Summery: - Jack remembers his past, how his life came to be what it is and wonders if things had been different, would his life have been just as amazing? In both good and bad ways… JackAna please R&R
Take a breath.
Take a breath, then walk away. What my mother had told me when I was boy, a child, and getting into fights with other children, ones who I didn't believe to be normal. It was me who wasn't normal. Compared to them, I had different dreams, different thoughts. I grew up in the same kind of families as them, posh ones, ones that had maids and butlers running around everywhere. But it was also different in a way that no one could ever understand. My parents, especially my mother, wanted us me and my little brother Ben or Benjamin as he was known in public, to have our own thoughts, our own dreams not ones planted there by what they thought we should be thinking about, and dreaming about. She wanted us to make our own lives, the way we wanted to. But that doesn't mean to say they weren't like every other mother and farther in the families I knew of. They still made me go to lessons, from 3 years old on wards, taught manners, respect and all that I needed to know. But other then that they were completely different, which lead to what happened that day when I was 5 and my little brother was 2.
My father was a captain of a ship; I couldn't remember the name off. 16 months before the day that changed everyone in the family's lives, and other view on things, had hired a dark skinned maid, whom he knew to be pregnant. They had struck a deal; he couldn't bear to see her die on a wrecked pirate ship where she had been held captive for the past 5 months, working as a slave. She was to go live with him and his family and work for them as a maid. When she had her child, she would look after it while carrying on working, should it be a girl, she would grow up to be another maid in their household, should it be a boy he would be a butler. Either way the child was to work in his household, without being paid, as the mother was. Food and accommodation would be free but would really have to be worked for. The women had seen this as a ticket as her child having a certain future and took the proposition. She was happy her child was going to be safe, and my farther was happy, as it meant his concisions would be cleared.
8 months later Louisa, the maid, gave birth to a baby girl. This happened just my mother was given the news she would never have another child. And she wanted another child, so much. My father, as much as he wanted a daughter himself, he was quite contempt with having two sons only. He hoped my mother would accept that they were never to have any more children, and get on with life, but instead she started to take away the responsibility of working and looking after a new born baby from Louisa by looking after the baby girl while her mother was working. The only problem with this is that my mother began to love this child as her own.
When the baby was 9 months old, her mother fell down the stairs breaking her neck, and instantly dieing, leaving a nine-month-old Ana Maria seemingly alone in the world. Only with her mother's death, came new light to my mother's world. She decided that Ana Maria should be brought up as a child, a member of sicity other then to be a maid, she had decided that she was to be brought up as a Sparrow. My Father was against the idea a first, he could see himself losing his job, and everyone turning against them for bringing up a dark skinned child. But he had been wrong. People warmed to the idea of a child of a different colors being brought up as one of them. For the time being, they could see no harm in it at all. The first problem came though, when she couldn't be proclaimed an official member of our family. Without the father's permission, assuming he was still alive, she was not aloud to be adopted for 8 years. But this didn't put them off. They believed he would not be coming for her, as he didn't know where she was, they didn't even know if he knew she existed. Ana Maria was a sparrow, just not officially.
My mother thrived on having a daughter. She bonded with her far more then she had with either Ben or me. The remarkable thing was that she let her play with us from the moment she could walk. I remember the games we used to play…
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"Arrrr!!! I am the bad man and is taking this lady away with me! And you can't stop me!!! Arrrrrrrrrr." Giggling Ana Maria was lifted into the arms of Ben. Well semi-lifted for he couldn't actually hold her.
"No your not! I am here to rescue the… the… erm…" Jack turned towards his mother who was watching her children play contempt with their wooden swords. "Mama what's the word for a lad that's been captured?" Smiling his mother replied to him.
"She's a damsel in distress Jack." Nodding, Jack turned back to his younger siblings.
"I am here to rescue this damsel in distress. Hand her over or I will have to fight you with my sword!!"
"You will never get her! I'm taking her away with me!"
"No your not. If you wont hand her over, then we will have to fight for her- with our swords!"
"Ok then. But I will win because I am the pirate and the bad man! Bad men win!"
"No they don't! Good guys win! Haha! I got you with my sword!" Ben looked at his brother blankly. "Your supposed to drop down on the floor and die now silly" whispered Jack to him. Ben's mouth went into an 'O' shape as he dropped to the floor and played dead. Jack walked over to Ana Maria and picked her up, a lot more successfully then his brother. "Don't worry lady, your safe now! I'm the good guy and I won!" Giggling Ana put her arms round her brother and hugged him to say thank you as she hadn't yet mastered the ways of talking.
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After that our family went from strength to strength. My farther got promoted, Ana Maria turned into a 'proper' girl, and began the grilling task of learning table manners and being polite, yet she still loved to play with her brothers and acting more like a boy, as well as playing with dolls and with our mother. From most peoples views she had the best she could possibly have, although until she was 8 and a half our parents lived in fear that sh may be taken from them, although to them it would never have come true.
On her eighth birthday, she wore the most expensive and beatuitful dress she had ever been given. Almost all through the day she had a constant smile on her face, until it was time to go to bed. But she didn't sleep past 9 o'clock as a man came and took her away from everything she knew.
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"Look we will give you anything? Do you want money we can give you money…" My mother sat in tears, as my father desperately tried to pay the man off.
"Look mate. I want me daughter and I'm not goin' t' leave without 'er. I've been lookin' for her ever since the navy destroyed me ship and took my women with ye. Until a couple of months ago I didn't know where she was, then I 'eard of your story, and everything fell into place. Now I want 'er to come with me. Do we understand each other Mr Sparrow?" My father didn't bother correcting the man on his name, as he looked grimly at my mother.
"Go fetch Ana please." Me and my brother could only sit and watch as my mother handed over a sleepy eyed Ana Maria to the man who called himself her Father. As he went to lever the room, she suddenly realized what was happening and began to kick and scream at him, tears ran down her face as she looked at us, asking us why we were letting him take her away. That look haunted us, but my mother and farther at its worst. My mother found it hard to carry on, and my farther vowed to get her back where she belonged, even challenging the man that said she couldn't be adopted until eight years had past why it wasn't seven years. Then he would still have the girl he believed as his daughter.
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It was 9 years later when I walked into a tavern in Tortuga. My whole family had gone off the rails in those 9 years, my Farther for starters had left the Navy and run away with another women, my Mother couldn't live without her daughter and had an 'accident' and had 'fallen' off the top floor balcony to instant death, and me and my brother, we had become those 'bad guys' we used to play when we were little. When I was 18 and he was 16 we went our separate ways, and now at 23, walking into the tavern I nearly got the shock of my life as a women walked up to me asking my name, then pro claiming that she was Ana-Maria…
To be continued…
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A/N please review… I know it's strange and not my usual style but… please review if anyone wants the second half. It will probably be just as strange. :-) Anyway hope you liked. Suzy x