Outer Banks ~ JJ Maybank

<22>

Later that day John B showed up at the house, a little less upset than he had been this morning, but still clearly not doing great. "Hey, are you okay?" I asked him as he walked around, looking flustered. "Yeah, I just. I feel like we should do some sort of send off for Dad. Like the viking boat kind of thing. I don't know." "We can do that if you want." "Okay. You go find a picture of him, I'll make the little raft." I walked into Dad's office to see if there was a picture of him laying around. I found one in a matter of seconds and stood there, looking at it. "What are you looking at?" JJ said, making me jump. "Hey, sorry. Um, just this picture of my Dad. John B suggested we do some sort of viking like send off for him so we are using a picture and he is making a rat out of sticks. For closure." "Cool." "Cool?" "I don't know what to say. Do you want me there?" "No. I think this needs to be just me and John B. Not trying to be a bitch but-" "I get it. I'll be right in here." He said, hugging me.

John B and I went out to the dock and placed the makeshift raft in the water. I took out my lighter and lit it on fire. We both blew the raft into the water and watched it float away. "Bye Dad." He said with a slight wave. "We'll miss you." I said, hugging John B. We stood in silence and watched it float farther and farther away until it disappeared off in the distance. "You okay Bird?" "Yeah. I'll be okay. How about you?" "I'm a little sad, not gonna lie, but I still have you and the Pogues around so I'm okay." "How about we go drink to dad." "Please." I said with a slight giggle. "To Big John. Hopefully he is chillin up there in heaven. Looking down on us." "We did all the crazy shit for you. We hope your proud." "To Dad." John B said, holding up his beer. "To Dad." I said, tapping my beer against his and taking a swing from it. 

"Is it okay if I stay here tonight?" "Yeah." "You haven't like, trashed my room or are using it as a sex den for you and JJ have you?" "Ew. Gross. No. It's just like you left it, messy and smelly." He chuckled a little. "I really hate how you just said sex den like there was nothing gross or weird about you saying it at all." "Well it's not unreasonable for me to assume that you two haven't..." I looked down at the floor. "You haven't?" "No. Have you and Sarah?" "Yeah. Yesterday in the bell tower of that old church dad went to." "Ew. Too much detail already. I just needed a yes or no." "Well I'm sorry I'm trying to share my life with you." "I'm okay with you sharing your normal life but not your sex life." He started laughing and playfully shoved me. "Alright, I'm gonna go hit the hay. DO you wanna come with me to the Crain house in the morning. I got some weird feelings about the gold." "Yeah. Sure." "Cool. I'll set an alarm and then I'll come wake you up. Lord knows we wouldn't want JJ to miss out a minute of his beauty sleep." "I heard that!" He called form my room. "Night Bird." I said giving him a hug. "Night Flower."

I woke up the next morning and felt someone shaking me. "Flower. Flower, it's time to get up." "John B?" "Yeah. Who else." "Okay. I'm getting up." I said, rolling over. "You don't have to come if you don't want to." "No I'm coming. I just need to change my clothes and I'll be ready to go." I carefully got out of bed and stumbled to my closet. "I'll go find something for us to eat." "There should be some cereal somewhere." "Okay." 

"So when you said you had a weird feeling about the gold, what did you mean?" "I don't know. Ever since all the shit with Ward told me on the Druthers, I just have this bad feeling." "What did he tell you?" "That he knows everything. He even mentioned Redfeild and when I called him out on it, he went all psycho and tried to kill me." "Holy shit. Did you tell Sarah?" "Yeah. But she said her dad said that I stabbed him in the arm which isn't true." "Okay, well, let's hope your feeling is wrong." I said as he pulled over and parked on the opposite side of the street from the Crain house. We walked to the front of it and saw a Cameron Construction sign in front of it. We looked at each other and quickly ran to the basement. "You go." "What?" "You are lighter than I am and it'll be easier and faster for me to pull you up." "But you know where it is?" "You'll know it when you see it." He said, handing me a flashlight and tying the rope on me. "Okay. Here we go." I said as he lowered me down.

"Okay, look around, there should be a gap in the wall, do you see it?" "Uh, yeah." "Okay, you need to crawl through that." "Crawl through it?" "Yes. Just trust me please." "Okay." I said pulling myself through the hole. "Okay, now keep crawling through until you get to a big kind of room thing." "Okay. It's super slimy and gross in here." "Yeah. It's pretty nasty. You can shower when we get home. Are you in the room thing yet?" "No. Oh wait. I think I just got to it." I said, crawling into a small room. "Okay, look around, do you seen any gold?" I looked around, felt the wall and the floor. "Pull me up." I said, crawling out. "What? Is it down there." "I said pull me up John B." "Okay. I'm coming." He said, beginning to pull on the rope. Once I got back into the basement I untied the rope and looked up at him. He looked at me with anticipation as I shook my head no. "Nothing?"  "I searched every inch of it and I didn't find a thing. And before you asked, yes I am sure it was the right spot."

We got back to the house and Kie, JJ, and Pope were sitting in the living room. "Hey, where were you guys." "At the Crain house." "Without us?" Kie asked in a low key defensive way. "Relax Kie, he had a weird feeling about the gold." "Weird as in..." "As in, a bad feeling. Ward knows about everything and just as a side note, he killed my dad. But that has nothing to do with this. We went to check on the gold and maybe get some more." "And..." "And it was gone. Every last bar." "No way." "Yep." "I guess the treasure hunt is over." JJ said as I sat don on his lap. "I guess it is." Kie said. "Look, gold or no gold, I'm glad I got to do all this crazy shit with you guys." "Me too." I said with a smile. "Pogues for life." "Pogues for life." We all said with a laugh.