” Charlotte’s smile was cruel. She held up one of the coins between her thumb and index finger. “The island is still here. Last time it stayed for a fortnight.”
A fortnight meant when the island was here in the 1600s, it stayed for two weeks. My friends and I had been visiting that island for a few weeks, hadn’t we?
“So if you want on, after the island disappeared, you need to return a piece of its lost treasure. Which means you’re going to have to do everything I say.”
I kept my eyes on the coin. “What do you want?”
“Good girl.” Charlotte sounded pleased. “What I want is for you to help me get back to the island, retrieve your friends’ coins, and have your friends help you carry the treasure chest off. You’ll get your friends back, and I’ll get the Tesouro Eterno.”
So the treasure had a name. Still, something made me suspicious. “Why do you need my help? Why not go alone?”
“I have my reasons. Now. Do we have a deal or not?” Thunder clapped overhead.
“I told you, I don’t see the island anymore,” I said, frustration creeping into my voice. I felt like the island was taunting me. “I can only hear it.”
Charlotte put the coin back in her undergarments. “That is fine. It just means we need to find a new entrance point. It can’t be far from the first one. You just need to know where to look.”
She walked ahead of me now, humming a tune I didn’t recognize. I walked in silence along the water, wondering whether she knew Kimble. If she did, why weren’t they searching for the island together? She was an enigma, much like the pirate.
Oh, how I wished he were right there to help me.
While mysterious, he never lied. Lost in my thoughts, it took me a moment to realize what was happening.
Suddenly, the beach started to widen, the sand stretched out ahead of me, and the harbor of Greenport grew farther away.
Sun broke through the clouds, and I felt warm air, the scent of gardenias and jasmine hitting my nose.
And then I heard the island calling through the fog.
Welcome, Evelyn Terry. Welcome!
There were other voices this time too.
Evelyn, where are you?
Gil? I stopped short. The fog began to part. There was no sandbar, but a few yards away, I could see my island. It was back. My heart started to pound.
Meow. I looked down and saw Winks sitting at the water’s edge.
Where had the cat come from? And what was the red cord tied around Winks’s neck? A silver tag hung from the cord with Aggy’s family crest etched on it. That wasn’t there the last time I saw her before Aggy disappeared. Nestled inside the cord was a small scroll. Was that note meant for me?
Moving quickly to make sure Charlotte wasn’t watching, I pulled the paper out from the collar. I turned away so Charlotte couldn’t see. I unrolled the scroll and saw familiar handwriting.
Aggy. The message inside chilled me to the bone.
Don’t trust her.
“What’s with the cat?” Charlotte asked.
I jumped at the sound of her voice. I slipped Aggy’s note into my pocket before she could see it. Winks, however, took one look at Charlotte and hissed, then dove into the thick beach grass. “That’s my friend Aggy’s cat.” That was true. “I should bring her back to her family.”
“No,” Charlotte said brusquely. “The cat can find its own way home.”
She cares about no one but herself. Was there even a husband and child? Was Charlotte even her real name? Don’t trust her. When had Aggy written this? Was it after the island disappeared last night? Or before? How did Winks get it?
Something told me Aggy had found a way to communicate with me.
So the question was: Could I get on the island as Winks had?
This island continued to be a mystery, but one thing was clear: if a cat could get on and off the island, then maybe I could too.
I just needed one of Charlotte’s coins to do it.
If I could save the others and protect the treasure by returning one of the two missing coins, I needed Charlotte to trust me completely.
“Charlotte?” I called to her. “I thought about what you said, and you’re right—a treasure like this is too precious to squander.
I’d like to help my friends get off the island, but then I’m leaving with you and the treasure.
” She studied me closely. I kept my expression neutral.
“That is…if you’ll still have me. All I ask is that you let me go home to say goodbye first.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Goodbye? We haven’t even found the island entrance yet.”
“I lied before,” I admitted, hoping I was doing the right thing by confessing. “I can see an entrance right here.”
“I knew it!” Charlotte said, elated. “Finally. I could feel it! It’s here! We found it!”
Truths and lies were so interchangeable. “I think if I had the treasure in hand, I could make my way onto the island right now.”
Charlotte opened her eyes. “No. We need patience. I must make sure no one else is watching us. You have till sundown to say goodbye.” Lightning flashed. “But if you don’t come down to the beach then, I will find you.” Her stare was deadly. “Do not cross me, Evelyn. Many have tried and failed.”
I shuddered. “I won’t. I’ll be back at sundown.” I didn’t wait for her to reply. I ran and didn’t look back.