The months of September and October find the Little Bayou House in a great disarray. This is all due to the annual clue hunt. Whatever the theme is for the year dictates what the house looks like. This year being a pirate and nautical theme, the house has anchors, compasses, telescopes, sails and a actual sized ship's helm. It is that helm and wheel that is the centerpiece of the hunt. When Son built it, he created a huge internal combination lock that has to be "cracked" for the teams to proceed to the next step. It is, also, that helm and wheel that held my attention for a good while this afternoon.
For the past several days, the weather has been quite stormy. The clouds blocked out the sun and made the Little Bayou House dark and dreary. Late this afternoon, the clouds broke and the setting sun peeped through just enough to brighten the windows. The helm sits in front of the french doors. The sunshine gleamed through the stained glass on the doors and made the wheel into the perfect silhouette! What a dreamy sight to behold. So many of my favorite things were all smashed together in one picturesque setting. So...I dreamt. Daydreaming is good, right? I dreamt and it threw me into a faraway place, if only for a few moments. I was a magical pirate sailing the seas! Pirates of the Bayou all have stained glass windows on their ships! Yes! Mystical, magical pirates!
Yo, ho, ho, A pirating we shall go! Yep, it almost that time of year! The Annual Clue Hunt on the Bayou is just around the corner and barring any interruption by a certain hurricane that is out there brewing, things are coming along right on schedule! There is a 26 foot mast (and crow's nest) lodged haphazardly in a tree in the front yard, there is a piece of a ship's wreckage creating a tunnel near the Swamp Witch's hut and, best of all, there is a full sized cannon waiting to be aimed out over the bay! We shall be pirates!
Some think this is all a bit much for a single month of fun but we find it a lot of fun and what else could we be doing that would be more worth the trouble? Our teams are already booking dates and are expressing excitement as they await their turn to solve our mystery! Me? I am slowly preparing myself to fulfill my role in this whole fantasy saga. Its a pirate's life for me! Ok..so maybe an old lady pirate is not that intimidating but I can dream, right? This transformation is coming along nicely but not without a bit of a struggle. I needed a costume and, well, I do not sew. Or, at least, I did not sew! I am learning and, with the encouragement of a very sweet and talented friend (albeit long distance friend), I have turned out part of my costume. This is a very exciting thing for me! At my age, I never thought I would have the opportunity nor the gumption to tackle such a feat but here I am costuming!
Just the mere mention of living on the Bayou conjures a lot of fantastical ideas in some folks brains...mine included. Visions of ghost ships, lost sailors and mystical creatures seem to be the norm. I suppose that is why I choose this life over any other. Here, I can let my imagination run amok and there is no one to complain. My freedom to dwell in the marvelous land of make-believe is something I cherish. With the world on the brink of a huge social meltdown, I retreat into my own little world where things are much different.
This morning, my predawn hike led me to the pier as usual. There was not much use traipsing about the woods, creek bed or marsh as a heavy fog laden the area making it difficult to see. On the pier, it was much the same. I could not see the far shore nor even my brother's pier which was just a little more than a hundred or so feet from ours. I could hear my surroundings, though. On that far shore, an eagle did its "rusty wheel" call while behind me in the marsh otters squabbled over a catch of mullet. Occasionally, a dog would bark or a mullet would splash. There was also some odd soft clanging out over the water. Other than that, all was still. It was surreal, ghostly, almost mystical. As the sun tried to brighten the eastern sky, things lightened but did not become clear.
Off in the distance, I could make out the dark shape of the ghost ship. It sat silently on the still waters...stranded in the shallows with not a breath of a wind to set it in motion. It hovered like some huge entity waiting for its next victim. Eerily the anchor chain clanked as the ship shifted. That was the source of the noise I had heard earlier. This muted clanking was enough to send shivers up the spine as I knew there was nary a living soul on board. Had the spirits of a lost captain and crew returned to the ghost ship? Had they come to claim lost treasure or take captives for ransom? The sea will never tell nor will the fog.
Well, a least it was a nice sized boat...maybe not a ghost pirate ship but a nice sized boat. This boat has been moored out in the middle of the Bay since Hurricane Nate made his appearance. In the dense fog, the boat may have well been some ghost pirate ship. It is funny how white-out fog can change one's whole perspective of things. Back when I was a youngster fishing with Pop, he would tell me to always "Watch the shore." when there was a pea-soup fog. In our little wooden skiff, had we just ventured out willy-nilly, we took a big chance of being overrun by large boats in the channel. Watching the shoreline kept us safely out of harm's way. The fog this morning got the wheels of imagination turning and brought back a lot of memories of old times. Ghost ships coming to the Bayou! Perhaps, this should be the storyline for the next Clue Hunt on the Bayou! One never knows where inspiration will hit.
Occasionally, there are unexplained things that are worth pondering. Why the world spins around endlessly, how many grains of sand make up the beach and is progress always for the good of things...these are never satisfactorily answered even though thousands have tried. Then, there are things that require no explanation. They are just there. They exist for no apparent reason. They merely are conundrums that have no ready answer. They are accepted and then forgotten.
One of these enigmas sits at the base of the pier. It is there, has been for as long as I can remember and, to this day, remains unexplained. A huge chain lies buried in the mud. It is attached steadfastly to some unseen object from years past. At some point, it obviously was decidedly important but now it merely rusts with the salt water washing over it. It is just there. Yes, I have tugged on it. I have pried it with the boat hook and even tried to cajole Son into hoisting it up from the mud. He was having no part of it. I do not blame him.
Since the folks that put in the pier posts had such a difficult time some ten years ago, I am assuming this chain may have belonged to them. That is the only logical explanation, if we need one. Personally, I prefer (as with all weird things of the Bayou) to fantasize that this chain may have actually been on some wayward pirate ship that came into the Bay so many years ago. The pirates needed to bury their treasure (as we all definitely know they did!) and my Bayou was deemed to be the perfect spot. While here, the weather took a turn for the worse and a rogue storm sank the schooner and all within...lock, stock and barrel. Yep, the pirates were stranded! Eventually, they commandeered another ship and sailed away claiming that the Bayou was "haunted". Now, hundreds of years later, all that remains is the heavy chain that held their anchor and that anchor lies deep beneath the mud never to be seen again!
Ok...active imagination at work there! But! The chain could make for a nice tale to tell visitors to the Bayou! Hmmm? SON!!!! I NEED that chain!
