Cameron Costello took out a compass from his pea-coat pocket, placed it on top of the nautical chart, made a quick calculation and adjusted his course five degrees west. Born and raised in Chadbourne, Maine, he was the son of a shipbuilder and took to all things maritime. Growing up, he worked with his father at the shipyard after school and over summer vacations.
When it came time for college, Cam was accepted at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He graduated top ten in his class and was commissioned as an ensign. Over the course of his military career, he was promoted to the rank of captain and given command of a heavy cruiser during World War II.
Cam saw a lot of action during the war. He served bravely and was awarded several accommodations. In 1943, he decided to retire from the Navy once the war was over. Of course, the nurse he met while docked in Pearl Harbor that same year may have had something to do with his decision. The war ended in 1945. They married the following year. That was over a decade ago.
“Ahright, ye scalawags, hoist the jib before I beat ya with me peg leg,” shouted Cam.
Janice Costello was having none of it. “Cam, I swear to God, one more pirate reference and you’ll be shark chum before you can say ‘Walk the plank.’”
Cam frowned. “You really know how to ruin a pirate’s fun, don’t you?”
“If you’re a pirate, then show me the buried treasure,” Jan quipped.
“Ye drained me dry of me treasure when ye remodeled the shanty!” Cam shot back. “Arrrrrr!”
Jan rolled her eyes. Her husband did a terrible pirate impression but she couldn’t help but love him. He was an honest man with a good heart and most important, he could make her laugh, even after convincing her to sail round trip across the Atlantic from Maine to the UK on a restored fifty-five-foot John Alden Yawl. Cam named the vessel Atlantis Pearl, an amalgam of the mythical island continent supposedly inhabited by a seafaring people and the pet name he gave Jan on their first date while sipping pineapple juice at a tiki bar in downtown Honolulu.
They were on the return leg of their trip but still over two thousand miles from home. The temperature was brisk with clear and sunny skies. Jan looked toward the horizon and spotted something floating on the water. “What’s that up ahead?”
“It’s your mother,” Cam joked. “She’s desperate to come live with us.”
“Stop it.” Jan rolled her eyes yet again. “Seriously, what is that?”
“Let’s find out.” Cam adjusted course for the floating object and pulled the Atlantis Pearl right up alongside it. It appeared to be a raft.
Cam noted the logs making up the ten-foot by ten-foot structure had a green hue but weren’t stained or painted. The pigment penetrated the full depth of the grain. From working in the shipyard, Cam assumed he had been exposed to every kind of lumber there was but he had never seen wood like that before.
On top of the raft was a blanket concealing a mass of something underneath. Cam used a gaff to hold the raft steady while Jan stepped onto it to pull back the covering. “Oh my God!” she gasped.
“What is it?” asked Cam.
“It’s—it’s a girl.” As a trained nurse, she checked the girl for a pulse, broken bones and other injuries, then immediately swooped her up into her arms and held her with care.
The girl seemed to come out of a deep sleep. “It’s okay, sweetheart, we’ve got you! You’re going to be all right,” Jan assured her. Dressed in a tattered tunic, the girl was badly sunburned and weatherworn but mustered up a brief smile before passing out.
“Here, give her to me!” Cam gently took her from his wife. “Is she okay?”
“I don’t know yet,” Jan said with concern. “She’s got all the symptoms of severe dehydration and exposure. It’s a miracle she’s even alive out here in the middle of nowhere.”
Next to the blanket was a small burlap sack. Jan grabbed it and got back on the boat. She laid the sack on the deck and took the girl from her husband.
“What’s that?” Cam asked.
“There’s something in it, some kind of box or something,” Jan said.
“I’ll take a look. Maybe it will help us identify who she is or where she’s from.” Cam opened the sack and as his wife suspected, there was a wooden box in it about ten inches cubed. “Would you look at that?” Cam said. “It’s made out of the same green wood as the raft!” There was a latch on the front of the box. Cam tried to open it.
The box almost slipped from his hands. In a lightening second, the girl lurched forward and grabbed the box. Jan was caught off guard by the sudden movement and almost dropped the girl. “It’s okay, honey, I’ve got you! Don’t worry, we won’t let anything happen to your box. Right, butterfingers?” Jan directed at Cam.
“Hey, I was an All-American shortstop at the academy!” Cam saw that Jan was in no mood to reminisce about his college baseball accolades. “Yes, of course. Don’t worry,” Cam told the girl. “I promise I’ll be more careful with it.” The girl handed it to him and looked into his eyes. Without her having to say one word, Cam knew that whatever was in the box was extremely important to the girl, as if it was a matter of life and death. She passed out again.
“I’m going to take her below and get her some fresh water,” Jan said.
Cam took off his pea-coat and wrapped it around the child. “We’ll head home but we’re still a few weeks out. I’m sure someone is desperately worried about her.”
“Before Jan went below with the girl, she turned back to her husband. “I don’t think anyone will be looking for her. I don’t why. I just know.”
A million questions ran through Cam’s head. How did this girl end up in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? Where were her parents? Where did that strange green wood come from? When they got back to Maine, of course, they would contact the authorities and try to find her family but Cam had a gut feeling as well the girl was all alone in this world.
He sat on the deck and carefully examined the box before opening the latch and lifting the lid. Inside was soft velvety cloth providing cushion for what lay in the middle—a pristine nautilus shell.