“Nanny, Nanny,” Mona cried as she ran downstairs, “Lucie was right!  I dreamed about a dead sailor who talked to me and said I’d find the cure on the Blackberry Isles!”

“You dreamed what?,” said Nanny, as she tried to look at Mona and keep her eyes on the eggs she had frying at the same time, “It’s probably just a coincidence, dear. You’ve been so worried over the poor Captain. I know you want to help him get better.”

“Well, can’t I still go and look?” asked Mona, a little disappointed.

“Where?”

“Manx and I want to row over to the Isles.”

“Oh, of course, of course, that will be a good way to take your mind off of the Captain,” said Nanny and motioned Mona to the door.

​

Mona skipped through the hall, down the path, and jumped in the Leviathan. Manx jumped in, too. Mona paddled them out into the water.  Before Mona went to the Blackberry Isles, she stopped to return the coin to the Captain’s ship.  Then, they headed in the direction of the Isles.

“Oh Manx,” said Mona, she paused mid-row, “the man in my dream said to look for a certain type of plant.  He described it to me, but I forget what it’s called.  Where do you think it’s at?” 

Manx sniffed the air.

“You’re right.  It’s probably growing on the big island.” 

​

Mona rowed for almost a mile.  The island that they landed at was covered in trees of great variety and size.  Mona and Manx trotted down an unfamiliar path laden with prickles and burrs.  They stopped every couple of minutes.  Mona examined the shrubs and tree bark, while Manx sniffed in circles around the trunks.  Mona was only half sure she remembered the plant the sailor had described.  “Was it round or oval leaves?” she asked herself.  She was sure she’d never seen the plant before.  Time after time Mona paused before a specimen, then stood up and shook her head.  They came to a marsh in the middle of the island.  Cattails clung together in the breeze and Mona wiped her hot cheeks.  She was beginning to feel that Nanny was right and her dream meant nothing in particular.  She had never been this far into the forest before and she felt frightened by the shadows on either side of her.  She thought she heard some sound, like footsteps. 

“Probably a muskrat or my imagination,” she said to Manx.  She laid a hand on his back just the same and felt better.  She saw several plants she’d never seen before, but they did not match with the description she remembered.  It was nearly midday. 

​

“Think we should give up, Manx?” she asked. Mona started to turn around, but just then something caught her eye. She leaped forward and splashed through several feet of thick water and stooped down. There, growing from a tiny outcrop of iridescent moss was a pitcher plant, a type of carnivorous plant like the Venus flytrap.

“I found it! Mona turned excitedly to Manx. “This has got to be what he was describing!”

She tore off a pitcher. “I’m still not sure I believe in all this, but we might as well try.  Maybe the Captain will get better just ’cause he thinks it’ll make him better.  Nanny says that happens sometimes.  Let’s go.” 

They started to make their way back through the marsh.  Just then they heard a deep, blood-curdling howl in the woods.  Mona’s heart skipped a beat and Manx let out a low whine.

​

“Just a coyote, Manx,” she said, but Mona was not entirely sure there were coyotes on the Blackberry Isles.  They ran back to the boat in less than twelve minutes.  Mona rowed back to Pearly Beetle as fast as she could.  When they arrived at the Inn, Mona crushed the pitcher plant in her hand and dropped the broken bits in the Captain’s tea. With Manx at her heels, she climbed up the stairs and presented a steaming cup to the Captain.

“Captain, Lucie told me that if I ate raw fish—lighted incense—and put a cursed object under my pillow—I’d dream up a cure for you...and I did.  I dreamed about a dead sailor who told me to look for a plant on the Blackberry Isles.”

“Well, Miss—” began the Captain.  He scratched his head. “I don’t know about that Lucie.  Don’t know how she got this cure bit into her head, but I’ll drink yer tea.  Tain’t likely ta hurt much more’n a chaplain would.”  Captain Malarkey took a sip of tea, chewed a bit of the plant, and swallowed. 

​

“Cures your appetite.  That it does,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Thank you, Miss Mona Darlin’.  Now me feet is thawed icicles.” 

By the time he was finished with his tea, Mona thought his eyes were less glazed and, taking one of his hands in hers, she thought his palm seemed less clammy.  He closed his eyes and was soon asleep again.  Over the next few days, the Captain got much better. 

“Wouldn’t be callin’ the doctor or the chaplain now would ya?” he shouted gleefully to Nanny when she brought him his fish broth. 

“I’m very glad you feel better, but I still don’t think you were cursed,” said Nanny.

“Well, how do you explain my recovery after Mona brought me the proper medicine?” bellowed the Captain.

“If you are sick, you often do get better,” said Nanny and with that she left the room.

“Likes ta get the better of a man, don’t she?”  the Captain mused to himself. 

“Captain,” said Mona, “when I was on the Blackberry Isles getting that plant for you, I thought I heard footsteps and a loud, scary howl.  What do you think it was?”

He chuckled.

“That’s the howl of a curse knowin’ it’s been beat,” he said.