Chapter 4
Diana almost beat Melanie's door in. She was taking exceptionally long to answer. The knocker was cold under Diana's fingers, and she was afraid Melanie wasn't home. She had to talk to her that second.
Mrs. Burke yanked the door open while Diana was in mid-knock. She fumbled for words, but couldn't find any.
"Is there a fire, Diana?" Mrs. Burke asked curtly, eyeing the stack of books and papers in her hands.
Diana laughed awkwardly. "I have something really important to show Melanie. I'm sorry, I'm just really excited."
"She's in the study." Mrs. Burke turned on her heel and walked down the hallway, leaving the front door open.
Diana shut it quickly and made her way down the hall. The door to the study was open, and she peered in. As organized as Melanie was, the room was in complete disorder. Books, papers, and pens were strewn about the room. Among the mess was Melanie, sitting at a computer monitor in a daze. Diana lightly knocked, causing Melanie to jump.
"I'm sorry," Diana giggled.
"It's okay," Melanie replied, turning in her computer chair. She began to clean off a seat for Diana. "Sit down. What's up?"
Sitting down, Diana placed the items in her hands into Melanie's. "I think I found a link to the past." She couldn't hide the smile from coming to her lips.
Melanie raised an eyebrow, not understanding what Diana meant. She began to shift through the items in her hands. She read the titles of the books out loud, "Pirates of the 17th Century, Pirate Surnames, Salem Name Records." She held the last book up, "I know for a fact you're not supposed to take this out of the library."
Diana shook her head, "That's besides the point! Are you seeing any connection here?"
"You have a psychology report on Blue Beard? No, Diana, I'm completely missing what you're getting at."
The excitement was barely confinable. "Have we checked everyone's families?"
Melanie sighed, aggravated. "Yes: yours, Adam's, Laurel's, Faye's, the Henderson's, Suzan's, Nick's, Deborah's, Sean's, Cassie's, and mine. Is there a family we're missing?"
"Kind of." Diana took a book from the bottom the pile in Melanie's hands. The cover read, "Legendary Pirates of New England." She opened it to a picture that ran shivers through her body. A familiar face she'd give anything to never see again. She held the page out to Melanie. "Now you tell me who we forgot."
Melanie rolled her eyes at first. She wasn't one much for games. But when she actually looked at the page, her eyes widened. She blinked a few times, then looked up at Diana. "How could have we forgot?"
Diana laughed. "We always put it behind us. Nobody ever thinks about Cassie's father being Black John. And we totally forgot he was a pirate."
"But even I stepped over this," Melanie breathed lightly. "I didn't even think about the fact that he was a part of the original coven." She looked back down at the book, then laughed. "Well, that's original. His real name was John Smith."
"I know," Diana replied. "And I kept looking through these books, and looked it up on the web, and even looked through the my family's book of shadows, and I found it!" She pulled a handful of papers from a red folder she had in her hand. She handed these over to Melanie, as well. "He had a brother, Dagan Smith. He was also a pirate, just not as terrible. Look, right here," she pointed to an area on the paper, "He decided to become a captain of a ship called, 'Hera.' He took a convoy of families to a place in Ireland to colonize, and named it . . ."
"Salem," they read together.
The two girls looked at each other, both eyes glittering. "You better put on a pot of coffee," she said to Melanie. "We're going to be up all night finding these guys."