Book One - Chapter Nine: A Busy Day for the Surgeon
Without much word of warning, the Roving Maid dropped anchor and set out a boat to an island in which the captain ordered Barbossa and eight other men to take ashore. The Jack led them to the island while remaining very vague about the details of the excursion with the rest of the crew. It was hours before they came back, but they did not return empty handed. Jack had led them to one of the wreckage sites of one of the former Monchris ships. The men who survived buried their wealth in hopes of returning. Unfortunately for them, nearly all of the Monchris were wiped out, leaving their goods to be divided amongst the rest of the world. The crew hauled up the bounty and gathered to see how the captain would share it. The Captain Jack Sparrow was always quite far in his divisions. He had Barbossa calculate their basic costs, the details which Barbossa was primarily responsible for, and then figure out an even number for the crew. While counting, Barbossa reserved one of the found pieces of jewellery, a nicely shaped piece of jade on a gold chain, and gave it to his daughter - the start of a new tradition.
While the crew were still gathered around, they failed to notice another small boat ferry out to the Roving Maid. It was not until the better part of two dozen men crossed onto the deck, taking hold and killing the first man in sight, that the Roving Maid's crew noticed the attack. The ambush put every man into action, except for Barbossa whose first thoughts were to get his daughter to a safe place. He drew out his sword and took hold of Amelia's arm with his left hand, keeping her close while he backed towards his cabin. When he got to the door he had her open it and then quickly instructed her to lock and barricade the door, not letting a single soul in. She did has her father instructed her to do. She could hear the entire battle but could not see in whose favour it was falling into. Swords were clashing, men were growling and shouting, shots were being fired and bodies were thudding to the ground or against the walls. The young girl could hear a voice call out an order. It was Captain Jack Sparrow who, having seen another boat ferrying out to support the first few waves that made up the ambush, called out to his men to weigh the anchor. At least while in they were in motion at sea, those little boats would not be able to row fast enough to follow them.
Amelia could hear the harsh clink of the chains dragging along the side of the ship. The noises piled one on top of another, creating horrible images inside of little Amelia's head. She feared for her father and for the others whom she could almost all call by name now. A part of her did not want to know how the fight was going, just in case it was being lost. She covered her ears and began to hum to herself. As the noises grew louder, so did her song, until at last the only thing Amelia could hear was the sound of her own voice.
Hours passed and Amelia remained confined in the cabin. She had hoped that her father would come to call her when the coast was clear. In thinking that the fighting must have ended by now, Amelia crept close to the door and put her ear to it to listen for familiar voices. She could hear voices, some cries of agony, and people giving and taking orders. None of the voices seemed to belong to her father and that worried her. Taking a chance, Amelia unlocked the door and slowly opened it. She spied out of the crack in the door. The sight startled her. She had never before seen the results of a battle. There was blood and bodies, men limping and others lying waiting for care or death. There were those who were able to assist their mates and those who tossed the enemy bodies over the deck once their belongings had been stripped off of them. Still, Amelia did not see her father so she opened the door further and watched her step carefully as she walked along the deck. Beside her, she saw a man hyperventilating, his face covered in blood and his hand cupping his eye. He laid there, a shot in his arm and a cut across his face. The blood from his right eye poured down, forcing him to close his other eye and keep from screaming in case the pouring blood would choke him. Amelia recognized him and knelt down beside him. She took a handkerchief and wiped his face, trying to keep the blood away. Feeling this, Ragetti opened his left eye and saw the young girl sitting over him.
"Amelia!" her father's voice called out to her as he rushed towards his daughter.
He took her by the arm and urged her to get back into the cabin.
"But he's hurt," she said.
"Aye, many are. You shouldn't stir here," Barbossa returned.
"I want to help, Papa," she said.
Barbossa examined the injured man. His wounds did not seem to be fatal, but they would not be pleasant to endure.
"Fetch us more clean cloth," Barbossa ordered his daughter, "and have someone bring boiled water."
Amelia did as she was told to do. She ran below deck, finding that someone was already preparing the water. She found sheets of cloth and ran back up to the deck, passing a sheet here and there when men would ask for them, but she made sure that two were saved for her father and Ragetti. Pots of hot water were being brought up and those who were able to were quickly making use of it. The Roving Maid had only one surgeon aboard, a man named Tigg. He was going around from body to body up on deck and finally he came to Ragetti's aid. Barbossa left his daughter under the care of the surgeon so that he could be of use elsewhere.
"The ball's still in there," the Tigg speculated.
He tore apart Ragetti's sleeve and used a piece of the sleeve to tie a tight band around the man's bicep. Using a pair of tweezers, the surgeon dug into the bullet hole wound to remove the lead ball. Ragetti began to holler from the pain. The surgeon gestured for Amelia to pick up a leather strap that he had brought with him. She knew what he intended and so she offered it to Ragetti to place inside his mouth to bite on. Ragetti took it and bit the strap firmly. The surgeon dug into the wound once more, searching for a remaining piece of sleeve that could cause an infection of the blood if Ragetti's wound were to heal over it. The retrieval was successful. The next procedure, however, would not be so easy. The surgeon had Ragetti remove the handkerchief from his face so that he could examine his injured eye. The cut was deep and the pain Ragetti felt as the surgeon forced open his eyelid nearly caused him to pass out.
"Master Ragetti, should the cut in your eye become infected, the infection could spread to the back, affecting your brain. If we remove it now and cleanly, we lessen that risk," the surgeon said.
Ragetti cried in protest. The thought of losing an eye was not as bad as the thought of enduring the removal of it. It would be something that Tigg would not rush doing and that he could not do alone. In the mean time, he stitched up Ragetti's arm and set out to help others in quick medical fixes.
Ragetti was placed on a table. His arms and legs were strapped down and a man was appointed to hold on to each limb in case the patient should pull loose. Another man was in charge of feeding him rum and whiskey to dull his senses as best as possible and then place the leather strap back in his mouth. Tigg had the surgeon tools displayed in front of him and began the operation. He used a pair of tongs to keep the eyelids spread apart and asked for a volunteer to hold the tongs in place. Then the surgeon had the task of scooping up the eye and holding it high enough for Amelia, with her little hands, to cut the stems with the surgeon's small scissors. Amelia was afraid to do it. Ragetti was screaming and convulsing from the unbearable pain. She did her best to keep a steady hand as she followed the surgeon's instruction. Once snipped the eye was completely removed. What remained to do was to clean out the cavity of the eye socket. By this stage, Ragetti had passed out from the pain. By the time that he woke up, the pain was still very much present, but a patch was covering the place where his eye once was.
Amelia had earned some respect from the crew by helping the surgeon as she did. Though they still did not know how to treat the young girl, they no longer intimidated her. She felt as though she had a certain duty to oversee to the wellbeing of her patient, Ragetti. She brought him food and talked to him as he lay in recovery. It was a long while before Ragetti could bring himself to hold up his end of the conversation, so until that time, Amelia mostly told him stories. He was also reluctant to eat at first, so Amelia would make deals with him, encouraging him to eat at least a little at a time. Her visits were quite regular until at last Ragetti was in a state in which he was expected to join the rest of the crew. His duties remained the same so the difficultly rested on learning how to perform them accurately with half the sight and an altered depth perception. Amelia made it her task to help her new friend with this too. At first she would simply help guide his hand if he struggled to grab hold of something right away. Or, if she was unsure of what his task was, she would have him explain it, then she could hold up either the tools he would need next, or the items he was currently working on. Basic things like scrubbing the deck were easy enough jobs for Ragetti to do alone, though Amelia would help with carrying the bucket if he needed to go over a step, allowing him to focus on readjusting his perception without needed to worry about spilling the water. When it came time to clean the cannons, however, the task required a more particular attention, which Amelia was more than glad to be of use for. Soon she was learning the trade of all sorts of basic ship maintenance duties and delighted in being capable of performing them well without instruction.
Barbossa had noticed his daughter taking on a crewman like position on the ship but did not think it to be of any great concern, at least until he saw first hand how much she had learned to do by this time. One morning Barbossa was walking the deck to find his daughter swabbing the deck while Ragetti sat close by, mending a hem in one of the girl's dresses with needle and thread. Only he and Captain Jack Sparrow found the sight to be an unusual one, the rest of the crew had become accustomed to such a role reversal.
It was not much longer before the Roving Maid came near Stone Chapel again. Amelia said her goodbyes to the crew. She knew them each by name and gave them each a hug and a promise of returning as soon as her father would allow it. She did not have the same enthusiasm to hug the captain, however. She saluted him instead, just as she had seen the crew members do many times.
"Thank you, Captain, for permitting me aboard the ship," she tried to say as crewman-like as possible. "If it's not too much trouble, I should like to sail again someday."
Captain Jack Sparrow muttered an answer, saying something to the effect of how he did not see the need to have a little girl aboard but would not oppose to it if she were to return some time in the distant future. That was a good enough answer for the young girl. Amelia ran back to her father and told him the good news that she could do this all again. Barbossa was not quite as excited, given the ordeals of this last journey, but he was pleased about her enthusiasm. With every farewell having been said and done, Barbossa took his young daughter, arm in arm, and walked her back home.
Victoria answered the door with tears in her eyes, anxiously embracing and kissing her only daughter. Barbossa did not say a word to greet his wife, he simply said that his daughter was in good hands and one day soon he would take her back with him again. Victoria protested but Amelia swore that she would love nothing more. The issue was not discussed further. Amelia said her goodbyes to her father and watched him leave again, but she was not disheartened this time. She knew that he would come back for her again.
Victoria did not inquire about her daughter's voyage. She simply repeated how happy she was to have her home safe and sound. The only concern that Victoria seemed to have was the condition in which Amelia had returned in. Her clothes were not the cleanest, her hair had not been properly done, and she had no layering under her dress. Victoria objected to how "plain" the girl looked, but did not blame her, knowing that her father would never think to ensure their daughter's decent presentation.
Amelia learned that, to account for her daughter's absence, Victoria had told her friends and neighbours that Amelia had been sent to visit a distant relative, an aunt who was determined to see to her niece's betterment. When told of these details, Amelia knew that the stories of her adventures, of her father's pirating career, were to be kept secret. This actually made the young girl happy. Like the mermaids, this was something that a lady like her mother just would not understand. As for Amelia, she had the sea in her eyes, the waves in her hair, and a freedom in her soul that she finally understood.