Chapter 11 – Davy Jones' Locker
It was the worst day of my life. It wasn't fair. Why end like that? We were all astounded. Jack, of course, felt terrible. Daddy said that there was nothing we could have done…but there was. We weren't paying attention. What had easily been the best day I had ever experienced turned very rapidly into the most horrible. It only took a few seconds.
We were all having such a good time: dunking, splashing, kissing…Jack turned to dunk Father, leaving Nick and I alone, unsupervised, and Mother holding onto the ladder that hung from the side of the Pearl. We all could swim, but ever since Mother's incident years ago with a corset under the black surface, she was much more timid in the water. The wind picked up and shifted, pulling the ship lazily about its anchor. None of us paid attention as it picked up speed, creating a strong, artificial undercurrent below the ship. We didn't notice, that is, until we heard Mother's scream. We all turned just in time to see her sucked below the surface, pulled, it seemed, by invisible hands in the darkness below the massive vessel.
"Elizabeth!" Father screamed with a terrified shriek in his voice, diving after her as the wind continued to cause the Pearl to cut through the water in our direction. Jack grabbed him by the back of the collar and swam away from the ship, pulling the struggling man behind him. Nick clasped my hand and did the same. I couldn't move. If it weren't for Nick, I probably would have sunk down without even realizing it. Then the wind stopped again. Not a breath of air moved over the water. It took a long moment for the gigantic ship to stop moving. Jack had no need to let go of the collar in his hand. Once the movement ceased, Father tore himself from the shirt and dove deep down, leaving Jack at the surface with the wet material in his hands. He followed Father down, leaving Nick and I alone once again. He hugged me tightly. I clung to him, trusting in his strength to keep me from drowning.
I closed my eyes, willing myself to wake up, to end this nightmare. Three days later, the nightmare hadn't ended. The darkness hadn't abated. The hole in my heart ripped wider with every beat, with every breath, with every second that passed. None of us had the mind to think, to act, to move. Wrapped in blankets below deck, we sat, trying to make sense of what had happened, torturing ourselves with "what ifs". We did all that we really could conceive of doing when we found her body pinned to the ship by the rear rudder. We buried my mother in the only place that seemed appropriate: the place where my parents met, where they were married, where I had been born…We buried her in the depths of Davy Jones' locker.