The Chest

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters in this story (except Anne, a little bit) or Pirates of the Caribbean. This story is not for my own profit but only for enjoyment.

Anne knows that there is something special about The Chest.

It is big compared to her small hands, but it can fit comfortably under her mother's arm. It is black and has wrought designs, swirls and lines, that wind around the sides and lid but Anne's favourite part of The Chest is The Keyhole. This part is narrow and surrounded by intricate patterns, but Anne can see there is a heart shape and that always makes her smile because someone must have loved somebody else a lot to make this chest.

Anne knows that The Chest is from her mother's old life, the one before Anne was born, the one where Elizabeth Turner sailed the seas. Occasionally her mother has visitors from this life, sailors encrusted with salt in dirty stained clothes, and Anne is scared of them and often hides away; especially from the one her mother calls Jack, with darkened eyes who laughs and smiles and watches. When her mother is out of the room for a moment, Anne sees him looking in the cupboards and she knows he seeks The Chest, but only Anne and her mother know where it is hidden.

Anne first saw The Chest when she was four and a half years old. It was a stormy night and she had been put to bed, but couldn't sleep, so she crept into the living room of the house on the hill where she lived and it was then that she saw her mother with The Chest. Her mother took a small key from around her neck and opened a hole in the wall behind a picture of a green sun on the horizon, and from this alcove she lifted a pile of clothes and laid them on the floor. She knelt and unwrapped the pile, a small smile on her face and withdrew a black box, The Chest. Anne's mother picked The Chest up then went to sit on the rocking chair by the window that overlooked the sea, cradling the box in her lap like she cradled Anne and murmuring words into the starry night sky. Anne stepped out then, saying mummy, and her mother turned around with that small smile that grew wistful at the sight of her daughter. She beckoned, and Anne went, raising hesitant and curious fingers to trace the patterns on The Chest for the first time. Anne asked what was inside, hearing tiny thumping noises from within, imagining a little animal or a present but her other said that she would be told when she was older. Anne asked if it was about Daddy, and her mother only nodded.

When Anne asks about her father, whom she knows is called William Turner, her mother tells her amazing stories of faraway lands and ships and pirates and treasure and swordfights but never where her father is now. Anne's friends say that this is parent-language and her father is probably not coming back from wherever he is, or that maybe he's dead. Anne hopes not, and she daydreams about her Daddy, tall and handsome like in the portraits, sailing onto the beach near her house with a ship full of treasure and sweeping her into his strong arms and laughing.

After Anne gets older, six and seven and nearly eight years old, her mother tells her more stories of adventures at the edge of the earth, a goddess bound in a human body, a sea monster called the kraken and green flashes at sunset. Anne thinks that this should make her afraid of the sea, but she feels the pull in her bones and in her blood and her favourite place is in the shallow water of the beach with cool water lapping at her toes and gritty sand firmly underneath her heels. She watches the sunset and she thinks she sees a ghostly ship out there on some dark nights. She imagines that it's her Daddy, watching over her.

When her mother tells her the story of the Flying Dutchman, Anne knows that this is important because her mother holds The Chest in her lap and The Chest is important. Anne's mother tells her stories so vividly and detailed that Anne thinks they must come from her own life, and when she speaks of Davy Jones and his love for Calypso and his heartbreak and pain she wonders if The Chest could be The Chest. Even though she is older now, Anne wonders if all the myths and stories her mother tells her are real. Part of her wants to believe it, but the part that has no father agrees with her friends and it is all made up.

By the time Anne's mother tells her about Will Turner, Captain Jack Sparrow, Davy Jones and The Chest and The Key, Anne is relieved that the stories must be true, and relieved that she does indeed have a father and her hopes are not mere fantasies. Now when her mother gets The Chest out of the alcove behind the green flash, Anne presses her ear to the lid and closes her eyes and dreams she is being embraced by her father and his steady heartbeat, and she knows he will come back when she is ten years old to meet her.

Anne stands with her mother on the beach, leather boots touching both sea and sand, staring at the sun dip slowly into the horizon and gasps as the flash lights up the sky. The ghostly ship, the Flying Dutchman appears and she knows that her Daddy is there. The ship gets closer and she can make out the seaweedy sails and a small figure at the helm, her father bringing all the treasure she wants – himself. Just for one day.