READER’S short story
What goes around comes around in this tale of pirate’s gold by David Coulthard of South Shields, Tyne and Wear. But there’s an unsuspected twist…
It was one of those days when the weather didn’t know whether to put a smile on your face with a bit of sunshine, or a gloomy scowl with a downpour of rain.
I wandered into one of the many seafarer’s bars struck along the coast of Florida. I had just left one of the many boats I owned and decided to have a beer and call it a day.
“A bottle of beer and have one yourself,” I happened to shout across to the barmaid who gave me a smile then brought me a drink. It was just about then that I noticed an old man sitting nearby.
“You OK, old timer?”
“Yes, son, just thinking about old times and enjoying a beer.”
“Bet you have a few tales to tell,” I tried to encourage him.
“I’m a retired cop. Jack Pearson’s my name, and this place brings back memories. I met my wife Susan here when I was out searching for a criminal.
“She told me she had come to this waterfront bar to tie up a big financial deal but nobody had shown up. She said she’d invested all her savings – up to two million dollars – in the initial project to recover pirate’s gold from the bottom of the ocean. But when nobody turned up, she thought it was a scam.”
The old man went on to say how he had done a search through all the known local petty criminals’ records and their scams, but couldn’t find anything about pirate’s gold.
He then told me how they started dating and eventually got married.
Then one day he came home and found a note from her saying that the investors had been in touch to tell her they had found the treasure, but needed another million dollars to haul it up from the ocean bottom.
She had taken it from their joint account and left him skint and he had never heard from her again.
I looked at the old man and felt sorry for him. I knew who Susan was because she was living with me, and the money she had stolen from their joint account had helped buy my boat and turn it into a thriving tourist business. I now own lots of boats. There was no buried treasure.
I got the old man’s address and a delivery of one million dollars cash plus interest was sent to his house with a letter from Susan saying: “Thanks for the loan. I found the treasure I’d been looking for after all – a new seafaring fellow.”
Submit your short story (up to 500 words) to siobhan.mcnally@mirror.co.uk