Brother's Best Friend || JJ Maybank

Episode 5. Midsummers | 21

Julianne Bailey Routledge

We ended up sitting around the fire, laughing about dumb stuff.

"Hey, guys. So, like, my dad's already gonna kill me. So what's this mandatory meeting about?" Pope asked.

John B shot finger guns at JJ, urging him to speak, "Might as well tell him, man, before we're gaffed."

"Ready for his?" John B asked, looking at JJ.

"Yeah." Kie said, showing that she was paying attention.

John B sucked in a breath, "So, the gold never went down with the Royal Merchant."

Pope groaned, "Oh, my god. Here we go again with this."

I shook my head, "No. All right, wait. Hear him out, all right?"

"It's been here the whole time." John B continued, "It's on the Island."

My mouth dropped open, "Are you serious?" A smile found my face and I bumped JJ with my shoulder, "Oh, my god!"

"I'd like to voice my skepticism."

"I'm sure you would, Pope." John cut him off, "But can I present you with my evidence, sir?"

"Proceed."

"All right. So, in my backpack," He pulled out a piece of old looking paper, "I have a letter from Denmark Tanny."

"Who the hell's that?" Kie chimed.

"Denmark Tanny was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck. Check this out." John B handed her the paper and she began reading it. "Okay, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but our dad, he found the complete manifest. That was his big discovery."

We all gave him blank looks as he continued, "So Tanny used the gold from the Merchant to buy his freedom." Kie whistled and handed Pope the paper, I leaning over to see it, "After that, he bought his farm. Drumroll, please, because that farm is... Tannyhill plantation."

"Tannyhill?" I asked, looking up at my brother. I've only heard stories about that place and those stories were not pleasant.

"Yeah. So, after that, he used his money to free even more slaves, and then he sold a shit-ton of rice, which pisses off all the white planters, and then they decide to lynch him." We all watch him as he continues his story, "So on the day they were coming to get him, he writes a letter to his son as a farewell, and in the last line of that letter, he leaves a coded message about where to find the gold."

"Where?" Kie asks.

"Harvest the wheat in parcel nine, near the water."

I shook my head, "There's no wheat."

He continued, "You see, wheat is coded for gold. Check this out." He pointed at the paper, "The gold is in parcel nine, near the water." We began laughing. "All we need is an original survey map of the property and we've found the gold."

"Okay, so this might have a small chance of being actually true." Pope said.

Kie grinned, "Dude, it's like king Tut!"

"I am a genius." I stood up, wrapping my arms around my brother, who was not expecting that, "Hey, woah! Hello! Fire! You're near the fire. You're gonna burn."

I pulled away, "I'm so proud of you right now."

"Thank you. That's really sweet of you."

Pope spoke, making us turn to him, "Okay, so, guys. What's the plan?"