Ding....Ding.....Ding, Ding
Groaning, Coral opened her eyes listening to the sounds of the bell outside.
"What is that psycho doing?" JJ grumbled burrowing his head under his pillow.
"Apparently he wants to make sure I'm truly pissed at him," she answered, rolling out of bed. Lifting her window open she leaned out and shouted at her brother, "Will you stop that fucking racket!"
Slamming the window shut, she turned to look at JJ, "You might want to get up to keep me from committing murder," she stated before flinging her door open and marching down the hall. She reached the back screened in porch at the same time her brother was coming in from the yard, "Did you not get the memo last night that I'm already pissed at you. You're just adding fuel to the fire," she said, waving her hand towards the yard where the bell sat.
"I don't know why you're so mad at me."
Scoffing, Coral rolled her eyes, "Oh, I don't know, maybe cuz you laid Topper out in front of literally the entire island, including my boss, who is most likely going to fire me!"
"You work too hard anyway," JJ said, yawning as he came out of the house and plopped down on the couch.
"That is not the point JJ!"
"So, you're telling me that if JJ cheated on you you wouldn't lay that chick out?" John B questioned.
"Oh, I'd for sure kill them both, but I'd do it where there's not an entire island full of witnesses!" she exclaimed.
"Plus, that would never happen, Dude," JJ commented, blowing Coral a kiss.
"Well, sorry I couldn't help it," John B said, shrugging, "It's just something about the dude's face, you know? Like the whole, "No hard feelings, bro." You know what I'm saying?"
"No hard feelings," JJ snorted, "It's kinda hard not to have hard feelings about that."
"It's just that...that look. That Kook look, you know?"
"It was clear provucation."
"Provocation," Coral supplied.
"Provocation," JJ corrected, blowing her another kiss, "And, uh, I mean, you had to do what you had to do. No choice about it."
"Thank you," John B said, throwing his hands up in the air, "No choice," he repeated, sticking his tongue out at his sister, "Now we gotta figure out a plan to get to South America, like, yesterday. They've got dad," he reminded them before walking into the house.
"You know that would, like, never happen though, right?" JJ questioned, getting up from the couch and walking over to Coral.
"I know," she assured him, "Cuz I would actually shoot your dick off," she told him, patting his crotch before following her brother into the house.
"As long as we're clear on that," he said before turning and following her inside, "Any chance you're feeling the urge to make breakfast?" he asked as they walked into the kitchen to find John B already rummaging through the fridge.
Pushing her brother out of the way she reached in for the carton of eggs, "What's the plan to get to South America?"
"So, I was thinking passports," John B answered.
"We don't have passports."
"Fully aware of that Coralina. Now as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, we don't have those. Therefore, we can't fly commercial."
"If you know that's not an option why say it?" Coral questioned, getting the frying pan from the dish strainer and setting it on the stove, "I mean, seriously, what a waste of breath " she muttered, turning the stove on.
"You're a waste of breath!"
"Okay!" JJ cut in before the twins could argue, "Well, don't you got the money you took from Portis?" JJ questioned.
"I gave that to my dad," John B told him, turning away from glaring at his sister's back.
"Wait, if Dad had money why did I have to go turn the electric on with our squirrel fund?"
"Are you really questioning that, Coralina?" John B scoffed, "Talk about a waste of breath."
Shaking her head, Coral flipped off her brother before going back to making breakfast.
"So, then what about a boat? If we got a boat, maybe we could get down there 'cause the HMS," JJ trailed off, "Yeah you know about the HMS. Oh, Limbrey! Limbrey has a boat! What if we took that one down?"
"Yeah, no. She took that back and the HMS Pogue is definitely not making it down to the Port of Spain, so out on boats."
"So, what you're saying is, we don't got any money, and we also don't have a boat that can make it to South America."
"Pretty much sums it up," Coral said, handing JJ a plate of eggs before cracking more for herself and John B.
"Actually, I might know a guy," JJ said, taking his plate and sitting down at the table, "Oh, for real, I think I'm onto something!"
"Uh-oh," John B said, looking out the kitchen window above the sink.
"You don't start with uh-oh, dude. You're so negative," JJ complained at the same time that Coral glanced over at her brother as he dropped to the floor, "What's the matter?"
"Get down! Shoupe is out front right now!"
"All right, John B!" called Shoupe from outside.
Eyes wide, Coral managed to turn the burner off before dropping to the ground along with JJ.
"Shit! Come on, get under here," John B hissed, crawling towards a side table against the wall.
"Yoo-hoo! Anybody home? John B!" Shoupe called again.
"Go under there. Under there," JJ whispered, crawling after John B.
"Come on. Scoot!" John B whispered.
"You two are fucking idiots," Coral hissed crabwalking back into the dark hallway as John B and JJ squished themselves under the side table in the kitchen.
"All right, John B, I know you're in there!" Shoupe called, knocking on the door, "Coralina! JJ! I'm sure you're both in there too!"
"If he sees you, that's game over," JJ whispered.
"Shut up!"
"I know you can hear me in there! You need to come out and talk to me! It'll be a whole lot worse if you don't!" Shoupe called, "Okey, doke, have it your way! You know where you can find me!"
Listening as the sheriff got back in his car and started the engine, they waited till they heard the sounds of gravel crunching under the tires before moving, "All right. Let's peel. Come on. Go," John B said, shoving JJ out from under the table.
"All right. I got a plan, all right?" JJ said, getting to his feet, "I think it might work. It's a little sketchy. Might not like it, but I think it will work," he said as Coral came back into the kitchen and John B stood up.
"No, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait. What plan?" John B asked.
"If I tell you right now when the plan is half baked, you'll get all negative."
"Look, I'd settle for a quarter baked plan," John B retorted.
Making a whining noise, JJ flapped his hand at John B before grabbing his plate of eggs and Coral's hand leading her out of the house.
"Don't you dare make that noise at me!" John B called following them through the house and outside to the Twinkie.
"Listen, as much as I love JJ's half baked plans I'm gonna sit this one out," Coral announced, pulling her hand out of JJ's.
"What?"
"Baby Girl?"
"When was the last time anyone talked to Pope? Someone needs to check on him since he's not answering texts or calls. Plus, I can't deal with the two of you today, not after last night."
"Coral."
"No," she interrupted, holding up her hand, "I get it, okay, if it was JJ," she trailed off, looking at the blonde, "Well suffice it to say I'd lose my shit too," she told her brother, "But I'm still irritated, so, I'm gonna go check on Pope, maybe swing by Kie's and try and do damage control."
"Irritated," JJ nodded, "I can work with irritated," he said before looking at John B, "It's when she's angry you gotta be afraid," he stage whispered to him.
Rolling her eyes, she yanked the door to the Twinkie open, "Drop me off at Haywards," she said, climbing up into the passenger seat.
"Hi Mr. Hayward," Coral greeted walking into the store.
"Coralina," the older man acknowledged, "Pope and Cleo are out back by the docks," he told her as he continued restocking the shelf in front of him.
"Thank you!" she called waving as she went through the backroom and out the back door. Squinting against the bright sun she saw both Pope and Cleo standing together at the end of the pier owned by the Haywards store.
"Hey, you two!"
"Hey girlie!" Cleo greeted, waiting for Coral to reach them before giving her a hug, "Long time no see," she laughed.
"I know. That's why I'm here to see what's up," Coral replied after hugging Pope, "You ain't been returning texts or calls," she said looking at the boy.
"Yeah, sorry," he apologized, "Had some stuff going on with school and then that shit with Rafe. Listen, we've been doing our own hunting and we found something," he told her, unfolding several pieces of paper, "This is a letter Denmark sent to his daughter, Clarice," he told her showing her the papers.
Taking the letter Coral read through it flipping to the last page she sucked in a breath, "That looks familiar," she said looking up at Pope and Cleo.
"I thought so too," Pope agreed, "Do you have that photo you took at Singh's?"
"The one of the painting, yeah," she answered, pulling out her phone she attempted to get into her email, "Shit. My password isn't working. I don't think I changed it," she muttered as she typed her password in again, "Fuck!" she exclaimed when she was once again denied, "Okay, I still have it on Fenton's phone back at The Chateau," she reminded them.
"We have to go then," Pope declared, refolding Denmark's letter and putting it in his back pocket.
"We can't. John B beat the shit out of Topper last night and Shoupe was out there this morning looking for him. He might come back. I sent it to Kie though," Coral remembered, "Plus she's closer then The Chateau."
"Topper?" Pope questioned, confused, "What exactly have we missed?"
"Yeah, we got some catching up to do," Coral responded.
"We'll do that after we see Kie," he said, turning and starting down the pier.
"Well, that might be a problem too," Coral called hurrying after Pope and Cleo.
"Okay, just stay out here. We'll go in and get her," Pope told Coral, pointing to one of the deck tables, "After JJ stealing from Mike and John B crashing their party, I doubt you're their favorite employee right now."
"Honestly, I doubt I'm even an employee at this point," Coral responded, pulling out a chair and sitting down as Pope and Cleo climbed the steps to The Wreck.
Tapping her fingers against the table Coral waited impatiently as she waited for them to come back with Kie. Hearing voices approaching she stood up as they came around the corner.
"What is this about?" Kie questioned as she followed Pope and Cleo. Catching sight of Coral standing by one of the deck tables she glanced over her shoulder towards The Wreck where her parents were before hurrying towards Coral, "Are you okay? That shit was crazy last night with John B," she said, hugging Coral.
"I know. I know. I'm so sorry," she apologized, "Are your parents, like, really pissed?"
"They pulled out the pamphlets for wilderness camp."
Wincing, Coral sucked in a breath, "God, Kie. I'm sorry. I'll talk to them again."
Shaking her head, Kie told her it was fine, "Now what's going on?" she questioned, looking at Pope scrolling through her phone.
"Something Cleo found," Pope responded, handing Kie Denmark's letter without looking away from the phone.
"It's a letter Denmark Tanny wrote to his daughter," Coral told her as they sat down at the table with Cleo and Pope.
"We found it last night. Family heirlooms and thingums," Cleo supplied.
"We think we found a connection to that painting that Coral saw at Singh's. Look, check this out. See the king sun glyph here?" he said pointing to the paper from Denmark, "It matches the one in the painting at Singh's house," he said, turning her phone to show her and Coral.
Furrowing her brow, Coral took the phone from Pope as she studied the picture of the painting.
"Couldn't that mean it's just pretty common?"
"Actually, no," Pope answered Kie, "These glyphs are Kalinago, which has never been deciphered. Some people believe that the captain of the San Jose actually found somebody who knew how to translate these glyphs because he found El Dorado.
"The priest that talked to Denmark Tanny, that was on the Royal Merchant," Kie remembered.
"Exactly!" Pope exclaimed, "Every glyph that is in this letter is in the painting. This isn't just some random Rosetta stone for Kalinago. This is a direct translation key for the artifact in that painting."
"Now we just have to find the artifact," Cleo said.
"We already did," Coral spoke up, looking up from the phone she'd been studying, "I don't know why I didn't realize it before but this is the Gnoman of Solana," she told them pointing to the phone, "The day we first got back this is the thing my dad had. He and John B found it and put it back together. It's why Singh took him."
"Wait, Singh took your dad?"
"Yeah, sorry," she apologized to Pope, "I was busy catching you up on JJ and John B. I didn't even get into my dad. Basically Singh kidnapped him to South America on a quest to find El Dorado."
"Okay," Pope nodded, "Well, we have the code. We can use this to save Big John. Where are JJ and John B right now?"
"Uh, JJ was working on a plan to get us to South America. I'm not entirely sure what it actually involved," Coral responded, "And I texted them both on the way over here and neither one has answered me," she added, pulling out her phone and checking the screen.
"So, we should probably check the police station first," Kie stated, pushing back her chair and standing.
"It's a valid place to start," Coral acknowledged as she stood along with Pope and Cleo.
"Hey!" Mike called, coming out of the restaurant and standing on the deck, "Where are you going?"
"Uh, to the break," Kie answered quickly, glancing at the others, "We're gonna go check out the surf."
"Um, Mr Carrera, I just want to apologize to you and Mrs Carrera about last night. My brother was upset over something involving Sarah and he should've never taken it out at your party," Coral spoke up, biting her lip.
Swinging his gaze from Kie to Coral, Mike nodded, "It's okay, Coralina. You guys have fun."
Confused, Coral looked at Kie who shrugged, "We will," she called over her shoulder as she took Coral's hand and hurried away from the restaurant with Pope and Cleo following them.
"That seemed too easy," Coral commented.
"We're not questioning it," Kie responded, pulling her along.