Author's Note - Eeep. Her birthday is so soon. Time to lasso my muse!
Chapter Twenty-Three
The island that had jumped conveniently closer during the distractions of both night and the encounter with the black beast was not large, and it seemed even smaller because there were so many buildings on it, all crammed together helter skelter and seemingly without rhyme or reason. From what Melanie could discern through her little scope, there was a small inlet harbor which looked to be quite crowded, and was set against a backdrop of greenery and mountain that might have been picturesque if not for the architecture around and on top of it. She could see colored tents and streamers in the deepening dim of the late afternoon.
"What else do you see?" asked Jones. Those crewmembers with jobs that could be placed temporarily aside for the sake of dialogue all lined the railing of the Yellow Dart and peered ahead at the island.
Before Melanie could reply, the lookout Monica cried down from the crow's nest: "It looks t'be a carnival, cap'n!" Melanie removed the scope from her eye, shook it, then shook her head, and replaced it in the folds of her skirt. Monica and her eyes. She turned to Jack.
"You've been here before, haven't you?" Jack, who had been pointedly avoiding looking at the island, nodded silently. He was carefully scrubbing sea creature blood from his leather coat. His closed mouth did not go unnoticed.
Will left the railing to speak with his friend. "I want to thank you for bringing me here, Jack," he said quietly. "If you don't want to continue on, you can always leave after I'm ashore."
After a moment, Jack met Will's eyes from under his dark lashes. "Don't get me wrong lad. There was precious little nobility in my decision to come wi' you, but we're mates, you and I." He focused again on his nearly clean jacket. "Having said that," he continued softly, almost soundlessly in comparison to the mutterings of the Yellow Dart, "what you do next is up to you." The wind rose slightly and ruffled Jack's white shirt and Will's loose hair. The cry of gulls grew louder as they approached civilization and people. The sun was setting and the sky was afire with its dying embers.
Take that, Professor Srebrnik.
Jack sighed and raised his voice so that he could address everyone. "This island," he began, "is indeed a carnival island. It has gone by many names in the past. For the sake of clarity for you scallywags, I will refer to it as ... Carnival Island." Jack looked around at those he was speaking to. Only Dana Flint did not seem to be paying attention - with her arms crossed and the brim of her hat nudged down over her eyes, she looked to be asleep. Melanie had noticed this, and Jack noticed Melanie noticing this. You've noticed it now, too.
He slid his arms back into his jacket and produced Will's envelope from his pocket before he continued. "You've been directed here because I recognized this wax insignia - " he indicated the winged stag, "- as one of those of this island. Now, we all know that we're here because of William's father, or because we're getting paid by someone who's here because of William's father. And I certainly think that if I were to rise from the dead, a carnival is the first place that I would go, too." He paused for laughter. "Though my own personal acquaintance with this place has in the past been one of business instead of pleasure, it is indeed a sad life that has never breathed deep the sweet, proliferous bouquet that is Carnival Island, savvy?"
Will frowned. "But what about - "
"Tortuga?" Jack finished for him. "This is a different sort of place than Tortuga, lad. Think of it as ... bigger. Better. More colorful. Real animals instead of people who resemble them." As Jack spoke, the Yellow Dart passed into the edges of the island's harbor and came into view of the signs posted all along the shore, and behind him passed a large white billboard with a speech bubble issuing from the mouth of a deer with little stars and moons above his head. The deer looked drunk, and in the speech bubble were the words:
"WELCOME TO CARNIVAL ISLAND, THE ISLAND THAT'S BIGGER, BETTER AND MORE COLORFUL THAN TORTUGA! WE HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR STAY!"
And underneath, in smaller letters:
"Now with more animals!"
The crew chuckled, and Jack looked over his shoulder and saw the passing sign. He grinned sheepishly. "Well, I'm sure you'll all be reading the tourist pamphlets anyway, so I need not say more than for you to mind your purses, and not make yourselves sick on sweets and popped corn." He winked. "That's what the ale is for."
In high spirits, the crew scurried about to moor the ship. Now that they were close to the island it was possible to hear circus music and the laughter of children. A family-friendly Tortuga, Melanie thought as she looked around with a wry smile, with a circus and big-top for the kiddies. It was almost too much. She would have been more excited about the island and more prepared to have fun at the expense of William's coin, if not for the nagging doubt that remained about Flint. The Captain of the Yellow Dart was unhappy that she had not yet spoken to her, but the voyage to Carnival Island had not produced any of the calamities that Melanie's instincts had cried out about. Perhaps it had been the sea monster, she thought. That close encounter had left the already shy Dana Flint rather silent.
So everyone wandered onto the island to be met with smiles from the locals, who were dressed in ridiculous costumes. Will was all grins when he was stopped to have his face painted by an attractive young woman. When she finished, he turned to Jack and Melanie. "Well?"
"She's made you look like a clown, mate,' said Jack while Melanie almost laughed herself sick. When she noticed that Jack was not joining in, she elbowed him.
"Oh come on, Sparrow. It's supposed to be fun!"
Jack simply shrugged. "Darling, I used to be employed 'ere. I've seen all the thrills that they've got to thrill you with." Melanie stuck out her tongue at him and accepted her own face-painting so that she too looked like a clown. She linked arms with the smug Will as they continued to stroll down the street.
They waited patiently at an intersection for an elephant and its costumed rider to make their way past. The crowd on the street was not as thick as it had been in Tortuga, and Will fancied that he could actually take a step without running himself into someone's way or onto the point of their dagger. Jack was not yet impressed by anything but was on the lookout for familiar faces. Melanie was making an effort to keep track of the colored tents that they had passed by in their meandering, but soon privately admitted that they were lost amidst the carnival-jungle.
"Where's Dana?" asked Will after a while. He was in the middle of eating what appeared to be a large mess of colored cotton, or candied cotton, or colored cottoned candy on the end of a stick. It was pink and there was some in his hair. "I hope she's having fun, too."
Melanie glanced around and spied Dana talking with her head bent to a street vendor. She narrowed her eyes and strode over. "What's keeping you, Flint?"
Dana looked startled. "I was just ... buying this map." She held up a folded parchment. "You can't be too careful around places like this."
"That's right," the scruffy vendor snickered and winked. "Careful." Melanie thought she saw Dana kick him under his table, but she could have been mistaken.
Fun street and circus adventures happened after that, and plenty of them, let me tell you. But the night wore on and the four naturally grew hungry for food and thirsty for drink and antsy for bathrooms - it was a carnival. They halted their tour of the island, considered that it would be better to halt somewhere other than the middle of the street in the path of an oncoming parade and sidestepped to the road's edge, then decided on a plan of action.
"I think," Dana said mysteriously, "that we should eat here." She pointed to a location on the map that was out of the main body of the circus goings-on.
"Sounds good to me," said Will trustingly.
"I'm savvy," remarked Jack indifferently.
"Why not?" asked Melanie suspiciously. And they all ambled down the road in a manner that can in no way be interpreted as rushed or lacking adequate motivation and description, even though the deadline for the end of their adventure was looming near. Very, very near.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The island that had jumped conveniently closer during the distractions of both night and the encounter with the black beast was not large, and it seemed even smaller because there were so many buildings on it, all crammed together helter skelter and seemingly without rhyme or reason. From what Melanie could discern through her little scope, there was a small inlet harbor which looked to be quite crowded, and was set against a backdrop of greenery and mountain that might have been picturesque if not for the architecture around and on top of it. She could see colored tents and streamers in the deepening dim of the late afternoon.
"What else do you see?" asked Jones. Those crewmembers with jobs that could be placed temporarily aside for the sake of dialogue all lined the railing of the Yellow Dart and peered ahead at the island.
Before Melanie could reply, the lookout Monica cried down from the crow's nest: "It looks t'be a carnival, cap'n!" Melanie removed the scope from her eye, shook it, then shook her head, and replaced it in the folds of her skirt. Monica and her eyes. She turned to Jack.
"You've been here before, haven't you?" Jack, who had been pointedly avoiding looking at the island, nodded silently. He was carefully scrubbing sea creature blood from his leather coat. His closed mouth did not go unnoticed.
Will left the railing to speak with his friend. "I want to thank you for bringing me here, Jack," he said quietly. "If you don't want to continue on, you can always leave after I'm ashore."
After a moment, Jack met Will's eyes from under his dark lashes. "Don't get me wrong lad. There was precious little nobility in my decision to come wi' you, but we're mates, you and I." He focused again on his nearly clean jacket. "Having said that," he continued softly, almost soundlessly in comparison to the mutterings of the Yellow Dart, "what you do next is up to you." The wind rose slightly and ruffled Jack's white shirt and Will's loose hair. The cry of gulls grew louder as they approached civilization and people. The sun was setting and the sky was afire with its dying embers.
Take that, Professor Srebrnik.
Jack sighed and raised his voice so that he could address everyone. "This island," he began, "is indeed a carnival island. It has gone by many names in the past. For the sake of clarity for you scallywags, I will refer to it as ... Carnival Island." Jack looked around at those he was speaking to. Only Dana Flint did not seem to be paying attention - with her arms crossed and the brim of her hat nudged down over her eyes, she looked to be asleep. Melanie had noticed this, and Jack noticed Melanie noticing this. You've noticed it now, too.
He slid his arms back into his jacket and produced Will's envelope from his pocket before he continued. "You've been directed here because I recognized this wax insignia - " he indicated the winged stag, "- as one of those of this island. Now, we all know that we're here because of William's father, or because we're getting paid by someone who's here because of William's father. And I certainly think that if I were to rise from the dead, a carnival is the first place that I would go, too." He paused for laughter. "Though my own personal acquaintance with this place has in the past been one of business instead of pleasure, it is indeed a sad life that has never breathed deep the sweet, proliferous bouquet that is Carnival Island, savvy?"
Will frowned. "But what about - "
"Tortuga?" Jack finished for him. "This is a different sort of place than Tortuga, lad. Think of it as ... bigger. Better. More colorful. Real animals instead of people who resemble them." As Jack spoke, the Yellow Dart passed into the edges of the island's harbor and came into view of the signs posted all along the shore, and behind him passed a large white billboard with a speech bubble issuing from the mouth of a deer with little stars and moons above his head. The deer looked drunk, and in the speech bubble were the words:
"WELCOME TO CARNIVAL ISLAND, THE ISLAND THAT'S BIGGER, BETTER AND MORE COLORFUL THAN TORTUGA! WE HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR STAY!"
And underneath, in smaller letters:
"Now with more animals!"
The crew chuckled, and Jack looked over his shoulder and saw the passing sign. He grinned sheepishly. "Well, I'm sure you'll all be reading the tourist pamphlets anyway, so I need not say more than for you to mind your purses, and not make yourselves sick on sweets and popped corn." He winked. "That's what the ale is for."
In high spirits, the crew scurried about to moor the ship. Now that they were close to the island it was possible to hear circus music and the laughter of children. A family-friendly Tortuga, Melanie thought as she looked around with a wry smile, with a circus and big-top for the kiddies. It was almost too much. She would have been more excited about the island and more prepared to have fun at the expense of William's coin, if not for the nagging doubt that remained about Flint. The Captain of the Yellow Dart was unhappy that she had not yet spoken to her, but the voyage to Carnival Island had not produced any of the calamities that Melanie's instincts had cried out about. Perhaps it had been the sea monster, she thought. That close encounter had left the already shy Dana Flint rather silent.
So everyone wandered onto the island to be met with smiles from the locals, who were dressed in ridiculous costumes. Will was all grins when he was stopped to have his face painted by an attractive young woman. When she finished, he turned to Jack and Melanie. "Well?"
"She's made you look like a clown, mate,' said Jack while Melanie almost laughed herself sick. When she noticed that Jack was not joining in, she elbowed him.
"Oh come on, Sparrow. It's supposed to be fun!"
Jack simply shrugged. "Darling, I used to be employed 'ere. I've seen all the thrills that they've got to thrill you with." Melanie stuck out her tongue at him and accepted her own face-painting so that she too looked like a clown. She linked arms with the smug Will as they continued to stroll down the street.
They waited patiently at an intersection for an elephant and its costumed rider to make their way past. The crowd on the street was not as thick as it had been in Tortuga, and Will fancied that he could actually take a step without running himself into someone's way or onto the point of their dagger. Jack was not yet impressed by anything but was on the lookout for familiar faces. Melanie was making an effort to keep track of the colored tents that they had passed by in their meandering, but soon privately admitted that they were lost amidst the carnival-jungle.
"Where's Dana?" asked Will after a while. He was in the middle of eating what appeared to be a large mess of colored cotton, or candied cotton, or colored cottoned candy on the end of a stick. It was pink and there was some in his hair. "I hope she's having fun, too."
Melanie glanced around and spied Dana talking with her head bent to a street vendor. She narrowed her eyes and strode over. "What's keeping you, Flint?"
Dana looked startled. "I was just ... buying this map." She held up a folded parchment. "You can't be too careful around places like this."
"That's right," the scruffy vendor snickered and winked. "Careful." Melanie thought she saw Dana kick him under his table, but she could have been mistaken.
Fun street and circus adventures happened after that, and plenty of them, let me tell you. But the night wore on and the four naturally grew hungry for food and thirsty for drink and antsy for bathrooms - it was a carnival. They halted their tour of the island, considered that it would be better to halt somewhere other than the middle of the street in the path of an oncoming parade and sidestepped to the road's edge, then decided on a plan of action.
"I think," Dana said mysteriously, "that we should eat here." She pointed to a location on the map that was out of the main body of the circus goings-on.
"Sounds good to me," said Will trustingly.
"I'm savvy," remarked Jack indifferently.
"Why not?" asked Melanie suspiciously. And they all ambled down the road in a manner that can in no way be interpreted as rushed or lacking adequate motivation and description, even though the deadline for the end of their adventure was looming near. Very, very near.