Scurvy Stories: Captain's Quarters
Black Beard's Dealings with the Dreaded Pirate Robert Drefuse
“Everything dirty and rotten to see
Here on the ol’ ship where nothin’ is free
You have to be an old son of a gun
Here on the ol’ ship where nothin’ is fun!”
The ol’ sea shanty filled Scudder’s ears with a harmonious bitter joy for he was a young lad who had drank much and was about to be sick.
The chortling of Captain Black Beard’s crew went up across the black ocean under the ship’s deck as Scudder was about to hurl.
“Why doncha tell Captain what you can’t do, laddy!” Shifty the one-legged Pirate laughed and noticed his drunken state. “Tell ’em ya can’t hold ya liquor!”
They all roared as the young cast away, Scudder, with a clean-shaven face was about to vomit. He hurriedly raced to a barrel puking his brains out as the crew howled crudely.
“Better out than in, I always say,” Gruff the chef said reassuring the kid as he took a sip of his ale by candlelight.
“You’ll be ok, lad! Just drink some water, alright?” Gruff helped him over to a chair in the corner and gave him a wooden cup as he drank slowly.
“That was terrible,” the blond-haired kid Scudder panted. “Why do you fiends drink so much ale? It is quite dreadful.”
“Ah, when you get older, you’ll understand, lad. I’m sure you will. Men, ‘specially hardened pirates, always drink a lot. It’s a part of us.”
“Yeah, well, I’m no pirate, sir.”
“Well, ya a pirate for as long as you’re on this, here, ship, I tell ya that. The Captain said it right.”
“This is a mistake, Gruff, just please-”
“That’s Sir Pirate Gruff to you, laddy! Respect is the utmost important thing on this here ship!” He slapped him as he fell back hard on the cabin floor.
“And we can’t have ya givin’ me your ol’ puppy dog eyes now! Not like today when yous was tryin’ to escape me clutches now, aye?”
“I wasn’t tryin’-”
“Aye, enough with ya now! Up to bed with ya, laddy! You had enough! Up, up!” Gruff screamed as Scudder was led up the stairs and found his little bed chamber.
He thought of his capture by Captain Black Beard’s crew and heard the wails in the deadened night. The mischievous and mysterious crew went on into the wee hours of the night holding no sound back.
Scudder remembered the foggy mists that came and hid the violent men when he was taken by Shifty and H. Wallace III, the yellow-bearded pirate.
His small village couldn’t do a thing being on a tiny coastal mariner city where busybodies came and went without much notice. Kidnapped and forced on this dirty rotten ship, he dreaded what they would do to him but he would find a way to escape, even if it meant death.
And so, Scudder gazed out into the moonlit sea, the cloudy blue sky sparkled its radiance across the vast landscape engulfing everything it touched. He missed his folks, his brother, and his cousins who didn’t even notice his capture and who slept soundless every night after.
Snuggling up into his small papyrus bed sheet, a knock came abruptly on his non-private door because Wallace III peaked his little scrawny head in with his yellow eyes piercing Scudder’s.
“Ah, just about to take your little nappy, eh? "Well, the Captain demands your presence this very night,” he said in his high-pitched tone.
“Are you serious?” he asked loathing Wallace III.
“Would I jest about such a terrible thing? Well, I guess maybe sometimes, but either way, get up you ol’ scallywag! The ol’ Captain Black Beard demands you. Now!”
Devastated, Scudder got up and dressed quickly as Wallace cursed and screamed at him howling at his scrawny physique.
He eyed the golden-bearded pirate with disdain and trudged along with him through the claustrophobic wooden maze cabin.
Drunken buffoons hobbled to their dens and cells hiccupping and guffawing like ponies. One-legged pirates came and went and one especially with a patch on his left eye named One-Eyed Patch Pat, who was sober saw the lad and smiled.
“Ooh, I heard yous was summoned by the Captain himself, ain’t it right?”
“None o’ yer business, Pat!” Wallace screamed and grabbed his lace-stained shirt ripping the collar slightly.
“This is Captain’s business, not the poop deck crew! Off with ya now!” He chortled as he flung him down the stairs where the lesser crew members lodged and slept.
“This way, lad,” he whispered right outside the Captain’s Chambers.
The old, weathered rotting door with worms wriggling around the edge had a sea dragon’s handle protruding out for some unlucky bugger who had to touch it in order to enter the Captain’s quarters.
Wallace had the pleasure of being first mate but if anyone was summoned to Black Beard’s chambers it meant he was to yell, curse, or kill you or worse, make you walk the plank humiliating you in front of the whole ship who mocked and spat while you jumped off into the raging green sea.
Wallace knocked on the door hard and heard a deep bellowing voice, “Well, we don’t have all night! Come in, you fiend!”
Scudder gulped nervously as his heart raced violently.
Entering, he saw the dark and lonely cabin with Captain Black Beard fixing some drinks at his desk which was front and center. Books of all sorts and manuscripts, maps, and diaries all cluttered the bookshelves making it appear a larger room than it was.
Two statues of mermaids on either side of his study were placed delicately. Looking at Scudder, the motionless sculptures regally held vases and poured waterless jugs out to nowhere.
“Have a seat, sonny!” Black laughed heartily and looked into the lad’s blue crystal ocean peepers. “A drink, perhaps, laddy?”
He quickly hid a map with an eyeglass on it stashing it under his large, crimson-stained desk where he studied shrunken heads in tiny glass flasks. Tubes full of bugs, animal heads, and human skulls decked the outer rim of the room.
Not waiting for anything, Black Beard pushed the glass of some strange dark liquid to him. The miserable glass peered at Scudder glaring straight into his soul.
Not again. I’m just getting over my drinking tonight.
“Uh, maybe—”
“What? Drink up!”
He gulped it down to the dregs as Black Beard laughed.
“You thirsty, me friend? Want another?”
“Sure.” The Captain poured Scudder another of whatever terrible concoction it was.
“Leave us, now Wallace. I think the lad is settled.”
Wallace nodded without a word and shut the door quickly.
“So you is me new crew member, aye? Or do me eyes deceive me?”
“No-no, sir, Captain Black, uh… Pirate, sir.”
He laughed again, “Captain will do. Don’t worry, have the others been bustin’ your scallops, eh? Just Captain, or Captain Black Beard.”
He chortled again loudly relaxing in his big reptilian chair made of foreign material decked with scarlet rubies and golden jewels, blue sapphires dazzling in the moonlight.
Black stood up and lit some beeswax candles off to the side. “Let’s bring some more light in, shall we, eh?”
The tall broad-shouldered infamous Black Beard with his black knotted hair flowing down his muscular back hung long and full and free.
He came to his seat all cheerfully with a gracious air, kingly and royally, he held himself with dignity and showered respect onto Scudder. His green eyes glimmered in the dim lighting. A sparkle showed across his strong, violently stern, but honest expression. The scar across his upper lip was fresh and demanded an explanation. His pirate shirt and leather vest made of lizard skin, he patted down and rubbed feeling for his pipe which he lit quickly.
Scudder shifted nervously as the Captain got settled comfortably in his throne. He puffed smoke rings at the blond boy and put up his large boots onto his desk lying back.
“Well, how do you like me ship?”
“Oh, it’s wonderful, Captain, just… great.”
“Ah, ye be lying now! Come on, lad, it’s a dung heap, on this here ship. She be wailing with grief for the crews she’s seen come and gone, but this one’s a terrible lot, I tell ya. Dirty, foul… mischievous… the lyin’ lot!” He banged his large fists on the table as the ship rocked.
“This, this crew nothin’ but thieves! What’ve ya heard, matey? Speak up! Can I trust ya, now? I don’t know if I can! Speak freely! I won’t kill ya for honesty, but I sure as well will make ya walk the plank for speaking deceitfully! Now… tell me what’s me crew up to?”
“Well, sir, I… I haven’t heard anything… unusual.”
“I’m not talkin’ about unusual, boy, I’m talkin’ about criminal activity! Savages be on this here ship, I tell ya that much! But also… other things.”
“What other things?”
“That’s what I’m askin’ you fer, ain’t I?”
“I…I haven’t heard anything, sir.”
Black Beard laid back and pondered the lad’s tales.
“Alright, you seem like an honest lad, now, do ya? I think so.”
“Uh… Captain, sir?” Scudder gulped again trembling. “May I uh… ask a question?”
“Sure, sure, ask away, me matey!”
“Well, I was wondering… well… when am I allowed to go?”
“Go?” he laughed wonderfully like an old grandpa.
“Why on earth would you ever wanna go? Flee? To where? To the coasts? With yer family, with all the lovely ladies roamin’ about, eh? With the sweet smell of the swayin’ trees, with the dogs barkin’ away into the middle of the night, mothers givin’ coats to their young ones, the skies openin’ up and pourin’ down its needed rain? With the ladies givin’ out flowers in the spring and couples dancin’ and frolickin’ in the fields, the acres of vibrant green grass, eh? Is that what ya miss?”
“Y-yessir, and I—”
“Well, I tell ya, it’s all a myth! You listen good, and listen well, me dear boy, once you enter this here, domain, on ol’ Black Beard’s black ship, then you never leave. You understand, me?”
“Ah, well, Captain-”
“LISTEN! Listen to me! You won’t ever leave this here ship, not when I’m alive, you hear? Only over my dead rotting corpse will ya ever leave!”
He leered maniacally and forced fear onto Scudder who hung his lonely head.
“But what about this crew? You said you had more than one?” Scudder asked. “What happened to them? Surely you let them go?”
“Aye,” Black Beard started slowly sipping his dark drink.
“The last one, I killed,” Black said muttering angrily. “Oh, I killed ’em alright, with me two bare hands. Every last one of ‘em! All me crews strangled and maimed!”
“This is why we need fresh blood. New blood, young blood. Ya hear me? Ya understand me, laddy?”
“Yessir,” Scudder said whimpering fearfully.
“Don’t you cry now. Cryin’ is fer the weak. I need ya strong, aye? I won’t hurtcha. And if anybody does, then well, you come and find me. Eh?”
“Y-yes Captain Black. I will.”
He chuckled gently, “And if you hear any of ’em talkin’ about stealin’ gold or killin’ me in me sleep, ya tell me wontcha?”
He nodded defeated, “Yes.”
“Good, well—”
Just then Black shuddered and his eyes glued to the dark corner because he sensed an evil presence.
“Get down, lad!”
He threw Scudder around the back of the desk as he quivered but looked through a crack, the light shining through a hole.
Black drew his revolver in the deadened hall, pointing it at something dark and mysterious.
“Who walks there among the shadows? Come out, I say, come out! You nasty little fiend!”
Then the shadows darted up quickly as Black shot a yellow flash in his cabin cell while the smell of gunpowder filled the room.
Wallace shouted, “You alright, Captain!”
“Hold yer horses, ya dumb twit! I’m fine!” But he was terrified and pointed the gun right at the moving darkness.
“Show yerself, ya coward!” Then the gray shadow began to reveal itself and the shape of a man stepped out and smirked wryly at Captain Black Beard who clutched his chest in terror.
“T-ttt- The D-dreaded R-rrrr-Robert Drefuse!” he exclaimed.
Cackling, it chilled the boy’s and Captain’s spines pulsating throughout their bodies. Black lowered his revolver and fear seized him scurrying back behind his desk.
“Y-You was dead. You’s supposed to be dead!”
“Aye, I am Captain Black Beard,” the ghost maniacally laughed. “And I have come to rectify the debt.”
“W-What debt?”
“Your debt, Black. Your blackened and dark debt, made with the Dragon.” He walked up to his desk slowly and confidently with a dark purpose as his red boots clicked eerily.
“Nay, I don’t, I don’t—”
“What?” The old pirate mocked grinning awfully. “Serpent got your tongue? Eh? Dragon got your wife?”
Black shivered as the whole cabin filled with an isolated coldness. “You don’t know anythin’ about that.”
“I know plenty, how you made a deal with Denneson the Sea Serpent borrowin’ from him. How you gave him your wife.”
“That’s not true! He be cheatin’ me! That wasn’t in the agreement! I wanted to slay ’em. He is the one to pay me the debt!”
“Ol’ Black Beard sailin’ the sea in search of… what? Gold? Silver? Or mermaids who grant thee wishes? Aye, ain’t it true?”
“You been speakin’ with the devil.”
“I am the devil! Sorcerer of the Seven Seas, I be! Traveler and wanderer for eternity, seeking out the cheaters and the liars, the murderers and the deceivers, making sure the balance between pirates is good and fair! And you sir, are the slimiest and slitherin’ of the most high, there ever will be!”
“Nay, Drefuse, please,” Black pleaded. “He tricked me! He got me wife! His goons, his dragon worshippers came in the night and kidnapped her and now he has her. He cursed me never to enter again, but I will find ’em, I sure will.”
“With the help of the sea sluts, aye!”
“You watch your mouth—” he warned wagging his thick finger at the spirit.
The gray shadow seized him and brought him close speaking through his yellow crooked teeth holding his skull dagger close to his throat.
“You listen to me, Black, I’ll give ya three days. In three days' time, I shall come and take your soul. I shall take it without question for your wanted debt to Denneson.”
“This is madness! He’s a monster! Not a pirate!”
“Aye, but he’s a master, a master, and commander in the shadow realm, a fellow nightmare lad. I tell ya, I’m doin’ him a favor.”
“No good rotten little nasty-”
“Or…” Drefuse said pulling him closer and whispering. “If you are so lucky, you pay him back what you borrowed and if he’s in a good mood I think he’ll give ya back your little wifey too, eh? If you pay him back the lot.”
Suddenly, he flung Black against the wall as he fell roughly onto the deck seeing the gray blackening void, the abyss of nightmarish proportions close and swallow the Dreadful Pirate Robert Drefuse. Right before he was taken back to hell, the dead sea-pirate wagged his finger and beamed wickedly with his long graying braided beard flowing.
“Remember, three days, three long painful days, I shall return and take you with me.”
“I’ll kill ya, I’ll kill the lot of ya!” Black trembled.
“I hope you do, Black. I hope you do but I will have to leave now fer darkness is comin’ and swift is the night wind.”
Then he was gone, vanishing into the Seven Seas.
And Scudder wiggled on the floor and then rose asking, “Captain? What was that all about?”
Black stood heaving in horror at the revelation of Denneson and his wife Pearl. Pearl, his love, his sea-faring partner, his golden goose, his black fire.
Turning to Scudder, “You tell no one of this, ya hear?” He glared into Scudder’s blue eyes and dared to find honesty and truth.
Scudder hurriedly nodded truthfully for he feared everything: Black, the deceitful crew, the Dreadful Drefuse Pirate, the mermaids, and Denneson the terrible fire-breathing Sea Serpent.
To Be Continued…
