Halfmoon Bay

Half Moon Bay

Laura had heard the stories of the shipwrecks. And she even had been scuba diving down to one of the wrecks herself. But the story of the lost treasure chest on one of the beaches at Half Moon Bay just did not seem likely. There have been so many people that have walked along the beaches, she just could not believe that a treasure chest could be hidden somewhere.

After a heavy storm, Laura was walking along Elmar Beach on the north end of Half Moon Bay. She had done this walk many times. This time, though, she noticed the storm had washed quite a bit of the sand away from the beach leaving, what appeared to be, a new rock in the sand. As she got closer, she realized it was not a rock. It was an old wooden chest. It was still buried in the sand to the point that Laura was unable to open it. So, she took a mental note

of its location and she was going to come back with a shovel to attempt to dig it out. She was hoping nobody else would come by and find it before she returned.

About an hour had past when Laura finally returned with a shovel in hand. To her amazement, no one had found the three-quarter buried chest in the sand. Or, so she thought.

Laura got her shovel and started to dig around the chest. She knew she was not going to be able to lift it on her own, so her goal was to just dig around it enough to try and open it up to see what treasure laid inside.

As Laura was digging, a man approached her from behind. Since she was digging, she did not notice him. “Excuse me,” he said. “What are you doing?”

Laura turned around and looked at this man. He was tall, burley looking man. That did not bother her, though. What Laura was concerned about was that this man was holding a shovel. “What does it look like I’m doing,” she replied. “I’m digging.”

“I can see that,” he said with a slight tone in his voice. “But your digging up something that I had found.”

Laura thought for a moment. “I actually found this when I was walking this morning. But I’ll tell you what. If you help me dig this out and carry it back to my place, I’ll split whatever is inside with you.” The man thought for a moment and agreed to the deal. They both started to dig.

With the man’s help, it did not take long to dig out the chest. Just looking at it, it appeared to be something from the 1700’s. It was incredibly old and beat up. But the sand had kept it in good condition. Both Laura and the stranger were wondering if this was the lost treasure from the story that everyone in Half Moon Bay talked about. The hard part now is going to try and get it to Laura’s house without anyone else noticing.

Laura and the man then each grabbed a side and lifted. It took some effort.

They could tell the chest was full of something because it was so heavy. They finally got it lose and it came free.

“Oh my,” Laura said. “It’s heavy.”

“Are you going to be able to carry it?” asked the strange man.

“Yeah. I’ll be fine.” Laura replied. “I live just over there on Pilarcitos Avenue.”

They both grabbed a handle and lifted the chest and started to walk to Laura’s house.

When they got to Laura’s home, they sat the chest down in the living room. Laura grabbed a crowbar from the garage and started trying to break the lock open. The lock, being old and corroded, did not resist, and broke off easily.

Laura and the man were now moments away from seeing what treasure was inside. Laura trembling started to lift the lid. What they saw astonished both of them.

Your turn. Finish the story: