Commandeering Commodore
Chapter 51
Jack walked off a ways from the couple and stopped to listen in the hopes of hearing Teague or the Commodore. He shot an exasperated look over his shoulder as even at this distance all he could hear were the unmistakable sounds of Elizabeth's voice and of Will clumsily thrashing about in the underbrush as he tried to follow along behind her. He gave a little growling sound and walked on a little farther.
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"Elizabeth, are you sure we are even going the right way?" Will said with irritation as he fought with both the armload of branches that was perilously close to becoming unbalanced and the coalescence of undergrowth that was doing its best to tangle his feet.
"William Turner!" Elizabeth said in a huffy tone, "Are you impugning my sense of direction?"
"No Elizabeth," Will said in a defeated tone, "It would just be nice to be able to put this wood down somewhere soon."
"Well then William, you need to quit dawdling and step it up a little."
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"Now Commodore, you'll have to admit makes much more sense on me own part ta be shootin the pig rather than yer fine self. This way I have much more better help carryin the carcass back ta camp, I'm havin me doubts as to how much help the boar woulda been with that ya see."
"Yes, well," James answered dryly as he and Teague finished binding the boar's legs to a sturdy branch they had found, then went on to ask, "So just why did you ask me to accompany you Captain?"
Teague paused before he answered, and James watched as several emotions flitted across the man's face. "A bit of information if ya wouldn't mind Commodore."
"You surely know I would not be at liberty to divulge anything that might pertain to anything even remotely having to do with Naval business." James replied.
"Aye Commodore, no question of that…….more of a personal nature this would pertain to as it were." Teague answered his words coming a bit hesitant at the last.
"Personal to whom?" James asked.
"A bit yer personal nature Commodore, or more specifically pertainin to yer raisin for that matter."
"My raising?" James was not sure at all where the man was going with this.
"Aye Commodore, yer raisin." Teague said his voice full of something James couldn't quite define.
"Why would the way I was raised have any bearing on you Captain. Just what interest could you have in that particular subject?" James asked with just a bit of caution combining with the curiosity in his tone.
Teague looked up at him, met his eyes and James could see the man was struggling with something. Teague cleared his throat and although the something was still showing clearly in his eyes he smiled and said cheerily, "Yer absolutely right Commodore, no bearin on me atoll. Now what say ya we hoist this pig up and off with us back ta camp."
As they began making their way back to camp carrying the boar between them James, who was following Teague, couldn't help but wonder just what the man had on his mind and just what it had been he had almost asked him about.
"Captain Teague," James said to the man's back, "I sense there was a matter you were loath to bring up back there for reasons known only to you. I assure you I was not trying to be churlish but my childhood is a subject I am not usually comfortable talking about."
"No worries Commodore, I fully understand." Teague said as he flopped a hand casually off to the side."
James pondered this for a few moments before again addressing Teague's back.
"If it is a matter of import to you Captain…." James began and was interrupted by Teague.
"Commodore, I was just ponderin whether once ya make a mistake, a mistake of seemingly endless proportions, that in effect effects more n just you but mayhaps those around you, and mayhaps those are persons of which you have no business effectin with this mistake of seemingly endless proportion, and do in fact owe these certain personages much more n you've given 'em, if it's possible to ever change the change you've brought about in yerself and theirselves as it were by this seemingly endless proportional mistake."
"If I am following you correctly, and that is up for debate and highly in question here, am I to understand you have done something to someone in your past that you are now regretting?" James asked.
"Ah Commodore, I've always said from the first moment I heard of ya that ya be a man of fine upstanding values and an insightful and acute mind." Teague answered with a chuckle. "Ya do seem ta be on top of me dilemma."
"I still fail to see what this matter would have to do with my upbringing." James said uncomfortably, not liking a bit where this conversation was leading.
"Did you and yer Mum and Da ever make it right between ya?" Teague asked simply, although his tone belied the emotion he was holding at bay.
James steps faltered a bit as a flood of memories washed over him. Memories he had until now been fairly successful in keeping locked away in some remote corner of his mind. Memories he did not want to relive even in the slightest.
"Not to any extent that I would have been satisfied with." James said more to himself than Teague.
"But ya did try at one time or the other did ya not?" Teague asked quietly, "And makin the attempt was the honorable thing ta do was it not? And no fault of yours that it was not met with the same spirit it was given in by the others involved." After a short pause he continued, "Did the attempt, no matter how the measure of failin it brought in return, amend ya any? Was yer spirit the better for the doin of it?"
"I am not sure how to answer that. I may have had a short respite for the attempt but the failure of procuring the desired results is what one must base the outcome on." James said introspectively.
"Nay lad, that be the Navy in ya speakin, the tryin I'm thinkin was the important part of that maneuver." Teague answered.
James opened his mouth to reply but was stopped by a crashing in the woods, a string of curses, and then the familiar voice of Jack Sparrow shouting, "Oye! You two, what are ya doin there? Yer not doin anything stupid are ya?"
To Be Continued
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