The Goonies Read Online Free PDF Page A

killing each other with swords—you know, Errol Flynn stuff.”
    That was right, too. My dad used to tell me about some of it. This place was like a suburb of the Spanish Main at one time.
     And up here, in this old attic collection, I could almost see it, almost smell it. You know what I'm talkin' about?
    I walked over to a corner near the skylight where a bunch of old framed photographs and drawings were stacked. I started flippin'
     through 'em. Right above me a little piece of glass had cracked out of the skylight. It wasn't raining now, but the wind had
     picked up and was blowin' in onto my face. That old October wind. And suddenly somethin' about the way I was standin' and
     the funny greenish-purple sky and all this olden stuff around me and that zoned-out something's-gonna-happen wind and that
     musty attic smell… I just knew I was on to somethin'.
    And it was right then that I looked down and noticed this framed map.
    I picked it up to look at closer, but it was impossible to read, all covered over by this dusty, yellowed glass. I tried to
     pull off the frame, but it wouldn't budge. I turned it over, but the back was covered by a sheet of wood. The only way I was
     ever gonna get to read that map was to break the glass.
    But I couldn't bring myself to do it. I mean, my dad was responsible for all this stuff, I couldn't just go around trashin'
     it. On the other hand, Uncle Art always said you can't make an omelet unless you break a few eggs. On the other hand, Uncle
     Art is still on probation, I think, or maybe he's in that work program now.
    Anyway, just then I noticed Chunk workin' on tryin' to get a paint can that he'd accidentally stepped into off his foot. I
     thought I should help him, but I couldn't if I washoldin' the map, so I got an idea. “Hey, Chunk, hold this for me,” I said, and handed it to him.
    He nodded and took it. I had to stand there maybe ten or fifteen seconds, trying to figure out the best way to help him before
     he suddenly lost his balance and fell over, dropping the map, shattering the glass into a zillion pieces.
    Like I said before, Chunk wasn't the lightest guy on his feet.
    “Can't you do anything right?” I sort of snapped at him. He shrugged, kind of embarrassed, and I was sorry right away that
     I'd made him feel bad, just for breakin' my eggs—I mean, glass.
    So I helped him up and got the paint can off his foot and then, with this weird feeling, I picked up the map.
    It slid out of the frame real easy now, along with a small gold doubloon. Swear to God, a real gold coin.
    The map was all creased and cracked and hand-painted in perfect detail. All of the writing was in Spanish with little arrows
     by some of it and little pictures by some of it, and at the bottom it was signed by some guy named “One-Eyed Willy.” It was
     written in Spanish, but that's what Mouth said it said.
    I stared at that signature. Man, I stared. Something about it, I don't know, something just got me.
    I looked over at the part of the map that was coastline. It looked real familiar to me. I followed it up slowly with my eyes,
     around this peninsula that looked kinda like the head of a hammerhead shark, then back up along this pretty straight area
     that got more and more full of coves, until it came to this kind of mountainous cliff drawn in, and right below the cliff
     was this big red
X
.
    I felt, like thunderstruck. I just knew, somehow, that this big red
X
was
the
big red
X
. You know, like
X
marks thespot. And all this stuff I've been tellin' you, about foolin' the maid and foolin' my mom and all this other foolin' around—that
     was all kids' stuff.
    And this
X
marked the end of all that.

CHAPTER 2
    Ye Intruders Beware… One-Eyed Willy… We Slip Out the Back, Jack… We Stop for Provisions… Jerk Alert… Saved by Brand… Up the
     Coast… The Lighthouse .
    All the other guys gathered around. They were still wearing some of the pirate things, hats and scarves and stuff like