آرامش ریش‌سیاه

Chapter ten

Blackbeard’s Peace

Blackbeard dropped the knife to the ground.

“Look! The knife, It moved by itself.”

“It’s the curse of the treasure. It’s a message from Blackbeard.”

No one could see the ghost except for Queen Alliana. She had her great-grandmother’s eyes, and those eyes would always be able to see him. She walked towards him, away from the other men, who were preparing to take the pirates to the Queen Anne as prisoners.

“When you return to this island, you always bring unhappiness to a woman’s heart. First, it was my great-grandmother’s, and now it is mine. Have you thought of this in all those years while watching that treasure?”

“How could I forget? I can never die and be peaceful. I always remember what I did by looking at that treasure.”

“But you can do something good now. You can keep others from touching it and making the same mistake you did.”

“How, I can’t keep people from coming onto my ship and taking my treasure.”

“You could if you wanted. If there was never any treasure, you would have lived happily with Queen Hanzani. Now, you still have the treasure and you are still unhappy.”

“But that is what I was told to do, watch the treasure to pay for my mistake.”

“Have you ever thought of what it is that will end this punishment and let you die in peace?”

Blackbeard had no answer. He was quiet. Captain Scott came to say goodbye to Queen Alliana.

“Your Highness, we are ready to leave your island. I’m sorry for the trouble we brought with us, but I want to thank you for giving us what we need to sail again.”

“Remember Captain, you must find the ship you got the treasure from and put it back. It’s the only way to keep peace on these islands.”

“We will try.”

“I think you will succeed. And remember the story I told you about that treasure. Taking what is not yours can never bring you or the ones you love any happiness.”

Captain Scott and the others rowed back to the Queen Anne, and soon it was sailing again through the Bermuda Triangle. Blackbeard was standing at the ship’s side. He was looking across the wide, blue sea, thinking of everything Queen Alliana said to him before he left Rum Island. He was always saying the same thing to himself: “If there was never any treasure, I would be happy now.”

Suddenly, Blackbeard’s old empty ship appeared sailing along the shining blue sea. The man in the crow’s nest shouted to the Captain, and he put his telescope to his eye.

“Stubbs, sail straight for that ship. We’re going back on board.”

Blackbeard was walking nervously back and forth as the men put the treasure chest into a small row boat. He sat on top of it when they were ready to leave and row towards the empty ship.

Captain Scott told the men to leave the chest where they found it. Before the sailors left, Captain Scott looked around the old pirate ship.

“And this is what you get for wanting all the riches of the world.”

Blackbeard was standing next to him listening. It was the last thing that was said on that ship.

The Queen Anne began to sail away when one of the sailors shouted “Look!” Everyone turned to see Blackbeard’s chest rising in the air over the sea. They thought it was moving by itself, but it was Blackbeard moving it. He threw the chest into the sea, ending the curse he had to live with. The sailors of the Queen Anne saw the shining gold on top of the water for one last moment, then it sank into the sea below.

When the chest had disappeared into the water, Blackbeard’s ship began to break apart and sank into the sea. The sailors’ eyes all grew wide as they saw the ghost of a pirate in a long blue coat, with a black beard and a red scarf around his head, fly up into the clouds of the sky.

“Captain, what in the world was that?”

“It was the ghost of Blackbeard. It seems that he has finally found his peace.”