2. Dreaming
Jack was standing on the deck of the Pearl. It was daytime again, the sun was shining brightly on the wooden deck. He looked up to the helm and saw a man he didn't recognize standing at the wheel. He immediately marched up the stairs to confront the man.
'Oi, get off me ship!' he yelled, sidling up to the man. He had a white beard around the sides of his chin, and his hair was a dark grey colour. The man ignored Jack, looking straight ahead to the front of the ship. The man looked down and took a swig from a flask hanging from his belt.
'Oi, sailor, are you listening to me?' he shouted. 'Tell me who ye are and what yer doin' on my ship!'
Still no response. Jack tried to grab the man, but where his hands should have taken hold of the man's shoulder's they went straight through, as if the man wasn't actually there.
'Must be hallucinating,' muttered Jack. 'I suppose I did have rather a lot of rum. But it's strange. I've never drunk so much I've hallucinated before.'
'Yer not hallucinating Jackie,' said a voice from behind him.
Jack turned.
'Mum? Yer dead?' he asked.
'Aye, I am.'
'So I'm dead too?' asked Jack.
'No Jackie, you've been shot,' replied the ghostly white figure.
The memory came back to Jack. Beckett and the gun. Bootstrap taking him to the cabin. He looked down at his shoulder. His shirt was bloodstained, and when he pulled the shirt aside, he could see the bullet hole in his shoulder.
'Yer lucky ye tried to avoid it Jackie,' said the figure of his mum. 'That action saved yer life.'
'So if I ain't dead, and I clearly ain't alive, where am I?' asked Jack.
'Yer in a coma Jackie,' she replied, fading away. 'Ye'll be here until ye wake up.' She was almost gone now. 'If ye wake up…'
She had faded out completely.
'No wait!' yelled Jack. '¡Espera! Come back here ye useless woman! I need to know where I am!'
Nothing happened. Jack sighed and walked back down the stairs onto the main deck. Just as he did so, a woman emerged from the cabin door. She was beautiful, with long, light brown hair. She wore men's clothes, a baggy white shirt, brown breeches, leather boots and a waistcoat, a sword belt around her waist. Jack walked up to her.
'Lost, darlin'?' he asked with a grin.
She ignored him and walked to the side of the boat, leaning on the rail and looking out to sea.
'Not you as well,' Jack muttered, watching her. She really was very beautiful.
'Oi, Lizzie! Where'd ye go?' shouted a voice from behind him. A very familiar voice.
Jack turned and stood in shock as he saw himself walk out of the cabin, pulling on his coat and putting his hat on his head.
'Bloody hell…' muttered Jack.
He watched as the woman, Lizzie, turned around and smiled as the other Jack walked up to her. Other Jack put his hands on Lizzie's waist and kissed her. She wrapped his arms around other Jack's back and kissed him back. Jack's mouth fell open.
'Get in there Jackie,' he whispered. 'Aren't I jealous of you? Or me. Which is it? God this is confusing!'
'Do you two have to do that on deck?' yelled the man at the wheel. 'Ye have yer cabin fer that!'
Other Jack and Lizzie broke apart giggling.
'Ah, Mr Gibbs,' other Jack said loudly, striding towards the stairs.
'Yes, cap'n?'
'Would ye happen to know where Henry is right now?'
'No, I wouldn't,' replied Mr Gibbs.
'And why not?' asked other Jack, raising his voice. 'Did I or did I not ask you to entertain him while me and Lizzie were … um … busy?'
'Yes ye did cap'n, but I believe the whole point of playin' hide an' seek is that ye don't know where the other person's hiding,' replied Mr Gibbs. 'Last I saw, he was runnin' below deck with Pintel an' Ragetti.'
'Thank ye, Mr Gibbs,' said other Jack, and then he turned and stared straight at where Jack was standing by the mast and smirked, before looking away again.
Jack watched as the other Jack went below deck, and turned to look at Lizzie in more detail. He walked up to her and took a closer look at her. She was tanned, and had a good figure, and Jack noticed she had really beautiful brown eyes. He was stopped in his study of her by a blue and yellow parrot swooping low over his head before settling on the railing beside Lizzie.
'Bloody bird!' he said loudly. 'Nearly took me eye out! Not to mention the mess it must leave all over me ship. What was I thinking, letting a bird onboard?'
'Ye liking what ye see Jackie?'
He turned and saw the ghostly figure of his mother beside him once more.
'There's a parrot on me boat!' he exclaimed. 'Can you imagine the poop?'
The figure chuckled.
'This is yer future Jackie,' she said. 'If that's what ye make it.'
'So this Lizzie girl,' said Jack. 'She'll be mine in the future?'
'Not necessarily. If ye change the path of the future, then no. But if ye live yer life as fate were meant to have it, she'll be yours Jackie.'
'Excellent!' said Jack clapping his hands together.
'Don't change the future Jackie. If ye want her as yer own, let it be. But I'll be warning ye now. She's a tough one that Lizzie. Don't let her go. Don't let this go. There will be a time when it seems she don't want you no more. She won't mean it. Forgive her.'
The figure faded once more.
'No, don't go,' protested Jack. 'What do ye mean?'
'Forgive her Jackie,' said the ghost. 'When she kills ye, forgive her.'
She vanished.
'Now yer making no sense at all,' muttered Jack. 'How can I forgive her if she killed me? I'll be bloody dead!'
Jack heard a high-pitched giggle from behind him and turned to see a small boy race up the stairs from the brig and run across the deck.
'Kids on the ship too?' he murmered. 'Perhaps I'm becoming a bit too soft in me old age.'
The boy ran straight over to Lizzie, who swept him up in her arms and kissed his forehead. Jack stared in surprise. The boy had curly light brown hair and his facial features were well-defined, but when looking into the boy's eyes it was like staring into a mirror. They were the darkest brown, and when the boy smiled, Jack recognized part of his own mischievous smile in it.
'He can't be…'
'Henry Sparrow, where have ye got to?' said other Jack, emerging from the same stairs the boy had appeared from.
'No,' muttered Jack. 'He isn't…'
'Oh yes he is, Jackie,' he heard his mother say, and the world went black.
