Speaker 1: This is part two of last week's story, So if
you haven't listened to part one, then i'd suggest you
go back and start there, unless, of course, you prefer
listening to stories in reverse. It's cool with me if
you do. Let's get into it. Hello, well, story time
really not a glory time. Rabbit stand and you'll be fine.
Follow the whole storyline. Hello, well, story time? Might you
laugh at least one time? Well, story time, isn't it
a real pain in the rump when you wake up
on a pirate ship in the middle of the night
to see a girl from another ship pointing a cannon
at your ship? It's certainly not how I like to
wake up on pirate ships. Ray had to first make
sure he wasn't dreaming. This did, after all, feel very
much like a dream, But ten painful pinches later, Ray
confirmed he was definitely not dreaming. He rubbed his sleepy
eyes and peeked out the little round window in his
cabin one more time. Man, could they seriously not have
made these windows any bigger? He grumbled, what gifts? Unsure
whether the girl was actually planning to fire her cannon,
Ray decided to head up on deck and speak with her.
The two ships were close, but not so close that
they could speak without shouting. Excuse me, why are you
pointing a cannon at my ship? What? I said, Why
are you pointing a cannon at my ship? What? Why
are you pointing a cannon at my ship? Huh? Ray
stopped himself before saying it again. This had potential to
go on for a while. Although cell phones did not
exist in the year seventeen fifty, they did have something
you could use in situations like these, speaking trumpets, cone
shaped horns that could amplify your voice when speaking over
long distances. Ray tried asking his question again, but this
time while speaking through a brass horn. The girl on
the other ship heard the question more clearly this time
and even began answer, But now Ray couldn't quite hear
what she was saying. What he called out. The girl
tried again, but Ray still couldn't make out all the
words what. Thankfully, the girl went and found her own
speaking trumpet. Before this continued any further, hey Man said
the girl, sounding much louder than before. Hey said Ray back,
I like your ship, said the girl. Oh, answered Ray,
who was not expecting her to say that, I am
like your ship too. This was followed by a long,
awkward silence where neither kid could think of what to
say next. Then Ray remembered what he had tried to
ask earlier. So are you about to make a big
hole in my ship? Ray saw the girl shrug her shoulders.
I don't have to, she eventually answered, So far this
had been the weirdest conversation Ray had ever been a
part of. Well, could you maybe not point a cannon
at my ship? Then the girl said something else, but
Ray couldn't hear what she had said because she had
forgotten to speak into the horn. You know what, I'm
just gonna come over there, said Ray. But he forgot
to speak into the horn as well, and so the
girl shouted back what Ray carefully lowered a small rowboat
into the water using ropes attached to a pulley system.
He then row rowed his boat gently over to the
other ship, where he then had to figure out how
to climb aboard without his little rowboat drifting away. It
took a really long time before Ray was finally standing
in front of the girl. Took you long enough, she
said to Ray. But welcome aboard. The name's Blackbeard. Eh,
just kidding, that would be weird since I don't have
a beard. My real name's Alaska. What's your name? Ray
tried to think of his own cool pirate name. I'm
a Ray Beard, Ray Beard Silver. Alaska was not impressed
by his made up pirate name. Well, I'm just gonna
call you Ray. So Ray, what brings you on over?
It had been so long, Ray almost forgot what had
brought up over. Oh yeah, the cannon. I'm here because
it looked like you were considering making a big hole
in my ship, So I'm here to say, how about
you don't do that. Ray was already feeling better since
meeting Alaska. This friendly girl did not seem like the
blast a hole in your ship type. This was probably
just a big misunderstanding. Don't worry, Ray, I'm not going
to fire a cannon at your ship, could you imagine?
Ray sighed, whew, I'd only do that if you didn't
hand back the treasure that you took from us. You
only get one warning. And suddenly it all made sense.
Ray had thought there was something familiar about this ship,
and now he knew it was because he had already
been aboard this ship just the day before Alaska and
her family, where Backshall reclaimed the treasure that Ray had stolen, or,
as he would rather put it, borrowed from them forever.
Oh that was your treasure. Oh oh, I'm terribly sorry
about that. Ray looked over the side of the ship
where his father had fired a cannon at the hole. Hey,
look at that nice patch job, Alaska. You'd almost never
know there was once a big hole there. And just
so you know, I did try to stop my dad
from doing that. Alaska was no longer looking like the
friendly person Ray had pegged her for just a few
minutes earlier. The treasure, Ray, can you just hurry up
and give me back my treasure? In case you hadn't noticed,
it's the middle of the night, and I'd kind of
like to get back to sleep. I don't need my
parents making comments in the morning about me seeming grumpy.
Ray was more than happy to oblige. After all, he
still considered himself a good guy. Just because he was
born into a pirate family and happened to be really
good at pirating didn't mean he couldn't still somehow be
a good guy. Giving this girl her treasure back would
be proof of that. Absolutely Alaska, I'm even going to
ignore the fact that you forgot to say please pat you. Now,
in hindsight, this would have been a lot easier if
you had come over to my ship instead. Now I
have to go back there, help you load the treasure,
bring a bag over here, then go back to my
ship again. Ray laughed, thinking this was a bit of
a funny situation. Alaska did not think it was very funny.
All right, chuckles, let's get moving here. Ray was about
to get moving when you remember the treasure was no
longer on his ship. He had already buried it. So Alaska,
if you didn't think that was funny, then you may
not find this as hilarious as I do. But I
don't actually have your treasure. Yep. Ray was correct. She
did not find this hilarious. Well, Ray, She began her
eyes growing terrifyingly wide. Unsheath, you're cutlass and prepared to duel.
Ray didn't do any of that. He still wasn't up
to speed on all of this pirate lingo, Unsheath, my
what he asked? Alaska grabbed her horn and said it again.
Ray had to cover his ears. It was so loud.
Yiker rooneys. I heard you find the first time. I
just didn't know what you meant by any that. Alaska
on sheathed her own cutlass, and now Ray understood, Oh,
you were talking about having a sword fight with our
pirate swords. Well you should have just said so, though
I don't actually have a pirate sword, so you know
that might be a problem. I wasn't expecting to have
a sword fight in the middle of the night with
a girl I thought was a lot more friendly than
the way you're behaving right now, And like, my parents
don't even trust me with a butter knife. Ray now
realized something. Wait, does this mean you're a pirate too?
Alaska was shaking her head like some disappointed grown up,
becoming more frustrated by the minute. Ray, Did it seriously
take you this long to realize that clearly this girl
did not know Ray very well? Alaska, I went eleven
years not noticing that my own parents were pirates. Okay,
I don't exactly have the best pirate radar. Ray then
spent the next twenty minutes being chased around every square
inch of the ship without a sword of his own.
It really felt like a game of cat and mouse.
You know, Alaska, it's really not safe for us to
be running around on deck. Just because we're pirates doesn't
mean we're immune to following safety rules. Ray had not
expected that to work, but Alaska actually stopped chasing him,
though it had more to do with her being tired
and out of breath than concerned about anyone's safety. Kids
who run around waving swords in the air are usually
not the most safety conscious people. Ray, I just can't
believe you lost my treasure. You were such a scally wag.
Ray had never been called a scally wag before that
cut deep. He was one of the good guys, didn't
she know, Alaska, I'm not a scally wag, and I
didn't lose your treasure. I just buried it. After I
give you the map, you'll be able to pick it
up any time you like. Alaska looked like she was
about to use her head to cannonball straight and too.
Rai's face, bro, why didn't you tell me that before
we did all that running. My heart is beating like
a mile a minute over here. You know what, We're
just gonna finish this in the morning. I've had about
enough out of you tonight. I just want to go
back to bed. Ray wished his new Friendemy a good
night's rest and told her to swing by any time
in the morning to get the treasure map. It wasn't
until he was back on his own ship that he
thought of something. If Alaska was a pirate too, That
meant the treasure he had taken from her wasn't actually
her treasure. It was treasure she had stolen from someone else,
or at least borrowed from someone else forever. Wait a second,
I shouldn't be giving her the treasure. I should be
giving it back to the person who had it first,
the og treasure owner, because that's what a good guy
pirate would do. So Ray decided he was going to
wake up early in the morning and tell his parents
to boogie on out of there before Alaska could come
aboard with her obnoxious pirate sword and demand he hand
over the treasure map. But if you've ever been up
in the middle of the night getting chased around someone
else's ship, then you'd probably already know that waking up
early is not an easy thing to do. If anything,
it might be one of the hardest things to do,
definitely harder than building a rocket. Ship, that's for sure, Sun,
No time you woke up, said his dad, as Ray
emerged from the cabins below. Your eggs are probably cold
by now, Like what's up with kids? Just sleeping? The
day away? And the blink of an eye, Ray went
from yawning feet shuffling zombie to kid who just suddenly
remembered he had something important to do. Yikes, what time
is it, Dad, We've got to get out of here.
Ray's mother calmly took a swig of her coffee. Look
at that here, old our boys already eager to find
his next treasure. Before Ray could tell them what had
gone down in the night, he noticed that Alaska's ship
was no longer there. Mom, Dad, what happened to that
ship that was next to ours? Neither his mom or
dad seemed to know what ship he was talking about,
which meant it must have already been gone when they
had woken up. That or he had just dreamed the
entire thing. But the ten redmarks on his arm from
doing the pinch test suggested otherwise. I suppose one pinch
would have been sufficient. Now it looks like I stuck
my arm and a hornet's nest. Ray sat with his
parents and forced down some cold eggs while recounting every
detail of what had happened in the night. His parents
listened patiently as he told them about the shouting conversation
and the rowboat and how they really should have given
him a cutlass before making him a pirate. But guys,
it looks like we got super lucky. I can't believe
Alaska took off and forgot all about coming to get
the treasure map. His parents looked worried, Ray, have you
looked under your pillow yet this morning? No? Why would
I have done that? Well, isn't that where you were
hiding the treasure map? Ray had not told anyone that
that was where he was hiding the map. Guys, how
did you know I hid the map there? Son? Everyone
knows that kids like to hide important things under their pillow.
It's been the number one hiding spot used by kids
for like the last millennium. Well, this wasn't good. If
grownups knew about the under the pillow hiding spot, then
certainly every other kid knew about it too, and Alaska
was likely one of those every other kids. Ray hurried
back down to his pirate cabin with a little round
hole for a window. Sure enough, his treasure map was
no longer hidden under his pillow. Alaska must have come
for it while he had still been sleeping. Mom. Dad,
we have to go back to the beach where we
buried the treasure, and we have to go there now. Sun,
slow down, we have lots of time. I'm gonna let
you in on a little pirate secret. Whenever you make
a treasure map, you never include the shortcuts. Shortcuts are
just for us to know. With Ray's dad at the helm,
they took a different and much faster route than what
had been shown on the map. Thanks to this little shortcut,
they arrived at the beach just as Alaska's family was
getting there. Ray's mother handed him a plastic cutlass that
was surely more dull than a butter knife. Then she
helped him into one of the rowboats. Side by side,
Alaska and Ray rowed their individual boats towards shore. I'm
gonna get their first. I'm gonna get there first. Oh
oh yeah, Well, you row boats ashore like a walris
runs on sand. Well, actually, Alaska, as I learned in
the sixth grade, Walruses can move surprisingly fast on sand,
who did not run well on sand were these two kids.
Once out of their boats. They kept stumbling and tripping
while trying to run toward the buried treasure. They also
did a lot of whining and complaining about how hot
the sand felt on their feet. They were scolding their
parents from Afar for not remembering to send them ashore
with flip flops. Together, they found where X marks the spot,
only to see that the treasure had already been dug
up by someone else, a small child who was decorating
his sand castle with rubies and gems. Oh hi, there, kid,
we see you have found our treasure. That's great, so
I think we could have it back now, No, snapped
the little boy. Ray looked at Alaska. Well, this little
guy must have done a lot of digging to get
that treasure chest out. No, I didn't. Half of the
treasure chests was already sticking up out of the ground.
It was easy, great burying job, Ray scorned Alaska. She
then turned back to the kid. Listen, little man, you
don't want to mess with us. We're pirates. The young
boy did not become fearful. He just looked at them disapprovingly.
You pirates make me sick. You know that nothing but
a bunch of bad guys. Alaska looked like she had
never been more offended in her life. Who are you
calling bad guys? We're not bad guys. Isn't that right? Ray?
We're not bad guys, are we? Since getting his first
taste of stealing, i mean, borrowing treasure, forever, Ray had
been trying to convince himself that he was still a
good guy. But the truth was this little kid was right. Actually, Alaska,
we are the bad guys here. We take things that
don't belong to us, and you know what, that goes
against everything they tried teaching us in kindergarten. But there
was something else Ray understood, which was that he and
Alaska didn't have to be the same kind of pirates
as their parents. They were a new generation of pirates,
pirates who had an opportunity to do things differently. You
know what, little guy, you were right about us, Ray began.
We took the treasure and we shouldn't have, and that
makes us bad guys. And you know, none of what
us pirates do really makes a whole lot of sense.
Like we take other people's gems and jewels then bury them,
so that no one else gets to enjoy the other
than those cute little crabs that live under the sand.
Where's the sense in that? So you know what that's
all about to change, because we are going to take
the treasure and give it back to its rightful owner,
because we don't have to be bad guys just because
we're pirates. Pirates can be good guys too, And from
this day forward we shall be known and celebrated as
pirates who help people get their stuff back. Alaska thought
it was a beautiful speech. She even shed a single
tear as she applauded her fellow pirate. But the little
kid did not find raised words quite as moving. Forget that,
finders keepers, go get your your own treasure and leave
me Aloneous milly pirates ray in Alaska looked at each other,
all right, so I'll bury the little guy in the
sand up to his shoulders while you go take the
treasure back to the ship. With the treasure back in
their hands, even if their hands were still the wrong hands,
the two young pirates decided against trying to explain this
new way of pirting to their parents. Og pirates would
never understand, but ray In Alaska felt they could still
be good guy pirates without their parents ever having to know.
Anytime Ray or Alaska spotted a ship on the horizon,
they would still do their usual thing. They'd threaten the
fire cannons before climbing aboard these other ships. But now
instead of saying, hand over your treasure, they would say,
are you guys missing any treasure? Does this pearl necklace
look familiar to you? And every time the people on
the other ships would say something like, um, well, we're
not missing any treasure yet, but aren't you here to
steal the treasure we do have? Two young pirates would
then laugh like it was the craziest thing they had
ever heard. Lady, we're pirates. We're just here to help
forget everything we said when our parents were listening. And
please forgive my dad if he carelessly puts a hole
through the side of your ship, he knows not what
he does. Never did they imagine that returning treasure would
be so much harder than stealing it. For the life
of them, they couldn't figure out who this treasure belonged to.
Ray What if we never find the owners of the treasure.
It's been over a month and we've been aboard so
many ships. Now my parents are starting to question why
we keep coming back empty handed. Ray wasn't listening to
his friend. He was staring at something on her neck. Alaska,
what are you wearing? Alaska almost forgot she'd been playing
dress up earlier with some of the jewelry. Well, until
we find the owner, shouldn't someone at least be able
to enjoy the goods. No one thought it was a
big deal when it was just the sand crabs trying
on diamond earrings. Ray didn't care that she was wearing
the jewelry. It was what he saw on the jewelry.
Looks like someone had their name engraved on the necklace
you're wearing. But who do you think Queen Anne is?
Alaska had a pretty good feeling. She knew, dude, it's
the Queen. How many Queen Annes do you think there are?
This treasure must have been stolen from her. This was great.
The kids finally knew who to return the treasure to,
and how special that it was the Queen. She is
going to be so pleased, Ray said, as they approached
the Royal Palace. Yeah, and she's going to think we're
the best pirates ever. You two are the worst pirates ever,
shouted the queen after Ray and Alaska showed her the treasure.
Excuse me, we just brought back your treasure and we're
not even asking for anything in return, although we do
accept small cash donations and pizza parties totally optional. Though
the Queen looked furious. Did your parents not teach you
how to be proper pirates? What you're doing is not right.
They're ruining all the fun. The idea is to take
the treasure and bury it so that I can go
on a fun little treasure hunt. This was not the
reaction the kids had anticipated. But your majesty were like
new age pirates. You know, good guy pirates. We give
back instead of steal. Why would you want someone to
steal from you? The Queen just glared at them. First
of all, it's not stealing, it's more like borrowing forever.
If I really wanted my treasure back badly enough, I'm
always more than welcome to go on a treasure hunt
to find it. Rain Alaska had thought people would embrace
this new way of pirting. What wasn't to like about
good guy style pirting? But apparently everything was not to
like about it, so, uh, would you like us just
to steal your treasure again? But before the queen could answer,
someone else swooped in out of nowhere, grabbed the treasure
chest and started running away with it too slow, the
man called back. While away, the queen was jumping up
and down and clapping her hands. Oh my, now that
is a real pirate right there. It turned out to
be raised Dad. Well you know what, guys said Ray,
good pirting, bad pirting. I'm done with it all. There's
no way this is what I'm gonna do when I
grow up. Alaska nodded, I hear you, dude. What do
you say we go learn how to become teachers? Ray
shook his head. I've got a better job in mind.
It's called being a student in the seventh grade, because,
like everyone knows, seventh grade is where it's at the end.
That's the story. And how glad are you that we
don't have to wait for a part three question of
the week? Your training starts tomorrow? What job are you
going to pick? A student in the seventh grade? Thanks
to Ray and Alaska and shout out to the following listeners.
Finn Switzer from Scheheles, Washington, Juniper listening with her kat
Amory from Seattle, Jack from the Upper East Side of
New York City, Charles Ye from Australia, Nate Murray from Takofai,
New Zealand, Cain Veda and Elise from South Carolina, Aurora
from Auckland, New Zealand listening with their pet mice, Cinnamon
and Squeak, Rex from the UK, and Maxwell and Mirabel
from Big Island, Hawaii. Thanks so much for listening and
I'll catch you on the next one.