۞
The blacksmith's shop had been abandoned for some time... it was full of cobwebs, and the dust was thick upon the anvils and the tools that had been left behind. It was amazingly intact, as far as blacksmith shops went, and the little group of visitors looked all about to see if there were materials at hand.
William smiled a bit as he hefted the tools of his former trade in his strong, tanned hands. He turned and said to the rest, "If we can find some firewood that is suitable to get some good hot coals, I will look to make sure that nothing is living up there in the flue."
Jack had already begun to investigate the flue, peering up into the darkness with squinted eyes, seeing daylight up above, and hoping that there were no spiders to stare back at him...he hated spiders. He wrinkled up his nose, shuddered, and said, "Ick." He turned to William. "If anything is livin' up there, they will soon think tha' they are in a smokehouse, not a smiffy," he observed, holding the blanket wrapped object of their attention upon this day close to himself.
As Bill and Gibbs set out to look in back of the shop for firewood, Elizabeth spread a blanket out over a small bench and held her wiggling son in her arms. She did not care to set him down among the cobwebs, and instead settled him into her lap to watch the proceedings. Little Will was a goodnatured baby, and he seemed to be content to lay in his mother's arms. The shop was built much differently than the smithy in Port Royal, she observed. It was smaller by half, and there was no wheel to be pulled about by a little donkey to turn the mechanism that fanned the coals to keep them hot... this smithy was much more primitive, with a large hand bellows to the side of the forge, meant to be pumped by hand to fan the coals.
William was testing the condition of the bellows' leather as he poked about the inside of the forge with an iron poker, hoping that nothing was living in there, either. Elizabeth admired the sight of her husband, a sight that never failed to make her heart nearly burst with love... incredibly handsome, broad shouldered and tall, strong face under a faded blue bandana, the tails of which were trailing down his back with his long, curly brown hair... the bandana trailed down the back exactly like Jack's did. He had one single braid on the left side of his face, tied off with a bit of royal blue ribbon from Singapore... this single long braid held deep meaning for him, as it was tied off with a strand of Elizabeth's Chinese ribbon that kept their hearts bound symbolically when they were seperated by the curse of the Dutchman.
Turning her eyes to the slight figure standing to William's side, Elizabeth watched Jack with a bit of concern... his eyes were distant, and he was still holding the bundle against him, and it was evident that, in all of the activity going on about him, he was lost in thought as his listless eyes seemed to stare at the tiny bits of dust that blew about in the sunshine that was streaming in from the front door...
۞
As they entered Jack's cabin to find the broken sword, the captain was prattling on about finding proper places to keep things so that they might be found in good order, while he was delicately opening a cabinet wherein he kept clean clothing, a spare pair of boots, a number of his rolled sea charts and assorted candles in various states of burned and unburned condition. He dug around in a basket that was occupying the back corner of the cabinet, while William simply stood back and watched him, his arms folded across his scarred chest expectantly.
"Ye know, lad, I am a mite more organized than ye might expect tha' I am..." Jack started.
"I know, Jack," was William's patient reply. Jack turned around and looked at him, as if this surprised him,"Ye do?"
"Aye, Jack, I know that you keep things in pretty good order," William said, "I have never known you to not be able to put your hands on an object directly, no matter what it was... except for the time that we lost the sextant, and that was only because it had slid off of the table and under your bunk."
"I forgot about tha' one..." came the husky, muffled voice from the inside of the cabinet, as Jack seemed to disappear more and more within its depths. Finally, he emerged, his bandana pulled nearly off of his head after becoming caught upon a nail that the captain had forgotten was there. He slowly straightened up, and became very quiet as he turned to face William. In his hands, wrapped in a blanket so as not to be viewed, was the unmistakable shape of a hilt... the hilt and broken blade of Jack's trusty sword... the one that had stabbed the heart of Davy Jones... "Here it is..."
Jack's dark eyes turned up to William's, as the young man looked down at the bundle that was in the captain's hands. Jack did not move for a moment, then he slowly offered the bundle up to William.
Neither of them moved. It was a strange feeling, this was. Both of them had been so affected by the final action of this tool of battle... both of them, along with all of their loved ones. It was because of Jack's unselfish action to save William's life that Bootstrap Bill Turner was released from his oath... that the Flying Dutchman was reborn and with her new captain at the wheel, she helped the mighty Black Pearl to vanquish Cutler Beckett and sink him and his tyranny to the depths...
But it was also this sword that seperated William from his bride, his love... it bound him to a long servitude to the ghost ship that was the ferrier of souls... an action that Jack Sparrow still felt guilt for, even though they had freed William from his captaincy and he and Elizabeth were reunited. Jack had not laid eyes upon the sword since he and the Turners had parted ways after World's End... and it still laid hidden in the cabinet during the entire time since they had reunited, the Turners had joined the crew of the Pearl and baby Will had been concieved and born. This sword was not heavy in physical weight, but in symbolic weight it was very heavy, indeed.
William simply took the bundle, and opened it. It still looked the same... it felt the same... but he did not...William was not certain what it was that he was feeling. He took the hilt up into his hand, as Jack's sad eyes looked on... the captain did not recall that the sword had looked so worn and beaten before. It was a good sword, but like himself, it had taken its licks...
William hefted the hilt in his hand, turning it over and saying nothing. He turned it down in his hand... like as if to stab. Jack studied him in silence.
Finally, William looked up and smiled..."It shall be a fine sword once again, Jack. It's a clean break. I should thank Jones for that one. It won't take long to repair." William spun the sword upright in his hand expertly, and mused, "I shall make certain that it is a fine sword again... perfectly balanced... the blade has a clean break," and as he looked back up at the captain he said, "... and I want you to remember that we have made a clean break, also, mate... from those dark times..."
Jack's dark eyes looked into William's smiling ones. His own face began to grin, and he said, "Aye, whelp, a clean break. Maybe ye can polish th' ol' sword up a bit, too, eh?"...just as the Turners made him feel a bit polished up himself, these days...
۞
"Jack, we need to get a fire started in order to get the coals hot and ready to forge..." William said, shaking Jack from his thoughtful state. They had merely left Jack alone to drift off, as they all had bustled around him... they were used to this from him, now and then, and most times they let him be for awhile.
"Oh!" came the reply from the captain, who suddenly looked all around at his surroundings, then grinned, "Ahhh... I came prepared!" Elizabeth smiled slightly as she watched them, rocking the cooing baby Will in her arms. Jack always had a flint kit upon his person, it seemed... he had learned through the years that starting a fire in some form or another was always advantageous, whether to keep warm while marooned upon a rumrunner's island or to create a great deal of merry mayhem while sacking Nassau port without firing a single shot. As she watched him triumphantly produce the flint kit from his pockets, she thought to herself how, even though he was reckless and wild and full of himself, at times, it was because he was full of life... life that was precious to him. He might be annoying, but she loved her husband's cousin, this heartbreakingly handsome and most famous of pirates, with all of her heart.
Joshamee and Bill had found plenty of dry firewood still stacked in a cellar behind the smithy, and the bellows still seemed to be in good condition, although the leather was stiff with disuse. William and Jack set about looking for suitable materials with which to fashion a new blade, and William was genuinely pleased to find the rudimentary start of blades in a back storeroom, much to his surprise.
"Ye have t' remember, William..." Jack said, as he removed his coat and hat, and removed his baldric with its scabbard, which was still holding tightly to the sword that had stuck itself fast to its embrace.."Ye aren't in Port Royal any longer... this is Tortuga, an' th' most loyal customers of an esteemed establishment such as this one be pirates, not horses."
"I suppose that we had better try to get this sword out of the scabbard," William looked down at the baldric which Jack had laid down upon the old table that was in the middle of the room. He pulled upon the hilt... it was stuck tight. He pulled harder, and it was evident that it was not going to budge anytime soon. Jack looked at him suspiciously and said, "Ye aren't gonna damage me scabbard...we're old friends..."
"No..." William still struggled with the sword, then he offered one end to Jack, and between the two of them, they tugged and grunted, trying to loosen the sword from the scabbard. Elizabeth, Joshamee and Bill looked on, and finally the sword gave way... and sent Jack tumbling backwards with a shout of "OI!" He was able to stay upon his feet, but almost fell over backward over an anvil. William laughed as he finally was able to put the sword aside and take a look at the scabbard, in order to try to measure, with his eyes, how to contour the blade to fit within.
As the fire was lit and the embers began to glow, all of them witnessed the wonder of an artist at work... work that William no longer chose to pursue, but a craft that was engrained in his own chiseled muscles and strong hands... he was an artisan, making a thing of beauty from an instrument of death...
As Jack shed his shirt and began to pump the bellows in order to maintain the glowing coals, William also shed his shirt, and began to hammer away steadily at what was now red hot steel, both of them sweating in order to mend that which would always be at the side of the mad pirate captain who, amazingly, was responsible for every person in that room to be in the presence of the others...
۞
"Look at this, all o' ye!" Jack brandished his weapon for all to see. Bill and Joshamee had gone to a tavern and brought back a loaf of bread and some cheese for all of them (as well as a small handful of peanuts and a sliced lime at the request of their daft captain) during the heat of mid-day, and they had all spread another blanket that they had found in the smithy in the shade of a palm tree in the back. Joshamee had taken Little Will outside with them, and he and Bill had relaxed in the shade, spinning more yarns, while watching the baby nap in the coolness of the spreading branches above them. There was a well with fresh water in back, as well, and they had taken buckets inside to fill a cooling trough for the forge... the water was sweet and cool to drink, and they all took advantage of this, as fresh well water was very much a luxury for sailors and pirates alike.
Jack, William and Elizabeth all came out of the smithy into the afternoon shade, Jack leading the way, proud as a peacock, pointing to the chuckling Bill and Gibbs with his new prize. Bill had one hand protectively and gently rubbing little Will's back as he slept, brown curls blowing in the breeze. Jack and William were both still shirtless, tanned and gleaming with perspiration, mopping their brows with bandana tails that had been soaked in cool water from the trough, inside.
Elizabeth's eyes grew large, as she had to admit to herself that both of them were very attractive, indeed! She cleared her throat a bit and giggled to herself, for having such thoughts, then openly smiled... if anyone noticed, she thought, as her eyes took in the pair before her, just let them wonder what she was thinking. Her eyes turned to her husband, who had taken a glance at her, and noticed her admiring gaze watching them... he chuckled, and Elizabeth blushed deeply and giggled, again.
William placed an arm around Elizabeth's shoulders, and hers curled around his waist, as Jack knelt down upon one knee for his friends to take a closer look at this sword, which he was now so very enraptured with. The captain's golden grin was contagious as he tossed his head back proudly. Turning to William, beads jingling, Jack proclaimed, "Come on, William, step up an' let me brag on ye! Oh look, Wee Willie is wakin' up..."
"Just in time!" Elizabeth smiled, as she moved to gatherher little one into her arms, "He needs to see this!"
Indeed, at the sound of the familiar voices of his family, Little Will stirred and opened his soft brown eyes, gurgling happily for a moment, and bobbling his little head in an effort to take in his surroundings. As William looked on with a bit of a boyish smile, they all watched in amusement, as the captain looked directly into the infant's eyes and began to speak...
To be continued...