Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean.
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This story is dedicated in the loving memory of my Grandpa Bill.
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Ragetti couldn't sleep. He had been spending the whole night thinking. And now that he wanted to fall asleep, he couldn't because the crew's snoring was like being next to thunder. One person snoring wasn't all that bad, but when multiplied by twenty crewmen, it was an insomniac's worst nightmare.
Ragetti tossed and turned in his hammock and tried to get comfortable. He glanced over at his left and saw Marty with his mouth wide open as he snoozed in his hammock. Right across Marty was Cotton, who was just breathing heavily, but had trained his parrot to snore for him. No one really knew how or even why.
In the left-hand corner slept the Black Pearl's newest recruits; Murtogg and Mullroy. They, like him and Pintel, had decided to become pirates after leaving the Navy. Murtogg's high-pitched nasally snore could be heard the loudest over the crew.
Ragetti turned over and saw Pintel sleeping in the hammock on his right. His snore could be best described as a bear's- as was his attitude when he woke up.
Starting to feel desperate for someone to talk to, Ragetti decided to ask him about what he had been thinking about.
"Pintel," he called softly. The older pirate didn't even move. Ragetti tried again, feeling like he was poking a sleeping lion.
"Pintel!" he said and nudged his hammock with his foot.
He heard Pintel give a short groan and heard him say in the darkness: "I swear, one of these days I'm gonna skin ya alive."
Ragetti shifted in his hammock. "Pint, ya awake?"
Even though he was facing the opposite direction, Ragetti could almost imagine Pintel rolling his eyes. "I am now, thanks to ya!" he growled.
"Oh," said Ragetti uncomfortably, "Well then, I was jus' wonderin'…"
Pintel snorted angrily and now turned to look at Ragetti. "If I had a piece of silver every time I hear ya say that, I'd be richer than the king hisself."
Ragetti ignored this comment. "I…I was jus' wonderin' if we was good or bad. That's all."
Pintel starred at him in disbelief. "Good?!" he exclaimed. "Hell, we're bloody pirates, of course we ain't no good!"
Ragetti frowned in concentration. It was hard for him to put in words what he was thinking. He wanted Pintel to understand, but it never sounded right outside his mind.
"No," he said slowly. "No I mean are we good on the inside. Remember when we stole all that gold and turned to skeletons? And when we stole Poppet? We was being bad. But then we saved her and then we saved Captain Jack. Then we was being good. But now we stole the Pearl again; and that's us being bad again. So, which are we?"
Pintel was silent for a long time. The only thing that could be heard was the loud snores of the crew. Ragetti impatiently waited for Pintel to solve his dilemma.
Finally, Pintel spoke with a large scowl and sneer on his face. "Rags, if ya was any deeper, ya'd be a well. Get it through your thick skull. We're pirates. It don't matter if we're good or not. Jus' go back to sleep and stop thinkin' about it." He turned over in his hammock so his back was toward Ragetti.
Disappointed by Pintel's answer, Ragetti bitterly turned his head and starred at the ceiling. He didn't want to stop thinking about what they were. He felt like he needed to know or else he'd never be able to fall asleep. He starred at the ceiling until Pintel's bear snores could be heard again amongst the chorus of sleepers.
We gotta be somethin', he thought. We're not good, but we're not bad either. Ragetti puzzled over this for a very long time.
Suddenly, he was hit with a new idea. He sat up quickly with the idea branded into his mind- he knew what they were.
"We're both," he whispered out loud in awe. It all made sense.
He and Pintel were near opposites of each other, yet that was how they worked the best. He was quiet; Pintel was not. He liked thinking; Pintel like fighting. He was always nervous; Pintel wasn't. Pintel had decided that because they were pirates, it automatically made them bad. So, Ragetti concluded, he must think they were good because it would be the opposite of what Pintel thought.
Relived that he finally found his answer, Ragetti laid back down in his hammock with a huge grin plastered on his face. Barely able to contain his excitement, he almost wanted to wake up Pintel again. He hesitated and decided it probably would be a better idea to tell him in the morning; when Pintel would be in a better mood.
Starting to relax, Ragetti finally closed his eyes for the first time that night.
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Author's Note: Okay, Ragetti's thinking probably didn't make any sense; but this was sort of what I thought. Please realize I am a very slow writer, so I'm not sure when I'll update. Please review!