Title: The Lonely Pirate King
Author: Drey'auc475
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL
Rating: K+
Spoilers: none
Genre: General
Setting/Season: set in the first movie, in the time between they leave the cave at Isla de Meurta and the scene where Jack is about to be hung.
Summary: Some people might think that living a pirate's couldn't possibly be lonely. But how many people actually live a pirate's life?
A/N: I own nothing… but I sometimes wish I did ;-)
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Some people might think that living a pirate's couldn't possibly be lonely. But how many people actually live a pirate's life? You get the random few individuals who have lived years at sea by the sword (and survived), and they will tell you that a pirate's life is exciting, full of danger, adventure, women and riches. But how many of those stories end with the pirate getting all that he wants?
I mean, you hear about the pirate king finding his hidden treasure that buys him a dozen ships and half a dozen courtesans. But what happens after that? Is the pirate king happy for the rest of his life? Does he live the remainder of his days surrounded by everything that he ever wanted? No, he doesn't. He's left wanting more.
The pirate king spends all the treasure on wine and women, but never considers the future. Do you think that he'll look at that pile of gold that he's found and think about himself ten years down the track? Do you think that he'll think about how long that pile of gold will last him and when he'll next have to go a-plundering again?
I wish that I'd thought more about my future when I was younger. It was all about finding that next treasure chest, the next horizon, the next grand adventure. Never did I consider where I would be in thirty years time. Certainly not in a jail cell in the Fort at Port Royal for the second time. Maybe if I'd paid a little more attention to my tutors and my parents when I was growing up…
I was always a trouble-maker when I was a kid. It was never enough that my parents gave me a good education and that I had all that a sixteen-year-old boy could want. Nah, piracy was my game. When I was growing up, it was all that I'd dream about. When I was nine, my best friend Harold (I called him Harry) and me went down to the docks where Harry's father worked. Harry's father was a rich merchant who owned several ships. He would tell us tales and heroic adventures about pirates. I used to think that that was the kind of life that I would lead.
Me and Harry agreed that one day, we'd run away from the life of housemaids and nannies, and live a life on the ocean. The only thing was; Harry didn't have very good sea-legs. He loved the ocean, like me, but couldn't stand the swells. He made it to the first port, then was sick for three days. After that he decided that he might be better suited as a barkeep. He bought his own tavern in Tortuga and made a buck. Haven't seen him since.
I joined up with a privateer sailor and his crew after that. Crazy bunch, that lot. Always getting into trouble at every port. That was the ship that I got my first tattoo on. Also the one I got my first lashings on. I wasn't diligent enough in my duties and a keg of gunpowder got damp. Three days later, it was our last keg left and we were attacked in the Spanish Main on our way to Singapore. Only three of us got away. The three of us being the only ones that could swim.
I was a bit shaken up by that. I was still quite young and all, and not used to the 'adventurous' life we pirates live. Though, truth be told, I was quite lonely on that ship. I had no friends, no one to look out for me. And I was a long way from home.
A fishing vessel picked me up, and took me the rest of the way into Singapore. I worked there for a little while, as a deck hand, fastening ropes, fishing, pulling in nets and crab-traps. That was where I met a girl named Lin. She was the daughter of the fisherman I worked for. If he had've found out what Lin and I got up to under the tarps on the deck of his sloop, then I probably wouldn't be here right now, telling you about this.
Then, one day, Lin's father and I went out to sea fishing and a big storm took his little boat into its bosom and it never saw day again.
I survived (obviously) and made it to a near-by island. I lived there for about a month, living off rain water and crabs. Then a small ship came by the island; a frigate, nothing more. I met them when they came ashore and was able to gain passage off the island. They were Jamaican sailors and it was very hard to understand anything they said, but they took me all the way to the Caribbean. From there it was the true life as a pirate.
Stealing, plundering, wine and women was all that I knew from then on. It was lonely, dangerous and down right depressing at times.
They never tell you, in stories, how lonely life can be as a feared pirate. Sure, there are girls of plenty to fill the gaps in ones life, but I guess that I'm like that pirate king who always wanted more than the pile of gold in front of him. Maybe we all want more than what we've got…
It's what many people call greed. I call it… greed. I guess I can't find a better name for it right now. But I wonder, sometimes, what my life might have been like, had I not run away at sixteen; if I hadn't been so greedy for a pirate's life. I would either be married or be a miserable barrister, like my parents wanted.
I'm feeing terribly lonely now and wondering weather I'm bound to ever get what I want. If I ever do find out what it is that I want. I think I want kids, one or two, to keep things interesting. And a wife, maybe; a house, and a job that didn't involve me getting hanged or shot at. At least I wouldn't be alone.
Well, the marines are here to take me away to the gallows, so I guess this is one pirate king that'll never know.
This is the last script of Jack Sparrow. I hope that you weren't as lonely as I was…
Fin.
