11. Questions and Teachings: The Time I Reflect On
Disclaimer: I do not own POTC or anything involved with it except my own characters. I do not own historical figures either…wink. This chapter is a reflection because DMC happens at this point in the story and my character has some interwoven parts and this chapter is her reflecting on that time.
I awake with a sharp pain in my lower back and on the back of my head. My vision is blurry and I rub my eyes to get a better view at the scene before me. Everything begins to show clearly—I look around me: no Will. No Elizabeth, and most importantly, no Jack. I notice that I am no longer aboard the Black Pearl! Regaining my strength, I immediately stand up.
I run around the deck of the ship screaming.
"Where am I?! Where's Jack?! Where the fuck am I? Where the hell is Elizabeth?! Will?!" Suddenly from below deck emerges a familiar face.
"Dearest Lindsey, your friends have gone their separate ways," Norrington says.
"Where is Jack? What did you do with him? Where is Will? Where is Elizabeth?" I demand.
"Elizabeth and Will have been taken back to Port Royal by the Governor. You are here with my crew and myself, and as for your beloved Jack—he had fled with his crew on the Black Pearl and is now anywhere in the Caribbean,"
"I demand you take me to the Pearl!" I exclaim.
"Oh we are going to find the Pearl—but you won't be going with us," Norrington explains as he points off in the distance to a far-off island.
"You're not going to maroon me are you?" I ask, suddenly my breath taken from me.
"No. Not maroon. That island there is the pirate port of New Providence. Normally, I would maroon someone of your type, but I am not a pirate myself, and since we cannot have you aboard this ship while we hunt down Jack Sparrow—as you will only ruin our plans for capture—we must leave you behind as well," Norrington explains arrogantly.
"Why didn't you let me go with Will and Elizabeth?" I ask angrily.
"They have troubles of their own to deal with," he replies.
"Like what?! The gallows?!" I ask hurriedly.
"No—not yet at least. Their marriage, actually," he explains slowly, "is apparently illegitimate and they must be remarried,"
"What?! Am I dreaming? What the fuck is going on?!" I exclaim, almost to the point of tears. What was he talking about? They were married! They had been married the whole time I had known them, which had to have been almost a year by now; and Jack. Why would he let me be taken by Norrington? What happened that night?
A Reflection of the Time Between…
Norrington wouldn't answer any of my questions. He was too eager to get me off his ship so he could pursue Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl. Within no time, I was shoved off of Norrington's ship and left on a polluted beach in New Providence, the Bahamas. I stood on the beach watching as his ship sailed off into the afternoon sun after Jack Sparrow. What was I going to do in the pirate capital of the Caribbean? I really didn't know much about pirating except for what I learned during my time in the Caribbean with Jack and on the Pearl. I prayed at that moment that Jack would be spared the wrath of Norrington and his men, and in that same moment, I decided that it was time for me to move on with my life. While I was still eager and determined to find Jack, I needed to put it in the back of my mind and focus on my current situation. I walked from the beach into the poverty stricken town, amongst the whores, thieves, pirates, hagglers, drunks and captains.
I walked and walked down the streets, repeating my journey numerous times over, just thinking. My feet ached from the cobblestone roads, my clothes were basically rags, ripped and torn from time at sea and from whatever trauma I had suffered between my time on the Pearl to when I got onto Norrington's ship. I could feel that my hair was a knotted mess and that my face was dry from too much exposure to salt water. I completed one more round about the town until I finally collapsed outside of a local tavern.
When I awoke next, I was laying in hard bed in a candlelit room. It was dark outside and there was loud banter below. I must have been above a tavern. My clothes were on the floor and I was naked.
"Ah yer awake!" The man entering the room exclaimed, his erection completely obvious. I sat up and quickly jumped off the bed.
"Sir, forgive me, but I am no whore!" I pleaded, as I gathered my clothes and attempted to put them on while I moved closer to a doorway.
"Any woman here in New Providence as pretty as ye is a whore!" The man exclaimed, moving closer to me and grabbing my arm. I ripped my arm out of his grip and ran towards the stairs outside the room. The man was too quick and grabbed me around the waist and hurled me onto the bed. I scream as loud as I could and kicked him as he tried to climb on top of me.
"Lass! Yer a feisty little bitch!" He hollered with pleasure.
"No! Please!" I screamed and I finally kicked in just the right place. The man doubled over in pain and I managed to jump up and run down the stairs to the tavern below. As I reached the bottom step, a brawl was going between two women with swords—one with dark Spanish skin and the other with red wild hair and bottles were flying everywhere. I paused on this last step and then finally looked behind me up the stairs and saw the man coming down quickly. I screamed a loud as I could and ran into the crowd. One of the women fighting, the darker Spanish looking woman, heard my scream and looked up. This was her fatal mistake. The woman with the red wild hair plunged her sword into the other woman's chest, killing her.
"Who is screaming like a child?!" The red haired woman exclaimed fiercely turning around and seeing me screaming and running through the tavern. Suddenly, a bottle went flying through the air and hit me right in the head, knocking me to the ground into completely and utter blackness.
When I awoke again for the third time, I was in a bed again, this time I soft bed covered in white linen. I was wearing clothes. I sat up and looked around me and could smell the ocean breeze from outside the window.
"You're awake!"
I turn towards the voice I heard in the tavern. It was the woman with the red hair. She was beautiful—tall, emerald green eyes, busty and strong. She stood in the doorway and then walked over to me.
"Thank you," I manage to speak to her.
"Well it was the least I could do—you were ruining the tavern atmosphere!" she exclaimed with a hearty laugh. I just smiled and blushed from embarrassment. I was no pirate. What was I doing here?
"Got a name, lass?" she asked.
"Lindsey," I replied, "what's yours?"
"Anne. Anne Bonney," she replied. "You must be new to New Providence,"
"Yeah, I was kinda left here—stranded here, if you will," I replied, feeling more calm, knowing that I was in the presence of the most notorious female pirate in history! I couldn't believe my luck! I had stumbled upon the legendary Anne Bonney! I wanted to ask her so many questions about Calico Jack and Blackbeard and Mary Read—but none of that had happened in her life yet. I had almost forgotten that I was from the future!
"What happened?" She asked.
"Do you know James Norrington?" I asked her. She shook her head 'no'. "Well, I was on Captain Jack Sparrow's ship with two other friends of mine and Norrington abducted me—I really don't know. I do know that everything went black and I woke up on his ship and he stranded me here," I said finally, really trying to recall all that I had lived through, so much of it lost and hidden in my unconscious.
"Well I can't let you live in New Providence like a frightened mouse!" Anne exclaimed, "I'll teach you all you need to know on how to survive in this scoundrel-infested world so you will have no more blackouts unless it's rum-caused!" She laugh infectiously again and I joined her, fully agreeing with her.
From that moment on, for the next two months on New Providence, Anne Bonney taught and trained me to be tough and strong like her. She taught me to captivate the eyes of men, to walk with confidence, to ride fearlessly into the ocean on ponies, to wield a rapier sword and a cutlass for fighting, to hold my liquor, and most of all, to obtain whatever I wanted and was determined to get—no matter what stood in my path.
I w as eternally thankful for Anne and all of her friends in New Providence to dedicated their time to helping me become the kind of strong and confident woman I'd always wanted to be—not to mention that Anne herself was only at the mere age of seventeen—I was older than her, but in her debt eternally.
My time in New Providence was really only about two months, but it seemed like an eternity. It was in those two months that I truly seized the day and live life as fearlessly as I could. I hadn't forgotten about Jack—each night I would pray that Norrington let him get away—but Jack was really a forgotten thought until one day a familiar face came into my life once again.
I had been walking through the town, heading to one of Anne's friend's café for some coffee gossip when I heard a familiar voice asking about Jack Sparrow. I turned around immediately and saw Will Turner—tired and determined.
"WILL!" I screamed and ran over to him.
"Lindsey! My God! How did you end up here?!" He asked as he embraced me.
"Norrington stranded me here to go in search of Jack!" I exclaimed.
"My God, look at you—how you've changed. So beautiful!" He smiled at me and hugged me again, glad to see me.
"Where is Elizabeth?" I asked anxiously.
"She is in Port Royal…in jail," he replied solemnly.
"What happened?!" I shrieked.
"Well, our marriage the first time ended up being illegitimate for whatever reason, so we ended up back by force, in Port Royal to plan another wedding by the order of the King. Well, on our wedding day, Lord Beckett, head of the East India Trading Company, arrested Elizabeth and myself for assisting a pirate—Jack—out of hanging, to which our own punishment was hanging," Will replied in one breath.
"Holy shit," I replied, "you two never get a break! So she is in jail and going to die?!"
"No. She isn't going to hang. I made a bargain with Beckett to let us free if I get him Jack's compass," Will replied.
"Where is Jack?" I asked.
"I don't know. That's why I'm here—trying to find him," he said, his eyes darting the streets to Jack's face.
"He's not here. I would have known by now," I replied somberly.
"Damn!" Will stated firmly.
I immediately told him I would assist him on his quest, but he refused—assuming it too dangerous for me to join him. I pleaded with him but he would not let me come with him. He did promise me that if he found Jack, he would return to New Providence with Jack and the Pearl to get me. I made him promise and he swore it to me again. That was the last I saw of Will for quite some time.
That evening, I told Anne I needed to get to Tortuga. She asked me why, and I told her because Jack Sparrow was probably on Tortuga. She laughed at my persistence with Jack, and agreed nonetheless to take me there as soon as she could. She was going to Jamaica with Chidley Bayard anyways.
We arrived in Tortuga about a week and a half later. Anne and I saw our good-byes, knowing that at some point we would meet again. I thanked her for everything, and we went our separate ways. I walked through the familiar streets of Tortuga and went into a tavern and sat down, unafraid of no man in that tavern—not even the sketchy man in the corner with his white wig half torn off his head.
I was done with 3 mugs of rum when I suddenly heard a familiar voice…the voice I had been longing to hear for so long.
"Jack Sparrow!" I exclaimed, my new confident, sexy air surrounding me. I was no longer wearing my ripped up clothes, but more stylish clothing Anne and her friends had provided me with: corsets that pushed my boobs up and gave me cleavage, blouses to fit over the corsets, belts with buckles, skirts, boots, tight velvet trousers, coats etc. I was wearing a corset that night over a blouse with a pair of tight velvet trousers on. Jack looked around for the voice that called his name, but Gibbs saw me first.
"M'lady!" Gibbs exclaimed as we approached each other. Jack gasped when he saw me, nearly falling over. My hair was long and wild, much like Anne's, but not red—a darker brown.
"Gibbs! You two are here!" I exclaimed hugging him. "Jack, it's been a while," I say finally, my voice low.
"Pet, yer alive!" Jack exclaims, but not hugging me.
"Jack, have you seen Will?" I asked suddenly.
"Er…yes, why?" He asked.
"Because I was in New Providence—Norrington had stranded me there—and Will ended up there in search of you…is Will here?" I asked, looking around.
"No, Will isn't here. He left to find some things," Jack replied, avoiding my eyes.
"Well what are you doing here?" I asked.
"We're mustering up a crew," Gibbs said, walking over to his table.
"Ah, good luck with that. You can count me in!" I shouted with enthusiasm.
"Luv, yer so excited!" Jack pointed out.
That night, we were all reunited with Norrington—the poor man in the corner with his wig half off--and then Elizabeth, as we boarded the Pearl. Inside, I was hurt that Jack hadn't received me as I had hoped he would. I assumed I would just have to give him time to adjust.
Elizabeth was glad to see me, but I noticed she spent more time with Jack and than anyone else—including me. I figured she might have been working Jack for me like she was before, but it soon became apparent that there was some unresolved tension between them—sexual tension. I chose to ignore it, focusing my energy on other things, like practicing with my rapier or helping the crew. None of us knew where Will could be, and I kept thinking about how Elizabeth was betraying him with each glance she gave Jack.
Apparently Norrington's ship went through a hurricane and soon afterwards, after not catching Jack, stepped down from being Commodore and ended up a recluse in Tortuga. He was now aboard the ship and I was becoming friendlier with him now that he was off his high horse.
There was all this talk going on about Davy Jones and the Kraken—all these pirate things Anne had never told me about. I guess she herself had yet to learn them as well. Gibbs had told me that Davy Jones was after Jack and that Will's errand for Jack was to get the key of Davy Jones so Jack could open the chest of Davy Jones. Inside the chest was apparently Davy Jones's heart and whoever had the heart controlled the sea. I thought all this stuff was arbitrary, especially since I had my own mission to complete that was now interrupted by this mission! I didn't realize how important and true all of this was until we were reunited with Will on a random beach. Will and Elizabeth were reunited on this beach as well, but soon after the reunion, Jack, Norrington and Will all fought for the chest of Davy Jones, which was buried on that beach. To make this long drawn out story short, and to get us where I am currently in time, the fight went on for quite a while, Norrington escaped with the chest to ward off Davy Jones's sea creatures, Will, Elizabeth and Jack all ended up back on the Pearl to fight Davy Jones's Kraken.