Nothing to Loose, But You - JJ Maybank

21: You saved me

"Hey, guys. So, like, my dad's already gonna kill me. So what's this mandatory meeting about?" Pope asks as we are all sitting in logs around a fire in the woods.

"Might as well tell him, man, before we're gaffed." JJ says. He puts his hand on my thighs drawing little designs.

"You ready for this?" John B asks.

"Yeah." Kie and Pope say.

"So, the gold never went down with the Royal Merchant."

"Oh, my God. Here we go again with this." Pope says.

"No.All right, wait. Hear him out, all right?" I say as John B looks at me weird.

"How do you?" He asks.

"Lil birdie told me Vlad." I say smiling. He quickly ignored me going back to what he was talking about.

"It's been here the whole time. It's on the island."

"Are you serious?" Kie asks in shock. "Oh, my God."

"I'd like to voice my skepticism." Pope says.

"I'm sure you would, Pope, but can I please present you with my evidence, sir?" John B asks.

"Proceed." Pope says listening.

"All right. So, in my backpack, I have a letter from Denmark Tanny."

"Who the hell's that?" Kie asks no one in particular.

"Denmark Tanny was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck." John B explains. He gives the map to Kie. "Check this out." "Here you go."

"Okay, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but my dad he found the complete manifest." John B explains. "That was his big discovery. So Tanny used the gold
from the Merchant to buy his freedom. After that, he bought his farm. Drumroll, please, because that farm is... Tannyhill Plantation."

"Tannyhill?" Kie asks. She gives the map to JJ who hands it to Pope.

"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. 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?" Pope asks.

"Harvest the wheat in parcel nine, near the water. Except... there's no wheat. You see, wheat is code for gold. Check this out." John B shows something to Pope on the paper. "The gold is in parcel nine, near the water."

"Holy shit." Kie says.

"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 says.

"Dude, it's like King Tut." Kie says as JJ warps John B up in a hug.

"I am a genius. Hey, whoa!" John B says as JJ gets close to the fire. "Hello! Fire! You're near the fire. You're gonna burn."

"I'm so proud of you right now." JJ says putting him down.

"Thank you. That's really sweet of you." I smile at the interaction.

"Okay, so, guys. What's the plan?" Pope asks.

"Good question. Sarah Cameron's coming tonight. She'll bring an original survey map..."

"Hold on." Kie says cutting John B off. "Sarah? Wh-why Sarah?"