I strolled my way through the bustling morning crowd of venders and shoppers and walked under the archway that led to the less busy side of town. It was barren actually. Not a soul was in sight. My only companion was a sewer rat that scampered toward an abandoned apple core, brown from air, and rotting on the floor beside a doorway. Above hung a wooden sign marked 'Blacksmith' and I knew I had to be in the right place. It was the only blacksmith's shop around for hundreds of miles. I hesitantly pushed open the wooden planked door. It opened with a long creek from over fifty years of use. There was a lack of light inside. It smelled musky dust and gunpowder. A dim lantern hung on a hook beside the door and a fire's bright orange coals cast dancing shadows in its corner fireplace.
"Hello? Nick are you here?" I always used to call him informally 'Nick' when we were kids so it stuck. After ten seconds of silence, a clanging noise came from another room in the back. Under the door came an orange glow. I pushed it open and peeked in not knowing who or what to expect. He stood by a table with an unfinished sword in his left hand and a hammer in the other. He bent the sword into shape with so much ease that he made it look like an art. It was amazing how good he was at only 17 years of age. His long, brown curls fell into his eyes and his muscular forearms glistened in the fire's glow. He looked up suddenly, frightening me, making me jump and put my hand to my chest.
"Lynn," he let out a huge smile and put down his work. He walked over to me with long strides and took me into his arms. He smelled like sweat and smoke. That didn't stop me from hugging him though. He released his grip from my back and smiled again.
"I was just finishing. Let me just put away my tools." He held up his index finger signaling me to wait and I watched him turn around and throw the hammer into a basket on the floor and put the sword back into the coals.
"Okay, let's go." He grabbed my hand and we walked out of the back room and he nearly dragged me. My high heels collected the dirt and I was becoming angry. He grabbed his feather hat off its hook and put it on top of his curly hair matted with sweat. He rolled up his sleeves and let go of my arm for half a second. We walked out of the blacksmith shop and I took in a deep breath of fresh ocean air. I expected us to go back into town to go shop for food since he lived with Rose and I in the cottage since it was the only place to go for shelter, but he turned left instead and headed down the alley and towards the beach.
"Nick! Where are we going? I'm half starved! We need to buy food. Rose will be mad if we're not back soon either. You know how she can act up."
He smiled, "Oh, please, we'll have plenty of time to get food but you have to come see this."
I had been here longer then he had by far but I still was clueless as to where he was taking me and what we were going to see. We came out of the rows of stone buildings and walked past the gallows. They had always terrified me. The two nooses moved ghostly in the breeze. I hadn't realized I had stopped and stared at them, but Nick stopped and gazed at them as well. He took off his large hat and put it to his chest and bowed.
"May the pirates that ever choose to come to this island beware."
I looked at him and he put his hat back on hurriedly. We were on the beach now and I could see my small cottage on the cliff above the sea. The waves crashed against the black rocks and a couple native pelicans flew low over the crystal blue waters in search of dinner. My heels were digging into the sand and I couldn't keep up with Nick so I made him stop so I could take them off. I reached under my dress and brought my ankle up but managed to fall back into the sand.
"Oh, my gosh. I'm terrible." I laughed and he warmly smiled, obviously amused, and extended his hand. I took it graciously and got my balance back. I took off the other shoe and put them between my fingers. The sun slowly went down. At the time of sunset we reached a rock I had never seen before. It was beside the sea but on the other side of our small island. Its features were dark and almost mysterious. He led me behind it and to an entrance to a cave. Water dripped from the ceiling and small waves moved in and out of the opening. I tiptoed through the warm waters and he grabbed my hand because the light was running out. Then there was only black.
"Nick…" "Shh! You can't tell anyone where I'm taking you."
What could possibly be so secretive about a cave? Nick hadn't even been here before, had he? He must've been here before because he was leading me through it like it was completely illuminated. I jumped when I heard a crab or two scatter behind a stone. His pace was steadily increasing and I had to jog to keep up with him. His sweaty grip on my hand tightened.
Up ahead I could see a blue light. It looked like the mouth of the cave. When we approached it, I saw it was the mouth of a cave after all. It was much more incredible. It was a rounded room carved into the rock and the light came from an inch wide hole in the ceiling. I inspected the hole seeing how it could possibly bring that much light into the room at sunset. I saw around the sides was a mirror-like rock, probably volcanic, that reflected the light to all sides of the room. I was so amazed by how the room was lit that I didn't even examine the rest. On the sandy floor were at least twelve crates marked 'salt' or 'gunpowder'.
"Nick I don't understand. Why did you bring me here?"
"Okay you promise not to tell anybody? Not even Rosalie?"
I wondered what could be so bad that I couldn't even tell my best friend. I nodded slowly not knowing what I was agreeing to.
"What's the purpose of this room? How did you even know it was here? You haven't even been to this island before, have you?" I started rambling off these questions until he silenced me by pressing his cold index finger against warm lips.
" I told you to be quiet. Now look…" He hesitated before proceeding and took a deep breath. He walked over to one of the crates and picked it up with a grunt. A cloud of dust rose as the weight of the crate was lifted. It rose and you could see each particle through the reflected light. I could tell that it was much darker outside now. Nicholas brought the wooden crate to my feet and dropped it with a 'thud'. It sank down about two inches into the damp sand. It must've weighed a lot, and to have Nick actually struggle with it, yeah it weighed a ton!
"You promise not to scream?"
"Why?" He just stared into my eyes but immediately looked down and pulled the top handle of the box to open it. Before throwing the lid to the ground, he put his hand on my shoulder. An electric current flowed from his touch through my body to my fingertips. I could scarcely breath in my lung-piercing corset. Curse those wretched things. I wish a woman could show off her natural curves by not wearing it. I steadied myself by shifting my weight off my left foot to my right.
"Lynn, this is really serious. Just promise you will still be my best friend after this." I bit my lip. How could I resist his pleas?
I nodded and a piece of my red hair fell into my face. He took his other hand and put it slowly behind my ear. I closed my eyes and felt the warm touch of his fingers on my delicate skin. He let go of my shoulder and I opened my eyes wide and realized what was happening. I was about to see the true Nicholas. What was the true Nick though? The Nick I always knew or remembered was holding my hand as a child and running up a grassy hill behind my Father's home. He pulled the top off the box for real this time but I expected to see something much different. It was only two ladies' dresses, brown with age and stains. I watched intently as he threw them lazily onto the sand. I gazed into the crate, which glistened in the dark.
"No, no, no." I shook my head rapidly and backed away. "Nick, your going to be killed!" I tripped over a rock and clasped to the ground. I buried my face into my hands rejecting the tears that waited behind my lids.
Nick picked up the long gold necklaces with priceless germs embedded. Several crowns lay within the jewels. I recognized one as the lost crown of the English king.
"Nick! You should have told me!" I was sobbing now.
"I…I couldn't," he set down the elaborate necklaces and walked over and slid down the wall beside me. He put his arm around my shoulders and leaned his head on mine. "I just couldn't go back to you like that."
He rubbed my shoulder in a massages motion and put his rights hand on my upper arm. It felt almost awkward with him this close to me, but I needed the comfort, even if it was from a criminal. I couldn't think of him as a criminal though. He was always just as I knew him before and nothing else and that made me realize I should still treat him as my Nicholas.
I lifted my head out my hands and removed the evidence of my tears. He looked at me confused but all I could do was smile and nod my head.
"I don't get it. Why are you all of a sudden okay? I mean I expected you to be crushed for the next week!"
"What! Oh, you're going to pay!" I hit him playfully on the shoulder and laughed a bright smile.
"Well you bounce back fast! I'm glad, phew!" He wiped his brow and squeezed my shoulder.
"Yes, I realized something stupid like this is not worth our relationship, I mean friendship!" He blushed at what I said and looked up at the dark ceiling. I stared at his curly locks and perfect profile and slightly rosy cheeks that made him glow in the moonlight like spring's first flower, and wondered to myself how this pretty face could ever be a pirate. The silence was broken when he started talking soft, soothing words.
"I was only nine when my dad left me on the streets of London by the Thames. I carried no food and in my pockets was only a small wooden train I with you outside my home when we were six, remember?" I smiled and nodded.
"I also carried three shillings and my mother's locket." He touched the locket that hung loosely around his muscular neck and continued, "I took it out of my pocket and put it in both of my hands and stared at the picture for at least three hours. My bare feet were blistered from the snow so I sat on the stairs in front of a factory. I had no clue where to go or who to turn to for help. I wanted to be brave like any man would so I walked up and down the streets with my head up high to try to get nay attention." He smiled and chuckled to himself, but I only looked at him with sorrowful eyes.
"When nobody noticed me and it was getting dark, I walked into the nearest building that just happened to be a tavern. The smell of rum and sweat filled my lungs and a man with one blue eye and one brown grabbed my shoulder. He whispered something to his friends and they nodded in agreement to his words. They handed me a piece of stale bread and I ate it down within seconds. They watched as I licked the last crumbs off my fingers and the first man grabbed my hand and took me outside into the cold air. He asked 'How would you like to help us on our boat? It will be fun." After that I spent the my life, until I was sixteen, stealing young ladies, finding hidden treasures of the Aztecs, and watching my captain murder helpless victims. I regret it now when I think back to the days as a young pirate. You know I never once stopped thinking of you. I always wondered what had become of you and if I'd ever see you again. Now I'm here. With you, but…" He looked at me with scared eyes.
"Nick, what's wrong?" He looked like he might cry. He balled his hand into a fist and jammed in with all his strength into the sand.
He talked lower than a whisper that I thought he was actually just talking to himself, "They are coming for me." He wouldn't look at me.
"What? Nick I can't hear you."
"They are coming for me!" It was a sudden outburst that made my heart skip a beat. "Can't you see? I escaped piracy and went under the management of the India Trading Company. They are coming for me and nothing will stop them. They will get you too. I know it. You're too beautiful to just leave here. You can't be with me. I won't put you in that kind of danger. I want to be with you though. I want to always be with you. Ugh! Nothing will stop them. No, nothing will stop them, except me." His jaw clenched and he looked like he would hurt something. He stared opposite of himself at the black rock.
"Nick," I squeaked. I didn't know if what he said about me was true. His head dropped and he ran his long fingers through his brown hair. His hands trembled and I dared to stretch my fingers toward his face. I traced my fingers along his jaw and it unclenched and his fist loosened. It was red from the impact. He closed his pale eyelids as I brought my touch from his jaw to his neck and down to his open hand. It was warm from his anger. I traced circles and random shapes into his palm. He opened his eyes and tilted his head back onto the wall. I heard the distant sound of waves crashing from down the long winding cave that opens to the sea. I heard the familiar blow of a ship's horn in the night. I heard the sound of my own labored breath and his slow, recovering sighs. Then, there was silence.