Wind Off Golden Sails
Chapter Two_ A Chance at Redemption

Another rumble of thunder roared as Jim sat on the roof of the Benbow Inn, Sarah's restaurant. He lazily tossed small stones and watched them bounce on the roof and eventually fall to the dock below. He heard voices flow up to him through the window beside him.

"I don't know how you manage it Sarah? Running a business while raising a felon—fellow—felon-fellow like Jim." Jim heard Delbert speak.

"Managing it? I'm at the end of my rope. Ever since his father left, you know, Jim's just never recovered. And you know how smart he is, he built his first Solar Surfer when he was eight, but he's failing at school, he's constantly in trouble, and when I try to talk to him he's like a stranger to me. I don't know, Delbert. I've tried everything." Sarah sighed.

Suddenly Jim heard rumbling closing in, he looked up to see a space racer crash in on the dock. Jim slid off the roof and unto the ground, he ran to the ship, "Hey mister! Hey mister you're okay in there, right?" Jim started to bang on the door window. A hand slapped unto the glass from inside, "Whoa!" Jim jumped back.

The door opened and a salamander alien came out with a small chest. He coughed as he grabbed the front of Jim's shirt, "He's a coming, can hear him, them gears clicking and whirling like the Devil himself." He rambled and then he coughed as he turned and got the chest.

"You, uh, hit your head pretty hard there didn't ya?" Jim asked.

"He's after me chest, that fiendish cyborg and his band of cutthroats, but they'll have to pry it from ol' Billy Bones' cold dead fingers before I…" The salamander collapsed as he into a coughing fit.

"Hey…" Jim went to him, "Here give me your arm." Jim draped Billy Bones' arm over his shoulders and helped him to his feet.

"Good lad." Billy Bones breathed.

"Mama's gonna love this." Jim said.

##############################

Sarah flipped the through the blind scenes to where depicted a meadow of wild flowers as the rain started to pour. She then sat down at a table, "Thanks for listening Delbert. It helps."

"It's going to be okay, you'll see."

"I keep dreaming one day I'll open that door and there he'll be just the way he was, a smiling happy little boy holding a new pet and begging me to let him keep it." Sarah chuckled lightly as she opened her locket and smiled loving the picture slideshow that locket projected.

Delbert went to the door and opened it to see Jim carrying a chest and a salamander on his other arm.

"James Pleiades Hawkins," Sarah gasped.

"Mama he's hurt, bad!" Jim interrupted his mother as he sat the salamander alien on the floor, both them soaked.

"Me chest, lad." Billy Bones said weakly as he reached for it tremblingly. Jims slid the box towards him. "They be a comin' soon." Billy Bones pressed the buttons to unlock the chest, he then reached in and pulled out a spherical package, "I can't let them find this."

"Who's coming?" Jim wondered.

Billy Bones jerked Jim to him by the collar of his shirt, whispered weakly next to his ear, "The cyborg. Beware the cyborg." Billy Bones collapsed back down to the floor as his hand slipped from Jim's shirt and stopped breathing.

"Oh!" Sarah gasped as her hand flew to her mouth.

Lights shun brightly into the barely lit room. Jim went to the window and peeked through the blinds. Jim's eyes widened when he saw a group of figures walking to the building from a boat. "Come on we gotta go!" Jim ran to His mother and Delbert, he grabbed his mother's wrist and led her up the stairs. Delbert went to the door to open it when a blast stopped him; he followed the other two up the stairs.

"I believe I'm with Jim on this one!" Delbert stated.

Yelling and dishes crashing came up the stairs from the floor below. "Delilah, Delilah." Delbert called a creature that was hitched up to a small carriage from the open window. The creature responded by making a noise and jumping up and down happily at the sight of her master. "Stay there, don't move."

Delbert and Sarah climbed up onto a window ledge, Jim heard people coming up the stairs.

"Don't worry Sarah I'm an expert in the laws of physical science." Delbert said

"I can't do this." Sarah said closing her eyes, not daring to look down.

"On the count of three, 1…" Delbert began counting.

"3!" Jim pushed the two out the window and jumped after them. All three of them landed in the carriage.

They took off as the Benbow Inn was set aflame. Sarah sighed. Jim uncovered the package that Billy Bones gave to him; it was a small golden sphere.

########################### (At Delbert's Place)

"I just finished talking to the constabulary. Those blackguard pirates have disappeared without a trace. I'm sorry Sarah it seems the ol' Benbow Inn has burned to the ground." Delbert kneel by the chair that Sarah sat in as Jim draped a blanket over his mother's shoulders. Delbert handed Sarah a cup of hot tea, "All that trouble over that odd little sphere. " Delbert said. Jim took the sphere as he leaned against a bookcase and started to fiddle with it. He pressed several buttons, the sphere shifted then he twisted it a couple ways. The sphere clicked open to release a stream of light. "Hey!" Delbert said as the lights were over powered by the stream from the gold ball.

The stream situated itself into a map. "Why, it's a map." Delbert gasped, "Wait, wait, this is us, the planet Montreser." Delbert pocked the small replica of the planet and the three whooshed forward, "That's Generic Cloud, the Coral Galaxy, that's the Sigmas Cross, the Karen Abyss." Delbert named the several replicas they passed as the map took them to s different location, "And what's this, what's this? Why it's… it's…" Delbert couldn't say it from surprise

"Treasure Planet." Jim said in a breath.

"No." Delbert said.

"That's Treasure Planet." Jim said again happily.

"Flint's trove, the loot of a thousand worlds? Do you know what this means?" Delbert said as the map signalized the said planet.

"It means that all that treasure is only a boat ride away." Jim answered with a smile as he gently tossed the sphere up and then caught it.

"Whoever brings it back he'd be the pantheon of explorers, he'd be able to experience…" Delbert began to preach and then the lights snapped back on, "Whoa. What just happened?" Delbert flinched.

"Mama this is it, this is the answer to all our problems." Jim said as he put the sphere in his jacket pocket.

"Jim there is absolutely no way…" Sarah started.

"Don't you remember all those stories?" Jim asked

"That's all they were, stories." Sarah stated.

"With that treasure we can rebuild the Benbow a hundred times over." Jim explained.

"But it's just…" Sarah chuckled, "Oh my, Delbert would you please explain how ridiculous this is?" Sarah turned to the dog alien professor.

"It's preposterous for one to tempt to brave the entire galaxy alone." Delbert said.

Sarah smiled smugly, "Now, at last we hear some sense." Sarah crossed her arms.

"That's why I'm going with you." Delbert picked up a tote bag.

"Delbert!" Sarah turned to him.

"I'll have to organize an expedition, find a ship. Hire a captain and a crew." Delbert ran around the room grabbing stuff and put them in the bag. He climbed a mountain books to grab a toothbrush from a cup at the top and put that too in his bag.

"You can't be serious." Sarah looked up at him.

"All my life I've waited for an opportunity like this and here it is screaming!" Delbert slid down the books and landed on the carpeted floor, "Go Delbert, go Delbert, go Delbert," Delbert cabbaged-patched happily.

"Okay, okay, you're both grounded." Sarah growled.

"Mama, look, I know I keep messing everything up and I know that I… that I let you down." Jim's eyes at the end filled with shame then they went serious, "But this is my chance to make it up to you. I'm going to set things right."

Sarah merely looked at him.

"Sarah, uh, uh, if I may." Delbert motioned for a word with Sarah, "You said yourself, you've tried everything. There are fewer worst remedies then a few character building months in space."

"Are you saying this because it's the right thing or because you really want to go?" Sarah caught on.

"I really, really, really, really want to go," Delbert clasped his hands in a begging way. "And it's the right thing."

Sarah looked at Jim, who had been quiet, she went to him, "Jim, I don't want to lose you." Sarah ran a hand through her son's bangs.

"Mama," Jim took his mother's hand into his and gave her a small smile, "You won't. I'll make you proud."

Sarah smiled. "Well, there we are then." Delbert walked up to them. "We'll begin preparations at once. Jim, my boy, soon we'll be off to the space port."

To Be Continued…