Alright all you buccaneers! Here it is! The written script! Still no keys reported found! All the booty still waiting to be unlocked! Who’s planning on going out this weekend to search for treasure?
The Mischievous Marauder: A Pirate Love Story
For the Academy of Fine "Hearts" Treasure Hunt
(Accompanying video previously posted)
The subtleties of love were not lost on young Abigail and Concord. When it all began Abigail was joyful. She’d skip along to her family and tell them all about her love. Above all else and below the surface, she felt lucky, and it felt right. Little did she know her youthful fantasy of love with Concord was merely the calm before the storm.
Her family forbade her from seeing him any further, so he was forced to move along, and he kept moving to the ends of the earth so it seemed. She swore sometimes if she looked far enough she could just about see him. For thirty-six long years she did not see or hear word of him. Like a mill she kept grinding away at the monotony of a simple life. She married a local salt named Bob who looked to her like he was ninety-one. She did what she could to pass the time. Bob was a grumpy old salt, and broke her spirits down. With the help of her friends and neighbors she rebuilt her life as best as she could throughout the year, but she was merely the remains of who she once was. If anyone remembered who she once was though it was her beloved Concord, wherever he might be.
Concord would have come looking sooner, but he needed a cause to fight for and a way to fight for it. He often spent his time near a tree as lonely as he was. He’d walk for an hour just to pass the time, then turn right around and walk back right the way he came. It lasted for years, him traveling here and there, rocking back and forth before finally settling down in a sturdy place. He had become impenetrable. Sticks and stones may break his bones, but there are no words harsh enough to break a broken-hearted person, nor words warm enough to tame a heart of stone. A heart of stone becomes cold, and a cold heart can snowball into madness. Concord mustered a crew of like-minded menaces, and turned them into the very name that he gave his beloved ship: The Mischievous Marauder.
Abigail swung her legs over the water as she sat, and despite all that she had been through, she still felt lucky. Sticks and stones might break the best of us, but Abigail felt strong. She began counting her paces as she walked: one, two, three, one-hundred-forty-four. Her feeling were right back to where she started: joyful. Before long she was skipping along the beach and looked out, as if instinctually, to see a great big ship dropping anchor. A few smaller rowboats were carried in quickly by the tide, and several marauders emerged from them. Abigail and Bob were both taken onto the ship and it headed out into the bay. The captain of the ship was summoned, and he looked at Abigail. She was a child again, and so was the captain, and their eyes met like the firm handshake of strangers, but with the warm familiarity of a comforting scent. He walked up and parted the hair from her face, and whispered, “Arrrre you still in love with me?” in her ear. “Aye,” she replied.
Bob moved at his own pace as he walked the plank. Abigail walked it right behind him, the feeling of its surface oddly familiar on her feet, and she sent him to the locker. The old salt was gone now, never to return, and the bay belonged to Captain Concord and Lady Abigail. The bay became theirs, from the west end to the east. Sticks float and stones sink, but words of love are like the water itself, all-consuming. The notorious pirate couple fell more and more in love with each other the more that they raided, filling up their chest with treasures and riches. They kept their treasure somewhere between where they each started, and it contained two locks. Therefore, it had to be opened by two keys: only together could they open their chest. They each hid one of the keys in their favorite spot before The Mischievous Marauder was sunken to the bottom of the bay with Captain Concord, Lady Abigail, and their whole crew aboard. It would take love and a great pair of pirates like them to solve this Valentine’s Day treasure hunt. Can ye scoundrels find the hidden keys to unlock their plunder?
There are two keys, two locations and you have until February 15th to crack the clues and claim yer bounty! A total of $2,000 will be awarded this quest. $500 for each key and an equal $500 to a charity of your choice. There are no rules against one buccaneer finding both hidden clues and claiming all the loot!
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