It had been nearly four months.
Rose sat by her window, watching the sunlight-dappled bayou rest peacefully, undisturbed. The occasional splash of a fish or an alligator disturbing the calm lapping of the tide would interrupt her meditative state, but all was generally still.
That was until Rose heard a boat full of men approaching. As per custom, Rose instinctively leaned out of the window and drew the shutters, then remained in her hammock, waiting for Tia's word if she needed it. Otherwise? Rose was not to disturb the priestess. Rose had grown accustomed to this process, but was willing to throw all of her training by the wayside as soon as she heard Tia coo the one name she craved so desperately to hear:
"Jack Spaaaarrrrooow!"
Rose leapt up from her bed and raced out of the room and down the stairs. "Jack!" she cried, racing to her brother, who stood in the center of the room. "Rose!" he said happily, grinning a gold-toothed smile.
She threw her arms around him in a firm embrace. "You're back sooner than I expected! Have you found her?" she said, referring to the girl Tia needed as her apprentice.
He nodded with excitement. Standing straighter, he announced to Tia, "I hope to perhaps try again."
Tia raised her eyebrows at him. "De right one dis time?"
"We'll see," he replied, motioning to two of his men standing at the door to retrieve something from the boat that was tied to the dock.
Rose's hopes soared at the thought of her freedom, but she had to remind herself to remain logical in this moment. If this woman was the right person, Rose could return with Jack. If not, however, would she still be prisoner here?
The door suddenly burst open, revealing a raven-haired woman several years older than Rose, wrists bound and fighting against the two men who held her arms firm against her struggling.
Suddenly, she stopped all her resistance to observe her surroundings. She quickly took in all of the trinkets hanging above her head and all throughout the ceiling. She narrowed her eyes in confusion at Tia Dalma, looked with disdain at Rose, and then shot a fiery glare at Jack. "Bastardo!" she cried. "¿Crees que sólo puedes dejarme aquí así?"
Rose's eyes went wide. To Jack, she muttered, "She's very…angry."
"And Spanish," he replied.
Tia Dalma swept around the two of the them over to where this newcomer continued to fight against her captors like a ferrel beast. She looked her up and down, staring into her eyes with silent fascination. From behind, Rose saw her start to nod slowly, then turn back to her and her brother. "Dis be da one."
Jack clapped his hands together once in excitement. "Excellent!" he cried cheerily. "Then we leave the Castilian serpent here, and I'll be out of your way! I can take R—"
"No," Tia said sharply.
"N…no?" Jack asked, taken aback.
"No. Rose stays 'ere."
Rose was in disbelief. "But you said I'm not the right one! This girl is! You have no further use for me!"
She turned around to face the protesting siblings. "Until da tides turn, ye cannot go aboard, and turned dey have not!"
Rose felt her eyes start to fill with tears, and struggled to maintain composure and hide her disappointment.
"So you're just going to leave me here, then? That's the plan?" the Spanish girl spat at Jack.
Jack considered this for a moment, then replied, "Yep. Pretty much that's it."
"Is this what you do with all your prisoners?" she sneered. "You drop them off at this…shack?"
Tia Dalma swept back around at the insult, holding the girl by the jaw. "Dis be no 'shack.' Ye mind yer manners when ye be in my home. Ye hear?" The girl's eyes shone in silent fury as a response until Tia finally let her go.
Tia stalked away, sitting back down in her chair in the back of the room. "And let me make one ting clear," she said pointedly to her. "No one 'ere be a prisoner. Id is der destiny."
The girl furrowed her brow. "How would you know anything of my destiny?"
Tia spun around, saying over her shoulder, "Dere be much ya 'ave yet to learn, Angelica."
The girl, whose name was revealed to be Angelica, narrowed her eyes. "How…how do you…?"
Jack chimed in, interrupting. "You'll have much to discuss while your here, which, with any luck," he said to Tia, "Will be a very long time." To his men, he ordered for Angelica's release, though her wrists remained bound in front of her. Jack looked back to Rose.
"I'm sorry," he said sadly.
Rose could only nod in response. She knew that if she said anything, her emotions would get the best of her.
"Is isn't too terrible here, though, is it? You'd tell me if it was?"
Rose wanted to say exactly how it was. It was lonely. And confining. Rose wanted to explore and be free. Instead? She was trapped here. Unable to escape due to her night blindness and unable to be with her brother. But she couldn't bring herself to say it. Jack was trying. He never wanted to leave her with Tia, nor did he want to leave her here again in this moment. So, she felt obligated to squeak out a, "No. It's fine."
Jack laid a firm hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "The next time I see you, it will be when we are reunited on the Pearl. This I vow! I've already returned for you twice, I certainly can do it again once those bloody tides turn!" Rose let out the bravest smile she could muster, and embraced her brother, but a bitter voice cut through their moment.
"And what of me?" Angelica cried out to Jack. "When will the next time be that I see you?"
Jack considered this for a moment, then replied curtly, "In hell, with any luck." His eyes grew distant, as though he were trying to decide whether or not to say anything more to her. But finally, he determined that he had said enough, and briefly called over his shoulder, "Ta!" which sent his prisoner hurling into more Spanish profanities. Were she still not confined, Rose knew that this woman would have spiraled into another bout of physical rage toward her brother. Thankfully, Tia stopped any further violence by stepping between them, holding an outstretched hand out to Jack that held a palm-sized square object.
"As promised," she stated simply.
Jack held his hands close to his chest, as though he was frightened to touch the item. "That's what I bought? By bringing her to you?"
Tia narrowed her eyes. "…yes," she said warningly.
He pursed his lips. "But it's so…small."
Tia clenched her jaw and said nothing, only holding her hand out closer to him so that he had to take the object. When he finally did, undid a small clasp on the front of the item and opened a small hinging door that swung upwards. Rose finally deduced that the object was, in fact, a compass. She looked at Jack to gauge his reaction. He squinted in confusion, doing some mental calculations and coming up devoid of answers.
"Sometin' wrong?" Tia asked, hints of exasperation in her voice.
"Um…" Jack began, clearly giving her an answer. "Well…it um…"
"Yes?"
"It…doesn't point north."
"Yes."
"You're aware of this?"
"Yes."
"I've bought a…broken item from you?"
Tia grew quickly offended. "Id works fine!" she said.
"This compass is powerful enough to send nations into battle, as you promised?"
"For dem rough waters ahead, ye be needin' dis compass! Take id or leave id."
Angelica only laughed. "I hope it causes you to crash into a reef," she spat at Jack. "That's what you get for selling me off for some pagan idol!"
Jack grimaced, curtly replying, "Yes, well, maybe we'll meet again in the next twenty or so years…when you're still here." He then spun on his heel and made moves to exit the house.
Rose ran after her brother as he descended the porch after giving a tip of his hat to Tia. "Where are you off to now?" Rose asked him, in a desperate attempt made in vain to stall her brother and keep him longer.
Jack stopped suddenly on the stairs, crying out far too loudly, "Isla de Muerta!" This caused the two intimidating sailors he had brought along to stop their progress in preparing the dinghy for voyaging back to the Pearl and look back at their captain. Jack continued to shout grandly, "For treasures and riches that are surely to come, right boys?"
The two men exchanged a look before each giving a firm grunt in response, then going back to their work. Jack seized the opportunity at having lost their attention to quickly whisper under his breath to Rose, "I'm doomed."
Her eyes widened upon hearing this, but before she had time enough to respond, her brother had already fled back into the boat. Rose called after him, "Jack, what? What did you say?"
"Really, love," he cried back. "I've told you time and time again to have someone check out your hearing! It's really becoming a hindrance!"
WHAT IS HAPPENING? Rose thought to herself, mind racing. As the small boat retreated back into the depths of the bayou and Rose began to lose sight of the three men as they retreated further into the shadows, Rose yelled out to her brother one final time, "Jack! Please take care!"
The only thing she heard him say back to her was a simple phrase: Au revoir, a French word which means, "to see again."
But would Rose see her brother again? And if so, when?
