My heart beats faster. Everyone’s eyes grow round. Lafitte sounds more menacing than the other pirates put together.
“What if we go to sleep like the children in the story?” asks Mitch. “Would the pirates disappear?”
“O.M.G. If the plan involves me sleeping with those pirates at the door,” says Mia wrapping her arms around herself and shivering, “COUNT ME OUT.”
11
“I don’t think children need to be sleeping exactly,” I say. “In the ghost story, Jean Lafitte and his pirates visit between nightfall and midnight. It’s more like the ghost ship only stays till the clock strikes twelve. That just happens to be the time when children are asleep in bed.”
“Not me, not always, “says Sookie.
“Most times,” I reply. I’m staring at the rocketing moon outside the portal. The glowing, red-ringed ball is moving faster than normal—a lot faster. In fairy time, Mardi Gras will soon be over.
“Let’s say I agree with you,” Clive begins.
I can’t keep the surprised expression off my face.
He shrugs his shoulders, “Hey, Miss Eliysia told me I needed to consider other points of view.” He gets that cocky smile that for some reason infuriates me.
“How about considering my point of view because I know something you don’t know.”
“But do you know everything, Cat?” Clive lowers his voice. “What happens if we wait here until midnight?” I want to shoot back a smart remark, but we need to work together.
“If this veil lifts between our world and the Otherworld for only a few hours…” I pace back and forth, “And we wait in here until midnight strikes,” I stop short. “What will happen? The ship disappears?”
“Then we get dumped in the water,” says Mitch.
“Or we vanish with the ship,” says Clive. I hate to admit it, but Clive has a point.
“I have a great idea,” says Mia.
“Yeah, right…”Clive sighs, then says, “Sorry. What is it?”
We huddle together, and Mia lowers her voice to keep our plan out of the pirates’ earshot. Not that I think they can hear anything with all their arguing, bellowing, and stupid singing. “There’s a row boat,” she says, “attached to the hull. If we can get it into the water, we can escape.”
“Are we supposed to ask the pirates to excuse us as we walk right past them?” says Clive. Mia frowns.
“If we can figure out a way to get to the row boat, I think I can figure out the gears and pulleys to lower it into the water, but I’ll need a few seconds,” says Mitch.
“Maybe we can create a distraction,” says Clive.
“So now it’s a good idea because a guy agrees with me?” says Mia.
“It was always a good idea,” I tell her. “It’s just the pirates are outside the door.”
Mia points to the portal. “Maybe we can escape through there and sneak toward the rowboat.”
“I’ll never fit through that little window hatch.” Mitch shakes his head.
Clive isn’t as stocky, but I can see his shoulders are too broad. Come to think of it, Mia and I won’t fit either.
“Maybe I can squish through,” says Sookie.
“It’s too dangerous. Better if you stay here where you’re safe,” I tell my sister. “Besides, you can’t lower the boat on your own.”
Sookie crosses her arms and leaves the huddle. “Humph. You’re not the boss of me, Cat. I know I can help.”
“I want to stay anyways,” whines Skeeter. “I want to be a pirate. I want to join them. Arrr!”
“You’re not going anywhere!” Clive hisses. He sounds a lot bossier than me, even bossier than Mr. Morrows. How does he get away with it? Sookie would never listen if I used that tone. Not that she ever listens anyhow.
We argue and try to come up with a plan to escape and distract the pirates.
“Hey, are the pirates getting bored? They seem to have backed off,” says Mitch.
A small ray of hope blossoms inside me. “Maybe we should make a break for it then.”
“I’m in,” says Mia.
“Me too,” adds Mitch.
Clive checks over his shoulder. “Where are Skeeter and Sookie?”
We break the huddle and frantically search the cabin. Mia checks under the desk “This isn’t funny you two,” she says crossly. I get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I scan the gloomy cabin, and in the back of my mind something’s not right. What’s changed? I notice the desk isn’t in the same place anymore. It’s moved a little, and there’s a space between the desk and the door.
Not much space, but enough space for two small nine-year-olds to wiggle through the door and sneak away.
12
A cold dread builds in my chest. Why don’t we hear the pirates? I crack open the door. Sookie is crouched close by, and the pirates have backed away and are looking at something on the quarterdeck.
“Sookie get in here,” I whisper. She moves away from my outstretched arm.
“I’ve got to bring Skeeter back,” Sookie says. She brushes my arm away and points at the pirates.
My heart dives to my shoes when I spot Skeeter standing on the quarterdeck, circled by the pirates.
“Ahoy mateys, I want to join your ship,” Skeeter shouts.
Clive and Mitch shove the desk so we can open the door wider. Clive says, “Now I know what the fortuneteller meant. I should have been listening to Skeeter’s point of view, not everyone else’s. I didn’t pay attention to how badly he wants to be a pirate. Wait here.”
“As if.” I slip outside first. He follows.
“Cat?” Mia’s voice rises in alarm.
“Once I drag Sookie back, I’m helping Clive,” I tell her. “Watch my sister and don’t let her out again.”
The pirates seem to all be focused on Skeeter, and they don’t see us maneuvering. Sookie steps further away from the door while Clive moves through the shadows behind a billowing black sail, and creeps stealthily toward his brother. The pirates are closing in on Skeeter, their jeering faces twisted in cruel grins. “Skeeter, don’t trust them,” I mutter under my breath.
“You’ll make a fine pirate.”
“Give the lad his first swig of grog.”
“Let’s see you use your sword, matey.”
I twist around to check on Sookie who is keeping herself just out of reach.
“Sookie get back inside,” I demand.
“Just one more second, Cat. I want to help.” Sookie is clutching her Voodoo doll. “Maybe I can use this to try some magic.”
“Sookie,” I whisper more urgently.
“What kind of dolly is that, ma petite fille?”
My head snaps around, and I stare in frozen horror. Jean Lafitte has snuck up from behind, and he’s standing right beside us.
“It’s not a dolly,” Sookie says with a serious frown. “It’s the Baron Samedi. Will you let us go home?” she asks hopefully.
“Are you a sorcière, then little girl?” Lafitte’s eyes flash with menace at her Voodoo doll. “I don’t care much for your doll, or Voodoo spells.”
“A sorcière?” says a pirate with an eye patch. “Did our captain say the little girl is a witch?”
“My sister is not a witch!” Can I grab Sookie and race back inside the cabin? Mitch and Mia have left the door open a crack. Then another pirate with blondish hair clumped in greasy locks and a gnarled hand gripping his cutlass, slips between us and the cabin door. Now our way is blocked, and we’ll never make it.
“Let us go ashore,” I say forcefully, even though my legs feel like they’re turning into Jell-O.
“Are you the captain or am I?” Lafitte faces me. He looks amused. Sookie’s right—there is cruelness to his smile.
Lafitte swishes his cutlass and taps its point against the deck. “Jean Lafitte is the only captain on this ship. You, ma jeune femme, do not parlay with me. Comprenez-vous? Disrespect me and it is at your peril.” Then he swoops his tricorne hat
off his head and makes a little bow.
“I am a magician,” Sookie steps between us and also does a little bow. What is she up to?
“How very interesting,” says Lafitte. He gestures to an ancient stack of playing cards scattered on top of a barrel. “Show me a card trick, oui, if you are a magician.”
“Oh yes, Captain Lafitte, my sister is very good at card tricks—she can make them disappear and reappear.” I give Sookie a meaningful look.
Lafitte orders Sookie and I to follow him. Most of the pirates follow too. I steal a glance back and notice that when the pirates turn their backs on the cabin, two shadows leave. A small bubble of hope rises in my chest.
Sookie tucks the creepy baron doll inside her pack and takes the cards and fans them across the barrel. The pirates draw in close. I can smell their hot breath over my shoulder, and it isn’t pretty—they stink of rum, and rotting garbage.
Waving her hands dramatically, Sookie shouts, “Bowla,” which I know is a Celtic word for, “take them away.”
The cards disappear. The pirates grumble and shout, “Hey! Those are valuable. Bring ‘em back.”
Sookie waves her arms again and says in her far-away creepy voice, “Foo-thee,” and the cards reappear.
The pirates back away a step, but Lafitte steps forward. “You are a little witch. How did you do that?” Lafitte looks a little too interested in Sookie’s magic.
The pirates are staring in amazement at the cards and Sookie. They have dropped their guard. I pluck the cards up. “She. Is. Not. A. Witch.” The crew all draw in close to see what I will do with the cards. If they are expecting magic, they’re in for a disappointment.
I throw the cards in their faces and grab Sookie’s hand. “Run!”
Before we can escape, a strong arm grabs me by the shoulder and yanks me around. Jean Lafitte’s cruel face is leering down at me. “Why did you use such trickery on my crew?”
I try and use a soccer spin to get away, but then I feel the press of cold steel against my stomach.
13
“Run!” I hiss to my sister. Too late, the pirate with an eye patch catches Sookie and plucks her from the deck.
Sookie squirms and kicks and shouts. “I can turn you into a toad if I want to.” I doubt that, but the pirate doesn’t, and he drops her like a sack of potatoes and slinks back and joins his crew. Jean Lafitte, though, is fast as quicksilver, and he reaches out his arm and grabs my sister.
“I want you two to be good and behave nicely. Do as you’re told.”
From out of the shadows, Clive dives and knocks the feet from under Lafitte. “Ugh.” Lafitte doubles over and falls to the deck as his cutlass spins onto the deck. Clive jumps up, but Lafitte hooks Clive’s leg with his arm from where he has fallen and holds on, wrestling Clive down again.
“Sookie don’t wait for us. Make a break for it!” I pluck the cutlass from the deck. It’s heavier and more awkward then it looks. I manage to dangle it by Lafitte’s face. In the most menacing voice I can muster, I say, “Let Clive go.”
“Drop our captain’s weapon, ye scurvy bilge rat.”
By comparison, my voice doesn’t sound menacing at all. I look up. Clive, Sookie and I are surrounded by pirates. The greasy-haired outlaw grins as he points a muzzle-load pistol at my face. I don’t like the way his hand shakes.
Jean Lafitte stands up and dusts off his velvet coat, and adjusts his lace cuffs. He jerks the cutlass from my hand. “The little sorcière amuses me, but you two are not showing me respect.” With a casual wave of his hand he orders, “Tie their hands behind their backs. We will make them WALK THE PLANK.”
“Aar, we’re in for a fine show,” says the eye-patch guy.
“No,” cries Sookie. “That’s despicable.”
Jean Lafitte smiles his cruel smile and replies, “Fine. Don’t tie their hands. We will feed them to the fish.” Then he places his own hand on Sookie’s shoulder, as Clive and I are pushed and shoved toward the side of the ship.
I wonder if on this side of the Otherworld, there are still alligators in the swamps. Probably, says that pesky voice. They’ll be bigger, and much more treacherous.
“Wait,” cries Skeeter. “Leave Cat and my brother alone.” Skeeter abandons the sailors and runs toward us. “If you want to hurt them, you’ll have to get by me.” Skeeter brandishes his plastic sword. A pirate laughs, whips out his cutlass, and with a quick whoosh cuts Skeeter’s sword in half, and shoves Skeeter out of the way.
Several pirates break into a jaunty sea shanty as they scramble to bring a plank and tie it down so it hangs over the side of the ship. I see the plank wobbling over the water splashing far below.
Clive and I are lifted onto the gangplank. “I’m sorry, Clive,” Skeeter cries. “I wish we’d never got those stupid doubloons and come on board. I’m sorry I tried to join the pirates.”
“C’mon matey, you’ve got the makings of a fine pirate. You’ll get used to watching people walk the plank.” The greasy-haired sailor pats Skeeter on the shoulder, but Skeeter shrugs him away.
“No I won’t.” Tears are streaming down Skeeter’s face. “I quit. I’m not following bad guys.” He tries to climb onto the plank with us, but the one-eyed guy drags him back and holds him with a sword at his throat.
The narrow gangplank leans over the crashing waves and bounces and dips with our every move. The murky alligator-infested water swirls below us. I swallow. My head pounds. I breathe deep and bite my lip so my panicked thoughts don’t take over. I realize Clive has taken my hand.
Reflecting in the sea, I catch sight of the bloated, blood-ringed moon. It has stopped sailing across the horizon. I check my watch—it’s one minute to midnight. Moonlight spills down and pools the ship’s deck in an unnatural glow. Sookie and Skeeter scream behind us. I spin around to see what`s happening but the plank bounces. Clive stumbles, and I reach for him.
We both fall to our knees, and wrap our arms around the teetering plank as it tries to buck us into the swirling waters below.
14
The plank teeters up and down, but Clive and I hang on. Clive’s the first one up on his feet, and he gives me a hand up. I have my back to the ship’s deck and Clive is facing it. His eyes widen and he stifles a gasp.
“Don’t look, Cat.”
Of course I look. It’s not a pretty sight. Under the eerie moon glow, the pirates’ faces are melting like molten wax. Their eyes sink into black sockets. Their noses peel away. One pirate’s arm drops out of his shirt.
“Sookie, Skeeter, run for the plank!” Clive shouts, but their phantom captors won’t let them go. We leap off the plank and onto the deck to fetch them. I trip over a heap of bones and rags, and force myself not to scream. We move toward Sookie and Skeeter who are still being held by Lafitte and the one-eyed pirate.
As we pick our way by, we see Jean Lafitte’s fine velvet coat disintegrate. The hand he’s rested on my sister’s shoulder turns skeletal. Sookie’s eyes are frozen in horror as the bony fingers of Lafitte still cling to her. As Skeeter’s skeleton pirate crumbles, he dashes forward. With the stub of his sword, Skeeter chops Lafitte’s bony fingers away from Sookie.
We huddle together as the rest of the pirates turn into rotting corpses, and then into bone heaps. The ship’s timbers groan and begin to split. The shredded black sails are flapping in tatters. We can’t stay on board. In moments this ship will sink or disappear, and we’ll be trapped on it.
“We’ve got no choice,” I say. “We’ll have to make a jump for it.” Clive nods in agreement.
“Come on you two.” I take Sookie’s hand, and Clive grabs Skeeter’s. We lead them to the plank.
“We have to dive into the water,” I tell them.
“No,” Skeeter gasps.
“Pretend you’re jumping from the high diving board at the pool,” I say. “We’ll make a cannonball; just tuck your chin to your chest.”
“Someone is coming to help us,” whispers Clive. “I think it must be Mia and Mit
ch.” I follow his eyes toward the prow and see a rowboat making its way toward us.
Clive lifts Sookie and Skeeter onto the gangplank. When we climb on, the plank moans, then splinters and breaks with a loud snap.
The four of us are tumbling in the air.
I fall and plunge feet first into the swamp. Water shoots up my nose and into my throat. My lungs burn and I sink deeper and deeper into the murky depths.
Air bubbles up from my throat. It’s dark above me and for a terrifying second, I wonder if I’ve slipped under the hull of the ship. It’s nighttime, silly, says that voice. Stay calm, let yourself float up. Don’t fight it.
I force myself to stop flailing, and once I begin floating, I kick my legs and propel myself to the surface. Sookie’s blonde head is bobbing beside me. I gulp in air. Sookie breaks into a free style stroke and swims toward the row boat. Taking in another ragged breath, I struggle through the waves and follow behind her.
The plank is floating in the waves, and I see Skeeter is holding on to it. Clive holds Skeeter, making sure he doesn’t slip off. Mia and Mitch row toward us. Mitch reaches us first and helps haul us in as Mia keeps the rowboat steady. Sookie scrambles into the boat, and more slowly, I haul myself up. Once in the boat, I try and catch my breath. In a few quick strokes we row up to the plank. Mitch and I help Clive get Skeeter in the boat. Then Mitch gives Clive a hand up.
“I’m glad I took swimming lessons,” says Sookie.
“I better take some,” says Skeeter. I promise myself I’ll trade a little soccer time for a few swimming lessons of my own. I cough and spit.
Mia hands Clive and me an oar. “Hurry, this boat is falling apart like the ship and taking in water.”
Mitch gives Skeeter and Sookie a rusty bucket, and they bale the water that’s streaming in from gaps between the timbers. I grab an oar and start rowing with Clive. Mitch and Mia pull on the other oar.
Not far in the distance are treacherous bayous. “Where are we now?” asks Mia, “Our world or the Otherworld?”
Grim Tales: The Curse of the Doubloons Page 4
