Jack smiled as the horizon revealed the next port, or as he liked to think of it, the last port. Good times were held here, and two years seemed like an eternity since he last strolled along the Port Royal streets. "Captain!" the only feminine voice called from beneath the yards, and he looked down between the netting of ropes on which he was suspended. "You can't be expectin' us to dock at this port!" He swung onto the lower deck with a graceful leap, landing one knee bent to the fiery navigator.
"You can't be expectin' me to go another three months without rum." He stood and brushed himself off, seeing that the shore was growing closer. "No worries, love, we've got friends here." Jack gazed dreamily to the other boats already floating softly ahead. He felt horrible for missing the wedding; that boy must be at least three years old. He reached into his patched pants and retrieved a small chain to which a charm was strung. The intricate design of the bird, wings spread, balanced on his nimble fingers. William would have been proud, more proud than any stuffy governor. That boy was his grandson, and no one else could claim him. I'll be damned if he turns that boy into a land-loving disgrace, he thought to himself while trying to imagine how Miss Swann's delicate features would compliment Bootleg's own.
"Friends, Captain?" Anna Maria repeated with her usual angry protest. "Like the 'friends' we had at the last three ports? Those bloody backstabbers nearly had us all in shackles and our boat sailing the likes of Davy Jones…"
"No, no, no," he mumbled in that slurred tone. "This is different." Cotton's parrot landed squarely on the boat's shoulder, cocking its eye and cracking its beak.
"This time we'll get caught," she grumbled. He peered over his shoulder to make sure she had returned to the helm.
"Bad luck," he noted, producing a cracker from his dancing digits and feeding it to the parrot. "No rum for her."
"No rum for her," the bird echoed, "more rum for Sparrow!" He cracked a grin and gave it another treat.
"Amazing animal."