Treasure Trove

There's the bastard now. He's such an asshole I just want to grab him by the throat and strangle him.

"Hello, Fred. Why don't you sit next to me? I'd like that." I smiled a phony one and moved my chair to accommodate another beside mine.

"Thank you, Josh. I don't mind if I do." The pathetic shit took me up on my offer and plunked himself down in a chair smack dab shoulder to shoulder with me.

"Fred, what's new?"

"You wouldn't believe it if I told you. But if I do. You must promise me you won't speak it to anyone else."

"Sure, Fred, I swear I won't."

"About two days ago, I was working the backfield of my property and hit something hard about six feet down. I stopped what I was doing and did my best to carefully uncover it."

"What was it?"

"It was a treasure chest full of gold coins and trinkets."

"What did you do with it?"

"I buried it again and haven't told a soul except for you."

"Why not?"

"I was hoping you'd help me and give me some direction as to what I should do with it to not draw any suspicion to it or myself."

"Me? Why me? Fred, we're not that close."

"Maybe not, Josh, but you aren't going to cheat me either. You have a stellar reputation for being honest and good to everyone."

"I don't know about all that, but I do know that all that money in that chest is yours. You have to dig it up and keep it before someone else digs it up and takes it for their own."

"Do you think someone would do that?"

"There's no telling what people will do when money is involved."

The gentlemen had a few more drinks and left together. Josh went home, and Fred did, too. Josh fixated on stealing that chest out from under Fred's nose. He had to get a look at it or figure out a way to empty its contents and leave the chest for Fred to find.

Later that day, he looked around at different antique stores for treasure chests and found one that he thought might work.

He headed to the back of Fred's property. He pushed the dirt away and opened the chest. He saw the gold coins and was enamored with their beauty. For an instant, he became someone else.

He was the man who initially buried the chest.

"These gold coins will save the family one day from ruin," Blake said. "I need to ensure everyone knows they are buried here." But Blake wasn't aware someone watched what he was doing and wanted the coins for himself. Blake left, and the man moved toward the chest. He got close but could not open the chest. Blake appeared and severed his head.

"You silly bastard. You thought you could cheat me out of my family fortune. You are an asshole." Then Blake put his head on a stake outside the family gate with the rest of the heads there.

Now Josh understood. Was Fred lying in wait somewhere to do the same to him? But Josh had already opened the chest and transferred the fortune to his chest. It was already in his truck. He got into his car and left through the back end of the farm and onto the concession road.

Later that night, Josh smiled and laughed at how foolish Fred was for telling him where to look and for Fred to share what he had found with him. As he counted the last of the gold coins, he couldn't believe the amount of money it was worth. He would never have to work again. He had successfully duped Fred out of his treasure chest.

Fred should be figuring that out right about now. Josh thought. It serves him right to that dirty, rotten asshole.

The following day at coffee, Josh sat in the same chair with the same expression. Fred came into the coffee shop with a disturbed look on his face.

"Morning fellas. Josh, may I speak with you real quick?"

"Of course. What is it?"

"It's the chest. It was switched out for a different one. Do you know anything about that?"

"Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Good. Because the man who took that treasure chest poisoned himself and will soon die. That was part two of my story that I would tell you today. Why do you think I left all that money in the ground in a treasure chest?"

"What do you mean?"

"I told someone I thought would help me out by getting the money out for me, cleaning it all, and placing it into a nice new container without any poison on it."

"Who did you tell besides me, then?"

"That's just it, nobody."

Josh's eyes flashed red, and then they flashed wet. Human nature's improbability of allowing him to leave the treasure chest alone so that someone else could get the coins and other gold artifacts was unlikely. Greed slipped into his mind and body. It took over and controlled his inner being. He became obsessed with and controlled by it. He allowed it to make decisions for him that he otherwise would not have made. And that was his downfall.

He finished his coffee, excused himself, and left the coffee shop. Fred followed behind. A third person followed at arm's length in the shadows, too.

When they arrived at Josh's house, he reached for Fred's neck and tightened his grip so much that Fred went from white to blue to purple and then lay across the floor dead. Josh went and got the treasure chest and shook his head at his fatal move and decision that changed his life forever. He didn't know how fast the poison would work, but he knew it wouldn't be a pretty death. He took out his shotgun. He loaded it and kept the safety off. He put it up under his chin. Without thinking for another second, he pulled the trigger, and he, too, was dead.

The third person busted in and took the chest. Put it into the car. Went back inside and dialled for the ambulance and police. There was nothing that could be done for either. Looking at the clock, it was time to return to the coffee shop.

Everyone gave great tips to Marcie and Al, the owner. They didn't know that Marcie and Al secretly hated them all and wanted nothing more than to pack up and leave the town for good. When Al returned, he looked at Marcie and smiled from ear to ear. They were extra generous with what they gave people today for food and drink.

Marcie called her cousin and said she would sell her the diner. It was only good for today only. Her cousin took her up on it and came with the cash. They signed the deed over to her. They asked her not to say anything about it until tomorrow, when she could throw them a send off luncheon. She agreed.

After work that night, Al and Marcie threw their aprons onto the washing machine lid and placed the workshoes where they always did. They cleaned up like they usually would. But left with the hopes of never returning.

They left that evening and were never heard from again. Nobody knows if they were involved in the murders of the two gentlemen or not but it didn't look like it to the police. What they did find were four more treasure chests at the back end of Fred's property. Nobody knew why everyone involved with the chests kept dying except that everyone knew who attempted to move the chest because they died from poisoning.

And so it went until the town only had old maids and a priest. And the reverend looked around and decided that between the treasure chests and the women it was no contest: the women were his first, last, and only choice.

Dark impulses, whether known fully or not, have a way of rising to the surface at the least expected moments in time. Such was the case for the residents of Treasure Trove Bay.