The Most Beautiful Shell in the World

The sea churned as the Cadence Jade rocked in the ferocious downpour. Running past a cabin boy vomiting, Captain Cuatro yelled to his first mate, “Thar be the rock now, JoJo. Thar it be.”

Peering into the distance at the needle of rock streaking out of the ominous ocean JoJo nodded his understanding and ordered the other pirates to turn toward the rock. Drenched in water and with nothing but the beacon of a lighthouse to guide them the pirates lifted and pulled and climbed until the boat lurched toward the goal.

             “This better be worth it. Or there’ll be a mutiny,” JoJo snarled to Captain Cuatro.

             “Aye, it’ll be worth it,” Captain Cuatro gazed into the distance, lightning illuminating the raindrops streaming down his face. Captain Cuatro was irked by the strain in JoJo’s voice but he’s lost his foothold as absolute leader of this vessel and knew he might not regain it. Upon realizing the objective of this most recent endeavor, JoJo had grown to detest Captain Cuatro. The feeling was palpable, and Captain Cuatro had been treading lightly for the first time in his entire forty-five years.

             Into the torrent the pirate ship tore, outpacing the rainclouds above. Finally, as they approached the crag that was their destination, the rain began to let up. The deafening roar of rain pelting wood was replaced by the gentle lull of a calm sea and a creaking ship. The men took their rest, opting to stay in the sun to dry off. Overturned boots revealed stray fish that were thrown into the galley. Someone shoved an octopus overboard, returning it to his home.

             Noticing the lagging deck crew, Cuatro and JoJo anchored the ship themselves. Cuatro looked longingly and fearfully at the rock. “I’ll be back,” Cuatro told JoJo, walking slowly toward the plank. JoJo did not answer.

             Cuatro jumped onto the craggy jut of rock alone. He could feel JoJo watching him but he ignored the gaze. Focus was imperative at this point. He knew he would find what he was looking for. The treasure had haunted him since childhood when his father, also a pirate, had given him a hermit crab found during an excursion. He remembered the last time he visited this rock.

             “This crab is very special, Cuatro. He will be your most important possession. Take good care of him, for his shell is the most beautiful, priceless shell a pirate can find.” His father his father had said with his typical fluorish, then handed him a hermit crab living in a shell so beautiful it looked as though an artist had painted it. “This shell,” his father continued as Cuatro traced the lines of the immaculate shell,” has magical properties, son. As long as it is on your crab, it will bring you the most wonderful luck. But he must be your secret because many pirates know of this important shell and will try to take it.”

             And Cuatro had taken care of it. For two years he tended to his crab, making sure it had the exact temperature and humidity it needed to thrive. He watched his crab as it climbed, burrowed, and ate. The shell was indeed good luck. Cuatro had been very successful in school and with athletic ventures ever since the crab and the shell had entered his life. But it would not last.

             One summer as Cuatro’s father embarked on an excursion to find gold that was fabled to be on a rock in the middle of the ocean, he invited Cuatro. Cuatro was excited to go with his father, even if he did worry that he was only meant to be a good luck charm with his crab and not his father’s companion.

             “Thar it is, Captain Tres! The rock!” he scuttled down the mast, handing he telescope to his captain. Captain Tres peered through and said, quietly, “Aye, that’ll be her.”

             “Father, will I be coming on the rock,” Cuatro asked, his voice shimmering with hope.

             “No, son. This’ll be a two man job. We need men looking after the ship while we’re on the rock looking for the gold.” Cuatro’s hear sank. He slunk over to his terrarium to sit with his crab. The day passed as his father and first mate navigated the craggy, slippery rock, dipping in and out of the water, searching every visible crevice. Cuatro began to drift off to sleep in the evening sun when a pair of feet thumbed down beside him. Opening his eyes in his upturned face Cuatro saw an unfamiliar pirate in a purple jacket, his weathered face punctuated by deep blue eyes.

             “What do you have here, my boy?” he smiled at Cuatro, his breath a pall in Cuatro’s nostrils.

             A boy of nine, sheltered from his father’s treacherous lifestyle, Cuatro immediately ran to the hold and huddled while the bursting of gunfire began above him. He heard the wet thud of swords running through unknown men, the screams of the injured and dying, while he drifted into a state of unconsciousness.

             When Cuatro awoke, the world was dark and quiet. His terrarium had been placed next to his head and his crab was naked, the beautiful shell nowhere to be found. He creeped upstairs, afraid of being ambushed by the unfamiliar crew. Stepping over bodies both familiar and unfamiliar, Cuatro looked around for someone who could help him. In the distance he heard the clank of swords. On the rock, Captain Tres and the Purple Captain were having a sword fight and the Purple Captain was holding the magical shell. Still unseen Cuatro quietly picked up a sword near the hand of a dead pirate he know as Lock. Fighting back tears and vomit he sneaked quietly off the boat and onto the slippery rock.

             Unstable and holding a heavy sword he ambled around the side of the rock and up behind the Purple Captain. Sufficiently hidden he sat for a moment gathering himself. After several shaky deep breaths, a burst of adrenaline sent tingles through his limbs and in one move he stood, climbed up several slippery footholds, and raised the sword over his head. Seen by his father and not the Purple Captain, he brought the sword down right where head met back and nearly decapitated his father’s foe.

             The Purple Captain fell forward, Captain Tres giving one last push to see him off the rock and into the ocean. With a look of astonishment and reverence, Captain Tres nodded slightly to his son. Cuatro retrieved the shell from the rock and made to put it in his pocket.

             “No, son. No. Let’s leave that shell here. It hasn’t brought is the luck we thought.”

             “But father, it has. You would have been killed if the shell hadn’t brought be the ability to slay that other captain,” Cuatro protested, taken aback at his father’s change of heart.

             “That shell lured those other pirates to us in the first place. It’s nothing but an albatross. I will lay it in here with the gold and we will hide it back.”

             “We will not even take the gold,” Cuatro could not hid his shock. What had this been for if not for the gold.

             “I’ve lost all my men today, son. Thirteen men. Most had been with me for years. My greed has been rebuked, my fortune has changed. We will take what gold we need, and we will return it to the rock and hope our fortune improves with such a gesture.” Cuatro watched as his father took several large pieces of gold and then placed his beautiful shell in the box. Then he disappeared under the water for several seconds, coming up empty handed. Cuatro’s heart sank. Today, he had become a pirate. And today, he had to watch as his Captain returned the treasure they killed and sacrificed for.

             Quietly they returned to the ship. Working together the stacked the bodies in the hold and swabbed the deck. Cuatro put a small brown shell he found on the rock in the terrarium for his little crab, burrowed to stay safe while out of his shell. Sometime during the long sail back the crab had emerged and entered his new home.

             Now, on the crag again thirty-six years later, Cuatro thought of his old crab. He sat in his terrarium on his boat now while Cuatro searched for the treasure containing the shell. Cuatro knew his crab was nearing the end of his life. He wanted the crab to spend his last days in the shell he deserved. Dipping into the water Cuatro spied the chest he knew to contain both gold and shell. With immense strength he dislodged what his father had nestled into the rock so many years ago. Opening it he took out the shell and just the gold that he needed.

             He brought the chest onto the boat and dropped it on the deck. As the pirates swarmed the chest, counting and arguing shares Cuatro walked slowly to the hold. He walked slowly down the stairs, remembering the fear he had the last time he was at the rock. This time, he had no fear. He now knew why his father had left the treasure so many years ago. And while he believed the shell held no magic other than its beauty, he also knew that it was time to go home with his profits and leave the pirating to the younger men.

             “Here you go little crab. You can move into your old home on your own time.” He left the crab to himself. Sometime during the sail home JoJo became the new captain of the Cadence Jade and the crab became the most beautiful crab in the world again.