Jackson Spencer was born August 20, 1617 in Port Royal to Loreli Spencer with the help of Mrs. Mandry. Loreli spent ten hours in the birthing chair before her son finally appeared.

Handing the wrapped bundle to a servant, Mrs. Mandry helped Loreli back over to the bed. "Rest child," she instructed, reaching for the nearby teacup that held a strong mix of herbs to induce sleep. "We'll wash the baby and bring him in later. Just a few sips and off to sleep with you."

About five hours later, Loreli awoke to a baby crying, as Mrs. Mandry was placing the infant in her arms. "Your son, Miss Spencer," she said as Loreli gingerly sat up to hold him to her.

Tears filled her eyes as she stared at the tiny red face. "Hi Jackson," she greeted, touching his cheek, then looking up at Mrs. Mandry. "Is he all right?" she asked.

"He's perfect," she answered proudly. "He'll be something, this one. You watch."

Loreli smiled through her happy tears. "He already is."

Ten months later, Loreli was rocking Jackson to sleep after a tiring day of running after him, trying to keep him off furniture and in the house. With dark eyes and hair, he looked just like her and he was just as obstinate.

Loreli chuckled to herself. He was difficult, even in the womb. She wasn't surprised when she would walk along the shoreline that he would kick incessantly. "You were conceived at sea by two people who love the sea," she'd told him. "I should expect it."

The only trait of Riddick she could recognize was Jackson's lips, thin like his father's had been. Otherwise the child was all her. There were moments when it struck her very odd to see reflections of herself in this tiny person. Other times it seemed the most natural thing in the world.

Loreli shook her head with a smile and whispered, "You're going to be trouble aren't you?"

"Mommy! Water!" Jackson exclaimed, pointing to the ocean. "Water!"

"Yes Mommy sees the water," Loreli acknowledged. "But we have to market for Mrs. Mandry first." She was recently promoted to head maid at the Mandry house.

"No! Water Mommy!" Jackson was crying and screaming, falling to the ground, throwing a fit that was not uncommon. "Water!"

"Mommy said no," Loreli said again, trying to pick up the limp child from the ground. "Come on Jackson. We'll play with the water later."

"Now!" wailed the child.

Loreli was losing patience quickly as two guardsmen approached her. "Little trouble there miss?" the taller one asked with a smile.

"You could say that," she answered over her son's crying, still trying to pick him up. "He just loves the water and won't take no for an answer."

"Son," the shorter one said. "Son, want to walk out to the dock with us while your mommy finishes her errands?"

Jackson's cries slowed. "Water?" he asked, red eyes hopeful.

"Yes," the older one said. "We'll go by the water." He held out his large hand. "You have to behave though."

"K," was all Jackson said, eagerly gripping the man's hand.

"Thank you," she told the shorter one. "I owe you."

Loreli became part of the Mandry's family over the years. They treated her as the daughter they never had and she treated them like the family she wished she had. Once she told them of how she arrived at Port Royal, Mr. Mandry had offered to take her home to Portobelo but she refused, saying Port Royal was now her home and they her family.

Mr. Mandry worked at the docks, in charge of any and all merchant ships that entered the port. He made sure all transactions went smoothly and any dignitaries taken care of properly. Mrs. Mandry took care of the household that always seemed to be entertaining guests and originally became the port's midwife when she learned she could not have children.

All of them had a time keeping up with the quickly growing and ever curious Jackson. After his fifth birthday, Loreli let him go with Mr. Mandry to the docks, hoping to keep him busy and out of trouble. However, Jackson had been caught twice on ships, trying to sail away with them. Mr. Mandry tried his best to explain to the child how dangerous this would be but Jackson failed to see the danger.

Schooling started the next year but Jackson wasn't interested. He learned how to read fairly quickly but couldn't sit still long enough to learn much else. Miss Bray, the teacher, even tried taking Jackson out to the shoreline thinking if he was near the water, maybe he'd pay more attention. Instead, all he wanted to do was build a boat to sail.

When he was nine, he did build a boat, and with the help of a few guardsmen who had taken to keeping watch over the child through the years, it actually floated on the water. It was near impossible for Loreli to get him out of the small boat. Jackson asked her why he couldn't sleep in it at night.

"Because it's not your home," Loreli told him. "All of us come home at night and sleep in our beds."

"But Mommy," Jackson replied, unwillingly crawling into his bed. "The ocean is my home and the boat is my bed."

It was Jackson's statement from that night that played over in her mind the day he turned up missing two years later. Most of the Navy had searched for him throughout the port and the ships currently docked but he was nowhere to be found. Two days later, Loreli insisted they stop looking.

"He has to be somewhere," Mr. Mandry insisted, panicking about where the young boy he'd thought of as a grandson could be. "He'll have to turn up soon. Everyone knows what he looks like."

Loreli had been sitting quietly on the small couch by the fireplace, sipping a special blend of tea to calm her nerves. "He's not here," she said with little emotion. She'd turned twenty nine a few days before and remembered the desire she had to go to sea thirteen years earlier and the determination to get there one way or another. She understood Jackson's call to be at sea and there was nothing she could do but pray for his safety, as there was nothing her parents could have done to stop her. "He stowed away on a ship and is long gone from Port Royal."

"You mustn't think like that," Mrs. Mandry said, not wanting to believe it.

Loreli stood up. "Ocean water runs through his veins," she said. "Thanks to his father's love of sailing and mine, Jackson didn't have a choice. It's his destiny. When I decided to leave, I was leaving one way or another. Nothing was going to stop me. My son is the same. He's determined and he's smart." She smiled. "He's happier now than he's ever been. And I want his happiness more than anything else." She put her teacup on the small table. "I just hope I get to see him again someday," she said and retired to her room for the evening.

In her dark bedroom, Loreli stood at the open window, gazing out at the ocean glowing from the full moon above. As tears fell from her eyes, she whispered, "Be safe, Jackson and above all, be a good man in whatever path you choose."

Moments passed until she heard a sound like a bird's wings and was slightly startled when a bird landed on the window railing. She was surprised but smiled at the small creature. "Why hello," she greeted, wiping tears. "Come to comfort me have you? Shouldn't you be asleep in a tree somewhere?"

It was a sparrow.