Girl Sailor
Girl, if you're a seascape
I'm a listing boat, for the
Thing carries every hope.
Of all the intersecting lines in the sand
I routed a labyrinth to your lap
and never used a map sliding off the land.
You belong to a simpler time
I'm a victim to the
Impact of these words,
And this rhyme.
-Sea Legs by the Shins-
It was like returning to the center of the universe, or the beginning of life as he knew it. Jack had been dead for almost two years, roaming without a point and pillaging with only half the severity and determination that he had come to be known for. He had taken a swift nineteen months on the open sea and turned them into nothing more than a stream of relaxation and thoughtful rest for his crew, and especially for himself.
In fact, had it not been for the trunks of jewels they had discovered in discard at the bottom of a reef in Ambergris Cay near the Mexican coast, they would have returned empty handed, drunk and ready for good company to ease the pain of it. Luck had been on their side though, and even more than luck in Jack's own case, pure coincidence and fate.
They inched through the darkness of the Devil's Throat tunnel, coming to the light of the center fortress minutes between soft conversation and arguments about women and workload. There had been no time for stopping and indulging their hungry appetites since Mumbai, and Jack feared the worst was to come to the women of his home on this evening.
When they made it into the clearing of the Cove's deeper and brighter waters, he focused on bringing the ship about in a low hide towards the back of town, rather than pulling it alongside of his father private dock this visit. He wanted the surprise return to at least have a chance of missing certain ears for the time being, until he could get his bearings enough to figure out what he was going to do or say to her when he saw her.
"Ow' long are we staying fer this time, Jack?"
Gibbs' resounding voice from behind him brought a turn until he could face the older man.
"Not sure, mate. But we'll restock in the mornin' all th' same."
"Aye. An' the crew?"
"Free run o' the town until I send word ov'erwise."
His friend nodded with a wide smile, one Jack knew meant Gibbs himself would so take advantage of the stop in Shipwreck. He had his regulars here, same as the both of them did in most ports, and he had to respect the old man for it.
A few minutes he remained on deck, shouting out specifics of the anchoring and ship watch, while he worked on drawing up a topsail on his own, and then eventually disappeared back into his cabin to round up a few items. His heart beat like a drum, pressing against the boned cage of his chest until he had to stomp his boot heels on the floor just to ignore the sound. His hands moved faster than they had in a year or more, working to stuff a satchel of trinkets and treasures for the children along his walk to Teague's place, as well as the items in question for his father and the harem of women that he prided in.
He finished by throwing on his coat against the chilly November wind that blew outside of the door and setting his effects in proper place. Then with a skip out of the cabin, a waltz across the deck, down the plank and into the creaking pathways of the town, Jack began his short journey with a shouting, excited group of followers in tow.
Most of them were children, who clawed on his coat and sash, searching out gems and anything of worth as they usually did upon one of his return visits. Jack showered them with small Indian toys and sparkling pebbles from the Grecian markets until his jaw grew tired from smiling at their insistence. A few women walked along with him, throwing all kinds of questions about, inquiring as to where he planned to drink come nightfall and whether he was in the mood for a blonde, a red head, or a dark haired young lady. He only laughed and refuted the answer he could have so easily given.
His mind was too focused elsewhere.
"Business t' discuss t'night ladies. My utmost apologies."
He stroked a cheek or two as they kissed him one by one near the end of his walk, and turned back into their separate holes of the town, like scurrying mice. The children followed him only a while longer until they found something more interesting down at the beach and he was alone in his conclusion at the Sparrow doorstep.
He didn't knock or announce his arrival, but twisted back the doorknob and fell inside to the noisy, brightly lit home. He could hear voices all throughout the walls, of the many women his father took under his wing, and the dozens of children born of these beauties. Some of them ran about to greet and hug him, while others shook their heads from their sewing or painting chairs.
He saw no sign of Lizzie or Eva among any of them, and deliberated the other places the two of them could possibly be. Often times over the years he would come to find Elizabeth seated in her room reading, or in one of the many abandoned dinghies on the black shoreline, napping inside peacefully. It appeared indifferent on this day though, as she was in neither of these common places. He went to Teague's study but found it empty as well.
It wasn't until he walked back down to where he had seen the children running to the beach, that he noticed the golden, even longer curls of Lizzie's hair as they covered the back of her dress, and his own father, the frightening image of what he knew of himself to be from behind, standing in the low water's edge.
He approached them slowly but with little accomplishment as the children screamed his name.
"See, there e' is!"
"We told you!"
"It's Captain Jack!"
Elizabeth and Teague turned with assuming grins and shakes of their heads. Jack came in closer, stumbling in the yellow sand with a high, mocking nod.
"Have you no bravery left in your gut to dock here, Jack? We don't bite, at least very hard."
He smiled at Lizzie, accepting her half motherly tone as something fair and beautiful, and then slid in to lift her bare feet from the ground in a swarming hug. He could hear his father chuckle low beside them as he swung her around and the children shouted in laughter.
"Will you put me down?! You're quite ridiculous!"
He dropped her down softly until she was short beneath him again, patting his chest fiercely with a giggle.
"It's good t' see ye too, Madam Turner."
"Don't you dare…" she threatened with a teasing finger "…I am of no age to carry that title and you well know it."
"Indeed, but strumpet hardly suits ye anymore."
She gasped and hit his shoulder hard, when Teague stepped.
"Blood brothers an' sisters would envy th' care ye show for one another."
Laughing, Jack officially greeted his father with a shake of the hand and pat on the back. Anything more never had really suited the pair, although they seemed to get along better as the years digressed and each of their minds aged into forgetfulness of their differences.
"Still walking old man?"
"The day I don't is th' day Lizzie takes o'er. So hold th' warning fer your livelihood, Jacky."
He flashed a glinting smirk at Elizabeth who did the same in return and then knelt to play with the small children. Jack stayed patient a few moments longer as Teague spoke of a few different things concerning his visit and the placement of the Pearl. He waited until he knew it wouldn't seem suspicious to question the missing body amid them, and when he found a less than awkward moment, he snatched at it.
"Last I remember you had another surrogate offspring. Dare I ask wot' made you apparently banish er'?"
Teague smiled, recognizing the glow in his son's eyes that Jack thought he had hidden. The old man turned towards the open and far off archway of the Devil's Throat tunnel when he spoke.
"I s'pose ye take meaning in my dear Eva."
He was stricken by the way his father had come to speak of her, his dear Eva, same as he had forever since now referred to Elizabeth as, his dear Lizzie. He took it as a sign of what he'd missed over the passing of the long months and only examined the tunnel himself.
"So she's made her mark in yer eart' enough t' earn her keep then?"
"Surprised by that, boy?"
"Not in th' least. I saw er' potential, hence why she ended up ere' and not back home."
"This is her home now in many ways, Jack." He thrust his face back to see Lizzie walking up to them again, and eased himself with a whisper of a sigh when she placed her hand on his taut shoulder, smoothing out the stress knots lovingly. "She's taken so well here. It might shock you."
"Oh I think 'twill do more than that, Liz." Teague responded over his shoulder, making Jack just that much more nervous when he replied.
"I hope the two of ye aren't challenging me health."
"Not yer elth' boy."
"Wot' then?"
Elizabeth laughed as she saw the front end of a ship's bow tilt inwardly to the town from the dark tunnel.
"If we told you, you wouldn't believe it. So see for yourself, Captain Sparrow."
She pointed the direction out as he followed her slender finger to the tunnel's distant, incoming glow. A ship was approaching from within it, not a big one by the looks of it, but something sizeable enough to count. He focused on the lines and sheen of oak from which it was carved, the yellowing sails from age and the Jolly Roger that flew from the midway point of the mast. It bore a hand stitched emblem of a skull and crossbones, matched perfectly with a faint blue star.
He shook his head in shock, indeed shock. For what else could he shake his head in but that?
"Ye've got t' be joking…" he stepped down the beach a ways as the ship came nearer to the Sparrow docks. He could hear Teague and Lizzie laughing at him, but he didn't much care. To himself alone, he whispered at the waving blue star, "Van'geline Marley, ye bloody rogue."
He was fixed upon her ability to steer the ship into port perfectly, with ease of swiveling as he could just make out her hands sliding against the spokes of the wheel. She stood high on the upper deck, barefoot from the looks of it, wearing nothing more than finer rags fashioned into some kind of a slip dress, and nothing that covered much of anything. Her hair, one of the first things that came to his attention, whipped against her shoulders and face, long, longer than he even remembered it from St. Pierre, and tumbling in loose, dark curls under a purple bandana. The wind on her skin and lips and through her hair took the place of where he wished his fingers could be, teasing him as the ship slowed in the dull waters.
"I dare you to find words now, Jack."
Lizzie teased him with her arms wrapped tight around one of his as they stood together. Teague moved past them to assist with anchoring the ship again, and it wasn't until this began to take place before his eyes, that Jack realized where he knew the wonderful schooner from.
"That's th' Harlot, she's rigged."
Elizabeth grinned wide up at him, "Your father thought it deserved a second chance."
"Aye. Its second chance looks better an' it's first."
Together they crooned a little and wandered down the beach, arm in arm as they studied the last of the duties to secure the ship that had very first been sailed under Jack's hands too many years past. Eva had a crew of which could not be seen until they had risen on the hill enough. This, being from their imbalance in height, most of them between the ages of five and ten, and no more matured than any of the men Jack himself sailed with, which made him laugh inwardly as he greeted the children with Lizzie.
"Little Jack is her first mate if you can believe it."
"Ha, couldn't ave' expected less..." He chuckled as his now five year old protégé ran from the docks and across the grass, shouting out his name.
"Uncle Jack!"
He had grown double what he was in size and age, and ran towards Jack's legs as he pummeled him. With a tilt, and another rush of children's hands, he felt himself fall backward to the open ground, completely covered in jumping, screeching Cove progeny. Elizabeth offered her his hand once or twice, but it did very little since she couldn't stop laughing at the innocence she saw in Jack's concerned eyes from the dirt up.
In fact it was someone distant from the scene itself who rescued him without words or offerings of hands. The children ran back with shouts after Eva when they saw her finish and come safely to the dock. They jumped up and down, hugging her legs and tugging at her arms with gratitude of the sailing venture. And all of this intrigued Jack as he crawled back to his feet.
The closer she got, the more he felt himself die inside. She was too much, in this light of day, with her bared skin glowing like only the finest sands of Shipwreck could, her dark hair blowing with the wind's pace, and her bare feet dirtied without much care at all. There was rebellion scattered all over her form, from head to final toe, despite her domestic binding to the Sparrow household. She had retained resistance against what he was afraid she would fall into, at least from the view he held.
It was a moment later that he felt a pinch through his loose shirt and winced with a glare down at Liz.
"Go talk to her." She smiled, pinched him once more with a shove in the right direction and then disappeared into the house with Teague and little Jack.
He fixed his gaze well upon her as he noted the way she handled the few lingering young girls who talked with her at half the height. He couldn't make out clear statements, only shouts, giggles, excitement and more hugs before the lace and silk clad little girls darted onto the lead path to town again.
It was only then, when she stood at the end of the docks as alone as he on the hill, that the two of them locked eyes for the first time in nineteen months and too many days to think or want to count. He felt the heat of a thousand lonely nights when she stared at him that way, as if the world were closing in around them and she only wanted to cling to him forever, same as he to her. The power of it, only doubled for reunited purposes now, overtook him in a sweep and together, after a clear moment of hesitation, they each stepped toward the other to close in the distance with smiles.
Eva was taken with his presence, the greatness and beauty of a man, something she'd never known, something she knew she would never see again after Jack. He'd returned, suddenly and without warning, and she loved him for it in one clear, quick moment as she felt her bare feet arch against the last plank of the dock, ready to make a bolting run into his strong arms.
And she would have, with Jack as ready to spread his arms wide and then enclose them about her tiny, half dressed mold until he could find a bed to lay her upon. It all would have happened perfectly, had it not been for the ignorant blockade that came between them in an instant, reducing his view of her to nothing but mere toes and darting eyes over broad shoulders. A man stood between them, a third, unwarranted party, and he felt ready to draw his pistol for the first time in too long.
He watched the young yellow haired man, dressed for the King's business alone, stroked back on Eva's wispy curls as they blew in her face and rubbed her shoulders, as if he had some instantaneous right to do it. Jack's fingers held firm to the handle of his gun as he inched once closer, trying to hear the conversation, but failing. It was all mumbling romanticism from what he could tell, by the bruised, worried look on Eva's face as she glanced over the tall man's shoulder to catch Jack's heated stare.
He felt a little better by her efforts, but they only lasted so long, before he watched the man tear her away from the docks and walk with his arm around her in care, guiding her through town and out of sight. Before he could though, he watched Eva's smile widen when they neared a turning corner, and she mouthed very clearly from his sight, "Welcome home."
He smiled back, but could do little more. He had only to find out details until she returned to the house.
