I want to offer my sincerest apologies. I have been lax with this story, and have not updated it in what seems like forever. I apologize.
This is not the end. I have, at the most, two more chapters planned.
Chapter 19: The Last Day
I followed my father down the trail in a daze, ignoring the pleading voice of Calypso in my mind. She reminded me of every happy memory I ever had, every moment I had wished had never ended.
My marriage. My mother tugging at the braids in my hair when I was six. Meeting Michael. Feeling my baby kick for the first time. Holding my first nephew. Working in the garden. Laying on the sand with the sun shinning on my face. Being in love.
You bedrayed me! she screamed in my mind. You bedrayed your broder, your husband!
I shuddered and let a few tears escape. But she was wrong, I betrayed no one. There would be no betrayals tonight.
Only the honoring of a promise and the lives of my parents.
Calypso, in her tattered yellow dress and bead necklaces stood next to the little boat on the shore. My father smiled a tired smile, touching her cheek gently. She smiled, leaning into his hand, then disappeared.
I felt the breeze caress my hair and ruffle my simple dress as my father and I pushed the boat off the sand into the water.
We both rowed, making good time to the Flying Dutchman. My goddess whispered a sweet tune in my ear, as we got closer to the ship.
The king and his men
Stole the queen from her bed
And bound her in her bones
The seas be ours
And by the powers
Where we will, we'll roam
Yo-ho
all hands
Hoist the colors high
Heave-ho
Thieves and beggars
Never shall we die
I shivered, still in a daze, as the song echoed in my ears and I boarded my new home.
"Who's that?" a young man asked as I stood on the deck with my father.
"My daughter, Calypso." Will grabbed my hand and started leading me to the captain's quarters.
"Bad luck to have a woman on board," the man muttered behind our backs.
"There just may be a day where a woman on board will be your only option, Joseph. They have just as much right to be here as you do. If they have the skills necessary to keep you men in line, one might become a captain. You don't remember the last Pirate King," he retorted, laughing. "But she was a wild one, a capable leader."
Joseph looked confused. "Wha …"
"You captain speaks of his wife, you lackwit." A much older man clapped his hand on the younger man's shoulder. "King Elizabeth Turner. My daughter-in-law." The old man laughed at Joseph's expression of shock.
"Mister Turner," Will said, his face suddenly serious. I squeezed his rough hand in reassurance, and glanced down at me. His eyes told me all I needed to know—his thankfulness, sorrow, and regret.
"Captain," the older man stated quietly.
"Come."
~*~The Dutchman~*~
"So, that is why you have brought the chest, and my granddaughter here? You would have me do this deed?"
"Yes," my father confirmed. "I would."
"You've become weak," Bootstrap Bill muttered.
"Perhaps. But that changes nothing. I wish this, and Calypso has agreed."
"Both of them? You know the Lady of the Sea will not be happy."
"She has agreed, though she is not pleased," I mentioned from behind the desk. I had kept my head down as they had discussed the manner and transfer of power my father's death would leave behind. I followed the coastline of the mainland with a finger. "She does not understand why, but the goddess is willing to see it done. A change from the conversation we had earlier. She was not happy at all then."
"It is settled then," Father declared.
"It would seem that way," Bill murmured hesitantly.
"Come back after nightfall. Calypso and I have much to discuss."