They Grow So Fast...
"Boom! Schhhschhlllschhh... Help, man overboard, man overboard!" Jack Teage pushed one of his toy boats into the other. He was sitting on the pavement outside a bar in Tortuga; his father had told him to wait right here, play with your toys like a good boy, and don't come inside, and don't leave this spot! While he went to his 'business meeting'. "Bam, bam, bam..."
"I like your boat." A boy said to him. He looked upwards, and saw a boy who looked quite a few years older then him looking down at his toys.
"I know," Jack said, "Everyone likes my boat. This one was made by a carpenter in Switzerland, one of the best carpenters in the world, and my dad brought it back for me, did you know that once during a sea-battle I-?"
A teenage Hector Barbossa leaned down and picked the toy boat up, inspecting it. The other one was a crappy one which looked like it had been made by a child. In fact, Hector suspected Jack had made it. Since when was a wooden box with 'SHUP' written on the side in wonky letters a ship?
"Can I have it?" Hector asked.
"No!" Jack said crossly, "It's my favourite!"
"How about your other one?"
"That's my second favourite!" Jack stuck his chin out. Hector looked down at the ship he was carrying, and then turned and ran off through the crowded streets. Jack blinked for a moment, before scrambling to his feet, and chasing after him through the busy city, dodging around carts and wenches and beggars, running after the boy.
"You come back here!" He shouted, "That's my ship!"
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"Umm..." Elizabeth put her finger on her chin as she thought. It was her turn to choose the game that they played, and Cutler Beckett and James Norrington were not looking forwards to it. "Let's play with the dolls house!"
"Oh no..." Cutler said, but the maid smiled at them.
"Okay! I'll set it all up for you," She trotted off to the corner, to bring the old dolls house out into the middle of the room.
"But I don't want to play with it, and – why does it have a big hole in the roof?" James said, pointing at said hole. Elizabeth suddenly glowered at Cutler, who looked as innocent as he could.
"Oh, I don't know – some idiot must have stepped on it!" She replied fiercely. Soon the house was set up, and she trotted up to it keenly, with James and Cutler exchanging horrified looks behind her. "Okay, I'll be the daughters, and the daddy, James you can be the son and the stable boy, and Cutler, you be the servants and the mummy."
"The... mummy?" Cutler asked, as Elizabeth held up the doll. "Why don't you be her?"
"No!" Elizabeth went pink and forced the doll into Cutler's hands, "You be the mummy!" I think you could work out a lot of physcology from watching these children play in the dolls house.
"Okay... well mummy's doing her hair." Cutler said, shoving her onto a dressing table. Then he picked up the waiter. "And the waiter – oops!" He said, throwing the waiter across the room. Elizabeth frowned.
"I didn't know waiters did that..." James Norrington watched the waiter bounce off of the wall, and roll across the floor.
"Our waiter had a heart attack and had to go away." Cutler said.
"Okay..." Elizabeth said, shooting him a frowny look. "Well daddy is tucking in his daughter, goodnight daughter, kissy kiss." She said, making the daddy doll pull the sheets up over the little girl, "And goodnight son," She made him do the same thing.
"But fathers don't do that..." Cutler said. "This is what happens," He picked up a maid doll which he was using as nanny, and then made her open the door. "Time for your nightly cod-liver oil!" He made her say in a raspy voice.
"Ugh!" Elizabeth said, "I hate cod-liver oil!" On this, all three could agree. James was beginning to feel a little bit left out, but he wasn't sure what to do. He put the stable boy in the stable, picked up the son, and made him jump up and down on the bed.
"Bad boy!" Cutler made the nanny say, and then she pushed the son out of the window. James laughed.
"Nannies don't do that!" Elizabeth said crossly.
"How would you know?" Cutler said spookily, "You've never had one! Nannies are the worst people in the world... They force cod-liver oil into you until you're sick, and scrub you so hard your skin goes red... And-"
"Shut up!" Elizabeth glared at him. "I might have a nanny soon!"
"Then you had better watch out, Elizabeth..." Cutler said, making the nanny doll float through the air towards her like a ghost. "Whoo! Whoo!"
"Stop being stupid!" Elizabeth snatched the doll off of him and put her in the kitchen, cooking. "You have to play properly!" She moved the daddy doll across the hallway into the main bedroom, where the mummy doll was still applying make up. "Hello dear, time for bed." She made him say in a deep voice.
"Don't interrupt me!" Cutler made the mummy doll say in a scolding tone, "And if it's time for bed, go to your room!"
"This is my room!" Elizabeth made the daddy doll say, trying not to make him sound too cross.
"So then where's my room?" Cutler made the mummy doll ask.
"Here! Cutler, mummies and daddies sleep in the same room!" Elizabeth hissed at him.
"Mine don't!" Cutler protested.
"Mine do..." James said, who was quite mild-mannered as a child, and had been overrun by the loud, bossy voices of Elizabeth and Cutler.
"Well, once I saw mother sleeping here," Cutler said, moving her into the stable. "Like this..." He pushed the stable boy on top of her.
"Why was she sleeping underneath the stable boy?" Asked Elizabeth.
"I don't know..." Cutler shrugged. James was giving an odd look to Cutler, with the slight feeling that he understood why. But some children could be extremely short-sighted, especially when it came to infidelity.
"Well... anyway," Elizabeth said hastily, trying to move the game on, "Then the girl gets up in the night for a drink of water..."
"And the nanny is waiting!" Cutler pushed her up through the stairs. "What are you doing out of bed?" He made her say, "This calls for punishment!" Then he grabbed the daughter doll and shoved her head into the toilet.
"...Uh?!" Elizabeth glared at Cutler. "Stop being stupid!" She hissed. "Oh, what's the point, you only ruin the game anyway," She said tartly, snapping the dolls house shut.
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"Do you want a flower?" James asked Elizabeth shyly.
"No." She replied. James cocked his head.
"Okay!" He said, throwing the flower over his shoulder. "Let's go play hide and seek!" They both ran off together. That is what young love is like...
NB: East Coastie liked the idea of Jack and Barbossa meeting... so here it is. The dolls house sequence was a lot longer then I'd planned it... but oh well. You know what? I might just carry on making these when I have time to spare. It's sort of fun. Toodle pip.