Chapter 13: Dire Straights

She showed me a seat at the lone table beside the window that was decorated with a few unmarked bottles. The smell of alcohol filled my nose as she poured some of the dark amber liquid into two tin cups and slid one in my direction. We both picked them up simultaneously, as if proving neither had poisoned the other's glass. We brought them to our lips, but then we paused. She was the first to bring her's forward. I grinned genuine; a rarity.

"Take all you can," she said.

"Give nothing back?" I finished.

We slammed the rum back, then refilled.

"You're truly the only woman for me," I told her, swirling my drink and inhaling that stinging aroma. Maybe it was really the rum that'd preserved us. Light came in through the window and I looked over the rim of my sunglasses to see her better. "It's a miracle you've kept that face so pretty after so many battles."

She cocked an eyebrow. "I could say the same to you." She gestured to her own cheek, indicating the cut on mine. I'd forgotten about it.

She just laughed at me. Her bronze skin seemed like gold in the sun. It didn't matter how many centuries passed, her laugh always sounded like a girls. Fuck, she was the only person in the world I could even feel sentimental about.

"At least you're hair's getting long again," she said.

The last time I'd seen her was 1935, Florida. Prison break. That was the shortest I'd ever had it, slicked back with palmade under a fedora. Amazing. Seventy years apart and she was still more familiar feeling than a cell phone or a TV set. We just sat in silence for a while, trying to let the other's presence sink in, I suppose. As we sat, her smile slowly faded and her eyes fell from mine to her drink.

"We've always been there for each other in dire straights, huh?" she finally said.

I thought about this. "I'm not exactly at Death's door."

"No," she replied, glancing up for a moment. "But something is wrong."

I just stared at her, letting my features harden.

"So you know it too," she said almost to herself, taking a sip. "I stole it to get you out, get you away, grab your attention."

"Get me away from what?"

Our eyes met again.

"Sheldon Jeffery Sands."

I narrowed mine.

"You've always been the outlaw who somehow managed to be a good man. I came to North America to find him, so how is it that what I've found is a sheriff, not a pirate before me, who seems to have lost part of his soul?"

I ground my teeth.

"I've watched you for a while. Why are you working for the government?" she asked.

I let the silence settle again while I sat and studied her again, this time through my glasses. I took a deep drought of my rum.

"I joined because, it seems to me, the only people who are going to get away with anything in the future is going to be the governments, the governments and the large corporations who have them by the balls." I turned and looked out the window, for the first time in years I didn't care that everything I was feeling might be showing on my face. "Do you remember, Anamaria, what it felt like to stand on deck after a battle and know that you've won?"

She didn't reply.

"I can't. I remember standing there, the Pearl under my boots, the men cheering… but I can't FEEL it anymore."

"It wasn't the battles, Jack. I can remember standing on deck too. The water pink with foaming blood. You ever remember seeing a hand tossed in that gore? A hand with not a body, but wearing your friend's rings? It wasn't the battles."

She was right of course, but then what was it? And where had it gone?

"I need to get out. That's why I retrieved the compass from my safety deposit box in the first place, so it could point the way. That is until it went missing…. Do you know what a huge pain in my ass you've been in the last few weeks?"

She smiled, as if satisfied with her work. "Had to get you away from that world. Thought maybe you'd start thinkin' straight again. You have to quit the Company. You're going to get yourself killed."

I lifted my eyebrows at her. "Why? When I can use it? It's a means to an end now. With the compass I can find what I need to make a clean get away."

"You rely on it too much. It leads to what you want, not what you need. What is it you're after anyway?"

"In this case I'll let what I want get me what I need." I let the voice from my first life slip in, "Silver and gold, lass. Silver and gold. That's what I want. As for what I need…."

I put my boots up on the table and looked out the window again. "I intend to return to the ocean."

.

She could tell I was tired. I yawned as I sat there, feet up, chair tilted back.

"Why don't you take those ridiculous sunglasses off and take a nap while dispose of the body you've left on my doorstep?"

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Next time on WTF Sands is Jack Sparrow (which I don't own): The Battle of the Alamo

(PS I don't own Anamaria either)