by Rob Kidd
“So be ours,” Tim suggested with a shrug.
They both gave him confused looks.
Tim waved at the armada of Spanish ships bobbing around them. “I mean, you are a Spanish princess. One ship isn’t that much to ask, out of your inheritance. It’s a lot cheaper than paying for your dowry, I bet.”
Carolina stared at the galleons, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “My father won’t be very pleased.”
“All the more reason to do it,” Diego said, smiling.
“And you’ve got a whole crew right here,” Tim said, indicating his uncle and the sailors who’d been on their ship. “We all came to sea to see the world. We’re up for any kind of adventure.”
Carolina seized Diego’s hands. “Let’s do it,” she said. “Will you be my first mate, Diego?”
“I say,” Jack said, overhearing this last part of the conversation. “What kind of scurrilous talk is this? You’re not leaving the greatest ship to ever sail the world, are you?” he asked, waving at the Pearl.
“I’m sorry, Jack,” said Carolina, “but I probably won’t get a chance like this again…a ship and a crew just waiting for me? I have to take it now, while I can.”
“Well, when you put it like that…” Jack said regretfully.
“Any chance you’ll be going by India?” Jean jumped in with a hopeful expression, holding the prison puppy in his arms. “Lakshmi should be free now. I have to get back to her!” The puppy wriggled and licked his face, sensing his excitement.
“You’re leaving me, too!” Jack grumbled. “Don’t do it, Jean, lad! We’ll sail the Pearl right back to India before you can say, ‘All right, but this time let’s not stop in Madagascar on the way.’ Savvy?”
“Oh, no, you don’t!” Billy Turner objected. He grabbed Jack’s arm with a threatening look. “This ship is going straight to North Carolina!
Right now! No more detours or backtracking or supernatural funny business!”
POOF!
Everyone jumped as the mystic Tia Dalma suddenly materialized on the deck of the Pearl. The puppy barked in alarm. The mystic woman glared at them all with her strange, haunted eyes, and then turned her fiercest glare on Jack Sparrow.
“You did not do what I be telling you to do, witty Jack,” she said in her lilting voice.
“Well,” Jack said, waving at himself. “I mean—pirate! What did you expect?”
“Hmmm,” said Tia Dalma, glancing around at Jack’s crew, most of whom were scurrying around putting the deck back in order. “Well. Apparently it turn out for the best anyway.”
“Yes. I’m cleverer than I look,” Jack said proudly. “Wait…that didn’t come out right.”
After setting the Peacock adrift, the Ranger had dropped its anchor beside the Pearl. Tia Dalma squinted at Marcella, who was being politely helped over the railing by Gentleman Jocard.
“You look familiar,” the mystic woman mused.
Marcella gasped. “You!” she snapped. “You and your stupid spells! I’ve been waiting to run into you again so I could give you a piece of my mind!”
“Uh—is that such a good idea?” Jocard interjected, giving Tia Dalma an uneasy look.
“Ah, yes,” Tia Dalma said. She narrowed her eyes even more. “Now I remember you. I should have left you as a cat.”
“A what?” said Diego just as Jack let out an outraged cry.
“No!” Jack yelled. “You didn’t!” He whirled on Jean. “You! This! You! Her!”
“Sorry, Jack,” Jean said, putting the puppy down and spreading his hands apologetically. “I knew you wouldn’t let us on board if you knew she was really Constance.”
“Constance!” Jack clutched his hair. “Your sister is just as bloody annoying as a person as she was as a cat! Possibly even more so! I can’t believe you brought her onto my ship again!”
“See,” Jean said, “that’s how I thought you’d react.”
“And it’s very rude!” Constance said, stamping her foot. “I’m helpful! And smart! And very pretty! And I was as a cat, too, I know it! You should want me on your ship! Not that I would set one toe on it if I had a choice, you nasty pirate!”
Tia Dalma touched her forehead. “Perhaps I be turning her into something quieter next time,” she muttered. “Like a pineapple.”
“Well, you can’t stay on the Pearl !” Jack said, putting his hands on his hips and getting nose-to-nose with Marcella. Jean shook his head in despair.
“Oh, no!” Carolina said. “I don’t want her either! You can’t make me!”
“Shut up!” Constance fumed. “I don’t need either of you! I’m staying on the Ranger! So there!”
Everyone gave Gentleman Jocard a surprised look. They’d been sure that a few days cooped up with Constance /Marcella would have driven anyone to the brink of insanity.
“What can I say?” Jocard said, shrugging with an amused expression. “I think every good captain needs someone to disagree with him occasionally.”
“Occasionally?” Carolina said. She quirked one eyebrow in the same way Jack always did. “Or every second of the day?”
“Don’t argue with him!” Jack hissed out of the corner of his mouth. “Let him take her!”
“Are you sure?” Jean asked his sister. “I’m going with Carolina and Diego to India…you don’t want to come with me instead?”
Constance shuddered delicately. “To that horrible place? No, thank you. If I never saw another monkey or sari again for the rest of my life, I’d be perfectly happy.”
“You know, we have monkeys in Africa,” Jocard reminded her.
“Shut up,” she said, but in an unusually sweet way that made Jack feel ill.
Evidently Tia Dalma felt the same, because with only one more nod to Jack, she vanished back into the air from whence she came.
“Neat trick,” Jack muttered. “Really might have come in handy for this trip-around-theworld business.”
“Come on,” Carolina said, taking Diego’s hand. “Let’s go pick out a ship for us. And you can help me think of what to write in the note to my father.”
“That’s just fine!” Jack called after them. “I don’t want your company anyway! My crew is just excellent without you!” He clapped Barbossa on the back. “Right, Hector? We don’t need them.”
Barbossa smiled. “No…no, we do not.”
EPILOGUE
Jack Sparrow turned to look back at the bay as the Black Pearl sailed out into the Mediterranean. He grinned at the drifting East India Trading Company ships, thinking of Benedict Huntington and the Shadow Lord, and everything they had done to try and steal his precious freedom.
“Farewell, mateys!” he called, cupping his hands around his mouth. “You will always remember this as the day you almost captured Captain Jack Sparrow!”
He turned to Billy Turner with an exultant expression. “That’s it! That’s the exit line! I got it!” He strutted along the deck, beaming. “Oh, I can’t wait to use that again. I bet I’ll have lots of opportunities.”
“I bet you will, too,” Billy said, rolling his eyes. He watched Jack saunter to the captain’s cabin. Billy was determined to set a course for North Carolina, but he was already a bit worried. Diego had said something about a famous ancestor of his searching for the fountain of youth, and Jack had been entirely too intrigued by the idea. Billy just hoped he could keep Jack on track long enough to get home again.
Barbossa was already in the cabin. He moved quickly away from the captain’s chair and affected an innocent air when Jack entered.
“Oh, Hector,” Jack said, flinging himself down in the chair and propping his boots on the desk, “I should tell you now, we may have to pick up some new crew members in Tortuga.”
Barbossa arched his eyebrows expressively. “To replace Jean, Shane, Carolina, and Diego?” he asked.
“Um,” Jack said. “And possibly a few more. Possibly…all of them.”
“All of them?” Jack didn’t look up, so he missed the scheming express
ion on Barbossa’s face.
“Well,” Jack said, studying his fingernails, “just the ones who might be a little upset to find out what happened to the Shadow Gold. Er, you know…the fact that we don’t have it anymore, technically.”
“Technically,” Barbossa said sternly.
“So we can’t sell it,” Jack said. “So technically we didn’t make any profit off this voyage, and there won’t be any treasure to divide up at the end. Savvy? But do try pointing out to them what a lovely adventure we’ve had together. Plus all the benefits of fresh air and sunshine and seeing the world. What’s gold compared to that, eh?”
“Indeed,” Barbossa said, but Jack either ignored or missed the sarcasm.
“So!” Jack said, rubbing his hands together. “Finding a new crew in Tortuga…I feel like we’ve been here before, Hector, don’t you? What do they call that? Deja-booty?”
“You leave it to me, Captain,” Barbossa said. His eyes glittered with sinister plans. “I’ll find us a new crew. I’ll take care of everything.” My time is coming…soon.
“Wonderful.” Jack tipped back in his chair and put his hat over his face. “Wake me once we’re in the Atlantic, will you?”
Carolina paced the deck of her new ship. Jean’s puppy gamboled at her heels, yapping happily.
The Sparrow’s crisp white sails billowed overhead and the blue-green sea sparkled all around them.
Jack had been positively delighted at their choice of name for the ship. It nearly made him willing to forgive them for “deserting” him. Jean was even thinking about calling the puppy “Sparrow” as well.
“Do you think he’ll be all right?” Diego asked, falling in beside her. They both shaded their eyes and looked to the horizon, where the black sails of the Pearl were disappearing into the setting sun. “I didn’t like the way Barbossa was grinning at us. Maybe we shouldn’t have left Jack alone with him.”
“You tried to warn Jack,” Carolina said. “You told him not to trust Barbossa.”
Diego shook his head. “He just laughed. You know Jack.”
“Captain Jack,” Carolina said with a smile.
“For now…but for how long?” Diego said, sighing.
Carolina put her arms around him and kissed him. The rays of the sun slanted across the ship, edging the Sparrow in gold. “Don’t worry too much, Diego,” she said. “We defeated the Shadow Lord. We escaped my father and the East India Trading Company. And I have a feeling that no matter what happens to Jack Sparrow…he’ll find a way to make it turn out all right in the end.”
The End
