“So what do we do?” Doc asked.
“Follow my lead,” Abigail said. “Now, where’s Captain Rackham?”
They searched the deck. They found Rackham fast asleep with his head on a cannonball.
Abigail nudged him with her foot.
“Noooo,” Rackham moaned in his sleep.
Abigail nudged him again. Sort of kicked him. “Wake up, Captain!”
He opened his eyes.
“Captain Rackham,” Abigail said. “The pirate code states that any crew member can challenge the captain.”
“Aye, it’s true, but—”
“Any man, or woman, can say, ‘I should be the new captain!’ And demand a vote. And if she wins, she’s the captain. Correct?”
“Aye.” Rackham yawned. “But I wouldn’t—”
Abigail Adams raised her arm and shouted, “I challenge you, Captain Rackham. I say that I would make a better captain!”
Anne Bonny walked up.
“Rules is rules, Jack,” she said. “We have to hear her out. But if she loses the vote, well, you know.”
That made Jack Rackham laugh.
Doc and Abby looked at each other. They really hoped Abigail Adams knew what she was doing.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The crew gathered in the great cabin. Pirates yawned and held matches to their pipes. Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny sat at the table in the front of the room.
Doc and Abby watched from the back.
“Ye know why we’re here,” Rackham began. “Adams, say what ye have to say.”
Abigail Adams stood and faced the crew.
“Thank you, gentlemen,” she said, “and ladies, for your kind attention.”
Someone let out a thunderous belch.
“What I wish to say is this,” Abigail continued. “Many of you have been pirates for quite some time. Yes, yes, I know you do not like that word, pirates. But let’s be honest, shall we?”
“Where’s supper!” someone demanded.
“It’s coming,” Anne Bonny called. “Adams, be quick.”
“Right,” Abigail said. “I wish to suggest a new idea. We give up attacking ships, robbing others, taking things that do not belong to us. And instead, we turn our ship into a school!”
For once, the crew was silent.
“A floating school!” Abigail sang. “Open to men and women alike. I can be one of the teachers. And we will invite other pirate crews to come and join us! We’ll study reading, writing, mathematics, history—imagine the fun!”
Doc looked at Abby. Abby just shrugged.
“Now I get a turn,” Jack Rackham growled.
The crew cheered.
Rackham stood and held out his arms. “Who’s been bringin’ ye prize after prize? Calico Jack, that’s who! We stay on the attack, says I! A merry life and a short one! Who’s with me?”
The pirates leaped to their feet and roared.
Abigail Adams said, “So, just to be clear, how many votes for the floating school?”
Abigail raised her own hand. She was the only one. Everyone was glaring at her.
She shot a look at Doc and Abby.
Very slowly, they raised their hands.
“Traitors!” someone shouted.
“Bilge rats!”
“How could ye, laddies!” Rackham wailed. “And ye, Adams, I took ye in! Gave ye a taste o’ the good life! And ye stab me in the back!”
“Easy now, Jack,” Anne Bonny said. “She was within her rights to try. And the rules is clear.” Turning to Abigail, she said, “Adams, ye and anyone who voted with ye, is to be marooned on a deserted island.”
“No!” Abigail Adams cried.
“Aye, left to rot in the sun,” Bonny insisted. “Rules is rules.”
Abigail lowered her head. “Very well. Rules is rules.”
“That was her plan?” Doc whispered to Abby. “Get us all kicked off the ship?”
“Guess so,” Abby whispered. “Brilliant!”
“Supper time!”
That was John Adams. He staggered in, groaning with effort, a pot of steaming stew in his hands.
Rackham banged the table. “Set it here, cook, I’m starved!”
John put down the pot.
Rackham sniffed the stew and winced. “Did ye boil me shoe in here?”
“I most certainly did not,” John said.
The whole cabin was filling with foul-smelling steam. Doc pinched his nose.
Rackham scooped up a spoonful of stew. He brought it to his lips and slurped.
Then he sprayed it all over his crew.
“Do you think it needs salt?” John asked.
Bonny dipped a spoon into the pot and sipped. She gagged and pounded the table.
John frowned. “It’s not easy, you know, cooking for a large group such as this.”
“Believe me, I know,” Abigail said.
“Ye, cook!” Bonny shouted. “Yer goin’ with Adams and the little ones!”
“Going where, sir?” John asked.
“To be marooned on an island!” Rackham bawled.
“Now!” Bonny added. “Before you can cook us anything else!”
Abigail smiled. That wasn’t part her of plan. Just a lucky break.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Rackham’s ship anchored near a tiny island—nothing more than a strip of sand with a few palm trees.
Doc stood on the deck, looking through the spyglass. The British ship was still far off but sailing toward them. If Rackham finds out, Doc thought, he’ll make everyone stay and help with the coming battle.
“What d’ye see?” Rackham demanded.
“Uh, I think a whale,” Doc said. “Ooops.”
And he dropped the spyglass into the ocean.
“Fool!”
“All ready, Captain!” called one of the pirates.
The crew had lowered a lifeboat to the water and hung a rope ladder off the side of the ship. Abby and Doc climbed down to the lifeboat, followed by Abigail and John Adams.
Then came Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny. Each holding two long swords.
“We’ll row ye to the island,” Bonny said. She picked up the oars and began to row.
“Kind of you,” Abigail said. “Might I ask what the swords are for?”
Rackham smiled. “The duel,” he said.
“I see,” Abigail said. “And who exactly will be dueling?”
“We will,” Rackham snarled. “I like ye, Adams, but ye challenged me, afore the whole crew. I need to make an example of ye, see?”
“And I will be dueling you,” Anne Bonny said to John Adams.
“Me?” John asked. “What for?”
“For the stew,” Bonny said.
Rackham grunted a laugh.
John looked hurt. “I did my best with very limited ingredients.”
“Captain, this is hardly necessary,” Abigail said. “Surely it is punishment enough to be left on a desert island without food or water. Let us part as friends.”
Bonny kept rowing. Rackham kept smiling.
Abby leaned toward Abigail Adams. “Was this part of your plan?”
Abigail shook her head. “I was just trying to get us off the ship.”
“It worked,” Abby said. “And thanks. Only now you have to fight a duel.”
“So it appears.”
“Well,” said Abby, “you did say women should be able to do anything men do.”
“Perhaps,” Abigail said, “but some things men do are just plain stupid.”
“Here we is!” Rackham called as the boat slid up onto the beach. “Everyone out!”
Rackham and Bonny carried the swords onto the island. Each took one. The other two they stabbed into the sand.
“Take yer pick!” Rackham said.
Abigail and John looked at each other.
“Which one do you want, dear?” John asked.
“I’m not sure it matters,” Abigail said.
No one was paying attention to Abby and Doc.
> “There’s gotta be a way outta here,” Abby said.
“I know,” Doc said. “Abe Lincoln wouldn’t just leave us here to, you know …”
They looked around the island. There wasn’t much to see. Just the sand, the palm trees, and one other thing: a barrel.
A wooden barrel, lying on its side.
Abby lifted it up. It had no top. It was empty.
Looks like a normal barrel, she thought. But the cardboard box in the storage room behind the library looks pretty normal, too. And the laundry basket in the White House.
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Abby asked.
Doc nodded. “Worth a shot.”
Rackham and Bonny started warming up, dancing around each other, clanging their swords together.
“Bet I win my duel quicker than you, Jack!” Bonny bragged.
“Yer on!” Rackham cackled. “Fifty pieces of eight for the winner!”
“Agreed!” Bonny said. “Pay me when we get back to the ship.”
“Not likely, Annie!”
The other two swords were still sticking up out of the sand. Abigail and John were still standing next to them.
“Go on, take ’em!” Rackham demanded, waving his sword in the air. “Time to fight!”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Guys!” Abby shouted. “Over here!”
“Quick!” Doc yelled, “Jump in!”
They tilted the top of the empty barrel toward Abigail and John.
Abigail looked over. “You first, children!”
“We’re fine,” Abby said. “We’ll be right behind you. You need to hurry!”
Abigail looked at Jack Rackham, who was swinging his sword in the air.
“Yes, it looks as if we do,” she said. “Come along, John!”
She turned and ran toward the barrel.
“Get back here!” Rackham yelped. “Ye can’t hide from Calico Jack!”
Abigail jumped and flew into the barrel—and was gone.
John Adams ran up a second later—and slid to a stop in front of the barrel.
“What are you doing?” Doc asked.
“Promise you will remember Abigail,” John said. “And not just about the laundry in the White House.”
“We promise,” Abby said, “but hurry!”
Rackham was prowling toward them.
“Don’t make the same mistake I did,” John urged. “Remember!”
He jumped into the barrel—and was gone.
Rackham raged forward, raising his sword.
“No, don’t!” Doc cried.
But he did—he swung his blade into the side of the barrel. Pieces of wood went flying. There was nothing left of the barrel.
“We were still using that,” Doc said.
“Where’d they go?” Rackham bawled. “Bring ’em back, ye little!—”
Abby snatched up a handful of sand and tossed it into Rackham’s eyes.
“Run!” she shouted.
She and Doc took off running, stumbling in the loose sand. There was nowhere to hide. Rackham and Bonny chased them around the tiny island and were gaining on them, until—
The pirates skidded to a stop. They looked out at the water, where the sound had come from.
The British warship was firing its cannons at Rackham’s ship.
A cannonball sailed toward the pirate ship and plopped into the sea. The British guns were not quite in range yet.
“Blow me down!” Rackham bawled.
“To the ship, Jack!” Bonny cried. “We’ll fight ’em off yet!”
The pirates raced to the rowboat, pushed it into the shallow water, jumped in, and rowed furiously toward their ship.
Abby and Doc stood on the beach, panting.
The battle was over quickly.
Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny made it back to their ship in time to put up a fight. But Bonny and Mary Read were the only ones fighting. The rest of the crew, including Jack Rackham, disappeared below deck. The British stormed aboard Rackham’s ship, took everyone prisoner, and lowered Calico Jack’s pirate flag.
Abby and Doc watched the whole thing from the desert island.
Their new home.
Doc tried to look on the bright side. “At least we got off the pirate ship in time.”
“Yeah,” Abby said, “and we saved Abigail Adams. And John. At least, I think we did.”
“Let’s hope,” Doc said. “Is that a rowboat coming toward us?”
“Looks like it.”
And it was. A small boat, rowed by one man. The rower was wearing a black jacket and tall hat. But his back was to the beach, so Abby and Doc couldn’t see who it was.
“What if it’s a British sailor?” Doc wondered. “Coming to arrest us?”
“We’ll claim the pirates captured us,” Abby said. “Forced us to serve with them.”
“That’s what pirates always said when they got caught.”
“Did it work?” Abby asked.
“Nope.”
“Got a better idea?” Abby asked.
“Nope.”
“Here he comes,” Abby said. “That hat looks familiar.”
The bottom of the boat hit the sand and stopped. The rower stood, lifted a long, thin leg—and toppled into the shallow sea.
He stood, water streaming off his black suit. He fished his hat out of the water and put it on. He splashed up onto the beach.
“Boy, are we glad to see you,” Doc said.
“Good to see you, too,” said Abraham Lincoln.
CHAPTER TWENTY
They sat together on the beach—Doc, Abby, and Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln said,
Lincoln laughed his high-pitched laugh. Doc and Abby just sat there.
“You still don’t like my jokes, I see,” Lincoln said.
“No offense,” Abby said, “but it’s hard to tell that they’re jokes.”
“In any case,” Lincoln said. “You showed brave hearts. And legs. You did very well.”
“We did it again,” Doc said. “We fixed history!”
Lincoln sighed. “Nothing’s fixed, I’m afraid. Don’t you see? The cat’s out of the bag.”
“Now everyone from history knows they can do whatever they want,” Abby said. “Why should you and Abigail Adams get to have all the fun?”
“Exactly what I’m worried about,” Lincoln said. “I have a feeling history is about to get a lot more mixed up. Can we keep it from twisting completely out of control? That’s the question.”
“We’ll help if we can,” Doc said.
“You know where to find us,” Abby said.
“Good. I’ll be counting on you.” Lincoln stood and stretched. “I better get going.”
Abby said, “Um, aren’t you forgetting something?”
“Something kind of important?” said Doc.
“Oh, yes, of course.” Lincoln touched his chin. “How do you like my new beard?”
“You showed us already,” Doc said.
“So I did,” Lincoln said. “I suppose you meant, how do you get home?”
“You do know, don’t you?” Abby asked.
“This is all very new, but I understand a little more than I did before,” Lincoln said. “It will be different every time, the words you need to leave history.”
“What are they this time?” Doc asked. “Wait—you think John Adams was trying to tell us? Before jumping in the barrel?”
Abby’s face lit up. “Right! He kept telling us to remember Abigail! The stuff she did, the important stuff. Like that famous letter about women’s rights. Could that be it?”
“Oh, yeah, that was great,” Doc said. And he shouted: “Remember the women!”
Nothing happened.
“No,” Abby said, “it was
And they vanished.
And reappeared in the cardboard box in the storage room behind the library of their school. They tipped the box over and crawled out.
Abby set the box upright. Doc grabbed a copy of their history text
book from the shelf. He flipped to the page about Abigail Adams in the White House. She was there.
But not for long.
“John Adams was right,” Doc said. “He lost the next election.”
He read aloud:
“Sounds right,” Abby said.
“Yeah, for now,” Doc said.
“I know. Who do you think will be next to, you know, escape from history?”
“Could be anyone,” Doc said.
He started flipping pages in the textbook. Abby looked over his shoulder.
“Wait,” Abby said, pointing to a page, “that can’t be right.”
“Where? Oh, I see it.” Doc laughed. “Wait till Lincoln sees!”
The door opened.
Abby and Doc’s mom stuck her head in.
They put down the textbook and grabbed their bags.
“Get your homework done?” their mom asked as they walked to the parking lot.
“Not exactly,” Doc said.
“What? You had an hour! What were you doing?”
“Working on this, um, new project,” Abby said.
“History project,” Doc added.
“History!” Their mom was shocked. “Your dad will be thrilled. Want to grab some pizza before soccer practice?”
“Yeah,” Abby said. “I’m really hungry.”
“Feels like we haven’t eaten in days,” Doc said.
Their mom laughed. “All right, but just one slice each. Dad’s cooking dinner. He’s making his famous stew. With biscuits!”
Doc and Abby looked at each other.
They shrugged and got into the car.
UN-TWISTING HISTORY
I’m sure you realize that a lot of this story is made up—Abigail Adams never jumped into a laundry basket at the White House and appeared in the Caribbean, for example. She never served on a pirate ship. Still, a lot of what’s in the book is true.
There really were female pirates, and we know for a fact that Anne Bonny and Mary Read sailed with “Calico Jack” Rackham. Bonny and Rackham really were married. The scene where they steal a ship and escape (Chapter Eight) is based on a story that has been told about Rackham and Bonny for nearly three hundred years. The “pirate articles” that crew members had to sign are real. And the details of what life was like on a pirate ship, and what pirate attacks were like, are also based on reliable sources.
Abigail Adams, Pirate of the Caribbean Page 4
