Chapter three- Salted Water
"…And so, Francis Drake and his brother John went to revenge the Spanish, but little to known, they were anticipated and a shot in the leg nearly killed Francis of blood loss…"
It was story time once again. The gang of children who always came was quite a rough and tumble group; it was always a struggle to get them to settle down, even his own son, Jack. No doubt they weren't listening, but so be it. He continued reading about the eternally boring Francis Drake, a man he did not relatively enjoy knowing of, but Elizabeth was the one who forced him on the book.
"…Francis Drake, not considered a pirate, yet he did commit acts of piracy, was completely anti-Spanish, but it was raid on the mule train with cousin John Hawkins that brought him a name. After returning from Nombre de Dios…"
Will heard what seemed to be an unusually heavy child sit down, but did not bother to look up. It was most likely Jeremiah Crawford, the so-called "Fat boy" of town. Yes, he was no favorite of Will's, being brash and obnoxious and just overall loud—but Will didn't want to hurt the young lad's feelings. Continue, he thought.
"…After finding out of a greatly valuable ship, the Cacafuego, he and his young nephew John—"
A loud cough which was unmistakably in ridicule interrupted his reading, forcing Will to raise his head and turn to have a look. It was none other than Captain Jack Sparrow.
"Aye, lad, he had a ton o' John's fer family, didn' he, mate?" Jack yawned, "Besides, this is so boring…even worse than your lovemaking with Elizabeth! Look, even your own child's about to fall asleep, mate!" he said, motioning to little Jack, now struggling to appear wide-awake for his father.
Will sighed, "All right…it was Elizabeth's idea, anyway."
Jack hoisted up the little Turner onto his shoulders. He loved the kid as if his own already. "You, kid, it will be bloody impossible to know which Jack they're talking about, savvy? So how 'bout I just call ya Salt, aye?" he asked, which easily gained a grin revealing two missing teeth from the little boy, Salt, as he would be called in the future by everyone but his mother. Will, on the other hand, crinkled his nose in disgust.
"Salt? SALT? I will not have my child named after a meat preservative, thank you….Why Salt? Why not—why not, Pepper, for Chrissakes?" (this comment gained a definite snort of laughter from both Jack's, big and small) "Why Salt?" Will asked, a bit stuffily.
Jack resorted to an old excuse, "No need to so stuffy and primpy, ya scurvy cur, yer a pirate! …Besides, what have I ever done to make you not trust me?"
"Plenty," Will retorted. But that was a lie. Pirate or not, Jack was one of the most honest men Will had ever known. Bad intentions included, Jack would always tell you exactly what he was in for. Thenagain, if you didn't know Jack, half the time you ended up not believing him, much to his advantage. So Will corrected himself. "Well, no, not really," he sighed. "You just wait till your mother gets a load of that bloke's new name for you, son," He told the little Turner. "Salt, honestly…."
Salt returned with the ever bright smile.
At last, it was time for the beginning of a new journey…or was it? Perhaps the journey had never really ended…All Jack knew was that he had to get to the cursed treasure before Barbossa.
As his newly recruited crew boarded, some of which he had only heard of but never met, Jack noticed thousands (well, probably only about a hundred, really) of crewmembers with so many different features. Will, by his side, even began poking fun at one of the crew members, a scrawny man vertically challenged at the least, who with a friendly face and no more than a poky beard of stubble, appeared to be of no challenge or remote threat.
"Ahaha! Look at that bloke, Jack, he couldn' kill more than a diseased monkey in that get up!" Will snickered.
Jack's eyes gleamed with a look of…knowledge? "Will, one thing you should always know…those who are to be feared the most are the ones who look least the part. Know that, mate."
Will nodded, not really understanding, but seemingly getting some of it. He noticed Elizabeth boarding with Salt, and left to help them with acquaintance.
Jack noticed a stunningly beautiful woman lugging a trunk. She was wearing rugged clothes with a long coat which hid around six to seven pistols and a long sword. She seemed to also be carrying daggers, aye, the woman had everything. She wore a faded red bandana over long, messy hair about the color of Jack's. Within instants of seeing the woman, he felt some sort of connection, something drawing him toward her.
"Ey, love. Who are ye, beautiful?" he flashed a warm grin revealing a few golden capped teeth but nonetheless a nice smile.
The woman pretended not to notice him, but eventually gave in," Look, Captain. I've heard of your games. Don't make me be the one to end them." She began to walk away, but turned back," By the way, Captain…me name's Lindsey."
Jack stuck out his hand to shake and noticed the reluctance as Lindsey returned her own. Since she was being rather sassy, Jack decided to return with a tease of his own. "Lindsey…rather fine name, but for a man, isn't it, love?"
"Not anymore!" she replied with a certain spunk. Soon enough, she gave him the slap he usually gained from women he'd wooed and then left, leaving him in awe. "I didn't—I—"
"No, Captain, you didn't deserve that one," she smiled a bit. "I was just giving you a bit taste of what you're in for." And as she walked away, her pure ignorance toward him only made Jack want her even more.
Before Lindsey could completely vanish, Will brought little Salt and begun to speak with Jack, letting Salt run around freely. The boy ran toward Lindsey, and being the affectionate boy he was, he ran toward her and gave her a big hug around the knees, where he only was able to reach.
"Oh!" she said in surprise, looking down to smile as she picked up Salt, ruffling his hair.
"Bloody 'ell!" Jack cried out loudly, "The kid's a ladies' man!"