“Wow! Yippee! Exams are over, now it is just fun, fun, and FUUUUUUN!” cried Sanjay. “Well, not so soon”, said his twin sister, Anitha, “Aunt Maya has to still say, yes”. “Mom! In your dream!” said Neal. Then the three kids had mixed feelings and went on their way to the dorms.
Neal, who was Anita’s first cousin, was a very adventurous, kind kid. Anita’s Aunt Maya took good care of the kids and made sure they were all paid the same attention. She was kind but strict. She had to be. They had just moved into a South African town, Parow, because of her scientist husband, Nayan’s job. The three kids always were creative and loved playing their favourite game “Hide & Seek”.
Next morning Maya drove to the university campus to pick up the kids to take them home. Pow-wow, their Golden Retriever, jumped on them as soon as they arrived at the car. Anitha was graduating as a Medical Professional, Neal and Sanjay were majoring Business Administration. Maya sighed as she looked at those young adults with eyes filled with hopes. It was a long 13 hour drive from the campus to the place where Maya and her husband wanted to surprise them with a summer vacation place. As they drove for couple of hours through the winding roads, they reached the city hospital where Nayan worked. Then Nayan joined them too. Now the kids were getting an idea of what was happening.
“Mom! Where are we going?” Neal asked. “Aren't we going home, uncle Nayan?” Sanjay said with curiosity. Maya looked at Nayan. “Why don’t you do the honours” said Nayan, smiling at Maya. “Well kiddo! We are going to the island of Cenena.” “Cenena!, never heard of that” said Sanjay. “Cenena is an island about 200 miles away from Cape Town. The only way to reach that island is by boat. It is surrounded by many smaller islands. However if I am not wrong, to the west of this island, pirates are still active” said Anitha. “Sounds quite interesting!” said Neal. As they arrived at the resort a cool breeze welcomed them. The entire family was tired of commuting and in no time they were all asleep.
The next day kids got up before sunrise. They seemed very excited. As Maya woke up she was stunned to see the beautiful paintings on the walls of their cottage. Some of them were had the size of doors. Browsing through the brochures that were on the table, Sanjay said, “Look! We can rent canoes”. “Hey, is it true that there are pirates around this island?” Anitha asked with curiosity. Maya looked outside as they were coming out of the dining hall, where they had a scrumptious breakfast. The ocean view was just spectacular. They all went speechless for a while when they saw the breathtaking view of the tides, the greenery around the resort, and the distant view of small islands. Nayan whispered, “May be we should all take a sun bath up on the tower?” Sanjay said, “Uncle that is a splendid idea, but could we three go on canoeing? “ Anitha and Neal looked at them with sparkling eyes. After a minute or two, Maya said “What do you think Nayan? After all it is their vacation too.” Nayan smiled and said, “All right, go ahead and have fun. But do return before it gets darker”. Before he turned to wave, the kids were gone. Soon, they saw all the three kids with Pow-wow rowing in the white water.
As the tides carried them, Anitha turned back, looked at the resort on Cenena and said, “Don’t you think we are now far enough to return?” Sanjay teased, “She is scared. Pow-wow, I don’t think you are!” Anita looked at him with sharp eyes. Pow-wow puffed. “What's up buddy?” said Neal. Pow-wow continued puffing and lifted his face up and towards west, where GPS showed signs of land. The trio hurried towards the land. It took at least half an hour before they saw a red light house on an island. They docked their boat with the help of a man at the shore. A board read “Welcome to Linimace!” Anitha asked the man if they could find some place to spend the night. The man, who introduced himself as Mr. Hoy, said they could use his cottage for the night. As they warmed up by the fire place, Anitha said that they were near the “Robbers Island” which was known for being attacked by the pirates. “Don’t start now” said Sanjay. “Wait, why do you think so Anitha?” calmly asked Neal. “Also I think he is a pirate” said Anitha. Before she could explain further, they heard someone knocking the door. As they opened the door, a fat man smelling like fish entered the room. “Oh, Hi. This was supposedly my room. I just came in to take back my personal stuff, sorry for the interruption. He laughed as he barged in and took a bag that was completely closed. As he lifted it with force its contents fell on the floor, all scattered. “Oops! My mistake” he continued his unwanted laugh while picking up its belongings. Within a minute he walked out banging the door. Before they could realize what happened Mr. Hoy entered and apologized for the interruption and said he would see them tomorrow and left.
Sanjay was annoyed the way it happened. He said “What nonsense!” They all slept in no time. Neal felt that someone was trying to shake him up. Unwillingly he opened his eyes to see Sanjay. Sanjay said “Neal I feel something fishy about this place, may be Anitha is right.” Neal had no clue about what Sanjay was referring to. Sanjay kept on blabbering, “Neal we have to get out of here, soon!” Now Anitha also got up and said, “Why, what is going on? “. Neal said, “Okay we’ll leave at once, but why the rush?” Sanjay whispered, “I think I found something that belongs to the fat guy, but which could be valuable”. “What do you mean?” asked Anita. Sanjay without a say started packing up. Neal looked outside, saw the morning star, and quietly helped himself with a sprite. In about five minutes the three of them were heading towards the shore. Neal quickly got into the boat and got ready with the radio to contact his parents but only in vain. Cell phones were not active either. Anitha, Sanjay got ready too. Neal asked Sanjay help him row the boat faster. That’s when they realized that they had forgotten to bring their bag which had GPS from the cottage in Linimace. Anitha looked back at the island to find out if they are being followed. There were no signs of any of them. Neal asked, “Now Sanjay, would you be kind enough to tell me what made you behave that way in the cottage?”As he said he pulled a small box Sanjay said, “Well, I think I have something that might be interesting.” “What is that?” Anitha asked. “Can I see that” Neal asked as Sanjay passed it to him. He could not figure out what it was. He shook, banged, looked for some sort of literature on the outside. It was of no use. Anitha took it to examine. She saw a handle as slim as a hair pin smartly merged with the box bottom. She used a safety pin from her purse to pull it out. As she pulled the handle the lid opened up. But it now covered by another layer of metal sheet. They used the knife to cut open the lid but to their surprise the box was empty. Neal got impatient. “Sanjay, please don’t say we came running out for this crap!”
Just then Pow-wow moaned and looked towards the lighthouse again. When they turned suspiciously to figure out what made him moan, they felt that as if the boat hit a rock. “Oh God, did we hit a rock! Where is it? Is it under the water, I can’t see one!” Anita kept on screaming. “Where is it?” a familiar voice roared. The fat guy climbed up the boat from nowhere. Neal asked, “Hey! How did you get in here?” The fat guy continued, “where is my box? I know it was there in the bag when I dropped opened it in the cottage. You found it and that’s why you left in a hurry forgetting to take your bag that had GPS.” “We do not know a thing, you have to trust us. We hurried because my parents were expecting us to return last night” said Neal. As they argued they saw a motor boat that looked like a sub marine appearing near their boat. Mr. Hoy came out and climbed on to their boat. Neal told him that they were innocent and was just trying to return to his family ASAP. Mr. Hoy just said “Sorry about that”. He then took the fat guy out and went off their boat. Just before they stepped out, Mr. Hoy turned and said, “Now that you don’t have a GPS I could help you bring back to the island of Cenena.” Inevitably Neal agreed.
They followed Mr. Hoy’s motor boat as he hooked theirs to his. Anitha felt it was better off as they were moving faster now. As they reached the island, they were stunned to see that the island was surrounded by motor boats like Mr. Hoy’s. Sanjay felt something was wrong. They rushed towards their resort. They were confused when they could not find their cottage. They tried checking at the receptionist only to find out that there were no reservations made in their or Neal’s parents’ names. “How could this happen” Neal asked himself. He could not believe that this was happening to him. Sanjay was frowning as he thought that his uncle and aunt became the victims. He loved them very much. Anitha told them that she wanted to use the bathroom. She went inside and locked herself in the ladies room and opened the box again trying to find out if she could figure out something with it. She opened her mini flash light and tried to look inside the box. She found something inscribed in the interior surface of the box. It also had a picture that looked like a map. She looked outside and no impressions of it at all. She used the knife that comes with the nail cutter and tried to cut open it. “Oh my God!” she uttered. It was the map of their resort and there was a cross right where their cottage was. She suspected that something might have happened to her uncle and aunt. She took a picture of the map with her tiny high resolution camera, stuffed the box in the tank in the toilet and came out of the ladies room. “Anitha” Neal and Sanjay came running to her. They seemed worried about what was happening. Anitha signalled them and said “look these are the pictures that I took while we were here”. As both boys looked she rolled right to the picture that she took in the toilet. They all figured out that they the picture has something to do with the disappearance of Maya and Nayan. Now they had to find a lonely place to discuss further proceedings. Neal said that he was hungry and wanted to go to the dining hall. Other two followed him. They found a table by the toilet and sat with a watchful eye. They were able to see the kitchen from the place. As they were served drinks, Anitha found out from the waitress that there was a computer in the dining hall. Sanjay took out the memory disc from the camera and carried it with him to the computer. He had no problem printing the picture. He rushed back to his seat and showed the picture to them. After a moment of silence Anitha said, “Guys, I have a feeling that this has something to do with pirates that I heard back in the college. Look we even have an old map” “But that map doesn't make them pirates” said Neal. Just then they had to stop as he saw Mr. Hoy sitting opposite to their table. “That’s it” said Sanjay, “don’t you think he has a weird name, Mr. Hoy which actually means Ahoy, welcome for pirates. These are pirates, modern pirates but still following the old tradition of attacking people while they travel.” They now concentrated on the map. Sanjay traced the path from the cottage room that lead to the kitchen. So they thought that the best approach is to start with the kitchen. According to the plan Anita went and sat opposite to Mr. Hoy and started conversation with him. Sanjay went to the dining hall computer, and Neal picked up a conversation with the waitress and went to the kitchen.
Anita started panicking as she saw the fat guy coming towards her with the box that she had hidden in the toilet tank. Somehow she pulled herself up and asked if everything was fine with them and also complained that her aunt and uncle were missing. Mr. Hoy seemed shocked on learning which cottage they were put up last night. He told her that he would be able to help her only if she accompanies him for which she refused saying that she has to wait for her brothers. However he made sure that the fat man was going to stay with her till they came back. Anitha got suspicious. She texted Sanjay about what happened between her and Mr. Hoy. As Neal tried to trace the room that led back from the cottage he was surprised to see his parents sitting with the Namibian Investigation Bureau Director, Mrs. Sergei. At the same time Sanjay reached them as Neal texted him telling where he was heading to. As they were leaving the room to get Anitha they heard someone coming from the passage from their cottage. The director made them to stay quiet and stood behind the door of the passage. The door opened and Mr. Hoy came with his hand behind him. Before he could say a word, he was captured. Sanjay was wondering about the happenings. He was unable to follow anything that was happening. He started worrying about his sister. But Neal brought her. Everyone was happy and relieved as they were together finally.
Anitha was confused and so was Sanjay. Mrs. Sergei smiled and said “Mrs. Maya and Mr. Nayan, thanks for your help. In fact we all actually have to be thankful to Ms. Anita as she was the one who figured out where you would be. Of course Sanjay was the one who got the mysterious box and emailed all of us and Neal for coordinating with everyone and to be bold enough to find out this room. Mr. Hoy alias Mr. Mark Abbot was an international smuggler almost equivalent to good old day pirate. He was planning to smuggle the paintings of this resort for a long time as they belonged to an ancient Namibian Royal family. It could have cost him a fortune. Well now let us get to work. Thanks everyone.” Anita, Sanjay and Neal had a victorious smile, after all the young “hide and seek” team had found the real Hidden Treasure!