Chapter 15: Sailors' Delight

The Black Pearl sailed westward into a blazing sunset. Elizabeth came up next to Jack, who was manning the wheel, and purred into his ear, "Red sky at night, sailors' delight."

He turned his kohl-lined eyes to hers. "So Elizabeth, is everything ship shape? Is the crew happy with the treasure?"

She nodded. "The crew is ecstatic with the treasure."

"They should be. It's not every day that a pirate crew walks off with a voodoo bokor's personal fortune."

"When those zombies started popping up like mushroom, I thought we were all dead."

"We all thought that." After a while, he said, "Did you see what happened out there? Why do you think she tried to stop the attack?"

A seagull passed overhead, mewing.

Elizabeth said softly, "I think she did it because she realized she was in love with you."

He squirmed. "Silly reason," he grumbled. "Silly thing to die for, love. To give up everything for someone who doesn't love you back, for someone who's already betrayed you once. It's just plain silly."

"We're lucky that she didn't think so. You didn't love her?"

Jack shook his head. "This is my true love, luv: the sea, the Pearl, the horizon which stretches away forever, the endless freedom, the feel of wind in my hair and sea spray on my face, the knowledge that there's treasure in the hold and that my men are happy. No woman could ever compete with this."

They continued to sail towards the sun as it slipped over the horizon. Yellows were turning to gold; pinks to red. The blue sky slipped into indigo.

Elizabeth looked lovely in the first glow of twilight.

Then Jack said hollowly. "She's dead, Elizabeth."

"Only in a sense, Jack. She'll continue to walk the earth. She was killed by zombies, so she will become a zombie herself. She was killed by many zombies, with each one pouring zombieness into her as she died. So she will no ordinary zombie. She will be a zombie queen, ruling over a legion of lesser zombies."

"Really?"

"Really and truly. And one more thing you should know. The last powerful emotion that she had was her love for you. So, she's going to come searching for you. And if she ever finds you, she and her legion of zombies are going to eat your brains."

"That's a horrible thing to say to anyone!"

She shrugged. "I just thought you should know."

"Well, it's just terrible!"

"It's just part of the price you pay for being Jack Sparrow."

Emotion welled up inside of him, growing stronger, larger, raging like a hurricane. And suddenly it burst out of him in the words: "That's Captain Jack Sparrow!"

The End

Author's Notes:

I have never before written a story as serpentine and as kaleidoscopic as this one. As I wrote it, almost every element changed, and usually more than once. The story had a least four working titles. The original beginning was in St. Kitts, and the daughter of the governor there was such a minor character, she had no name. El León's astonishing one-man stand was first set in a barroom full of pirates in Tortuga.

(By the way, I am particularly proud of that scene. Heroes from Errol Flynn to Jackie Chan have successfully battled against overwhelming odds, but how often does one of the bad guys get to do this?)

The change which upset me the most is what happened to Suzanne. She was supposed to go off swashbuckling with Jack, to leave behind her dull life of meaningless luxury to take up a life of danger and adventure. I was as surprised as anybody when Jack suddenly turned on her, stole her jewels (supposedly), and ruthlessly abandoned her. (This plot twist was Jack's idea, not mine!)

This is my third Jack Sparrow story. I wrote this for the same reason I wrote the other two: to attempt to better understand the elusive character of Captain Jack Sparrow. Getting a grip on him is like getting a grip on a wet bar of soap. He is slippery and a puzzlement with a puzzlement.

We are much different, Captain Jack Sparrow and I. I am a hopeless romantic. In contrast, when it comes to romance, Jack is hopeless. In the movies, his relationships with women appear to consist solely of getting his face slapped. In three movies, he never had a lady love. In this story, he is so fixated upon finding treasure and upon keeping command of the Black Pearl, that he jettisons a daring, resourceful and beautiful woman who's madly in love with him.

I originally envisioned Père Nuit's voodoo hold over Suzanne being broken by Jack's fantastic love-making abilities. But contrary to my plan, Jack never makes it in between Suzanne's sheets. Instead, the voodoo curse is broken solely because of Suzanne's unrequited love for Jack. Grr, I just want to grab Jack and kick him right in the poop deck.

Thankfully, Jack does get his comeuppance at the end. Whereas I would have sailed happily away into the sunset with my loving woman by my side, Jack will be perpetually pursued by a zombie queen determined to devour his brains.

I wish to thank Sid Meiers, creator of the computer game "Pirates!" which taught me about small, out-of-the-way colonies like Petit-Goâve. My thanks also to "Google Translate," which helped me with my French and Spanish. Olé!