Day 2

Jack awoke just as the sky was beginning to lighten, a new day, so many possibilities. He had fallen asleep almost exactly where he had first arrived on the island, not wanting to get any further away from his precious pearl and freedom. But no, he was marooned on this island with anything but a chance of escape.

Standing up, he decided to take a look at his new surroundings. Still deep in thought he started walking, where to, he didn't know, only to realise a moment too late. Crash! The sound of glass tinkling as his head hit something hard. The ground seemed to rise up as Jack fainted.

Blackness, ultimate dark. Awaking a few moments later, he let his eyes adjust to the gloom, a square of light far above him, no way out. He stood up, only to hear the faint crackle of glass under foot, then silence. As his eyes became accustomed to the smothering darkness, he became aware of shelves, shelves upon shelves all around him. They were all filled with bottles, seeming to hold a dark coloured substance. On landing, Jack had smashed into one of these shelves, sending the bottles flying, the liquid flowing around his feet. He reached up to take one down, at the same time delving into his overcoat pocket to produce a bottle of a similar coloured liquid. Uncorking both bottles, he took a sniff of each.

Jack let out an exclamation, "Rum! I'm saved, and by the looks o' things it hasn't been here long either!" and so Jack sat down to wait, for who or what he didn't know, but they'd be back for the rum, if there was any left by the time Jack had finished with it.

"Hey, you! what do you think you're doing?" A face appeared in the square of light that was the hole opening. A tanned face with dark hair covered by a hat, female. Whoever Jack was expecting, he wasn't ready for this, but spoke up anyway.

"Waitin' for a rescuer, please, a little help here!"

The woman hesitated, taking her hat off and letting her long dark hair fall from its position under the hat. She finally spoke up.

"O.k., but put any weapons you have on the ground." She spoke in an accent, one which Jack couldn't quite place.

A few moments later he was standing amongst the palm trees surrounding the hole. He stood facing the woman, still clutching one of the bottles of rum. They stared at each other for a moment, before the lady spoke, she was only young, Jack realised, a girl.

"Who are you, what do you want?" she questioned.

"Captain Jack Sparrow of the black pearl, we raid pillage and plunder, you've probably heard of us." Jack started, lying through his teeth, hoping news of the new Captain hadn't spread this far.

"They've marooned you, haven't they?" she saw through it straight away.

Jack hesitated "Well.. maybe, they might of..., o.k. o.k. they've marooned me! You happy now?"

The girl laughed, " Join the club, we've been marooned as well."

" What do you mean 'we', there's more of you?"

"Come on, I'll introduce you, oh by the way, I'm Anamaria." the girl continued, she took Jack by the hand and led him into a clearing, gripping tightly to stop him from squirming away.

Heads turned, as Jack and Anamaria stepped into the clearing, ten of them in all, Faces young and old turned to look at Jack.

"Really, I don't need friends, I'm not a very social person," Jack muttered.

Two small children cautiously made their way to Anamaria, wary of Jack. They started questioning her in their native language. Even though Jack couldn't understand them, he knew what they were thinking. Who was this drunken stranger who had graced their presence and what was he doing here.

As Anamaria explained to them, Jack took a look round at the group. They were all working, he couldn't tell what they were making at first, but as a smell from one of the pots reached him, he realised.

"Rum, they're makin' rum!" he spoke aloud without realising.

"Well yeah, where do you think the rum in the store came from? We make it, sell it and profit from it, we're the rum runners!" Anamaria's voice came from behind him.

'Well that makes sense' Jack thought to himself.

"Do people come here to buy it?" he inquired, for if people did, then they brought transport, ships, a passage off this island for Jack.

"They can if they want, but mainly we deliver it to all the major ports. Where do you think the taverns get their rum from?.."

Jack interrupted, "Then you have transport?"

"Well obviously, how else could we transport it? fly?" she laughed, not noticing how desperate Jack was becoming.

"When're you next leaving?" he asked desperately.

"In about a weeks time, it would have been sooner, but as you drank about half of the rum in the store, it has to be delayed."

Anamaria took a step forward as if to move away, but was stopped as Jack blocked her path. He got down on his knees and begged.

"Please, please, please can I have a passage off? I have to get my ship back. Please, I'll do anything, please..." he paused, suddenly realising something.

"Wait, why are you still here? You've got a ship, you can escape!"

Anamaria sighed, "We make a lot of gold, Jack, and if we set up a business elsewhere our recipes would be stolen. At least here we have our business and a big income. I might not have much freedom, but I'm happy." she paused.

"Now, as you were saying, you want a passage off. Well, I don't know..."

Jack grabbed her skirt in desperation,

"Please, I'll do anything!"

"Well, now you come to it, we do have a shortage of rope."

Jack looked at her in puzzlement, his faced creased into a frown. Anamaria's eyes wandered over Jack, finally resting on his dreadlocks. He clutched at them in terror,

"No, please no!"

"Well, have you got hair in any other place, like your back for instance?"

Jack closed his eyes and took a deep breath before replying,

"...yeah..."

"Aaaah!" Jack screamed. He was lying on a bed of leaves, stripped to the waist, his back exposed to the evil hands of Anamaria. Next to it lay a pile of hair, which had only a moment before, been on Jacks back. It was now being swiftly carried away by the workers to be made into rope.

"Hold still, I'm almost done, it's not that painful."

She stuck the last piece of natural sticking appliance to his back, to be ripped off seconds later, bringing the last of the hair with it. Jack let out a yelp in response, breathing heavily for a few minutes afterwards.

"I'm done, you can get up!" she laughed.

"How?" he squeaked.

"I won't be able to lie on it for weeks. Of all the stupid things to do just for a passage off." Jack muttered to himself as Anamaria left him, unable to move and alone.