Asa (The Boondocks, #7)

Rock

Where is the treasure?

Cheyenne sighed. “Miss Amy did have something to say once we were alone in her bedroom,”

“What was that?” Rock asked.

“She told me about growing up in the same house she and Amos lived in. Her grandfather’s house.

That house has been in the family for a long time.

Her father and his brother were born there.

When her parents were married they bought a house a few blocks away but she spent most of her childhood there.

Her grandfather used to tell her stories about an old man who first lived there.

He didn’t stay in the area long but after he was gone, he left a small piece of himself behind.

She thinks that old man was the pirate and that little bit he left behind?

Well, she thinks that might have been her own great grandfather.

That was the Litchner secret, their scandal.

It wouldn’t mean much today but back then it would have labeled him something very wrong.

” She shook her head. “Then he told her the old man came back to the area from time to time. He never told her why but she asked why he did. Her grandfather couldn’t answer her question but she had her own answers.

She thought maybe the old man came back to watch over his family.

He might not have acknowledged himself but she thinks he watched over him for at least a little while. ”

Asa scoffed. “That doesn’t really help us.”

“Maybe not but then she said something else about a stone-built cabin up in the mountains. A cabin she could never find. But her grandfather told her about it.”

“At least it isn’t another damned cave.” Asa shuddered.

Rock chuckled. “Yeah Prez, is now pretty gunshy of caves.”

Cheyenne just shrugged. “Hell, I don't like them much either. But she said her grandfather’s dad would go there and her grandfather would follow him. She told me he never said what was so special about the little stone cabin, only that he went there a lot. Maybe it was a meeting point between his dad and the old man. Maybe there was more to this than a child would ever guess about. I don’t know, we may never know but her grandfather always told her that the place had been important to his dad. ”

“So you think we should find this cabin?” Mad Dog asked.

She shrugged her shoulders. “I didn’t say that, but maybe.

I’m more worried about Miss Amy’s own family.

” Cheyenne growled. “They might come here expecting to be able to get her grandfather’s diaries to find out if the old pirate left a map they can use to find that fuckin treasure.

They might think being family and all that they have just as much a right to it as she does. ”

“So you think her family might show up?” Asa asked her.

Cheyenne turned her head to stare at him for a moment. “Yeah, I do. You heard what she said. She’s even gotten a text warning her about it. I think they might even be on their way now and I’m not sure that Miss Amy can handle their demands.”

Here comes part of the family...

Amy sat at one of the tables and she paused to stare at the two ladies Sophie and Jolene. “Sophie, what are you doing here?” she asked.

Sophie headed toward Miss Amy and sat down at the same table.

Then she reached out and took her hand “Aunt Amy, the family has been following the news reports about this area and Amos...And they’ve been talking about you.

They think the time has come to get the family treasure and I don’t think they will be gentle in how they do it. ”

Miss Amy studied her niece and finally shook her head. “Are you the one who texted me?”

“I did that,” the younger one said. “I’m Jolene.”

“And how did you know to come here, to the compound?” Miss Amy asked them.

Sophie shook her head. “They know that you are staying here somehow. We heard them talking the day before yesterday. Jolene and I took a bus today and we had to walk two miles up here to the gate.”

“So why did you come?”

Sophie clasped her hands together and said, “Dad has been upset for thirty years ever since he and your dad had that fight. He wanted his grandfather’s diaries and he thinks your dad lied about them.”

Miss Amy gasped and her hands trembled. “What makes him think I know anything about great grandpa’s diaries? If they even exist?”

Sophie stared at her for a moment then said quietly, “My dad said he found a page from his grandfather’s diary once.

He asked his dad about it and his dad wouldn’t tell him anything.

Said he didn’t know what he thought he found but he didn’t keep a diary.

Apparently, he and grandpa had a terrible fight that day and that was just before Dad moved away with us kids.

He’s got Markus’ boys all worked up about the treasure now and he said he’s coming here to demand you turn it over to the family or he’ll break you.

He thinks you’ve been living the high life on bits and pieces of that treasure and he said he wants his share now.

He said he’s waited long enough and if he has to fight you for it, he’ll take everything you got and then some. ”

Amy exhaled loudly. “That’s a damn lie. I’ve worked hard my whole life. I’ve earned every penny I have in the bank and I can prove that.”

Sophie looked upset as she shook her head. “Dad doesn’t care about that. He’s got it in his mind that you’ve been selling off the pirate’s treasure and he just won’t listen to us anymore.”

“Aunt Amy,” Jolene spoke. “It's gonna get real ugly soon. Mom and I came here to help you, to warn you but grandpa and the boys aren’t going to play nice. That damn treasure is all they think about.”

“How do they even know if this treasure is real?” Asa asked the women. “It's been talked about for years but nobody has ever found it. It's just a rumor, isn’t it?”

Jolene shook her head. “Yeah, they all talked about it being just a rumor but that page he found, he’s twisted it into something that made it real in my grandpa’s mind and he’s not letting it go.

So, when the news channels kept talking about the arrests made here and Amos.

..Well, it lit a new fire. He’s even so far gone that he said Amy’s dad stole it, kept it out of his reach and now that everything was going to hell here, he was coming to claim it before Amy spent it all. ”

“That’s not true,” Amy objected. “No one has found any gold around here because there is no gold to find.”

Sophie shook her head. “And that’s something you’ll never get my father to believe. Or my sister and my cousins.”

Jolene leaned forward and said, “We had to warn you to protect your assets and your house. Grandpa thinks he’ll find the diaries in the house and he wants them.

He says he’ll find them even if he has to tear down that old house, brick by brick.

He’s crazy, that's what he is. Just plain crazy and mean.”

Amy glanced over at Asa then around the room at the faces of the bikers.

Tears formed in her eyes then she looked at Sophie and Jolene.

“Our family has a history, you know that. There have been rumors about that damn treasure for over a hundred and fifty years. No one in the family has ever found it, not even one piece of it.”

Sophie shook her head. “Dad showed us the page he found. It was dated and in grandpa’s own hand.

Something he wrote years earlier, the page was yellowed even.

He wrote that he had to sell a small ring in order to keep his home together.

He wrote that he hated to disturb the treasure but that his family had to eat too. ”

Miss Amy gasped and her hand flew to cover her mouth. Then she looked over at Asa.

He shook his head. Her grandfather had done that twice. She had told the group that much and her uncle had found the passage that her grandpa had written.

Miss Amy slowly turned her gaze back to Sophie. Tears swamped her eyes. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “You saw those very words?”

Sophie went a bit pale. “Wait, you know that passage? It's true then? Grandpa really found the treasure?”

Amy didn’t say anything. She looked around the room and found Cheyenne’s gaze.

Cheyenne just stared at her.

That look made up Miss Amy’s mind about something.

She turned back to Sophie and nodded. “Yes, I know about the diaries but grandpa didn’t write them, his father wrote them.

He found them after his dad died. His dad, not him, wrote those words.

As you know the men in our family live a very long time.

Great grandpa was almost a hundred years old before he died and grandpa was close to ninety before he passed.

Another secret in the family was that great grandpa was the son of the pirate, but the pirate never acknowledged him as a son.

His mother and himself bore the shame of being unwed and back in those days that was a mortal sin.

Great grandpa was shunned most of his life and he had only one son, grandpa.

They built the house they lived in and it is the same house I live in yet today.

After the fight with your dad, grandpa asked me to hide the diaries and I did.

I didn’t look at them so I have no idea what they said.

He just told me if anything like this came up that one day I might have to burn them but I haven’t been in that position yet.

But if your dad comes here and threatens me I will burn them right in front of him, if I have to. ”

Sophie drew in a deep breath and exhaled. “So, the treasure is real?”