The rain is coming down hard and fast,
like a Jimi Hendrix guitar riff.

Tonight we had planned to start digging,
but instead we are sitting

in Carolann’s family’s Volkswagen van,
watching the drops hit the windshield

and the rolled-up windows and hearing they
rat-a-tat-rat-a-tat on the metal roof

while we sit in the backseat and make
a list of things that are good and bad

about the location of Point C.
So far, this is what we’ve got:

GOOD: The detector says there is something metal buried in the
woods.

BAD: It’s not so far into the woods that it will be well hidden if
we have to dig a really big hole.

GOOD: Both Malcolm’s mom and Carolann’s dad are
gardeners—so getting shovels will not be a problem.

BAD: If the treasure is large (it sank pretty fast in the river,
according to Captain Kidd’s log), it will take a lot of digging;
we can’t go out there every night without our families
getting suspicious. So … we’ll have to take turns, spread out
our visits. So … this could take us the rest of the summer.

GOOD: We don’t have school, so losing a lot of sleep won’t be a
big problem.

BAD: Malcolm and Carolann’s families will mostly be home at
night. They’ll need to sneak out or lie (probably both) to
get over to the church unnoticed.

GOOD: When there are three of us, two can dig and one can
stand watch.

BAD: Even with all of that digging, if the chest is buried under a
lot of soil and sand, someone might notice us before we
find it.

GOOD: The metal detector’s signal was so strong, we are almost
guaranteed to find something.

BAD: The instrument might be picking up the metal on the
outside of the chest (we saw pictures of pirate chests in the
library books; they’re mostly made of wood, with iron nails
and locks). Inside, there might be nothing that’s valuable
anymore. Carolann has been reading about how things like
salt, pepper, licorice, and cinnamon were worth a lot of
money in pirate times…. We try not to think about going
through all this for a bunch of condiments.

GOOD: If we find an actual treasure, we might be rich forever.
And if we don’t, at least we killed a few weeks of summer,
spent some time together, and kept ourselves from thinking
about ninth grade, nuclear bombs, and Vietnam.

(That’s not so bad.)