Adventure Calls

"You Idiot!" screeched Riley, her long auburn hair whipping around her face as if to emphasize her anger. "It specifically said 'Do not touch' and what do you do? You pick it up and start pressing every button in sight!"

"See, that's where you're wrong, I didn't press the big red one that said cancel." commented her best friend Jayson calmly. As soon as the words were out of his mouth he knew that they were wrong. He had learned long ago that the best thing to do when Riley got angry was to sit and wait it out. She had a temper to match her hair, but he knew that her anger would soon even out to the cool gray of her eyes. Sitting down, he settled in for the ride and leaned back against a tree.

"Jayson sometimes you are the most… most, just… Uhhh! How can you be calm in a time like this?" If anything, that was what bugged her the most- that no matter what the situation, he was calm and cool, but the only thing that kept her from going into full on nuclear reaction mode was him. "I mean, one minute we're in that old general store with that machine thing and the next we're in some godforsaken jungle in the middle of heaven knows where!"

"I'm calm because this is clearly a dream. That thing obviously emitted some sort of gas that knocked us out and caused us to have the exact same dream" said the blonde boy with shaggy hair and green eyes.

Finally stopping her nervous pacing Riley rolled her eyes at him. "Sometimes you amaze me."

"I amaze you?" Riley wanted to slap that smug half grin of his right into the next century. "That is not what I meant and you know it," she said. "This is clearly not a dream; no dreams are this realistic. And even if we were asleep, it would be a nightmare because you're here."

"Well, if this isn't a dream, then what is it?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, it's reality. That thing took us to some other place, maybe even some other time!" She was screaming again by this point, waving her hands and gesturing wildly.

"Riley, shut up for a second, I think I hear something."

"Don't you tell me to shut up, Jayson Alleing! You're the reason we're in this mess in the first place!"

"For real, Riley, be quiet! I hear voices," he whispered harshly.

"There you go again! One day I swear I'll-"

It was then that Jayson decided to take matters into his own hands. Jumping up, he tackled Riley, sending her to the ground and covering her mouth with his hand. "I told you, shut up. Now for once in your life be quiet!" he hissed against her ear.

She heard the footsteps first, crunching through the underbrush- then the smell. Oh the smell! It was like things that had died, come back to life again, then trampled through mud and promptly died again. Finally the voices came. They were horribly scratchy from yelling at each other and sounded like none of those men had even seen a school, much less been to one.

"Uh, Jack? Do ya know where we're going?" said the oldest looking of the group.

"Gibbs, when in my life have I not known where I was going?" Jack, clearly the leader, stopped in his tracks. "Don't answer that." He walked with confidence in his step, which was impressive since he looked incredibly drunk and tripping over every stick he saw. Seriously, he was going out of his way to trip over the biggest of the limbs. Seeing a particularly big branch he walked, no, pranced over and sniffed it.

"No way. It can't be, but it is!" said Jayson, his hand still silencing Riley.

Riley jerked her head free so that she could talk, but was still held immobile by Jayson sitting behind her. "Who is it? What is so impossible?"

"That's Jack Sparrow! Gosh Riley, I know you don't have a life but even you should know about Pirates of the Caribbean!"

Riley elbowed him in the stomach, hard. Jayson, surprised by how much force her petite frame could muster, huffed loudly.

Immediately Jack looked up from inspecting his log and stared right at them. Standing up, he swaggered over to the trees hiding Jayson and Riley from the crew's view. Jack exclaimed "I've found it!" He was staggering some, trying to get a hold of the branches and vines concealing the two friends, but they somehow seemed to evade him. Finally catching hold to some of them he paused dramatically. "Gentlemen! I give you … THE STOLEN RUM!" he said, flinging back the branches to expose a bewildered Riley and Jayson. "You're not rum," Jack stated seriously.

"No, and you're not beer. Now that we've stated the obvious, who are you and where are we?" asked Riley.

"I told you, he's Jack Sparrow." commented Jayson.

"You're missing something, mate."

"What?"

"It starts with a 'C' and ends with an 'aptain'."

"In answer to your question," said Gibbs, "Yer in the bright and beautiful Isles of the Caribbean. Home to-"

"Ah, but you already knew that, didn't you? Considering you stole our rum right off the ship!" interrupted Jack, who was pointing an accusatory finger at the two of them.

"What! You're accusing us! I've never been on a boat in my life, I get seasick on the Lazy River ride at the water park!" screamed Riley.

"I can testify to that." said Jayson.

"Nevertheless you are coming back to the ship to be tied to the bow alongside Miss Shiny Mermaid and die slow and painful deaths."

"You mean the figurehead?" Riley asked.

"No, I mean the big lady on the front of the ship with the fist tail for legs. What's a figurehead?"

"Um, Captain, maybe it would be more effective to simply throw them in the brig?" questioned Gibbs.

"Fine, ruin all the fun." Jack said stalking off. "Oi, crew, back to the ship! We've got captives!"

The crew roared their approval and picked up both Riley and Jayson to carry them off to the ship.

"Well this is fun." commented Riley sarcastically.

They were now in the brig, or the ship's dungeon, and had been for hours. Riley's anger had ebbed away long ago; she could never stay mad at Jayson for long. Plus, it was hard to stay mad when it took all your concentration to not throw up. Jayson, ever curious, had been entertaining himself by searching their cell. The only things found so far that were even remotely interesting was a piece of coral, a couple of cannon balls, and something that looked suspiciously like a glass eyeball. At least they hoped it was glass.

"Alright puppets, at attention!" one of the crew members snapped after coming down below decks. Pintel was his name, and he always seemed to be with Ragetti, who had an eyepatch sometimes and at other times had an actual eye.

"So that's where you got to ya little rascal!" Ragetti said which was strange considering he was talking to the eyeball in Jayson's hand. Taking it from him he cleaned it up and popped it back into his eye socket with a wet popping sound. "Well anyways Jack- What are you staring at?" he asked the two prisoners who were still staring at him with their mouths hanging open, a mixture of awe and disgust on their faces.

Jayson was the first to recover. "Sorry, what did you say?" he asked, shaking his head as if to clear it of the strange events of the past few minutes.

This time Pintel responded saying, "Jack says ya can come out now. Either he has forgiven ya or has some horrible job he wants ya to do."

"Let's hope it's the first one," responded Jayson when they unlocked the cell doors.

"Maybe it's both," Ragetti said a little too hopefully as he followed them up the stairs.

Riley squinted as they walked into the bright sunlight beating down on the ship's deck. The first thing she saw when her eyes adjusted was Jack chasing some poor screaming monkey around the deck. As the monkey ran towards them tough Riley realized that it was holding a bottle of some foul smelling liquid. The monkey climbed up onto her shoulder, screeched and stuck out his tongue at Jack.

Jack took out his pistol and shot the monkey right off Riley's shoulder. Screaming, she ducked and fell into Jayson's waiting arms.

After helping her up he rounded on Jack. "Are you crazy?" he yelled.

"As a fox." Replied Jack coolly. He then chugged the bottle of rum that the monkey dropped when he ran off. "By the way, you're forgiven for stealing the rum. Turns out that worthless excuse for an animal had it."

The creature in question, seeming to realize he was being talked about, threw an empty gunshot casing from somewhere up in the rigging and hit Jack square on the head. Jack turned and shot at him but missed, tearing the sail as it sailed by. The monkey then proceeded to do a little dance and laugh, practically begging Jack to try to shoot him again.

"Blasted undead monkey. That was my last shot." Turning back to his former prisoners he continued. "Anyways, Gibbs tells me that it is- what did you call it Gibbs?"

"Morally unrestrained, sir."

"Ah yes, royally untamed to keep you prisoner when you are clearly innocent. Problem is we are in the middle of the ocean, savvy. So unless you and your little girlfriend want to swim for days back to shore you're stuck." Ignoring both Jayson and Riley's indignant protest against the g-word he continued. "But, there is a glimmer of hope in your bleak future. I, the infamous Capitan Jack Sparrow, am willing to take you on as cabin boys. What?" he asked Riley, who was raising one questioning eyebrow at him.

"I'm a girl," she said in response to being called cabin boy.

"Really? I never would have guessed." Jack answered and walked off, leaving Riley looking shocked and Jayson doubled over in laughter. He stopped laughing though as soon as Pintel forced a mop and bucket into his hand.

"Start scrubbing."

"If I ever see another scrub brush again it'll be too soon." said Riley as she sat back onto her heels. They had been scrubbing and swabbing the deck for forever. So long in fact that the stars had come out and the only crew member in sight was the one in the crow's nest keeping watch. They had even missed dinner. Jayson stood up and offered his hand down to Riley.

"Come on," he said, "let's go get some food. I'm starving."

"Ugh. Don't even talk about food- I'm already sick enough," she protested, but took his hand anyway. Even with him steadying her Riley stumbled and almost fell again as she got up. Clutching her head she groaned.

"Wow, you really are sick" he said, a touch of concern in his voice. "Let's get you some food- it'll settle your stomach." He led her down to the galley and made her sit down at one of the tables while he searched for some food.

"Thank you Jayson. That's really nice of you," said Riley while Jayson sat down across from her and cracked open a jar of decent looking fruit.

"Well we can't have you dying of scurvy before we even get back home." An uncomfortable silence fell over the two best friends.

After a few quiet minutes it was Riley that broke the lull. "Jayson, how are we going to get home? Even if we find that machine again we have no idea how to work it. What if-" she paused, unable to finish her sentence. Then in a small tense voice she whispered, "What if we never get home?"

It broke Jayson's heart to see her so scared. This was Riley; she was the strongest person he knew. She was never scared, ever. The last time he had seen her cry was when they were eight after her mom's funeral. She had cried for hours as he held her, all the while asking him 'Why her?' 'Why did the cancer have to take her mother from her?' Even seven years later, Jayson still didn't know the answers. All he knew was that after that night Riley had steeled herself so that nothing could hurt her again. If she was scared, then all that he could do was try to comfort her.

He looked at her and said with as much courage as he could, "We will get home Riley. This I promise you."

She looked up at him, tears shining in her eyes and smiled a watery smile, their food completely forgotten.

"…and that's when you found us in the jungle," finished Jayson.

Turns out the cook, armed with a frying pan, had been eavesdropping on the intruders. As he overheard their conversation the cook, whose name was Eade, had come to the conclusion that there were spies aboard this ship. Eade ran to get Jack so that he could hear the incriminating evidence for himself, but by the time they got back to the galley all that they found was the two new cabin boys sleeping peacefully with their heads on the table, an untouched jar of peaches between them.

Now they were in Jack's quarters being interrogated, and he had no qualms about waking the sleepers. Between Riley and Jayson they had shared their entire crazy story.

"So you are telling me that you are really from the future and have been thrown back here by a mysterious machine in an old store?" questioned Jack.

"Exactly!" exclaimed Eade. "That is impossible even for pirates! They're obviously Spanish spies!"

"I've dealt with Spaniards. They're not this clever," stated Jack as he reclined in his big captain's chair. "Describe this machine for me."

"Well, it was round. With buttons."

Riley rolled her eyes at Jayson's incompetence. "It was copper, about this big, and had a screen displaying a date and place in the center. The buttons surrounded the screen on all sides." She looked at Jayson as if to say "Beat that," but he just gave her a look back that made it clear that he had no idea what she was talking about.

Immediately Jack leaped out of his chair and ran over to a cabinet on the wall and flung open the doors. As he began to pull things out of it and throw them over his shoulder he started mumbling to himself. "Is this? No. How about-? No, not that either. Definitely not that. Oh, that's where that chocolate went!"

"Um, what exactly are you looking for?" Riley asked, dodging a rather large and dented globe.

"If you would wait a minute you would see! I'm the only one allowed to be impatient on this ship. Here it is." Jack said, pulling out from the deepest corner of the cabinet the exact machine that had sent Riley and Jayson there in the first place. "Now I've had this thing for years, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it does. Would'a sold it ages ago had it not been for that old woman at the Tortuga port. She took one look at it and then looked me straight in the eye, now that's no easy job you see for she was cross-eyed as everything and it's dancing pig. And ugly! She-"

"Jack!" all three yelled.

"I'm getting there!" he yelled right back. "Anyways she told me that one day I would meet two strangers who would need it desperately. So I figured 'Hey, sounds like I could have a little leverage. They do something for me and I give them the contraption. But I have decided to just give it to you for two reasons. One: You are children and no decent pirate would ever do anything directly to children and two: I want you off of this ship and out of my hair even more than you want to get home. Offense intended."

Riley was happy enough to overlook that last rude comment. "Oh thank you Jack!" she said as he handed the copper sphere off to Jayson.

"Come on Eade." Jack said leaving, "I don't know about you but I have no desire to see the place where these two came from." Eade followed reluctantly, still grumpy that he had not apprehended spies of the Spanish crown.

"Well," Jayson said, turning to Riley, "We've got it. Now what?"

"I'll tell you what we're not going to do, push buttons and hope we get lucky. With our luck we would end up in the middle of a Roman coliseum with gladiators screaming for our deaths," Riley said while taking the machine from him. After searching it she found a set of what looked like elevator arrows on the date side of the screen and a keyboard on the location side. Setting it for their hometown and the year 2011 she turned and held it out to Jayson.

"You ready?"

"Let's go home."