"Will, what are you doing here?"
"Just come down! I want to show you something."
"Will…I can't"
"Yes, you can."
And with only that as persuasion, I climbed down the rope Will had tossed up to my balcony. I couldn't help but feel a rush of exhilaration as I hung midair, yet i was strangely unafraid because I knew there were strong arms not far below to catch me if I slipped. But I didn't and when I reached the ground, littered with rose petals from the side garden surrounding us, Will took my hand.
"Come, Miss Swann. You'll want to see this."
And without hesitation, I went. "Where are we going?" I whispered as he led me up the hill to the northern side of Port Royal.
"There is a ship on the water." He turned to face me. "but you'll have to wait and see the rest.."
"Will!" I playfully slapped him on the arm. We walked further and further, and just when I was getting nervous, we stopped on the edge of the northernmost cliff.
"Whats so amazing you had to drag me out here?"
Will smirked and said "Look.." He pointed down over the cliff. So, eyeing him suspiciously, I laid down on my belly and peered out over the sharp but sturdy edge. Instantly, I snapped my head around towards will, lying next to me.
"Is that…?
"Yes"
"My goodness…"
"Worth it?"
"Definitely." For below my shocked face was an anchored ship. But this ship was not the typical full bellied, light wood and white canvassed ship I was accustomed to. It had black sails, blacker even than the night sky behind it. The moonlight illuminted its sharp edges, becoming a myriad of silver and the blackest of blacks. It seemed like a stain in the gentle waves. I knew this ship, of course. This was not the first tie I had seen it. The Black Pearl, here yet again right below me. Suddenly, a voice rang out from below, as chilling as the night air,
"Yo, ho, yo, ho, we kidnap and pillage and dont give a hoot, yo, ho yo, ho a pirates life for me…"
The voice was deep and raspy. It send chills down my spine, and I grabbed Will's hand. We heard steady, blunt footsteps on the black deck.
"Perhaps we should go."
"Lets" he replied, quicker than I would have expected.
The memory came with a pang in my heart. I stood now in the very same spot as those many years ago. Will and I must have been only about 15. I know now the voice had belonged to Barbossa. The voice I had been afraid of was the very same voice that had married Will and I. And I will always be grateful for that. The marriage gave me a son, whose shoulder I now placed my hand on, but also a familiar pain. My husband was sailing away, once again, taking my love along with him. Leaving behind his family, his son who would and always will grow up fatherless. It seemed to be yet another Turner curse to add to the collection: that fathers be at sea, while their sons lived out childhood. But while Wills father abandoned him by choice, he abandoned his son by force. I knew Will wanted nothing more than to save his son from the loneliness that had once been so familiar to him. Of course, Ill try my absolute best to raise him, but I know I can never fill that empty place in my sons heart where his father should be. There is an empty place in my heart for the same man. As the green flash illuminates our faces, and the Flying Dutchman becomes a mere puff of smoke, I try not to think of the past. It is the future we must focus on, for the future holds Will.