Chapter Ten: Her
"Jack, you scoundrel, you lost my daughters!" Ana Maria cried.
"I- I didn't mean to!" Jack replied. Ana bawled, hiding her face in her hands. Jack took her hand and led her to the main deck. "Hoist the sails!" Jack cried.
"Aye!" the crew answered, and they left their games and got to work. Before Jack and Ana entered the Captain's quarters, Jack peeked inside. Elizabeth and Will had left; therefore it was safe to go in.
"Jack!" Ana Maria sobbed uncontrollably. "They're gone!" She plopped in a chair and wept. Jack was put in a rather awkward situation. He sat down in a chair and tried to comfort her by patting her back. She slapped his hands away, and continued to cry.
"Fine!" Jack muttered, standing up and leaving Ana Maria in his room. He walked the deck, hoping that there might be a sign of the girls, but no luck. He had figured that they had stolen one of his longboats, since they were short one, but where were they now? "Gibbs!" Jack called. His first mate ran to his side once again. "Head to her," heordered.
"Her, sir?" Gibbs asked.
"Her…" Jack widened his eyes.
"Aye, her…" his first mate said.
"Get going!" Jack yelled. Frustrated and annoyed, Jack returned to his cabin. Ana Maria was sitting puffy-eyed and sobbing, though considerably less, on Jack's bed. "'Ello, love." Jack greeted, taking a seat at his desk and tracing routes on his map.
"Any sign of them?" Ana Maria asked.
"No, but I know they stole my longboat, doll, you'll have to punish them for that," he answered, not looking up from his maps. It soon fell late into night, and Ana Maria had fallen asleep. Jack tried to drown out the sound of her snores. Giving up, he went back above deck and waited for morning.
"Rise and shine, sleepy head!" Jack waltzed into the room, making sun filter into the cabin. Ana Maria groaned and turned over. "Ana banana!" Jack called, whipping the sheets off of the female pirate and shaking her awake.
"Go away!" she protested slapping his fingers away.
"Come on, we're going to arrive at her place in a little bit," he said.
"Who?" Ana asked, squinting into the daylight.
"Her," Jack said. Ana's mouth formed a confused 'o' and she got out of bed, flattening her clothes and putting her hat on. The Black Pearl and The Sapphire split the blue ocean and left a trail of white behind them as they caught the warm winds that carried them to their destination. Jack, who was checking his maps, looked behind him and rolled his eyes at the ship. Its sails were bright blue and the jolly roger presented a skull and heart cross bone. Jack and Ana's crew prepared to anchor, orders being bellowed and pirates scurrying across the deck. When they arrived, the men got into the long boats and started to row to her house. Ana led one boat, and Jack led the other, and together they led both crews through a river. With every yard they traveled, the trees got thicker and thicker, until they reached a small wooden shack deep within the mass of trees. Jack and Ana Maria knocked on the door and waited.
"Hold on there!" Came a voice. A woman with a mass of black hair and black-stained teeth opened the door to greet them. "Ahh, Jack!" Tia Dalma placed her hands on the pirate's shoulders. She had a thick Caribbean accent that seemed to flow out of her mouth. "And who's this? Mrs. Sparrow?" she said slyly.
"I'm Ana Maria," the pirate wench corrected.
"Jack, you sly dog," Tia teased. She winked at Jack. "Come in, you two." She led them into her shack, offering them a seat. "Would you like some drinks?" she asked. Before they could answer, Tia left them. Ana and Jack anxiously sat in the cluttered room.
"You didn't tell me that you were bringing us to a witch doctor!" Ana exclaimed.
"What?" Jack said defensively. Tia Dalma returned, carrying two filthy mugs of ale.
"What have you been up to, Jack?" Tia asked, propping her head on her fist.
"Nothing special, really," he said, taking a large gulp from his mug and then swishing it around. Tia glanced at Ana Maria.
"And… how do you know Jack?" she asked. Ana smiled sourly at Tia.
"We've had the unfortunate likelihood of bumping into each other every now and then," she replied. Jack couldn't sense the rising tension. He took another swig from the filthy mug.
"Tia, let's cut to the chase," he said. "We're here because her," he pointed an accusing finger at Ana, "marauding daughters have run away and now she wants them back." He leaned back in his chair, avoiding the death glare coming from Ana.
"We're here," Ana said, "because we want our daughters to be found. They could be anywhere in the seven seas." Tia smirked.
"So it is Mrs. Sparrow?" she said. Ana glared. "Any who, if you want to know where your mini strumpets are then follow me." Jack got up, taking Ana's hand and following Tia into another room. She had so many things that hung from the ceiling and were scattered on the floor that they had to dodge her numerous possessions. "It's here somewhere," she muttered, rummaging through a box.
"Er- Tia, do you plan to perform your 'voodoo magic' for us, because we already know it won't work," Ana insulted.
"What?" Tia asked, turning around and placing her hands on her hips. "Are you calling me a liar?" Her lips were pursed together, making a straight line. Ana laughed.
"No, I'm just saying that magic isn't real," she said.
"Then how did you expect them pirates to become cursed, eh?" Tia argued. Jack was examining some of her treasures, and wasn't listening to their argument at all. Ana Maria was speechless. "How did you expect Davy Jones to live under the spell of the sea?" Tia was advancing on Ana like a cat stalking its prey. "And how, pray tell Mrs. Sparrow, did Jack get himself to escape the clutches of Davy Jones?" she finished in a deadly whisper. Ana Maria was speechless, standing between the wall and Tia. Jack stood next to Ana, carelessly tossing away Tia's worthless junk. "Aye, you wench," Tia finished. Ana glared at her and tugged on Jack's sleeve.
"Oh, did you find it?" he asked nonchalantly.
"I did." Tia nodded at Jack and went back to her box, taking out a bag of dusty, cracked marbles. She sat at a table and shook the bag, closing her eyes and saying, "Semita ut fatum est instituo hodie." Tia spilled the contents over the table, and one particularly large marble rolled over to a map and set itself in the middle of the ocean. "Your daughters are out sailing." Ana's mouth dropped open. "You have faith in me now, then, miss?" Tia asked. Ana Maria nodded her head. Tia then pointed to a word in bold print on the map. Hope and Mae were sailing somewhere in the Caribbean Sea, close to a port Jack and Ana Maria knew very well.