The End of Calico Jack

In August 1720, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read stole the William, a 12 ton sloop. With a nefarious crew, Calico Jack broke his pardon to the first Royal Governor of the Bahamas, Woodes Rogers, and went hunting for merchant ships. I know. I was aboard the evening we stole the William. My name is Ricky Bradshaw and I have epilepsy. I know what you're thinking. (Not really. That's just something people say.) I bet you're thinking I have convulsions and spasms. My epilepsy isn't like that. I suffer from what my doctor calls absence seizures. Most days I act and look pretty normal -- or as normal as a boy can when he is in the tenth grade. But when I have an "episode" I sort of zone out. Mom tells me that when it happens I look like I'm daydreaming. Which means I don't look much different from the rest of my classmates at Quiet Cove High. School is pretty boring some days. If you've never heard of absence seizures, that's okay. A lot of people haven't. My teachers are a lot of those people. I needed to tell you about my epilepsy because at the beginning of this story my parents and I are on Coffin Cay, an island off the coast of the Dominican Republic (Hispaniola). We went there to find the treasure of the Nuestra Señora De Riqueza. That's a Spanish treasure ship. During one of my previous "episode adventures" (you can read about it in Dead Calm, Bone Dry) I was in the exact same cave with the treasure. Only then I was there with William Shakespeare, so that was like a long time ago. When I got back there with Mom and Dad the cave was empty. (I sort of figured it would be, but it was worth a shot.) The good news is, I found a ship's log in the cave with the exact course and route and longitude and latitude of where the Nuestra Señora De Riqueza would be on October 16, 1720. Then it happened - I had an episode and zoned out. Now I'm sailing around the West Indies with Calico Jack, Ann Bonny, and Scary Mary Read. Today the Nuestra Señora De Riqueza should be off the western coast of Haiti (also Hispaniola). If I make it off this ship alive, you'll read how one of the largest pirate treasures ever taken wound up in the cave. You're welcome to climb aboard and sail with us. We need lots of crew. The men of our crew keep getting stabbed or shot or hung. ~ Ricky Bradshaw