The Story of a Slap.
By Deemarie
Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognize. Although I'd gladly buy Captain Jack Sparrow if anybody has him.
Author's Note: Not a lot of the Captain in the beginning but he'll come into it. Oh, yeah. This is kind of a high PG-13 but not an R.
I was born in Tortuga and being a girl in Tortuga at that time I knew exactly what I was going to be when I grew up. A whore just like my mother and my mother's mother before her. It was the life that there was for a woman and there was nothing besides that. When I was growing up there was no AnaMaria to show me that I could leave this godforsaken town. Oh, yes. She wasn't born in Tortuga but she showed up when we were both about eight. Somehow she beat it. She got out. But this isn't her story. This is my story.
It all begins with the first time I saw my mother slap a pirate. I was about six…
"Carrie, darling, be a dear. Leave your mama alone." My mother was never in a good mood in the mornings. We're called ladies of the evening for a reason, you know.
"But Mama. I'm hungry. There isn't any food." I whined, shaking her by the shoulder.
Grumbling, my mother blocked the light from her eyes for a bit longer and finally fell out of bed. She laced up her bodice and pinned her curly hair out of her eyes. Then she was ready to go.
We walked slowly along the streets on the way to our favorite inn. It was the only one in town that actually served breakfast. The rest just served a nice mug of morning ale. Sailors believe in the hair of the dog that bit you.
We were about halfway there when I felt Mama stiffen.
"What's wrong?" I asked, pulling at Mama's arm. Morning was the only time I got to have my mother to myself. The rest of the time there was always people around, whether they were Mama's men friends or my aunties.
"Nothing Carrie. I just need to talk to that man over there. Stay here honey."
I sat on the stoop of a fancy house and watched my mother go up to blond man. She snapped off a few words and then hauled back and smacked him hard. He grabbed his face and shook his head while she walked back to me.
"Mama, why did you hit him? You told me not to hit. You yelled at me when I hit Siren." Siren was my current best friend and her mother, unlike mine, had decided to christen her with a hooker's name.
"Oh, darling." Mama crouched down next to me and held my chin in her hand. "Someday, sooner than I'd like, you'd learn that there's lots of reasons to go hitting someone."
"But what'd he do Mama?" I was very confused that Mama was changing her rules all of a sudden. "When Siren takes my doll again can I hit her this time?"
"No, honey. That's not a good reason. Someday you'll know the reasons."
I learned my reasons when I turned fourteen. That's when my mama died of a beating one of her men gave her and I went on the streets myself. One of them is pride. That's the one that I've dealt with most. Every time what I've become humiliates me I can slap a man that I dealt with the night before. That's a Tortugan whore's right.
But that's not the only reason I have. My other reason I learned less than a year ago when I was only nineteen.
Anyway, one night I was strolling down the main street looking for my meal ticket when I spotted him. Oh, I'd seen him before when I was around eleven. He was the Captain of the Black Pearl then and the town was abuzz. Being eleven I didn't understand what the fuss was about but I did eight years later. A wild man that makes you want to make him smile, laugh all just for you. I don't even think he'd drunk that much rum yet that night. But still he wove and swayed. Just drunk on life, even without the Pearl.
Looking up I caught Siren going for him. Taking a few quick steps I cut her off.
"Not tonight Siren. I think you should cast your net in other waters." I smiled insincerely at the woman who'd been my best friend. Narrowing her eyes she nodded and went over to a tavern. She'd owed me a favor and I'd just called it in.
"Why hello Captain." I linked my arm through his and fell into step with him.
He nodded at me and continued on his merry way, the only difference was that he was now using me for a bit of balance.
"My dear, I feel that we'll be spending a bit of time together tonight, savvy?" Sparrow was drinking directly from a bottle of rum in the tavern he'd eventually stumbled into. At least that was the impression that he wanted people to have. I had the idea that he knew where he was going all along.
So I nodded and swallowed from my own mug of plain old beer. I'm not a big hard liquor fan.
"So I don't think it'd go amiss to learn your name. As for me I'm Captain Jack Sparrow. Formerly of… Well, everyone knows the story here." He drowned out the end of his sentence with more rum.
"They call me Cara." I answered simply.
"Yes, expensive. I see. What did your mother call you?" He looked me straight in the eyes.
"Mama called me Carrie." I looked down from his intense stare.
I'll skip the details of the next part of the night. It's enough to say that I woke up alone, with a purse of money next to me.
I didn't know why I felt so awful. He paid me more than I'd ever gotten before but still I felt terrible.
I went on with my life. I made money and tried to forget about Captain Jack Sparrow. Although I didn't understand why I'd have to try at all. He was just another man, right?
Then I saw him again. I was watching the crowd and then I saw him step out with a scared young man following him. I saw, along with everyone else, the other girls slapping him.
I figured he'd be heading to find Gibbs and I happened to know where he was. So I followed the two to the pigsty and waited until they woke up Gibbs and started moving away. Then I grabbed Jack's arm.
"Carrie! Now, I know you don't have a reason to slap me."
I smiled quietly, drew my arm back, and yes, I did slap him. Then I walked off into the night leaving a confused Captain and two amused men.
My reason was the best reason of all. You see, I'd fallen in love with Captain Jack Sparrow, along with countless others I'm sure. And he left me. And I know that his fate doesn't lie with me, with a common whore. So I slapped him.
*Cara means expensive or dear.