Past or Future

Chapter Two

Mixed Up Numbers

Author's Note: Oh my gosh, I'm like, bouncing! ELEVEN reviews for the first chapter! That's SO great. I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Also, I am so sorry this took so long! I've been buried under final exams, so I hope you understand!

Since Silver is from 1967, I'm trying to keep her dialogue as late 60's as possible. I wasn't born until 1988, so it's very difficult. Sorry if it's really bad. If any of you have any dialogue-related suggestions, please let me know.

If it interests you, Sylvia Green was named after Sylvia Llewelyn-Davies (the mother of the five boys who inspires J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan), and Mr. Green, my fifth-grade band teacher.

If any of my Unfortunate Miracle or Cruise Ship series readers are getting worried, don't be. I haven't given anything up. This is just something to keep me busy while I'm waiting for the seventh Harry Potter book and At Worlds End to come out.

Lonaargh: Thank you! I'm really glad you like it!

JeanieBeanie33: I like it, even though it's really 50's. I suppose if I had to choose which of the Beatles I think is cuter, I'd probably pick John Lennon. It his glasses I like, all round and stuff. Yeah, I'm weird, I know.

Ivy U Rhizzpi: You can see the name of the boat on the extra thingy on disk two of the first movie. Yeah, I don't remember what it's called. But you can see it if you look closely.

phantomphan1915: (runs from rabid reviewer)

KayleeG: Creepy? Yeah, maybe a little. That's close, but not exactly right.

ohbugger7: Aw, thank you! I hope you think this is just as amazing. Really, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Mlle.Fox: Thanks very much!

JollyVenturer: Who wrote it? I want to read it!

Almenel-Miriel: More chapters for you...and everyone else!

romancejunkie: Hey, it's you. Hello again! Oh, you said nifty! I'm not the only one!

merry: Thank you! Just curious though. How can you go overboard with 60's references if it's set in 1967?

Silver jerked awake suddenly and turned to her side, coughing up a lot of salty water. Why was it so salty?

"You all right, lass?"

Once she stopped coughing, she looked around. There was a man sitting beside her, dressed in what could have been a pirate costume. It wasn't one she had seen around Disneyland, though. He wore a leather three-cornered hat atop a red bandanna, a long brown coat, and brown boots (which were definitely out of style, even for a pirate costume). There was a sword and an old flintlock pistol attached to his belt. His hair was brown, and had beads and various other trinkets braided into it. His dark brown eyes, which were similar to Paul McCartney's, were lined in dark make-up. But despite his strange appearance, he wasn't too bad-looking.

"I'm cool, man," she told him, sitting up. She noticed they were in a boat that had about three inches of water in the bottom. Behind them there was nothing but open water, and ahead was what looked like a port town, dotted with white sails. "Uh, where are we?"

"Well, that's Port Royal," he said with a slur in his voice, and gestured oddly at the town. Silver looked at the town, then back to him.

"Where's Port Royal, and how did I get here?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Port Royal's in the Caribbean, love," he explained. "And I don't know how you got here." He grinned cheekily. "I saw you fall from the sky, and I couldn't very well let such a lovely lady drown, now could I?"

Silver stared at him, now considering the possibility that he was a lunatic. "I fell from the sky," she said slowly, "into the Caribbean?" He nodded. She burst into laughter. "Nice joke, man."

He watched her curiously. "Where are you from? Don't recognize your accent."

"Anaheim, California," she said, still laughing.

"I don't think I've heard of it. Is that a new colony?"

Her laughter died away quickly. Colony? "You've never heard of California?" she asked incredulously, and he shook his head, causing the beads to clink together. "Hollywood? Los Angeles? San Francisco?" The was no recognition. "Disneyland?"

"What's a disney?"

She let her mouth hang open shamelessly. Who hadn't heard of Walt Disney? She didn't know why she asked the next question, but she did. "What – what year is it?"

"1729, I believe," he answered, watching her.

Her eyes got huge and she stood up, splashing in the water. "No it's not, it's 1967!"

The man, whose name she still did not know, stared up at her, his face unreadable. "I think you've got yer numbers mixed up."

"No, you've," she pointed at him, "got your numbers mixed up!"

He stood up, swaying oddly. "What's your name?" She just stared at him. "Your name, lass!"

"I'm...Sylvia Green. Who are you?"

He looked her up and down and then grinned. "Captain Jack Sparrow, Miss Green," he said, bowing flamboyantly. He took her hand, which was still pointing at him, and kissed it lightly. He grinned up at her, and she counted three gold teeth. "At your service."

Silver stared at him as he straightened up. I guess chivalry hasn't been murdered yet, she thought, as she tried to settle the butterflies in her stomach. "Captain?" she asked. "Are you a pirate?"

"Aye," he said, and glanced at her clothing. "Aren't you?"

She looked down at herself. "Oh, no, these are just my work clothes."

He looked genuinely surprised. "Work? You work?"

She gave him a look. "Yes, I do." Before he could respond to this, she asked, "Shouldn't you be worried that your boat is sinking?"

"Ah yes," he said, as he had only just remembered that the boat was filling with water. "Now where...? Ah!" He swooped down and picked up a bucket and began scooping up water and tossing it out. Silver stood by awkwardly, not seeing anything she could use to help him.

As they got closer, some kind of rocky formation came into view. Hanging from it were three skeletons, nooses around their necks. A sign hanging in front of a fourth noose read, 'PIRATES YE BE WARNED.'

Jack noticed the dead pirates and stood up. He took off his hat, held it to his heart, and saluted them.

"'Properly warned ye be, says I,'" Silver quoted quietly, staring at the pirates' skeletons.

Jack heard, and looked at her curiously. "What was that, Sylvia?"

She looked at him, trying to decide on the best way to explain it. "It's from...a play I saw."

Jack nodded in understanding, then looked from the water in the boat to the docks. "Ah, she'll make it," he said, and then climbed up to the top of the mast and grinned down at her. "Come on up, love," he said, offering her his hand, "you'll get awfully wet if you stay down there."

Silver climbed up to join Jack, and the boat sunk steadily as they approached the dock. The men working in a nearby boat all stared at them as the sinking boat passed by. They all did look properly dressed for 1729.

The boat stopped at the end of a dock, and Jack stepped on to the dock. For a brief instant, Silver saw a pirate, loaded with swag, trying to make it into his boat without dropping his haul. She quickly shook it off and followed Jack.

They passed a white man and a small black boy on their way off the dock. A slave? wondered Silver sadly. Poor thing.

"Hold up, there, you!" The man called, and Jack and Silver walked back to him. "It's a shilling to tie up your boat at the dock."

"We didn't tie it, man," Silver said instantly, pointing at the boat. Jack smirked, and who she guessed was the harbormaster glared at her.

"And I shall need to know your names," he added, ignoring her and opening his book.

Jack reached into his pocket. "What do you say to three shillings," he tossed down the coins onto the book, "and we forget the names?"

The man looked to the coins and then to Jack. He smiled and shut the coins inside the book. "Welcome to Port Royal, Mr. and Mrs. Smith."

Jack pressed his hands together in a silent gesture of thanks, and Silver frowned at being called 'Mrs.'

She smirked as Jack took a small bag of coins from the harbormaster's stand and shook them before putting it in his pocket. "The ol' five-finger discount?"

Jack looked back at her, frowning. "The what?"

"The five-finger discount. Stealing. You get it?"

"Ah." He smiled slightly in understanding. "Yes."

"Now, he began, heading for another dock were a large ship was tied up, "we need a ship."

Author's Note: Well, that ending kinda sucked. Oh well. Hopefully it'll get better as I go on. Sorry, but the next chapter might take a while. I haven't even started writing it. Sorry. Don't forget to leave a review!