My Life In Ruins

8. It's Not Gibberish, You Just Can't Speak Awesome

I had a small zip pocket on the arm of my wetsuit.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to fit the little jewelry box inside it, but I could definitely fit the ring.  Knowing that everyone would more than likely be freaking out as to where I was, I slipped the ring inside the pocket, zipped it up, and held the metal box tight in my hand as I swam back up.

When I got to the surface, I took out my mouthpiece and lifted my goggles onto the top of my head.  Looking around, I finally spotted the boat…about fifty feet away from where I was.  Everyone was already on board and had taken off all of their gear.  They were looking around frantically in the water below the boat also, calling my name. 

“Over here!” I yelled, waving one of my arms in the air as I slowly started swimming toward them. 

Max was the first one to look at me and relief broke out onto his face.  “There she is!” he said, pointing toward me.

I saw Ronny run up to the steering wheel of the boat and start it up.  He turned it around and started toward me so I wouldn’t have to swim all the way toward them. 

“Calliope Landon!  Are you a complete idiot?” Dad yelled as he helped me up onto the back of the boat.  “We didn’t know where you were!  You know you’re not supposed to just go off on your own!”

“Dad, calm down,” I said, laughing.  “I’m sorry I went off like that, but I was just following my gut!”

Dad raised an eyebrow at me.  “‘Following your gut?’  And what exactly did you gut do for you?  You could have run out of oxygen and couldn’t get back up to the surface!”

I lifted my hand that held the tiny metal box and opened my fingers, showing it to everyone who was gathered around me.  “My gut got me this,” I said. 

“Hot damn!” Ronny yelled, grabbing box from me.  “Where’d you find this?”

I laughed at his enthusiasm.  “It was in some crevasse that parts of the ship made.  I don’t know if there was anything else in there, though,” I said. 

“E. S.,” he read off the lid.  “I wonder what that mean.”

I just shrugged as I started taking off all of my gear.  Max helped me with it and he was looking at me like I was crazy.

And like he knew I wasn’t saying something else. 

When his hand brushed over the pocket on the arm of my wetsuit, I knew he felt the ruby ring there.  He looked up at me with wide eyes and I shook my head once, silently asking him not to say anything.  He nodded once, but his eyes betrayed his curiosity. 

We headed back toward the harbor then, Ronny driving even though he wanted to look at the box more.  Jeff was looking at it with Dad and Brielle.  Since everyone was preoccupied, I slipped into the cabin so I could change out of my wetsuit and back into my clothes. 

I pulled the ring from the pocket of the wetsuit and sat down in one of the chairs near a lamp so I could get a better look at it. 

The first three letters, U, L, and X, were spaced away from the last six, N, B, V, W, L, and D.  I didn’t know what it could mean, but it had to mean something. 

Just then, there was a knock on the cabin door and Max poked his head in, his eyes closed. 

“Can I come in?  Are you decent?” he asked. 

I clutched the ring in my hand and laughed.  “Yeah, come in,” I said.  “But lock the door, okay?”

Opening his eyes, smiling, he came in and shut the door behind him, locking it.

“Alright,” he said, walking toward me.  He sat down in the chair opposite of the one that I was in and looked at me.  “What was in your pocket?”

Grinning, I held out the ruby ring toward him.  “This,” I said. 

I watched as his eyes lit up as he looked at it.  Slowly, he reached for it and took it into his hand. 

“It was in that box that I gave Ronny and Jeff,” I said.  “But I couldn’t give them this.  At least not yet.”

Max looked like he couldn’t find the words to say.  “This is spectacular!” he said.  “And it looks brand new.”

My grin widened.  “That’s not even the best part,” I said.  “Look on the inside of the band.”

He flipped the ring sideways, reading the letters inside.  His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at me.  “But it doesn’t make any sense.  It’s gibberish.  They’re just random letters,” he said, confused.

I shook my head, smiling so wide that my cheeks started hurting.  “They’re not just random letters,” I said.  “It’s a code.”

***AHH!!!1  So awesome, right?!?  I couldn't believe this stuff (and everything else coming up throughout the entire story!) came from my awesome brain!  :D  Haha!

Just so you know, yes, the wreck of Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge has really been discovered off the coast of North Carolina.  I'm not making that part up.  But the part of the metal jewelry box with the letters E and S on it, the ruby ring, and the code I'm making up all on my own!  So don't go thinking that this - and what's to come - is true!  Though it would TOTALLY be awesome if it was!  Haha!

So you know what to do!

Comment, Vote, and Like!!!1***