On the deck of my boat, looking up at the sky, I watch the stars twinkle in the night. The sky is so clear, it seems like there's a blanket of stars. I can't ever recall an evening when the sky was so clear and the stars shining so brightly. Despite all the beauty of the night sky, I have an uneasy feeling deep down inside my bowels. The ocean is eerily calm and unmoving, with not even a ripple of a wave.

When the cold ocean breeze hits my face, I realize it's getting close to winter. Judy and I have been on our boat for nearly six months, and now it's time to head home. I return to our cabin below deck, and my waiting bed.

Suddenly I'm awake, aware that something is wrong. Quickly I slip into my sandals and return to the deck. What I see causes fear to grip my heart, and I am unable to move for a few minutes. An antique pirate ship is coming upon us quickly, and the resulting waves toss our small boat back and forth. Turning to the control center, I start the engine and move our boat out of the way as Judy joins me. We look at the vessel with wonder, then at one another with confusion.

Judy asks, "Do you have any idea how that ship got here?"

"I haven't the faintest clue," I reply.

The ship comes to a stop not far from our boat, as if dead. We watch the ship for over an hour, seeing no sign of life.

I ask, "Do you think we should go check it out?"

She gives me one of those "you idiot" looks.

"Why should we check it out?" she asked. "There could be many dangers on that old ship."

We watch a little longer looking for signs of life on the old ship.

Judy then turns and says, "OK. My curiosity has gotten the best of me. Let's go check it out."

With building excitement, I turn on my running lights, and pull along side of the ship, watching carefully for signs of life. All I see is the side of the ship, dark and dreary. There is a rope ladder hanging over the side, so I pull our boat over next to the ship. As a precaution I gather up my flare gun and some flashlights and climb the rope ladder to the main deck of the ship. After looking around and seeing nothing dangerous, I signal Judy to climb on up.

Slowly walking toward the bow and carefully paying attention to everything, we still find no life aboard the ship. Exploring every inch of the top deck and finding nothing out of the ordinary, we decide to head below deck and see what we can find.

Looking through all the cabins below deck, we find nothing really important. It looks as if a large crew had been aboard this ship at one time, due to the number of cabins below deck. We come upon one cabin that is much bigger than all the others. Thinking this must be the captain's quarters, we search the room. Finding nothing of importance, we turn to leave. Just then, Judy's flashlight reflects off of something shiny behind a door. Slowly, walking to the door we open it What we saw made my heart flutter and it took my breath away. I hugged Judy harder than I ever hugged her before and we laughed harder than ever. The chest full of gold that lay open in the closet reflected the light. She noticed it because it was open and a flashlight reflected off of the gold coins it contains.

Gleefully, we drag the chest up the steps to the top deck. Going back to the rope ladder, I descend first while Judy stays on deck. She tosses the gold down to me, one piece at a time and I put them in some bags we have on our boat. Suddenly, I hear Judy scream! Looking up, I see some kind of creature pulling her back from the side of the ship and more coming down to get me.

Reaching for my flare gun, I realize it isn't where I strapped it to my side. Looking around trying to find something to fight them off with and finding nothing, I hurry below deck and grab my crow bar. Picking it up, I turn around to fight the creatures, but it's too late. Something hard and bony pushes into my side and the sound I hear is one that I'll never forget. It's the loudest shrill I've ever heard in my life. "TURN OVER AND STOP SNORING!!!!" Judy yells at me.