The woman returned with a round trencher and James' stomach was growling and dancing with anticipation before she even knelt down next to him. Norrington was slightly embarrassed by his physical reaction to the delicious smelling food and the dark woman grinned at him, barring her blackened teeth. Under different circumstances he would have been put off by the dark woman's teeth enough so as not to eat, but his body demanded food.
In a bowl made of coconut husk was banana porridge and the sweet, warm smell was making James salivate, though he was slightly put off by the woman's intent to feed it to him with a crude, but smooth, wooden spoon. The darkness of her skin and her dialect naturally would usually indicate a slave woman, but James was keen to think her some maroon priestess.
"Madam, really I must protest-"
"Do ye not know dat 'tis a great pleasure of da wymonfolk te tend to a mon when bedridden-"
"I am hardly bedridden!"
"-And dat a gentlemon is always willin' to submit ta a wymon's gentle care?" The dark lady was entirely rhetorical and it was apparent to Norrington that she was going to feed him and as a gentleman he must acquiesce to her.
With an obvious pout on his face and arms crossed over his chest, James Norrington opened his mouth to be spoon-fed and hoped to God there were no eyeballs in his porridge.
The dark woman continued to grin ferally at him as he closed his mouth over the spoon to taste banana, coconut, and traces of nutmeg and cinnamon. James could have melted into the bed right then, but with the next spoonful that had grazed the side of the bowl and he felt the grit of cane sugar in his mouth he felt as though he were in heaven. Arms unraveling and face smoothing, Norrington crunched the sugar between his teeth and let the warm porridge slide down his throat.
James finished the banana porridge in this manner and eagerly awaited consuming the loaf on the trenched next to him; it appeared to be coconut bake with pick-up saltfish. In the tankard was some pale liquid which could have been goat's milk or coconut milk and Norrington was suddenly reminded of his thirst. As if she were reading his mind, and for all James knew she was, the woman held up the tankard and tilted it towards his lips.
Hunger slaked and thirst quenched, James settled supine on his bedding. Body relaxed, his mind was free to race as the dark woman removed the empty serving ware and drifted back behind the curtains. His eye darted about the cave without lingering on the unsettling parts of the décor. Why was he still alive? How did he get here? Who was this dark woman? Why did she heal him? Where was his other eye…in the…jar?
A sound of a gull drew his attention and James found himself looking at the dark woman framed by parted curtains, a glowering gull perched on her arm. Without knowing why, James was suddenly struck by the proud stature of the woman and bird, like Athena and Glaucus. Then he saw the gull's bandaged wing, "Is that the bloody bird that stuck its beak in my eye socket?" It was not the first question he wanted to ask.
"Ye bound dis creature to ye when ye clipt 'is wing," she chuckled darkly and the gull glared fiercely at him, ruffling his feathers at Norrington's indignation and confusion. "What do you intend me to do with him?" James asked as the bird begrudgingly hopped down from the woman's arm and onto his blankets. "'E will be yer eyes on da sea," the dark woman said as she knelt down beside James. The gull had settled into the blankets and tucked its head behind its shoulder.
"Madam, what do you intend to do with me?" Norrington was dumbfounded. "Ye do not mince yer words, do ye, Jaymes Norrington?" her words shocked him like falling into cold water. "How do you know me, Madam?" Norrington was frightened of the answer, but he asked anyway. The dark woman held up her hand and he saw she held a perfectly smooth, ovular rock the color of granulated salt. "I've been watchin' ye."
Unable to laugh at the absurdity of her words, Norrington grew more terrified as rationality failed to impose itself. "I ken ye: ye wish ta know why 'tis ye live, where ye are, and who I be," she said, her black eyes bring into his green ones. James latched onto those words and nodded furiously, trying to grasp onto some semblance of order that seemed to dance just out of his reach like the reflections of the sunlight sliding off the waves and rippling along the interior of the cave.
"Long ago," the dark woman began, "a mon made a pact wit' a goddess ta ferry da dead at sea ta da oth'r side. 'E was giv'n power no mon shoud have at da price o' 'is freedom. Ten years and den he woud be free ta choose a mon ta take 'is place. Da goddess fergot to free da mon and 'e were lockt in da curse. Da mon cut out 'im heart and lock it 'way. 'E call da pirate lords and used 'him power ta lock da goddess in a mortal body and take way 'er power. Da mon be punisht, but da pirates be not. Ye be in da presence o' dat goddess. I ken ye, Jaymes Norrington: 'Scourge o' Pirates' and I want ye ta be my scourge 'pon da pirate lords. Dat be why ye live, ta do mai bidden."
James blinked; her story was as hypnotic as it was incomprehensible. He did not know where to begin to understand the tangle of events. "Do you mean to say, Madam, that your goddess wishes to use me as a tool of retribution against the pirates that imprisoned her in exchange for my life?" The woman gave a throaty laugh, tossing her head back. It seemed for a moment as though she had turned to molasses and the cave shimmered about her.
When she stopped laughing and looked him dead in the eye, James beheld a beautiful woman with fair, braided hair, olive skin, and honey eyes. She was smiling at him most charmingly and disarmingly and her laughter had woven itself into a sweet sound like the giggle of a dolphin. Even the cave was no longer ramshackle; it held the air of splendid enchantment. The salty air smelled of flowers and fruit, of fabric and incense. The sound of the waves was interspersed with bird calls.
"I am Calypso," said the new woman and James recalled his reading of Homer's Odyssey as a boy, tripping over the Greek and reading passages again and again until he thought he understood. He flopped down onto the bedding, suddenly faint, and pulled the blanket over his head. The gull cried out in protest to be disturbed from its roost and Norrington closed his eye and hoped this was all just a dream while the goddess continued to laugh at him.