The water was blue and clear, with streaks of sunlight cutting down; bright coral and tropical fish... if it weren't for the mortal danger, the scene could be described as gorgeous. I spotted Jack, below now now, sinking while struggling with his ropes. I swam down and untied his bonds before starting to the surface after my sister. I looked below me to see Jack swimming the other way further down into the depths. I turned and continued climbing from the ocean towards fresh air. I broke the surface shortly after Elizabeth and looked around for Jack. When he made his appearance he took a much needed breath of air before showing us what he went after: his pistol.
"You went back for that? We need to head for the reef!" Elizabeth shouted at him as he tucked the weapon into his shirt. She started swimming towards the island as I watched Jack stare after the Black Pearl.
"That's the second time I've had to watch that man sail away with my ship." Jack said.
"And you'll get it back." I said trying to comfort him before we swam after Elizabeth.
Immediately after getting to shore Elizabeth insisted there had to be people living somewhere so she decided to walk alone the shore until she found someone. A few hours later she met up with her footprints from before proving she'd walked around the entire island with no results.
"Not all that big, is it?" Jack asked her as he sat on the beach with me next to him watching as he dismantled his pistol; the parts, ball, and, powder dried on his scarf.
"Has it changed since the last time you were here?" I agreed him.
"The trees are taller." He told me with a small smile as he checked to see if the parts of his pistol were dry. Once they were he set about re-assembling and loading his pistol.
"I hope you have no intention of using that." Elizabeth told Jack as he finished putting his pistol back together. He shoved it in his belt and walked off after helping me up.
"Not yet. Ask me again in a few weeks." He told her calmly. She stared at him shocked and appalled and his words before he both followed him into the small woods.
"Captain Sparrow! We have to get off this island - immediately!" She shouted at him.
"Don't be thinking I'm not already working on it." He said as he climbed up toward a clump of palm trees. We watched as he dug for something beneath the sand. He smiled when he found it: a large iron ring.
"What is that? Is there a boat under there?" She asked him.
"Elizabeth let the man open it." I told her. Jack heaved the trap door up and over, revealing a pit. Inside were barrels and bottles of rum ... all covered with dust and cobwebs, long since abandoned making Jack's face fall.
"What? What's wrong? How will this help us get off the island?" She asked him.
"It won't. It won't, and so we won't." He told her before he jumped down into the pit, cracked open a bottle of rum, and took a swig.
"But ... you did it before! Last time -" a Elizabeth ranted angry and confused.
"Last time, I was here a grand total of three days. Last time, the rumrunners who used this island as a cache came by, and I bartered passage off. But from the looks of this, they've long been'out of business, and so that won't be happening again." He said before taking another swig. "We probably have your friend Norrington to thank for that."
"So that's it? That's the secret grand adventure of the infamous Jack Sparrow? You spent three days on the beach drinking rum?" She asked him.
"Welcome to the Caribbean, love." He said as he gathered up a few bottles before heading to the beach. "You should look at our contretemps this way: we've got shade trees, thank the Lord. We've got some food on the trees, thank the Lord again. And we've got rum, praise the Lord. We can stay alive a month, maybe more. Keep a weather eye open for passing ships, and our chances are fair." He listed off.
"A month? Will doesn't have a month! We've got to do something to help him!" She shouted at him.
"You're right." He said before hoisting the bottle in the air. "Here's luck to you, Will Turner." He drank before defiantly returning Elizabeth's angry gaze and my sorrowful one. Will was my friend and I wanted to help him if I could. Jack soon turned away from us and sat down. "Don't be thinking I'm happy about this, Elizabeth. But I see no use in wailing and gnashing my teeth over that which I can do nothing about." He explained to her.
"Not when you can drink instead, at least." I said sitting next to him. Jack handed me a bottle and threw one to my sister.
"Try it. It goes down rough, but goes down - - and the second swig goes down easier." He told us. I stared at the bottle before unsealing it and taking a swig followed by Elizabeth as we all sat in silence once more.
"And you will call me Miss Swann." She insisted and I started laughing. We could die in a month but my sister will demand civility. Jack toasted her basically saying he understood before taking another drink. I watched Elizabeth study her bottle before giving Jack a sidelong glance. I looked to my own bottle and understood what she wanted top do. I prayed her plan would look.
"Drink up me hearties, yo ho..." I sang softly before Elizabeth and I clinked or bottles together and took another drink.
"What? What was that?" Jack asked us and we shared a smile. "Something funny, Nicole? Miss Swann? Share. Please." He said.
"Nothing ... it's nothing. Just ... I'm reminded of a song we learned as a children. A song about pirates." I told him. I was worried that Elizabeth would get angry and start yelling again so I took control of her little plan. We'd spent a lot of time together, Jack and I, so I hoped I could trick him like we she wanted him to be.
"I know a lot of songs about pirates, but none I'd teach a child. Let's hear it." He told me.
"Oh, no ... it's silly. Back in England we didn't know a thing about pirates, really. They seemed so romantic and daring -" I said with a smile.
"That was before we met one, of course." Elizabeth chimed in and I smiled at Jack's look. He'd looked pleased at my words.
"Now I must hear this song. An authentic pirate song. Have at it." He told me, ignoring Elizabeth. Back in Port Royal Elizabeth was never ignored and never looked over, especially when it came to the two of us. She was the beauty and I was the shadow. But not here, Jack had completely ignored her words and demanded mine. Probably because of the time we'd spent looking for her, that's all. Once he spent more time with her, Lizzy would be forefront and I'd be in the background once more.
"Well, perhaps ... with a bit more to drink, I might ..." I teased him.
"More to drink!" He said instantly liking the plan. He gathered two more bottles and tossed one to me. I dropped the half open one in my hands and caught the second one before opening it and taking another drink. "Well?" He asked me and I smiled at him. I cleared my throat and began the song.
"We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, we loot, Drink up me hearties, yo ho." I said before taking another swig with him doing the same. "We kidnap and ravage and we don't give a hoot, Drink up me hearties, yo ho -"
Later that night, a fire blazed between the two of us as we danced arm in arm, roaring drunk, singing the song up to the stars as Elizabeth watched from the shadows of the trees.
"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me! Yo ho, yo ho, it's a pirates life for me!" We sang.
"I LOVE this song!" Jack called out and I laughed as he continued to sing. "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me! We're beggars and blighters, ne'er do well cads, Drink up me hearties, yo ho!" He them switched to a different accent making me laugh once more. "Aye but we're loved by our mums and our dads. Drink up me hearties, yo ho!" We hoisted our bottles up in the air and drank. Jack drained the bottle while I only took a swig of it before he tossed his away. "When I get the Black Pearl back, I'm going to teach it to the whole crew, and we'll sing it all the time!" He said excitedly like a child at Christmas.
"You'll be positively the most fearsome pirates to sail the Spanish Main." I said saluting the idea with my bottle. Jack tried but he didn't have his anymore so I have him mine. He took a drink and settled back onto the ground shakily pulling me beside him.
"Not just the Spanish Main, love. The whole ocean. .. the whole world. Wherever we want to go, we go. That's what a ship is, you know. Not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails. That's what a ship needs ... but what a ship is - what the Black Pearl really is ... is freedom." He told me and it made me think for a brief moment about my future before I laid my head on Jack's shoulder.
"Jack, it must be so terrible for you, to be trapped here on this island, all over again." I said looking out into the ocean.
"Ah, well... the company is better than last time. And the scenery has definitely improved." He said sneaking a hand around my shoulder.
"Mr. Sparrow! I'm not sure I've had enough rum to allow that kind of talk." I said sitting up and looking back at him.
"We've got a few bottles left ...and we've yet to tap the kegs." He reminded me. I shrugged with a sleight - but promising - smile. I picked up the empty bottle from the ground and held it up.
"To freedom." I toasted raising the empty bottle.
"To the Black Pearl." He said before we tapped or bottles together. I feigned a drink as he chugged his down. He tapped his bottle against mine again making me laugh before feigning another drink. Once he'd passed out, Elizabeth and I moved him away from the fire and waited until it was closer to sun rise.
"You're different now." She told me and I liked at her confused.
"What do you mean?" I asked her.
"Before that man came into our lives you never would have done any of this." She said and I shrugged before moving to the stock of rum Jack and shown us.
"Actually if this man hadn't come into our lives you'd probably be dead and no one would know where you were. Be happy Jack came into our lives." I told her.
"Since when were you two so friendly?" she asked me and I looked at her confused.
"What is your problem right now, Elizabeth? It's only because of Jack that you are here right now." I reminded her as the sun began to rise. "Let's get started." We started loading up kegs and liquor into the fire.
Over time all of the foliage in the middle of the island was on fire. Smoke was rising high up into the clear blue sky. I helped Elizabeth as she poured out the last of the rum, dowsing a scrub brush at the base of a palm tree. We back off as it went up in flames before rolling the barrel forward before it started to burn merrily.
"What are you doing? You've burned our food, the shade - the rum!" Jack asked us looking at us shocked.
"Yes, the rum is gone." She said as I stared into the fire, avoiding looking at him. She wiped her hands together to clean then as one of the barrels in the fire exploded.
"Why?" he asked her.
"One, because it is a vile drink that turns even the most respectable men into scoundrels. Two That signal is over a thousand feet high, which means it can be seen for two hundred leagues in every direction. The entire Royal Navy is out to sea looking for me - do you think there is even a chance they could mass it?" she asked him.
"You - you burned up the island, for a one-time chance at being spotted?" he asked her shocked.
"Exactly." She answered turning towards the sea. "Just you wait, Captain. In an hour, maybe two, keep a 'weather eye open' and you'll be seeing white sails on that horizon!" she sat down determined before shielding her eyes while scanning the water, waiting, searching. Jack threw up his hands and stalked up the sand dune, just to get away from us.
"Jack." I called after him. "Jack!" he just continued walking away muttering to himself. Not long later we saw long boats in the distance. "He'll never forgive me."