Chapter 9

When Gibbs meant crew, I thought big burly pirates. What he gathered was completely the opposite.

"Feast your eyes, captain. All of them, faithful hands before the mast, every man worth his salt. And is crazy to the boot."

They where crazy alright, one of them was smaller than me! He was so tiny... he looked like a toddler.

"So this is your able-bodied crew?" Will seemed surprised. He kept glancing at the midget.

"You! Sailor!"

"Cotton, sir" provided Gibbs.

"Mr. Cotton, do you have the courage and fortitude to follow orders and stay true in the face of danger and almost certain death?" Dad didn't stop for air at all in that sentence. "Mr. Cotton! Answer man!"

"He's a mute, sir. Poor devil had his tongue cut out, so he trained the parrot" he gestured towards a beautiful bird on Cotton's shoulder. "to talk for him. No one's yet figured out how."

"Who's with the girls hair? Whose with the girl's hair?" the parrot said, looking directly at Will.

"Told ya..." I whispered to him.

"Mr. Cotton's... parrot. Same question"

"Wind in the sails! Wind in the sails!" squawked the sea blue bird.

"Mostly we figure that means 'yes'" added Gibbs, just to clarify the information.

"Of course it does." Dad looked at Will and changed his tone. "Satisfied?"

"Well you've proved they're mad" whistled Will, looking at all the pirates again, one by one.

"And what's the benefit for us?" said a high pitched voice.

Dad walked slow and deliberate towards the voice, stopping in front of a pirate in a floppy hat. He lifted the hat, revealing a dark woman, with glistening black hair and a proud face. "Anamaria"

SLAP!

I was having a hilarious day. Dad has been slapped four times so far, and every time he closed his eyes sighing and saying whether he deserved it or not.

"I suppose you didn't deserve that one either" grumbled Will.

"Wrong pony tail. He definitely deserved that one." I replied, suppressing a smile. "Definitely."

"You stole my boat!" yelled Anamaria.

"Actually" SLAP! 5 times. "borrowed. Borrowed without permission. But with every intention of bringing it back to you." Yep, she was the previous owner of that that tiny boat at the beginning of the story. The one that could only fit a two man crew? Ah, you DO remember!

"But you didn't!" I was wondering if she'd slap him again, but she didn't.

"You'll get another one!" smiled dad.

Anamaria pointed her finger at him. "I WILL"

"A better one" added Will"

"A better one" mimicked dad"

"That one" Will pointed to the Interceptor.

"What one? That one? Aye, that one. What say you?" dad sounded worried at first, but then he remembered he had an audience with fellow pirates.

"Aye!" shouted the crew, and I swear I heard another female voice that didn't belong to Anamaria...

"No, no, no, no, no, it's frightful bad luck to bring a woman on board, sir" Gibbs started.

"It'd be far worse not to have her. Plus you didn't object to my daughter" dad had nailed Gibbs, who just shrugged and walked onto the Interceptor.

Not long after we'd set sail, the heavens had opened, and a huge storm was brewing. While dad wasn't looking, I barked orders to the crew. "Get to the decks you dogs! Look-out Cotton! Sails up!" and people listened. I looked in the captains quarters, dad had banished me there as he'd caught me shouting orders, and found some books neatly arranged on mahogany shelves to the right. After all, this was the commodore's ship. A desk with a quill still in the ink pot on top was in the middle, at the back of the room. Either side where means of storage, and a box of pirate clothes, which I had no clue why it was there. Gibbs popped in a little later grinning. "Were catching up Miss" he smiled.