Summary – A tail of life, loss, betrayal and revenge.
Tears of Rum
PART 1 OF MANY
Twenty one year old Jack Sparrow had only one idea of when his adventure had just started. Even though he sat in the Tortugan pub with absolutely no idea of what he would do nor how he would do it – he knew only one thing – He was an outlaw now.
All right, so that hadn't always been true. He had grown up in London for most of his life, lived with his Nanny, Aunt and Uncle and never knew anything about his parents. Until the ring came his way with a request for him to travel to the Caribbean to live where he belonged.
Of course, his Aunt and Uncle had forbidden it and had taken the items from him; however, Jack Sparrow was a curious bird by nature, and so he had stolen both the letter and the ring and went to find himself a ship.
The ship in question had been the Wicked Wench – she was an Eat India ship, but Jack had fallen in love with her and had somehow procured himself a job on the ship as cabin boy. He had two very good Captains during the four years he had sailed. Captain Johnson had been the first, and then Captain Nemo took over after Johnson had been lost to the ocean.
During that time; Jack had worked his way up the ladder from a mere sailor to Bo' sun and then to second mate. It was when the first mate took ill and the Captain broke his leg that Jack had been able to show what he could really do. He won the loyalty of the men fast and the Captain was very proud of him.
Of course, Jack thought as he took a sip of rum, that was when the whole story went sour. You see, dear reader. Our wonderful Pirate (Captain) had been promoted to Captain of the Wicked Wench after Captain Nemo had retired. Cutler Beckett had done the promotion himself and they had even shook hands and everything. Jack, now at the age of sixteen was the youngest Captain of the East India Trading Company! And he was proud of it.
Till he refused to carry a cargo of slaves, let them free in their home of Africa and sank Beckett's flag ship. He had let himself be taken prisoner and had been branded a pirate. Which was when he had stabbed Beckett in the chest and made his escape.
(What Captain Jack Sparrow does not know is that Beckett survived his attack and has been very sour about the deed ever since)
But there is more to this story; of which cannot be told in detail since Captain Sparrow has a lost treasure to find. What this author shall tell is simply that he had met and made a friend out of William Turner and they had been at sea together for near a year at this moment.
Peaking of which, Bootstrap Bill was returning to their table with another round of grog. Jack took his with a smile while Bill sat down.
"What' eating your thought's tonight, Jack?" Bill asked.
"Nothing important, well, except to get a crew for the pearl," Jack replied. It had been agreed by the two of them that Barbossa (seeing as how the man knew Tortuga better then both Jack and Bill put together) would sign men up to sail the pirate ship with Black sails.
Jack did not mind in the least that his first mate had wanted to do the job. He had tried to explain it to Jack, but Jack got it twisted around and instead of signing up men for a crew, he had accidentally signed men up for a production of 'The Phantom of the Opera' – of which, most of the men had been eunuchs.
"Do you think it was a good idea to let Barbossa do it on his own?" Bill asked. He never did trust Barbossa, not from the beginning when Jack had rescued the man from a deserted island to begin with.
"So, that's what's been botherin' yer pretty head, huh?" Jack said with a wink.
"Jack…"
"Now, now, don't worry about it. He didn't mean to accidentally set the galley on fire!" Jack waved his hand.
"Jack, I know that you don't know much about pirating, in general, however, as your friend. I have an obligation to tell you that pirates don't just go around marooning people who accidentally burnt the rum," Bill said.
"I would!" Jack gave him a glare and held his cup close to his chest. Afraid that Bill might actually do such a nasty thing!
"Jack, Barbossa probably did something terrible, like a mutiny or something of that nature," Bill tried to be very patient. But by nature he wasn't exactly patient himself.
"So? We're after the same thing! It's a win-win deal," Jack replied.
"All right, I'll let you play this game of yours, maybe you'd learn at thing or two that way," Bill rolled his eyes.
"Thank you very much," Jack muttered, and downed the rest of his rum.
It was at that moment that the subject the two men had been talking about showed up at the pub; he wore a red over coat with a large green hat with a large feather in it. He was, in every sense of the word, a pirate Captain. His beard had been combed and he had sprayed some sort of cologne on. Jack hated the cologne and vowed to get rid of it whenever he got the opportune moment.
"Hello gents," Barbossa gave them a smirk as he sat down at the table. A passing waitress plunked a mug in front of him before dashing off. Apparently, she didn't like the smell of the cologne either!
"Find any good men?" Jack asked.
"Aye, they're all ready getting the Pearl ready to sail," Barbossa said. Jack nodded his head, but he did not see the rather knowing looks that passed between Barbossa and Bootstrap Bill.
"Good, good, this time in three days, we'll be on our way," Jack sighed.
"About that, how do ye know the coordinates of the island?" Barbossa asked.
"Why? I shant be tellin' – you'll just have to find out," Jack grinned at Barbossa. Bill rolled his eyes, he knew that Barbossa was a murdering son of a bitch who only wanted the treasure to himself and would do anything to get it. Which meant screw Jack Sparrow over any way he could. Bill only hoped that Jack would keep the direction to himself and not give them away before they made it to the island in question.
Barbossa decided it was time to change the subject; there was no need to let Jack in on his plan. He was drunk half the time anyway, maybe if he got him a bit more to drink, that young man would kindly give up the directions and then Barbossa could kill him and be done with him.
Later, when Jack was happily sitting in his cabin, drawing out the first set of coordinates, Barbossa was down below in the galley, seething. He sat with Bootstrap who was giving him the "look".
The "Look" was when Bootstrap raised his eyebrow and glowered in just that right way that it made anyone terribly nervous when it was turned their way. (He perfected this look on his son, and so it made the pirates cower in front of him) Barbossa, for his part he was a very particularly brave man, glowered back. However, not as feircly as the father.
"Don't you remember what happened to Long John Silver when he tried something like this?" Bill asked.
"Aye, but Jack is young and impressionable," Barbossa replied.
"Right, and my middle name is "Stupid as a rock"," Bill rolled his eyes.
"I'll get it out of him,"
"Then getting him soaking drunk wasn't enough? He thought for some odd reason that someone was going to burn the rum and stood guard over the rum cellar for three hours. Took me that long to try and knock him out so that I could get him back to his cabin," Bill gave the "Look" once again.
"If he hadn't run off, I would have gotten the coordinates, then we could have killed him and be done with it," Barbossa replied.
"Good luck with that, you don't know Jack like I know him. He holds his licker well for a city brat," Bill replied.
"Brilliant, that's bloody brilliant," Barbossa sat back and frowned like a small child who hadn't gotten any candy after school.
"Maybe I could try and get it," Bill offered.
"You?"
"Aye, me. We're close, but there is only one condition," Bill said.
"What would that be?" Barbossa asked.
"Don't kill Jack, he's young and stupid, just don't kill him," Bill said.
"Your willing to betray a friend, and yet you treat him like your son," Barbossa shook his head.
"I never pretended that Jack wasn't a good friend to me. However, I know that you are going to do this with our without my help. So, I figure it just might be better for Jack if I get the coordinates instead of you or one of your other mates," Bill replied.
"Good thinking on you part, Bill,"
"But it'll have to wait a few weeks," Bill said.
"What?"
"We can't have him thinking that we are against him in the beginning. He has to trust us, and with that trust…I'll be able to get the coordinates from him,"
"All right, two months, but that is all I'm willing to wait,"
"Then we have an accord," Bill said. The two shook hands.
TBC