Chapter 2
Now we will start at the beginning. Or rather, the beginning of the beginning of Luke's dream, which actually takes us to the actual beginning of this story, technically speaking, the middle of it. Good luck understanding that.
Where we dropped off from Chapter One, we hear a little bit about the past, which is actually supposed to be the beginning of Luke's pirate life. So it might have been slightly coincidental that Luke dreamt about his past again, the good and bad things.
We start off in the dream in his hometown, Kangaloops when he was eight years old.
Where Luke lived was very close to the sea, when swimming was very vital for life in case you ever fell in…
~Part I~
Luke Shan
"Luke, Luke, Luke!" A young boy of the same age ran down the beach towards him.
"Huh? What is it Desmond?" Luke asked him, accidentally knocking over the sandcastle that he was building a moment ago.
"They're selling free ice cream over there just for kids! Do you want to come get some with me?" Desmond Teeny laughed, sitting himself next to his best friend.
"Ok!" Luke said, temporarily abandoning his castle and running with his friend up to the ice cream shack.
The weather was hot, and even though the shack only had eight flavours, it was better than nothing. "What would you kids like today?" The ice cream man asked them when it was their turn in line.
"Chocolate please!" Desmond answered immediately.
"And what about you?" The ice cream man asked Luke.
"Vanilla please!" He told him. Desmond was already half done his.
"Thank you!" They both shouted, running back to the sand castle.
Desmond bit into the cone of the ice cream as they walked back to Luke's sandcastle. "Hey, what's that?"
"What's what?" Luke asked him, mouth full.
"That ship in that dark cove over there!"
"Cool!" They both cried, making their way towards it. Thin sand turned into rocks and seaweed as they approached the water's edge. Luke was glad that he was wearing shoes instead of going bare-footed.
"Let's go on!" Desmond suggested once they got tot he bottom of the ramp leading up to the ship.
Luke hesitated for a moment. "I'm not sure. Let's tell mommy first."
"Good idea." Said Desmond, running back to where both of their parents we're chatting to each other under an umbrella.
"Mommy, mommy, can we go on the ship?" Luke asked his parents first.
His mother looked over at the ship. "I don't think that it's an open attraction, dear."
"Oh please mommy!" Desmond piped in to his mother.
The two mothers looked at each other and then at their own children. "Sorry but no. It's for your own safely."
"Ok…" They muttered, disappointed.
"Let's go anyway!" Desmond said with determination. "Then we'll prove to our parents that it was harmless. We can always get out at the first sign of danger." He reasoned.
"Ok…" replied Luke, still a little bit uneasy about the whole idea. True, the ship was fascinating and he was tempted to go, but there was another side of him urging him not to.
Desmond and Luke waited until their mothers went back to talking before they sneaked their way back down to the ship ramp. Desmond stepped onto the ship first and gasped with excitement. "This place is awesome!" Luke would have disagreed and suggested that they go back because it looked dangerous, but that would have been a lie.
"Common," Desmond said. "Let's go check this out!"
They continued through the ship, exploring every room with an open door. The kitchen was probably the most fun, they actually had food just sitting around on the counter on the lower deck.
"This is the coolest attraction ever! It even looks like a real pirate ship!" Luke exclaimed as they stepped into a fairly big room. That room was actually the second-pirate-in-command's room on the starboard side of the ship.
Desmond smiled widely. "I told you this would be awesome."
"Yeah. This ship must be really rich or something 'cause this blanket sheet is really expen-"
"Shh…I think I hear someone coming! Get into that closet!" Desmond interrupted.
Luke was about to object when he heard the very faint footsteps himself. The two of them crammed into the closet and then shut the door.
The place had a faint smell of beer, and the clothes weren't completely clean. Luke and Desmond ducked underneath some anyway.
After ten minutes or more – Luke didn't have his watch with him and neither did Desmond – of beening locked in a crouch with their heart beating like a gong, Desmond slowly rose out from underneath the holey shirt that had been covering his head.
"I think its safe to go-"
The door of the closet swung open with a bang.
"I knew that some uninvited guests had boarded the ship!" A man with a trillion scares on his face snickered, reaching down to grab Desmond.
Desmond screamed and tried to avoid his grasp, but there wasn't any other place where he could run. "Help! Someone help!"
"No one is going to help you, kid." The pirate laughed, dragging him out
Luke stayed hidden as he contemplated on what he was going to do. As long as they didn't find him, then he could go off and get help.
After the pirate left the room, Luke literally ran like the wind back towards the ramp, in hope of not getting caught. The ship suddenly lurched, and Luke had to lean against the wall for balance.
"No!" He couldn't help but to say it out loud as he ran up the stairs to the deck. Please don't leave the beach, please don't leave the beach… He thought desperately.
Three of his worse fears at the moment came true all at once. The ship had just left the beach and he couldn't get help.
Also, a large group of pirates had just turned to stare at him.
"So, what's your names?" The head pirate asked both of them, as the other pirates gathered around them. They had tied Luke and Desmond's hands and feet together and sat them up against each other.
"L-L-Luke, sir!"
"And I suppose you have no last name." He snapped.
"Luke Tyson!"
"What about you?" He turned to Desmond, narrowing his eyes.
"Teeny! I…I mean, Desmond Teeny!" Desmond added when the captain set him with an annoyed look.
The captain smirked. "Oh really now, that's very…peculiar. And how did you boys get on my ship?"
"The-the cove! We saw your ship in the cove and was g-g-going to investigate!" Luke spoke up when Desmond didn't say anything.
The captain mocked rubbing his chin. "Interesting…now what do you suppose we should do with these two?" He said, turning to his crew.
"Make them do the dishes!"
"Make them lick the floor!"
"Make them walk the plank!"
"Kill them!"
"Throw them off!"
"Give them twenty bottles of beer to drink!"
The group hooted with laughter making the two ten year old boys shiver in fear.
"Hey! We need a cabin boy, why don't we make them cabin boys!" One of the crew shouted.
"Hmm," the captain mused. "That's a good idea…but we can only have one cabin boy, so the question right now is who is the more useful one?
The crew started screaming out random names.
"Luke!"
"Teeny!"
"Luke!"
"Tyson!"
"Desmond!"
The captain mused over this. "Hm, lets put together an ordeal, shall we? Whoever works the hardest this week will become the cabin boy."
"What about the person who loses?" Desmond whispered.
"What do you think will happen to him?"
"You…deliver him back home?"
That got a huge laugh out of the crew and captain.
"I'm not going to lose this to you!" Desmond announced to Luke, scrubbing the floor as hard as he could.
"Well me neither!" Luke shot back, scrubbing even harder.
Two hours later after finishing the top and bottom floors, Desmond and Luke sat on the opposite sides of the dinner table, glaring suspiciously at each other ignoring the pirates that mocked them. Eating as fast as they could, they knew that the only way that they could win their life was to get back to work as fast as possible.
"I bet that you can do it man." Someone said from behind him, putting a hand on Luke's shoulder as he started towards the toilets.
Another few pirates came over to Luke. "Yeah, totally. Go beat the life out of Desmond."
Meanwhile, another group of pirates approached Desmond. "Nice job man. Keep it up. We'd rather have you than your smelly friend be our cabin boy."
"Alright!" Desmond replied, then continued on with wiping the tables down but with more spirit.
The next time that they saw each other was in the captain's headquarters. "Go away! I took this spot already, Desmond!" Luke told him.
"So? I'm going to probably be cleaning up the mess that you make after you're done."
"Oh is that so?" Luke turned to him with rage in his eyes.
And for the next seven days, the best friends became greatest enemies.
Exhausted, Luke pushed open a door to one of the pirate's rooms, in hopes of cleaning the floor. To his surprise, the floor was already clean and polished.
"Hey, sorry dude, the other, like dude, came and cleaned up my floor already. Sorry dude…" One drunk pirate told him, swaying on his bed. "Why don't you like, check Oswald's room dude? It's the one on, like, the very end hidden by the door. No one ever sees."
Ten minutes later after cleaning up the throw up that that pirate had done, he made his way to this pirate "Oswald"s room.
"Hey, do you want your floor clean-" Luke looked down in embarrassment for the floor was also sparkly clean.
"Sure. I was expecting one of you to come in here sooner or later." Oswald said from the bed right next to the door. To Luke's surprise, Oswald was very clean and well groomed. Luke immediately started working on the floor, hopping to make a good impression on this pirate.
After a few minutes of cleaning, Oswald sighed. "You know what? I've seen both of you running around like dogs for the past week. Don't you think you need a break?"
Luke attempted a laugh. "Nah, its ok. They're going to choose the new cabin boy soon too. I haveta be the best that I can-whoa!"
"Sit." Oswald said, grabbing him by the shoulders. "Do you know how stupid you guys are acting? Honestly, think-"
"Hello! I'm here to clean your floors! Oh never mind." Panted Desmond as he charged through the door to the end of the room. As he started to turn away, Oswald got up and shut the door before he could.
"Hey! Open the door. I have to get back to working-Hey! What are you doing here?" Desmond growled, staring at Luke who was still sitting on Oswald's bed.
"I dunno," Luke said sarcastically. "Beating you maybe?"
"You know what?" Oswald interjected. "You guys are acting like a bunch of two year olds fighting for a toy. Think about what the situation is for once will you?!"
Desmond smirked. "Yeah, I know what the situation is: Luke here is being greedy."
"Ha! As if." He shot back, raising his voice. "You were the one that tried to push me off the railing when I passed the deck!"
"So? You found some poison and tried to poison my food! Thank goodness that one of the pirates on my side told me about it!"
"So? You were the one that-"
"Listen to yourselves!" Oswald yelled to get their attention. "One of you is obviously not going to make it as a cabin boy, and one is. So, no matter who makes it, do you want to leave each other knowing that you were enemies with the person?"
Luke and Desmond looked at each other. It was true. They had been too busy trying to win the tittle that they completely forgot about each other.
"Now apologize!" Oswald commanded.
"I'm sorry…" Luke apologized to Desmond, but still gritting his teeth.
"Yeah…me too..." Desmond muttered.
"Why don't you two go and hang out instead of cleaning for once?" Oswald suggested, taking the mop that was in Desmond's hand.
As soon as they had left Oswald be, Desmond looked at Luke and smiled. "You know, you sounded like a sissy girl, apologizing to me like that."
Luke cracked a smile that he hadn't worn in a long time. "Yeah, you too." He hit Desmond in the shoulder. "There. That is the male version of 'sorry'."
Desmond laughed and punched Luke in the arm. "Alright. You know what?" He added after a moment of silence. "I actually really need to get some sleep."
"Yeah…"
And with that they each went to their rooms, put their head on their pillow without changing back to different clothes, and instantly fell asleep.
