"Do you think I'm runnin' an empty tavern here or what? Get back to work!"
shouted an angry voice from inside the bar.
My head came swimming back into present time and I lifted my head out from the bucket.
"Stop hurlin' and get in here now or you'll find yoursel' with ou' a job!" continued the voice of my angry employer.
Almost seven months had passed since my mother and our crew had been ruthlessly slaughtered by the enemy. I had been washed up on shore and found by a woman but not before I had seen the bodies of my once friends. She took me home; to the tavern I now work in, and nursed me for a few days until I was well again. The first thing I did was to find my mother. She was there, on the beach with the rest of them. They were dragging them away, burying them. I went up to her body and knelt down beside her. I whispered her name, but I knew she was dead. Her face was as pale as the moon.the same moon that she had once taught me to love. Her skin was as cold as the ocean.that same ocean which I held so dear to me.
Another wave of sick came upon me and another yell from the bar warned me to work. Wiping my mouth I pulled myself together. After living on the sea for six years of my life I was finding it difficult to learn again how the land moved. Every couple hours or so I would have to duck out of the tavern to vomit in the bucket outside. As a result of this I was extremely thin.
"I thought I told you to ge' back in 'ere Arrabella!"
"Alright, alright" I shouted back, "and its Bella," I muttered under my breath. I walked back into the bar which I had been forced to call home for the last seven months. The woman who rescued me had died in childbirth a month after she had saved me leaving my with her wonderful husband who made me earn my keep by working in his tavern. It was nothing like Tortuga but the dusty streets of Jamaica bought enough pirates inland to keep a living.
I began serving one of the locals, a retired pirate, his usual while fighting back another wave of sick. Get a grip, I told myself, you lived on land until you were seven!
"You alright Bella?" inquired the man I was serving, Federico Green.
"Yeah I think I ate something which doesn't agree" this, of course, was a total lie. Nothing in my whole life had ever upset my stomach before. This was probably due to the mixed nutrients of mouldy bread, raw fish and anything else that we could get our hands on which I had accumulated over the years.
"Honestly I'm fine Fed" I said in answer to the looks of disbelief on his face. Suddenly I heard a loud cough from behind me. I turned to see my employer looking extremely annoyed at something, and then it clicked. "I mean.Mr Green" I finished.
Mr Green chuckled into his rum and I gave him a sly smile. My employer can be a right idiot at times, as if a pirate wants to be called 'Mr'.
I finished the day and began to walk to my small room when I was stopped by the boss who grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and breathed into my hair
"If you ever talk to my customers in that way again I will personally remove you from this house and make sure that no one employs you on this whole island again. Do you hear me?"
".Yes" I replied reluctantly.
"Yes what?"
"Yes sir"
"That's better.now get out of my sight"
He let go and I straightened out my clothes, but instead of going to my room I changed direction and set off for the beach. When I reached it I slipped off my shoes and dipped them into the cool water. When I was younger I never wore shoes but the boss had made me, he said it wasn't ladylike. However I would never be persuaded to wear a skirt no matter how much he yelled at me. Luckily when Wendy had been alive she made it clear that I was a pirate and seeing as pirates were not seen as 'enemy' in Jamaica she let me wear my breaches.
I walked into the water and began to swim while the sun began to die. I felt only at home in the water, the ground finally moved in the right way and all feelings of sickness left my body. I swam for at least two hours because the sun had sunk and the stars had reviled themselves. I came back to shore and lay down on the cool sand staring up at the night sky, little was I aware that I was being watched.
I began to think of my route home. I had been working hard and even though I was working for my keep I was allowed to keep the tips that I was given. Slowly I had been saving up so as to barter a ride home back to Tortuga on a passing ship. Home.I wonder what was happening there? I sighed deeply and stood up brushing the clinging grains of sand from my hair. And then suddenly, for no reason at all, I thought of my father. It had happened to me quite a lot recently, he just popped into my head. The father I never knew, the father I was desperate to know. The father who was dead.
I began to walk back to the tavern and then, suddenly realising how late it was, I sprinted into a run. I had just made it back before he closed the doors. He was in a terrible mood again and complained loudly about the mess of my hair and the sand that I was trailing behind me. But I just smiled and ran to my room.
Little did I know that the figure that had been watching me on the beach had followed me to the tavern and was now slowly walking into the gloom making a mental note of where I was.
My head came swimming back into present time and I lifted my head out from the bucket.
"Stop hurlin' and get in here now or you'll find yoursel' with ou' a job!" continued the voice of my angry employer.
Almost seven months had passed since my mother and our crew had been ruthlessly slaughtered by the enemy. I had been washed up on shore and found by a woman but not before I had seen the bodies of my once friends. She took me home; to the tavern I now work in, and nursed me for a few days until I was well again. The first thing I did was to find my mother. She was there, on the beach with the rest of them. They were dragging them away, burying them. I went up to her body and knelt down beside her. I whispered her name, but I knew she was dead. Her face was as pale as the moon.the same moon that she had once taught me to love. Her skin was as cold as the ocean.that same ocean which I held so dear to me.
Another wave of sick came upon me and another yell from the bar warned me to work. Wiping my mouth I pulled myself together. After living on the sea for six years of my life I was finding it difficult to learn again how the land moved. Every couple hours or so I would have to duck out of the tavern to vomit in the bucket outside. As a result of this I was extremely thin.
"I thought I told you to ge' back in 'ere Arrabella!"
"Alright, alright" I shouted back, "and its Bella," I muttered under my breath. I walked back into the bar which I had been forced to call home for the last seven months. The woman who rescued me had died in childbirth a month after she had saved me leaving my with her wonderful husband who made me earn my keep by working in his tavern. It was nothing like Tortuga but the dusty streets of Jamaica bought enough pirates inland to keep a living.
I began serving one of the locals, a retired pirate, his usual while fighting back another wave of sick. Get a grip, I told myself, you lived on land until you were seven!
"You alright Bella?" inquired the man I was serving, Federico Green.
"Yeah I think I ate something which doesn't agree" this, of course, was a total lie. Nothing in my whole life had ever upset my stomach before. This was probably due to the mixed nutrients of mouldy bread, raw fish and anything else that we could get our hands on which I had accumulated over the years.
"Honestly I'm fine Fed" I said in answer to the looks of disbelief on his face. Suddenly I heard a loud cough from behind me. I turned to see my employer looking extremely annoyed at something, and then it clicked. "I mean.Mr Green" I finished.
Mr Green chuckled into his rum and I gave him a sly smile. My employer can be a right idiot at times, as if a pirate wants to be called 'Mr'.
I finished the day and began to walk to my small room when I was stopped by the boss who grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and breathed into my hair
"If you ever talk to my customers in that way again I will personally remove you from this house and make sure that no one employs you on this whole island again. Do you hear me?"
".Yes" I replied reluctantly.
"Yes what?"
"Yes sir"
"That's better.now get out of my sight"
He let go and I straightened out my clothes, but instead of going to my room I changed direction and set off for the beach. When I reached it I slipped off my shoes and dipped them into the cool water. When I was younger I never wore shoes but the boss had made me, he said it wasn't ladylike. However I would never be persuaded to wear a skirt no matter how much he yelled at me. Luckily when Wendy had been alive she made it clear that I was a pirate and seeing as pirates were not seen as 'enemy' in Jamaica she let me wear my breaches.
I walked into the water and began to swim while the sun began to die. I felt only at home in the water, the ground finally moved in the right way and all feelings of sickness left my body. I swam for at least two hours because the sun had sunk and the stars had reviled themselves. I came back to shore and lay down on the cool sand staring up at the night sky, little was I aware that I was being watched.
I began to think of my route home. I had been working hard and even though I was working for my keep I was allowed to keep the tips that I was given. Slowly I had been saving up so as to barter a ride home back to Tortuga on a passing ship. Home.I wonder what was happening there? I sighed deeply and stood up brushing the clinging grains of sand from my hair. And then suddenly, for no reason at all, I thought of my father. It had happened to me quite a lot recently, he just popped into my head. The father I never knew, the father I was desperate to know. The father who was dead.
I began to walk back to the tavern and then, suddenly realising how late it was, I sprinted into a run. I had just made it back before he closed the doors. He was in a terrible mood again and complained loudly about the mess of my hair and the sand that I was trailing behind me. But I just smiled and ran to my room.
Little did I know that the figure that had been watching me on the beach had followed me to the tavern and was now slowly walking into the gloom making a mental note of where I was.