6. Questions and Contemplations

Jack and I exchanged glances and continued to listen to her story.

"….we ran to the store and those horrible men were chasing after us. We broke into the store and I played the piano right away, for there was no telling when those men would catch up with us or if they would kill us. So I played the piano faster than ever and they finally caught up to us. I remember looking up from the piano and seeing one of the men breaking a window. At that moment, I closed my eyes and there was this flash,"

She closed her eyes as though trying to remember what happened next, then opened them suddenly.

"I can't remember what happened after that flash, except when I next opened my eyes, Will and I were nearly submerged in the ocean…"

"That's what happened to us," I say quickly, then turning towards Jack. "What happens to you while I play?"

Elizabeth's serious eyes shifted to Will curiously, "yes,--what does happen for you?"

"To be honest, luv, I haven't a clue," Jack says, scratching the back of his head, thinking..

"Will?" Elizabeth asks, eagerly.

"Well, I remember you playing and feeling incredibly tired. My guess would be that both Jack and I fell asleep during the playing,"

"That would make sense," I say, deep in thought.

The four of us continued silently sitting on the dock for a few moments more. None of us knew what to say or what to do.

"Where do we go from here?" Elizabeth finally asks, breaking the deafening silence.

"Do you remember what the legend of the song wants us to do?" Will asks me.

"Well, the music was in my old store, but there was a robbery and someone stole it—I don't know who," I say, thinking hard about that night.

"Luv, what is it?" Jack asks, putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Nothing—I was just remembering that night," I say, turning to him and looking him in the eyes.

"Well do ye remember anything about the legend ye read about?" Jack asks.

"Yes—I remember the most important part that I read said something about how we have to keep everything out of the hands of evil people because they can use it's wishful properties to destroy everything and such because they will have an enormous amount of power," I ramble quickly.

"Well then—we've got a lot of work ahead of ourselves!" Will laughs nervously.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Norrington would have something like this song in mind if it was easily accessible to him," I say.

"Do you know if he knows of the song?" Elizabeth asks.

"I'm not sure, but I think it's a good possibility. He's become such a power-hungry man it certainly wouldn't surprise me," I reply, thoughtfully thinking everything over.

"I could definitely see Norrington using the song to better his status," Will chimes in suddenly.

"So how should we go about finding out if Norrington has the song? Or finding the song in general?" Elizabeth asks.

"I don't know. I mean,--we don't even have a ship to sail anywhere!" I reply, glancing over at Jack, who was just staring out at sea.

"Jack? Where's the Pearl?" Will asks.

"She could be anywhere," he replies solemnly. "We last left 'er in Tortuga when we sailed there. From there, the crew could 'ave gone anywhere,"

"So it is possible they could be here, though, right?" I ask.

"Per'aps. It's possible, but not probable. There's a good chance of anything---there's also a bad chance of anything…as well as a bad chance of nothing, and a good chance of nothing…" Jack rambles on and then stops talking when he sees us staring at him.

"So basically what you're saying is that the probability of it being here is just as good as it being anywhere else," Will says with a chuckle, trying to make sense of Jack's rambling.

"Aye," Jack replies with a grin and a nod of his head.

"Well then maybe we should try and find the Pearl first?" I ask, feeling completely at loss for ideas.

"Yes, but what good would that do us? If Norrington has the music then all we have to do is find him and we know exactly where he is," Will replies.

"I know, but if we have the Pearl at our back hand, then at least we have a getaway plan if Norrington backfires. You know very well he can chase us into the far corners of the Earth if he so wishes," I state, trying to make sense of everything.

"True, but let's say he has the music and we get it from him, our journey's done," Will says firmly.

"No it's not. We have to sail to the island where that ancient tribe lived and bury the music and lyrics there. That's also why we need the Pearl,"

"Okay then. We find the Pearl," Will succumbs to my argument.

"I'm not saying that we can't try and search Norrington while we can—I'm just saying that before we make a commitment to searching him, we should have a getaway plan first,"

"That's my gal!" Jack smiles at me and wraps his arm around me. "Only a true pirate plans their whole attack from the beginning—getaway plans and all. I've taught ye well, pet!"

"You've taught me nothing! I'm only suggesting what makes sense!"

"Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight!" Jack snickers and begins poking me in the stomach.

"Stop it!" I smack him upside the head.

"These are the contemplations of true pirates," Will laughs with Elizabeth while Jack and I fight each other.