Chapter ten
"We're devils, we're black sheep,
we're really bad eggs.
Drink up, me hearties, yo ho.
Yo ho, yo ho, A pirates life for me!" the three of us sang as we danced around the bonfire.
"I love this song!" I declared. "Really bad eggs."
I spun Jack around, giggling uncontrollably, my rum long gone, and he fell, pulling Elizabeth and I down with him.
"When I get the Pearl back," he said into Miss Swann's laughing face, "I'm gonna teach it to the whole crew. And we'll sing it all the time!"
"And you will be positively the most fearsome pirates in the Spanish Main," she staked her claim.
Jack turned to me and smiled. "Not just the Spanish Main, love," he contradicted.
"The entire ocean. The entire world." I swept my hand out to the horizon. "Wherever we'll want to go, we'll go."
"Oh?"
"That's what a ship is, you know," he told us, his words slurring, "It's not just a keel and a haul and a deck and sails. That's what a ships needs. But what a ship is, what the Black Pearl really is…"
"Libertate," I slur, "Freedom." He squints at me but remains jolly. "Jack," I sighed laying my head on his shoulder, "it must be really terrible for you to be trapped on this island."
He looked at me a bit strangely but put his arm around me. "Oh, yes. But the company is infinitely better than last time, I think." He leans down to me and brushes his lips on my nose.
Elizabeth shoots us a dirty glare, but I ignore it. I'm not sure Jack saw it at all.
"The scenery has definitely improved," he murmured.
"Has it?" I ask.
"Most definitely." He stares in to my eyes and I can't spot a single cloud of deceit in them.
Just as our lips brush, Elizabeth and her pompous self barges in with a "Mr. Sparrow?"
"Hmm?" he hummed in question, looking over his shoulder to her.
"I'm not entirely sure I've had enough rum to allow that kind of talk."
"Then leave," I snap.
Jack taps my nose with his pointer finger, "Now, now, my little Gypsy Lu, there's no reason to bite heads off."
"But Jackie, I haven't seen you in ten years," I whined. "It's been a terribly long ten years. The least she could do is allow me one little sărut."
"I know exactly what you mean, love." He curled his moustache up in a goofy fashion, before leaning in to kiss me again.
Of course Elizabeth had other plans. She pushed her bottle between us. "To freedom."
"To the Black Pearl." Jack clanked his bottle to hers. Bringing the bottle to his lips, he gulped the rest of it down, falling on to his back.
Ignoring my mistress's look of intrigue, I laid down beside him and snuggled close, looking up to the near full moon.
"A faithful woman wronged by her gentle lover;
A man forever doomed to chase another.
From daylights first awakening breath,
To the transitioning night of the next,
He'll be waiting for you, eternally yours,
The daughter of the moon that travels the shores."
Jack turned to look at me. "Didn't you tell me you'd never tell me?"
I pause in my reciting just long enough to shush him.
"From dusk until dawn, an unfaithful man,
Until she faces her death in the sand.
Beauty untouched by any mortals
Is found upon an island of turtles.
There she meets her one true love
With a kiss as gentle as a dove.
But if his thoughts are then untrue,
There is nothing a gypsy's magic can do.
The curse will remain unbroken as so,
As it was placed so forever ago.
Romani words spoken so rash,
To a woman thought of merely as trash."
"'Tis beautiful, darling."
"Only until you hear the story," I enlighten him.
"Do tell, dearie."
"It's about a Romani woman named Sara whose lover died. She finds refuge in another gypsy's husband. They eventually become lovers as well. One day, the gypsy finds her husband with Sara. She's infuriated and places a curse on the woman, but not before she kills her husband in front of Sara. The curse is this; Sara, and her eldest daughter (should she have many) and her eldest daughter's eldest daughter, and so on and so forth, shall forever be forced to fall in love with any man they think attractive, only to have him be unfaithful and hurt her in her weakest moment.
"The poem tells of a way to break the curse. A faithful woman wronged by her gentle lover;/ A man forever doomed to chase another. I don't need to define that. It's self-explanatory. From daylights first awakening breath,/To the transitioning night of the next,/He'll be waiting for you, eternally yours;/The daughter of the moon that travels the shores. For two days, her lover will wait for her; the vagrant child of the moon.
"From dusk until dawn, an unfaithful man,/Until she faces her death in the sands. The second night he'll spend in another woman's arms, save for when he witnesses her near murder on the beach. Beauty untouched by any mortals/Is found upon an island of turtles. I suppose, this could either mean the island of turtles itself or the woman is otherworldly beautiful." I shrug, but carry on.
"There she meets her one true love/With a kiss as gentle as a dove./But if his thoughts are then untrue,/There is nothing a gypsy's magic can do./The curse will remain unbroken as so,/As it was placed so forever ago. With a gentle kiss and a pure, unselfish thought, the curse will be lifted."
I look over to see Jack sleeping and I follow soon, after shutting my eyes, but not before I placed a kiss on his smiling lips.
"Take me back."
My father looked up from his newly claimed quarters and frowned.
"What?"
"Take me back to Tortuga!" I snapped again.
He looked my disheveled appearance over once, twice, three times before his gaze finally landed on my reddened, tear-stained face.
"Why?"
"Because I can't live on the same ship as a bunch of mutineers," I sneered. You'd have to be deaf to not here the worry and pain evident in my voice.
"No." He turned back to his charts and ignored me.
"Either take me back now, or I will jump and swim my way back."
He took in my appearance again, this time staring into my eyes. I don't know what he expected to find there other than shock, disappointment, worry, anger…
"You love him." He said it with such conviction, I was sure that he'd already known. For a while, at least.
I turned away from his penetrating leer and looked to the floor. "No. Never. I know my place."
"You do." He sighed heavily. "Why have I never seen it before? He's much too old for you Luna! He would hurt you."
I glared at him with as much strength as I could muster. "He's hardly six years my senior! And he wouldn't have hurt me anymore the curse would have caused him! But now… now I'll never see him again."
He growled and threw an empty bottle. It smashed near my head.
"Take me to Tortuga."
"As you wish."
I woke in Jack's arms and to the smell of burning alcohol, interestingly enough. And to make matters worse, I had a raging headache, the main symptom of a massive hangover.
Wait, burning alcohol? The rum!
I sit up and shake Jack awake. "Jack, come on! Get up!"
I look over to where the smell originated. Elizabeth was burning half the island!
"No! Not good!" I screamed as I scrambled up. "Stop! Not good!" I waved my arms trying to get Elizabeth's attention. "You burned all the food, the shade! The rum!"
"Yes, the rum is gone," Miss Swann stated, lackadaisically.
"Why is the rum gone?"
"One," she snapped turning to me, "because it is a vile drink that turns even the most respectable men and women into complete scoundrels. Two, that signal is over a thousand feet high. I have the entire Royal Navy looking for me. Do you really think there is even the slightest chance they won't see it?"
"But why is the rum gone?" Jack asked as he joined me.
She turned and sat down in the sand. "Just wait, Estrella, Captain Sparrow. Give it one hour maybe two, keep a weathered eye out and then you will see white sails on that horizon."
"For the last time, dragoste, my name isn't Estrella," I shrieked. "It's Luna!"
I stormed off to the lonelier, less burnt part of the island.
"'Must've been terrible for you to be trapped here, Jack,'" Jack mocked in a high pitched voice as he followed me, "'Must've been terrible for you-' Well, it bloody is now!"
"Glad you think so! I was worried you having a grand old time!"
I went into the jungle, not bothering to see if Jack followed. He never did. It wasn't until I saw white sails retreating to the horizon, did I realize that they left me on the island alone.
A/n: so how did you like the poem? I swear to you I spent more time on that poem than I did on this entire story.
I don't know about you but I hate er rather loathe when my fork has a metallic taste to it. The only Romanian words today are dragoste meaning love as in the feeling not the pet name, and sărut meaning kiss.
Untill Saturday,
Lyra Raine Sparrow