Jack was sitting at his desk when Will came in after he had changed his wet
clothes. The captain, seemingly not caring for his own drenched slop, had
his feet on the wooden desk with a bottle of rum in his hand. "Ye know, ye
could 'ave seen this storm comin' if ye'd wanted." Will frowned, how should
he have done that. "Ye need te lis'en te 'er." "Listen to whom?" Will asked
bluntly. "Te 'er!" Jack growled and jumped up. Staggering about the room,
taking a sip from the rum from time to time, he explained: "Te yer love.
Yer life. The sea talks te ye, lad, if ye only would lis'en." Jack paused
in front of Will and wildly waved about: "Ne'er fo'get tha' she can take
away everything fro' you if she wants. She can take the Pearl, she can take
yer life if she feels like it. But she won' if ye learn te lis'en. Te 'er
waves an' 'er whisper in the wind, mate." Will thought for a moment. Maybe
Jack was right. He nodded slowly. "Are ye willin' to lis'en?" Again, he
nodded. "Good." Jack took a long drink of his rum, then handed Will the
bottle. His eyes dug into him. Will swallowed the lump in his throat and
raised the bottle to his lips cautiously. Quickly, he took a small sip of
the alcohol and handed the bottle back. He did his best to disguise the
burning sensation in his throat. "The sea is me life," Jack began. "Me
life. I don' 'ave one without 'er. I've spent ages out on the water. I
can't imagine bein' on land. I don' have a real life beyond this 'ere ship.
Now, time fo' the story." Will was transfixed with the tale, listening ever
so eagerly. "When I firs' started, I was but a wee lad. I was a lily-
livered coward, aye." "How did you become a captain then?" Will asked, then
felt embarassed for interrupting the story. He blushed. "Well," Jack
smirked, "that's what I was jus' about to tell ye." He sat down on his desk
and gulped some more rum: "So when I firs' went off te the sea I was just
like ye are now.." Will frowned and Jack grinned mischievouly: "On me firs'
trip the dear lady thought she'd teach lil Jack a lesson. We were in a calm
an' 'ad 'oisted all sails an' were scrubin' the decks when the strom
started. No' like this one. Tha' storm was jus' suddenly there, playin'
with the good ol' Santa Anna. Waves like mountains, I'm tellin' ye. The
boom was outta control an' some of the crew were washed overboard. An' ye
know what I did?" Will shook his head, totally engulfed by the tale. "I
jumped over the rail te try to save 'em." He shrugged nonchalantly. "Didn'
work. Let tha' be a lesson te ye: don' try te save 'em. If they ain' tough
enough, they ain' tough enough." Will looked around, a bit confused. "So,
it's every man for himself?" Jack laughed, almost diabolically. "Every man
fer 'imself? Yer right! We're all brothers 'ere, but we ain' heroes.
Though..." He looked around, then focused back on Will. "Some mates do look
out fer each other." The thought made Will smile a bit.
