INDIANA II JJ Maybank (Outerbanks)

chapter twenty seven

After they had all caused a scene and ran away from Midsummers, they were sitting around a fire in the forest, John B had made for them. 

Indi was sitting next to JJ and of course she hadn't missed the cuts and bruises he had on his face. She knew they couldn't have been caused by the Kooks in the locker room, because they hadn't gotten the chance to hit him.

The only explanation she had, from were they could be, were from his dad. She was going to ask him about it later because she knew for a fact that JJ would never talk about it in front of the other Pogues.

"Hey, guys." Pope spoke up, breaking their silence. "So, like, my dad's already gonna kill me. So what's this mandatory meeting about?" 

John B looked at JJ and Indi and pointed finger guns at them. Even Indiana had no idea why they were there.

"Might as well tell him, man, before we're gaffed." JJ said as he put his arm around Indi's waist and pulled her closer to him and then looked into the fire in front of him.

"You ready for this?" John B asked them.

"Yeah." Kie said eagerly as she looked at all of the Pogues sitting around the fire wanting an answer.

"So, the gold never went down with the Royal Merchant." John B told them.

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

"John B, don't start that shit again." Indi told him. She had hoped that her brother had stoped looking for the gold when they didn't find it with the merchant.

"No. All right, wait. Hear him out, all right?" JJ said and squeezed Indi's waist telling her to listen to her brothers idea. 

"It's been here the whole time." John B tells them. "It's on the island." 

"Are you serious?" Kie asked him. "Oh my god."

"Here on Kildare island?" Indi asked. Never had she heard of the possibility of gold being buried on their island.

"I'd like to voice my skepticism." Pope told them.

"I'm sure you would, Pope," John B stood up to stand in front of all of them. "but can I please present you with my evidence, sir?" 

"Go on." Indi motioned him to continue, even if she thought he was full of shit.

"All right." John B clapped his hands. "So, in my backpack, I have a letter from Denmark Tanny." John B pulled out a piece of paper from his backpack.

"Wasn't he the slave?" Indi asked him. She had remembered hearing his name from her father before. Before her father got lost at sea, he had often taken her with him to library visits and investigations about the Royal Merchant.

"Who the hell is that?" Kie asked them.

"Denmark Tanny was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck." Indi told them. 

"Check this out." John B reached them the paper that was the letter from Denmark Tanny.

"Okay, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but my dad, he found the complete manifest. That was his big discovery." John B told them as Kie passed the letter to Indiana so she could take a look at it.

"So Tanny used the gold from the Merchant to buy his freedom. After that, he bought his farm." 

"Drumroll, please, because that farm is..." He paused as Kie started to slap her knees giving him a drumroll, "Tannyhill Plantation."

"Tannyhill?" Kiara asked him. 

"Yeah, so after that, he used his money to free even more slaves, and then he told a shit ton of rice, which pisses off all the white planters, and then they decide to lynch him." John B continues to explain.