Thicker Than Water – Chapter Four – I Just Wanted a Banana…
Finally got rid of that stupid map, Thought Jack. He smiled to himself, despite all the bad luck he'd been having.
He had been right, that day at the docks when Blackmore approached him. Barbossa and the rest of the crew had mutinied and left him stranded on an island. Luckily for Jack, he hitched a passage with some rumrunners and found himself headed to Singapore. A four-month trip, with all the extra stops, bad weather, and getting lost twice. He had many fine adventures on that trip.
Singapore was a lovely place. Jack decided that he would regroup there. His ultimate goal was, of course, to get back his ship, The Black Pearl. He was a slave to hitching rides and sneaking his way around. He wanted his freedom back.
After about a year of fights, rum, and prostitutes, he figured it was time to get a move on. He snuck his way onto a British trade ship that was headed to Port Royal. About three months in, the ship was overtaken by pirates. Jack made his way through all the fighting and shouting and found a nice comfy hiding spot aboard the pirate ship to complete the rest of his voyage. The pirate ship, as it turned out, was headed to the Turks and Caicos Islands. Their stops to restock, however, were much longer and disorganized. What should have taken one month to get to there ended up taking three.
While there, Jack decided to have some fun. He mugged a Royal Navy officer and took his clothes. For the next two years he sailed aboard The HMS Infinity as Officer Jack Smith. The crew loved him as an officer and they all hated to see him retire so soon. He left his post in England where he stayed for another three years, impersonating other people for kicks, like a clergy from the Church of England, and a professor at Cambridge University.
Jack was fired from his teaching post at Cambridge. Apparently the earth is flat, not round.
For the next eight years Jack found himself a small boat and sailed the seas. It wasn't a big enough boat to chase the Pearl. For that he would need a ship and crew. But to commandeer a ship he would need the right resources and an opportune moment.
So he decided to follow wherever his compass led him. Going to whatever you want most in the world would be great, right? Wrong!
The first two years of following the compass were wonderful. Treasure, rum, anything he wanted. Until the day when all he wanted in the whole world—was a banana. The compass failed to explain the surprisingly primitive tribe currently residing on the island with the bananas. Jack was forced into a three-year term as chief of their tribe, and then ceremoniously cutting off his pinky as a ritual for his resigning. Thankfully he managed to run away before losing his pinky.
The last three years of his trip were painfully uneventful. In the end, he just decided to head back to Tortuga. It had been, after all, fifteen years since he was last there. Wait a minute. Fifteen years?