Circa 1990

"Hey Sam, come look at this!"

"Coming!" Sam called back. He rushed to dress in the motel room's restroom.

"Hurry!" Sam rolled his eyes to himself and finished pulling the shirt over his head. He stepped out into the main room.

"What'd you find?" His little brother sat at the table, bent over so that his nose was only a couple of inches from the notebook. His eyes flashed back and forth as he read line after line of their mother's script. Sam slid into the chair next to him and craned his neck to see what he was reading.

"I think it's in Columbia," Nathan said cryptically. He looked up at Sam, his face shining. "The ring. See, Mom knew about it. She wrote about it, right here." He ran his finger along the page.

"Great. I've read that page a hundred times," Sam groaned. "Where does Columbia fit in?"

"I was digging through these. I found them at the library after we got here the other day." The fourteen-year-old motioned to several other books littering the table. "And in here..." He snatched one and started flipping through it. "I found this." Sam pulled the book out of his hands and scanned the page.

"I'll be damned," he murmured. Nathan was right. The book detailed a historical discovery from some years before. Tucked away several items down on the list of finds, was the ring of Sir Francis Drake. Sam drew in a breath.

"If you read further," Nathan said, "Look, it says everything was taken to a museum in Cartagena." Sam kept skimming, and sure enough.

"And how, little brother, are we gonna get to Columbia?" Sam asked incredulously, raising his gaze from the book. Nathan shrugged as he grabbed it back from Sam's grasp.

"Take your bike and go through Mexico? Or hop a boat heading south."

"That sounds awfully risky," Sam replied, but rather than sounding cautious, his voice was full of exhilaration.

"Do you have a better idea?" Nathan asked. He slammed the book shut and thumped it down on the table.

"Getting out of the US is gonna be the hard part." Sam scrunched up his face, thinking hard. Nathan shook his head.

"No, getting back in the US is the hard part. Getting out is easy." A smile played at his lips as he waited for Sam's response and he could see the plans already forming in his brother's head.

"That is a very good point," Sam said after a minute. "And if you're right about this-"

"I am," Nathan cut him off.

"Hold your horses," Sam said. "If you're right, then coming back to the States is the least of our problems. But also, not a priority, most likely." Nathan's expression twisted.

"It's not like there's much here for us anyways," he said, his tone bitter. "Let's just go. No one's here to stop us." Sam bit back a laugh.

"No one here, sure, but tell that to the Cartagena museum guards."

"I'm serious, Sam." And the kid was. Sam wiped the smile off his face.

"Okay then. We will figure that out when the time comes. You're really sure about this?"

"It's a better lead than we've had in two years," Nathan pointed out. "Let's go."

"Okay." Sam nodded once. "You'd better be right about ol' Franny and this goddamned treasure."

"Just wait until we're rich," Nathan said. "You won't ever doubt me again."

**********

"What happened after that?" Cassie was on the edge of her seat. Sam kicked his feet up onto the coffee table and put his hands behind his head.

"Yeah, so, we spent a week or two heading across the states, right? I remember gettin' real nervous 'cause I was blowing through so much money on gas for the bike and we were living off of convenience store food. Except it was the nineties, so imagine a seven-eleven corn dog but like, somehow worse." Cassie wrinkled her nose and Sam laughed. "Exactly."

The past few months had been hectic. With the new project at the forefront of Elena's mind, she had jumped back into running the company with both feet. She'd been itching for a distraction and this seemed perfect. Cassie had started her fall semester, though she kept her class load light so she could work on the documentary with her mom. She had even convinced her advisor to let her use it for her senior project. Sam stuck around with them; he liked being "retired" and helping out where he was useful. The state of his old house made it an easy decision to stay with them, and, well, Elena hadn't kicked him out yet. She seemed to like having him around; there were more nights when he cooked dinner than not, and who else was going to change the oil in the car or get on the roof to clean the gutters? The three of them had fallen into a routine than flowed seamlessly and seemed impossible to break.

"So," Sam continued. "We get to Albuquerque and I'm almost broke, but I haven't told Nathan that yet. I used most of the cash I had left to get us a motel for the night, and after he fell asleep, I took off. Found out that night that it's not hard to break into a convenience store in New Mexico and get all the cash out of their ATM." Cassie gaped. "Yeah. I did that," Sam said, albeit a bit regretfully.

"It wasn't hard to get across the border the next day. Back then, Mexico didn't care who crossed over. I knew we might have a little trouble farther south, but we got lucky and lo and behold, we arrived in Cartagena almost a month later. And wouldn't you know, we made it that whole way just so that I could get into trouble again." Sam flashed Cassie a grin.

"What'd you do?" she asked, waiting with bated breath.

"You have to ask?" he said. "I tried to steal the ring!" Her eyes widened and she leaned forward in her chair.

"What? I thought Dad stole the ring?" Sam motioned with his hand for her to relax.

"Hold your horses. He did. But I tried first, and I got caught. Your dad got away that time, but I got three months in a Columbian prison. I'll never forget walking out of the gates that last day in the prison and there's your dad, and he's a foot taller than I thought I remembered and he's got Drake's ring hanging around his neck and Sully in tow." Cassie gasped.

"Oh my gosh, yeah! That's when he met Sully! He saved Dad, right?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

"He told you about that?" Sam asked. Cassie hesitated, trying to think back.

"Uh, no, I uh. I overheard it." Sam could see the guilt in her expression a mile away.

"Right. Anyways." Before he could continue, the front door opened and both of their heads turned to see Elena coming inside.

"Phew! It's raining buckets out there," she said, stripping off her dripping coat. "Have you two made any progress?" Sam and Cassie looked at each other and grinned.

"Define progress?" Sam asked. Elena shot them a knowing look.

"Have you written anything?" she asked.

"Again, define anything?" Cassie snorted. "Sam's been telling me stories about him and Dad."

"That's something, at least," Elena said, settling herself onto the arm of the couch with one leg crossed over the other. "Have you been taking notes?"

"Um, Sam? You wanna start from the beginning?" Cassie asked. Sam threw back his head in laughter.

"I should have known not to assign you two the task of writing the script," Elena said. "You realize I need a draft for the producers in like three days?"

"We remember," Cassie insisted. "I've got this. Okay. Sam, start over. Like, all the way over. I swear I'll remember to take notes this time, Mom."

"Alright, I trust you," Elena said, raising her hands in surrender. "I'll leave you to it." Cassie looked to Sam and he took a deep breath.

"Ready?" She nodded and he cleared his throat, then began in a dramatic voice, "Nathan and I were born into a family of historians. Finding Henry Avery's treasure was our mother's life's goal, and after she died, he and I took up the hunt. We spent our childhood in an orphanage, but when I was eighteen and I got out of the system, I took Nathan and we started traveling to finish what our mom started. In our research, Nathan really connected to Francis Drake's story. We decided start calling ourselves 'Drake' and he swore by Drake's motto. "Sic Parvis Magna", Nathan always reminded me. Greatness from small beginnings. It fit our life story well..."

**********