Potpourri Story Book

BUGSY'S HIDDEN TREASURE OF SILVER DOLLARS

'Shortly after Bugsy was assassinated, I was shot in the back and paralyzed from the waist down. I'll no doubt have expired by the time this note is discovered, and you'll be the only one aware of the secret hiding places. Having no living relatives and loathing the Mafia, I chose this book to place the note in with hopes that someone would find it that's interested in searching for hidden treasure.'

My mind was racing a mile a minute thinking what a million silver dollars would be worth in today's coin collector's market. I grabbed the yellow pages and phoned a coin dealer, and was informed the value would be in the neighborhood of ten million dollars.

I excitedly made my wife, Mary, aware of the note's contents and the coin dealer's estimated value of the silver dollars. Being pessimistic in nature, she asked, 'How do you know the note isn't just a hoax?'

SUDDEN CHANGE

When Jennifer became of school age, she was enrolled in the most prestigious private school around. In meeting kids that were not as well off as her, she enjoyed talking down to them, and treating them with disrespect. She only had a few friends and they were all just like her. Most of the kids shied away from her because of her arrogant personality.

At sixteen, Jennifer had developed into a pretty young girl. Her straight, shoulder length, blond hair glistened in the sunlight. She wore it parted in the middle, which allowed it to flow forward, engulfing her perfectly featured suntanned face. Her perky nose, blue eyes and full lips made her appear to be an angel. No one would ever suspect her as having the personality of the devil.

SPIRIT OF SINGAPORE

There was a spiral staircase just a few feet inside the front door leading to another floor above. I flipped a switch just inside the door and a ceiling light came on, casting a dim glow upon the room. We had to walk around the lower part of the stairs to enter the front room. The first thing to catch my attention was the thick carpet on the stairs; it was lifting off the steps in places and was full of wrinkles and tears. The floor was covered with the same kind of carpet, it was also worn and uneven. It was probably the source of the strong odor from being mildewed. Even in the dim light, I could see the place was old and run down and had a spooky look and feel about it.

DEATH! BELOW DECK

It took less than an hour to reach the graveyard sight and they were taken aback with what they saw, there had to be at least twenty derelict boats scattered around the area. Boat hulls protruded out of the water from those that sank and were lying on their sides in the shallow water. In some cases, only the masts were visible above the surface of the water from smaller boats resting upright on the bottom.

****

In their excitement, they wasted no time in heading for the hatchway to descend the ladder that would take them below deck. Jim turned on his flashlight as they slowly made their way down the ladder into the pitch black, foul air interior. When reaching a lower deck, they stopped and Jim swung the light around. There was nothing but bulkheads with passage ways leading fore and aft. They chose to go aft. It was one spooky place to be but neither one would admit they were frightened. They hadn't gone more than ten feet along the passage way when they came upon a gaping hole where the deck boards had rotted away.

****

As Jim flashed the light down into the blackness, they saw nothing but the light reflecting off the surface of the water about six feet below. As Jim moved the light around, it shown on something white in the water.