Hi, it's The Box of Mystery! Before I introduce my next chapter, there are a few people I need to thank (and give hugs):
bubblymuggle4: Thanks for giving me my first review, and thanks for subscribing to me! hugs
Ocean Siren: Thank you for subscribing to me! hugs
Nyghtshade: Thanks for listing A Lesser Evil as one of your Favorite Stories! hugs
Please feel free to review this story at any time, and constructive criticism is always appreciated.
Now, without further ado, I bring you . . . Chapter Two! (yes, I just realized it rhymes :b )
Chapter Two: Unwanted Attention and The New Shipwreck
"Ed, will you please stop playing with my bun?!"
"But it's so cute! It looks like a doorknob!"
Elaine rolled her eyes and sighed. Prior to Ed's arrival, her evening at The Landlubber's Wharf had been an enjoyable experience. She was reunited with the rest of the team, and they sat down to a delicious seafood dinner surrounded by friendly diners and decorative faux fish. As the newbie in the group, the other team members kept asking her all sorts of questions about herself. Gloria tried to answer some of their inquiries so Elaine could eat, but in the end, her efforts were futile. Elaine didn't mind, though; all that mattered was how much she enjoyed their company and vice versa. She used to be shy and reserved around large crowds, but her new friends were determined to coax her out of her shell, and Elaine admired them for their efforts.
Well, almost all of them.
About halfway through the meal, Edward Harrison, a paramedic and amateur historian, strode in through the front door of the restaurant and threw himself into the empty chair next to Elaine. Upon first glance, she didn't mind his decision to sit beside her. His jet black hair and dazzling green eyes, not to mention his bronze tan and glistening biceps, gave her an excellent reason to gape at him.
Then he just had to open his mouth and say, "Hey, baby, you like what you see?"
From that moment on, she despised his company. Unfortunately, he seemed to like how he caught her looking him over. He knew he was handsome, and his overwhelming confidence in this undeniable truth assured him that, with just one glance, he could have any woman in sight.
Or so he thought.
Elaine's disapproving frown, followed by a warning glare from Gloria eating beside her, served as a response to his first question. A long uncomfortable silence followed.
A few minutes later, something lightly bumped against the back of Elaine's head. She put down her fork and smacked Ed's arm, but by this time he had already stopped, making her defense unnecessary. He gave Elaine a questioning look, as if asking her whatever possessed her to harm an innocent stranger. She ignored his feigned injury and continued eating her fried shrimp. A couple of moments passed with no disturbance, but the peace didn't last long.
Elaine finished eating and had just begun to take a sip of her iced water when, without warning, Ed bumped her bun again. Caught off her guard, she jumped and accidentally snorted some water up her nose, sending her into a huge coughing fit. To make matters worse, the glass tipped over and spilled its contents all over her white blouse and denim skirt. She clenched her fist and breathed deeply. It was just water; there was no need to lose her temper. Repeating this phrase like a mantra, she grabbed her napkin and dabbed at her soaked clothes, cursing Ed in silence to a terrible and hopefully painful fate.
Which he fully deserved, considering his next action.
Ed leaned towards her and, in what he thought was a romantic effort to help Elaine clean herself off, picked up his napkin and started wiping it up and down her inner thigh.
The mounting anger Elaine had so far managed to keep at bay finally exploded from its prison like an erupting volcano. Her cheeks darkened into a cranberry-red as she spun around in her chair and faced the perpetrator with a furious gleam in her eyes. Ed had never seen a woman react so violently to his advances, and his eyes only grew wider with fear.
What happened next stunned everyone: She grabbed him by the collar of his neon yellow t-shirt, pulled him close to her, and let loose a punch landing right between the eyes. His head snapped back as he yelled out in pain, but her grip on his shirt prevented him from falling back onto the floor. Only when she was sure he could sit up on his own did she let go of him. She looked around and, seeing all the people gaping at her and the man clutching his nose groaning, muttered an apology to everyone sitting around the team's table. Then, she calmly took a sip of what was left of her water and acted like the incident never occurred. As far as she was concerned, Ed deserved that punch to the face, and she hoped she had humbled him to some extent.
Meanwhile, Ed finally summoned enough courage to check and see if his nose was bleeding or broken. Much to his relief, his nose suffered from neither ailment. He folded his napkin back onto the table and stared at the composed Elaine in shocked disbelief. He couldn't believe it. He had just been beaten up by a woman, something he previously thought would never happen to him, the most gorgeous man in Port Royal.
He held no regrets whatsoever. All he was trying to do was clean her up; what was so offensive about that? Why should he feel guilty for attempting to help her?
This now brings us to the present moment as Ed, who refused to apologize for bothering Elaine, revealed his stubborn nature. Just as Elaine drank the last drop of her water, Ed gave her bun a solid whack with his palm.
She slammed her glass down on the table and clenched her fist. "Ed, will you please stop playing with my bun?!"
Ed smiled at her, revealing his perfect white teeth. "But it's so cute! It looks like a doorknob!"
A loud cough coming from Dr. "Doc" Robert Matthews, sitting at the very end of the long table, disrupted the second round of their bun brawl. The rest of the team looked on in silence.
"I'm afraid the evening's entertainment must end now, and I must say that I am very disappointed that two members of our esteemed excavation team feel they have to use force before words to settle disputes." Doc spoke slowly in a calm deep voice, carefully choosing his words. "I expected you two to behave like professionals, not like drunk high school kids after homecoming."
Elaine could only stare at her plate and blush in embarrassment. Doc was right, of course. She had been too full of anger to even think about the possible consequences of her actions. Ed, however, just sat there and stammered at him, trying to come up with an excuse that mainly placed the blame on Elaine.
"There is no need for an explanation, Mr. Harrison; I saw the whole thing." Doc leaned towards them. "If you inflict pain on anyone again, Miss Thompson, you're going right back to North Carolina. Is that understood?"
Elaine nodded. "Yes, sir. I don't know why I did it; I've never done that before. It just . . . I don't know."
"Just keep that thought in mind before you punch again." Doc then turned his gaze upon Ed. "And Mr. Harrison, I know I shouldn't have to tell you this but . . ." He suddenly started singing lyrics from the musical Chicago. "'You had it coming, you had it coming, you only have yourself to blame!'"
The entire team burst out laughing during Doc's impromptu performance; even Ed joined in the hilarity for a moment. Five minutes passed before the laughter finally died down.
"Alright, okay, enough silliness for tonight," Doc said while he wiped tears out of his eyes. "Let's go ahead and get down to business."
Doc's announcement signaled Tory, the team's navigator, to pick up his blue tote bag and rummage through it in search of a particular file. The team watched as he brushed a strand of dark hair out of his brown eyes as he quietly looked through the papers. He smiled when he finally found the one Doc needed and handed it to him.
Doc muttered his thanks and looked up again. "Now, take one photo from the file and pass it around."
The file slowly made its way around the table until everyone had a photo.
"Last week, Tory and Margaret and I sailed out into the Caribbean to test our new marine excavation equipment. These tools are unique; they not only help us locate potential archaeological sites, but they also record what they see with an underwater camera."
He stood up and paced around the table behind each team member. Doc's baggy dark blue shirt placed an unfortunate emphasis on his short stature, but his deep voice indicated he was a proud man in his prime.
"We sailed," he continued, "until we were about fifty miles northeast of Port Royal. We were satisfied with the new equipment, so we started heading back. Just as we had turned the ship around, an image suddenly appeared on the screen that caught Margaret's attention."
Margaret Meyers, seated two seats down from Elaine, pushed her wire-rimmed glasses onto the bridge of her small nose and smiled. The blond twenty-nine-year-old was obviously pleased with herself for her efforts.
"This photo," Doc said as he held one up for an example, "is the first footage ever taken of this site. Ladies and gentlemen, we have found an unknown and undocumented shipwreck."
Absolute silence.
Elaine couldn't believe it. What were the odds of finding a new shipwreck in this day and age? She looked around the table to see how the others had reacted to the news. Everyone began chattering in excitement and hunched over their photos as they examined what they thought was the find of the century. Gloria, however, took one look at her photo and quickly flipped it face down on the table. Elaine thought she detected a flicker of concern in her dark brown eyes, but it soon disappeared.
Elaine sat back in her chair and studied the photo. The ship lay on its starboard side, revealing its hull belly while a cloud of sand hovered over it. What first caught her attention was the condition of the ship itself. Instead of lying in multiple pieces on the ocean floor, as was typical with other shipwrecks, this one remained completely intact with no debris in sight. Another unusual detail she noticed was its strange appearance. The entire ship from bow to stern was a sickly greenish-gray. She assumed that the ocean and its creatures were to blame for the poor condition of the wood. But if that were true, why wasn't the ship falling apart? She could barely make out a silhouette of what appeared to be a set of gigantic wooden jaws armed with teeth of the same material.
Ed was the first to speak. "This is . . . This is just incredible. I can't believe I'm seeing this!"
Elaine agreed. "This really is a remarkable find." She squinted at the photo. "It's too bad that cloud of sand above the ship distorted the image."
Doc raised an eyebrow. "What sand cloud?" He walked over to her and leaned over her shoulder to look at her photo.
"Right there," she said and pointed at the area in question.
He took one look and chuckled. "My dear Miss Thompson," he said as he patted her shoulder, "that's not a sand cloud. Those are the ship's sails."
A chorus of gasps erupted from the entire team. Sure enough, the "sand cloud" was actually just one of the ship's many large sails, perforated with numerous rips and tears.
Everyone silently asked the same question: How could an old shipwreck look like it sank only a month ago?
"Obviously we are dealing with a strangely well-preserved historical artifact, so I expect everyone to act like professionals," Doc glanced at Ed and Elaine, "and use caution when documenting and excavating the ship. We will meet at the port at nine tomorrow morning and board The Milady. We'll be setting sail five minutes later, so please don't be late. I'll see you all bright and early tomorrow!"
This speech signaled the end of the meal, so everyone paid their bills and left The Landlubber's Wharf. Elaine's skin tingled with excitement at the thought of recovering artifacts from this exceptional discovery, but her joy fled when she saw the dark storm clouds hovering over a blackened sea. She was too distracted by the ominous weather to hear someone approach her.
"Hey!"
Elaine jumped and spun around. Margaret stood nearby waving at her.
"Yeah?" Elaine yelled.
"I thought you and I could go for a jog tomorrow morning before we leave. I found a gorgeous trail that goes through the trees and onto the beach. And you said you didn't get to see much of Jamaica on the way here, so I thought I could show you a little bit of it. I usually leave at seven a.m., if you want to come."
God, I hate running, but if it makes Margaret happy . . .
Elaine smiled. "Sure! I'll see you at seven!"
Margaret grinned and waved goodbye as she climbed into Tory's truck and rode away. The truck reminded Elaine of Gloria's Jeep, so she turned and headed for the parking lot where she knew Gloria would be waiting. She was surprised to find Ed standing beside the Jeep instead. He glowered at her and folded his arms across his chest.
"I need to talk to you," he growled.
"Sorry, but I don't think Gloria wo-"
"I've already talked to Gloria; she said you could go back to the inn with me."
Elaine was in no mood to deal with Ed's immature sulking fit. "Look, I'm tired, you're angry, there's nasty weather coming in, and it's getting dark. Can't we do this later?"
"No, we're talking now. Come on; we're going for a walk." He grabbed her wrist and set off at a brisk walk towards the beach. Elaine knew he could easily overpower her if she tried to run away; she had no choice but to follow him.
A rumble of thunder announced the end of a momentous evening, and foreshadowed the dangers yet to come.
