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The sun was peeking through the great room window brightly upon this April morning, and there was not a happier soul in all of Western Ireland than Janie O'Madden. She was sitting at her sewing machine, as the sun warmed the room... it would be yet another perfect spring day, she thought to herself, as her booted feet rhythmically worked the treadle of the machine below. The needle whirred quickly, as if it was singing, and the bobbin of thread jerked merrily in time with each stitch that was being made. Janie huffed her curls out of her eyes and began humming...

"... Smilin', beguilin', cheerin' and dearin'...

Together up o'er th' mountains we strayed...

With each other delighted, and fondly united

I'd listened all day to my Dear Irish Boy..."

She paused, as the sun reached an angle that it now was warming her face... Janie closed her eyes and sighed deeply... her own Dear Irish Boy had blown in like a gale the evening before, bearing beautiful gifts of the Grand Bazaar in Constantinople... the great seaport was a fine place for Teague Shipping to ply its "honourable" trade, whilst one of it's captains and his crew were greatly talented in bartering goods, legal and illegal, and Janie was always relieved to hear that Jack, William and Joshamee had always escaped unscathed from any of their ports of call... Elizabeth had been especially anxious about this voyage, as young Wills Turner had been taken along to learn some of the family trade. Of course, Wills knew of the covert and proud piracy that his family engaged in, and Captain Teague had encouraged his son and his nephew, William to take the boy along... he insisted that Wills was becoming a landlubber, and he wanted him to learn to take care of himself upon the seas... it was in his blood, Teague had insisted, and so it was decided that Wills would make the journey with his father, his Cousin Jack and his adopted grandfather, Joshamee Gibbs.

It was at Janie's and Elizabeth's own insistence that Teague install Marconi wireless rooms upon the Sparrow's Revenge II... they had seen the device demonstrated by the Marconi Company officials in 1907, when the company built a huge electrical tower on the rocky shore of County Galway! Since it was on the western edge of all of Europe, the company chose this location in order to prove that the wireless radio signals could reach across the Atlantic Ocean, and communicate with another tower which was built in Nova Scotia. Janie and Elizabeth had been absolutely fascinated, and once they were able to study upon the device and its useful purpose of communicating with ships at sea, Teague finally was worn down by his daughter-in-law and the Pirate King (Retired), and he consented to installing the fairly new device upon his beloved son's ship.

Jack, of course, was fascinated by it. He did not understand the concept of a series of little electronic dots and dashes being used to compose messages and sent out over through the air like gulls, but definitely liked the thought of reaching his lassie back in Eire and telling her to stir up the cookfire - Jackie was on his way home!

In all frankness, it was the only thing about the Sparrow's Revenge II that he did like... there was nothing that he abhorred more than the steam driven, steel hulled, smoke belching behemoths that were called ships in this time of so-called progress, but his small craft was swift and well armed. He could not swim against the current of this kind without floundering, he thought, but he could certainly refuse to call any voyage upon a ship such as his "sailing"... "being pushed through th' water by a bloody propeller, aye, but NOT sailin'..." he would grump. The Marconi wireless radio was the only thing about the Sparrow's Revenge II that Jack cared about at all, and it was upon the Marconi that they had sent along the message to Elizabeth, who had become proficient with the battery operated machine, that they were coming home after being away for three weeks.

Nothing mattered to Janie upon this bright morning, except that it was a beautiful early hour, as she had risen from bed after a wonderful night in Jack's arms, and she was now making a brand new tablecloth out of beautiful green and gold fabric from the Turkish bazaar! She ran her fingers over the soft sheen that made the fabric shine like gold... gypsy fabric from an exotic place... it made her think of Maggie Sparrow, and it made her love this fabric all the more...

In Constantinople, Jack, William and Joshamee had happened upon a booth of Greek gypsies, and had made a veritable heyday in bargaining for many of their goods. They did not speak the same language, but it was not necessary. William, in his tenure as captain of the Flying Dutchman, had retained many unexplained talents for many purposes, and making himself understood in other languages with little verbalization was one of those talents... all that he had to do in order to bargain with the congenial gypsy merchants was drape an arm around his slight, dark cousin, smile handsomely, point to Jack and say, "... Roma.."

Of course, Jack knew, then, that he was being used as leverage of sorts, being introduced as a gypsy man by his sly young cousin, and he congenially grinned with those convincing gold teeth and a Greek fisherman's cap pulled down over his bandanna... by the use of such leverage, they came home with a hold full of breathtaking gifts for Elizabeth and Janie! Elizabeth now owned a wristful of solid gold bracelets and yardgoods for Janie to conjure into a dress for her with her magical Singer sewing machine (whose origins were also mysterious, but they were pirates, after all), and Janie was the proud wearer of a gypsy shawl in royal blue with deep, long fringe. Jack chose it with her bright blue eyes in mind...

Those bright blue eyes presently popped open in surprise, as a pair of dark hands draped themselves down over her shoulders, softly crossing themselves in front of her, and there was a whispered, "... Dia duit ar maidin, mo ghrá..." Janie giggled girlishly, as a mustache tickled her ear, followed by a soft kiss.

Turning to the smiling face of her Jackie, Janie reached up and stroked his cheek... "I wondered if ye'd be getting your bum out of bed once ye smelled the fresh coffee."

The same mustache now tickled her neck, and Janie could not help but laugh out loud, by now. "Twasn't th' hot coffee wot made me rise fer th' day, love..." came a husky voice in Irish Gaelic, "...'twas th' coldness of your side o' th' bed! Thought I'd come out and find me missing warm one!" He growled pleasantly into her auburn curls.

Janie nearly stuck herself with a straight pin, as she finally convinced those mischievous, mustached lips to kiss her own... ahhh, she thought, as she momentarily forgot about her sewing... life was good... life in 1912 was very good, indeed...

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"Dia duit ar maidin!" William called out, as he and a happy Elizabeth came down the stairs... Elizabeth had her arms tightly around William, and his own arm was holding her closely to him. "I smell the bread, Janie! Too much hardtack and not enough butter for this pirate, mates!"

Jack looked up as William walked by, jealously putting both of his hands around the crock of fresh butter that he had hoped William would not miss... William deftly reached out and snatched the crock away, only to have it snatched back... Elizabeth laughed out loud, as this had not changed in nearly two hundred years, and it never helped to have two crocks of butter... William and Jack would then fight over both of them!

"Take your places, everyone... I'm about finished up, here, "Janie said, as she sliced the last of the loaf... "Here, Izzy, put this jar of wild plum jam on the table... whist, such babies those two are! Stop fighting, you scamps!" Looking around at young Wills' place at the large kitchen table, Janie looked at Elizabeth in surprise and said, "Where's our Wills? He NEVER misses breakfast!"

Elizabeth poured coffee for everyone, as she chuckled, "Wills is still snug abed, and I didn't have the heart to wake him. Jack let him take the wheel of the Sparrow's Revenge II for nearly four hours prior to docking last night!"

William grinned proudly as he stated, around a fingerfull of butter, "Our boy did a fine job, too! I came up from the hold to find that Cousin Jack, here, had nipped off to his cabin to fetch himself a bottle of rum, and my son was the lone helmsman coming into Kilkearan Bay!"

"You WHAT??" Janie blurted out, "Ye let WILLS take the helm into a the mouth of a bay?? What were ye thinking??"

Jack had jumped at Janie's astonished admonishment, and he threw up his hands, leaving the jam unguarded from William's own pilfering hands. "I was gone only for a moment! It was safe! Th' lad's a natural, wot wif bein' 'is father is who he is, 'is mother is who she is, an' 'is cousin is..." Jack hesitated for a moment and thought it over... "Well, 'is cousin is meself, an' tha' explains it all! He did fine!'

Janie answered this with a sound smack across the captain's thin shoulder with a towel, and a cry of, "He could have run aground on a reef! He could have scuttled all of ye! He could have..." Each statement was accompanied by a smack with the towel, and a growl from Jack, "Janie... Janie, I... OW!"

William came to his wide eyed cousin's rescue by saying, "Wills did a fine job, Janie... you can stop hitting Jack!" Leaning back in his chair, as Elizabeth came to her own place at the table, William's warm brown eyes shone proudly up at his beautiful wife as the former captain of the Flying Dutchman proclaimed, "William Joshamee Jack Turner was born on the Black Pearl... that is enough to tell me that he will always love the sea..."

Janie finally simply reached over and tugged affectionately on one of Jack's braids and growled, "...leaving a boy at the wheel! Saints preserve us!" She shook her head at Jack's owl eyed hopefulness that she would stop hitting him with the towel, as Elizabeth said, quietly, her arms wrapped around William from behind, "Our son has saltwater in his veins... he will always love the sea, and will always be a part of the sea... the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman are like his own family... and he will always know the power of the sea..."

It was only then that there was a sound from outside, and they all looked at each other... it was a Sunday morning, and it was extremely rare that anyone would arrive unannounced in their secluded glen such as this... Janie looked hesitantly out the window, as Jack defensively got out of his chair and went to his love's side, glancing at the pistol that was laid upon the table by the door. The sound of a bicycle's bell being rung to alert them that no harm was coming their way made them all breathe a sigh of relief... theirs was not a place happened by casually - they were so well hidden that anyone who came to the Inn came for a purpose, since it was now their private home and no longer a functioning Inn.

"Telegram! Telegram for Miss Janie O'Madden!" called the squeeky, adolescent voice of the boy from the telegraph office in the village... he doffed his cap as he laid his bicycle down in the lush, green grass.

Janie opened the door, and met the gawky teenager upon the front steps. They exchanged greetings, Janie signed for the telegram, tipped the boy five shillings, and came back into the house, to be greeted by three anxious faces. "Who is it from, Janie?" William was now at her side, as Jack was peering over her shoulder.

Janie's hand flew to her throat, as she opened the envelope and unfolded the missive contained within... she read aloud for all to hear.

"...Kathleen deathly ill stop... Must partake of our special cure ASAP stop... Gibbs to meet us in Clifden with carriage stop... Will arrive at Inn Sunday PM, April 15 stop..."

They all stared at each other as Janie paused, her eyes locking with Elizabeth's shocked hazel eyes... Kathleen Norrington had always been very frail since becoming mortal, and even though she could walk upon her human legs, they were extremely weak and she still needed to be carried a great deal, when she wasn't using her wheelchair... she had recovered from many illnesses through the ages, with the help of the Waters, and had become with child several times, only to lose them to miscarriage... all except one, who they named Kathleen Millicent Norrington, and affectionately called "Katie"... The last that they knew, Kathleen was well along into another hopeful pregnancy...

It was with a catch in her voice, and tears in her eyes, that Janie finished reading the telegram... Jack's arm slipped around her waist, and they all bowed their heads, sadly...

"...I regret to say that our infant son died two hours after his birth stop... we buried him at sea stop...we named him James Charles Norrington, II...Signed, James..."

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To be continued... with the sad story of the Titanic...