Scurvy Stories: The Splitting of the Crew
“One more day, Captain. One more day…”
“No one gets to leave this ship
We’re all old, don’t give us lip
No one gets to be relieved
No one here can ever leave!”
Captain Black Beard looked out across the emerald Seven Seas, calmly smoking his wooden pipe.
He thought long and hard about Shifty, Gruff the cook, and One-eyed Pat. Bruce and Forger were twin brothers. Black knew little about them as they were quiet and kept to themselves. He always suspected something was afoot with them two at least. He also suspected Shifty, but about Pat and Gruff, he did not know.
Everything was coming to get him. Nowhere was safe in Captain Black Beard’s world. If you desired gold, treasures, prestige, and fame, there were twenty others looking for the same thing. And this drove Black mad. His murderous rage was becoming hungry again. He longed to kill Denneson and to rescue his wife, Pearl the mermaid. She was all he had, and if she was dead, then he would be lost. He had nothing else to live for.
Then just as his nerves were being calmed, a shadow appeared thinly in the evening wind. The Dreaded Pirate Robert Drefuse appeared for a moment like a phantom and whispered,
“One more day, Captain. One more day…” and vanished. Robert was right, if he couldn’t kill Denneson or pay him back, then tomorrow the ghost would take his blackened soul.
H. Wallace III walked up on the deck and saluted his captain. “Sir, we haven’t moved in over an hour.”
“Look out there, Wallace,” Black said quietly. “Tell me what you see?”
Wallace sighed deeply and took a glance at the golden skies just as the sun was setting. The slowly moving yellow tides were peaceful and serene. But then Wallace gazed out longer and saw the mist to the right of the island swooping in, creeping slowly forward.
“The fog…”
“That’s what I was waiting for, mate,” Black said, puffing another smoke ring. “Prepare the men, quickly. Time’s a wastin’!”
Scudder, Frank, and Cleda were sleeping in their bunks when feet were all scuffling the floorboards above them. Pirates flooded the halls outside the cabin doors. The three got ready and huddled behind the door, hearing the shouts of the rowdy men.
“What’s happening?” Cleda whispered.
“I think they’re preparing to seize Fire Island,” Scudder said.
“But we’re still so far away from shore,” Frank insisted. “Look!” He pointed outside their circular window. Frank was right. They were far away as they could see a small fire in the distance, emanating from a lonely place.
“I don’t know,” Scudder said. “But whatever it is, it’s too late to escape now.”
Scudder, Cleda, and Frank burst out of the crawlspace and saw pirates clambering down nets onto small paddled wooden boats. They were pushing off and rowing to the island.
On either side, the many men were shouting and cursing at each other as they descended into the boats and left quickly. Black was directing everything like clockwork and shouting orders.
The Lady Kraken made its way through the terrible yellow sea as night began. Tomorrow would be the day when the Dreadful Pirate Robert Drefuse would come and seek the soul of Black Beard. The sun had set and now it was complete darkness. Tomorrow morning, the spirit would come to retrieve the long-awaited debt.
“Alright, I’ll be right behind ya,” Black yelled out of fear that Robert Drefuse’s spirit would kill him then and there. “I need every man to get in a boat, four men per boat, and go, go, go!”
They’re timing something, Scudder thought. And they need to leave now.
Scudder yelled across to Black. He turned and saw the three kids and his heart became angrier. “Aye, I see you. You three come with me, ya hear?”
The three nodded in silence as the crew all escaped down the sides of the Lady Kraken.
Black shouted to the crow’s nest, “Gilly! You know what you and your men are to do?”
“Aye, aye, Captain!” Gilly Leggs cackled, glaring out of his golden telescope. “We’ll be ready, sir!”
Black nodded and then commanded the kids, “Go take that one! I’ll be right behind yas!” They saw the bigger lifeboat stationed on the side as they all jumped in.
Black gazed out in front. Seeing everyone racing to Fire Island, he looked at a picture of his beloved Pearl.
“I hope I can see ya one last time, my darlin’,” he said and kissed the picture.
Burying it deep inside his coat pocket, he sighed deeply and brushed his dark, matted hair with his greasy palms. He stroked his bushy black beard with gray strings sticking out.
Then Black heard from the island cries of thieves and murderers, the cult followers of Denneson the Sea Serpent. They shouted angrily as it swelled up on Fire Island where the evil Water Dragon resided.
Scudder held on to the sides of the tiny boat, looking toward the fiery rage of the Dragon Cult as drums beat awfully in the distance.
Weird, foreign, and ancient chants beat in the crew’s ears incessantly. It drummed a dreadful rhyme of woe.
“That be a malicious tune,” Wallace III said quietly to Black.
“Aye, that be the worst thing I did ever hear,” Black said hoarsely.
Then he put his revolver in his snakeskin belt, checked his silver sword, and entered the boat. “I’ll be headin’ for Pearl. Commander Gorm, you take care of, alright?”
Wallace nodded without another word, entering the boat on the opposite side.
Suddenly, Black pulled the lever as they dropped. Splashing into the waters, Black said, “Alright, now, aim for the right side.”
“Don’t follow the rest of the crew?” Frank asked.
“Nay, listen to me, lad. We’re doin’ a detour.”
As the four reached the coastline, no one was in sight except tikis carved with ugly and scared faces. They frightened the shuddering children.
Raging fires in torches were stuck in the ground. They shined on the terrible night against the cold stone columns erected on the sandy shoreline. As Scudder and Frank rowed slowly, Black remained still on the back of the boat, waiting and watching.
Red blood was splattered on rocks and strewn on the wheatgrass in the blinding darkness. They slowly passed the strange omens as they maneuvered into small streams of water until Black said, “Stop, here, now.”
Scudder and Frank halted as the four got out. But as they did, Scudder saw from a distance another problem:
Uncle George “Terror” Tumber’s three ships, and the Barnacled Emerald Owl, sailing fast toward them.
“Black!” Scudder pointed with fear. This was not what he wanted at this moment in his young life.
Enraged, Black picked up Scudder by the throat. Black glared into his eyes as Scudder clawed at his beastly visage.
“You — bringing every kind of evil upon me! How did you signal ‘em?”
“I-I-I I didn’t…” Scudder choked, pleading.
“Tell me!”
“He said he would return,” Cleda cried. “Please, Captain, don’t hurt him. Stop it!”
“Remember,” Frank said, wielding a dagger and showing Black he wasn’t afraid. “Our uncle said he would return in three day’s time! He’s a man of his word!”
Black, out of exhaustion and fury, and not wanting to deal with annoying children, chucked Scudder into the waters. “I’m glad I never had kids!”
Frank lunged at Black, but he punched the lad in the face. Frank collapsed into Cleda’s arms. “Please, stop it, mister!”
“I’ll leave you threes here! Don’t come following me! Go back to your Terrible Uncle, ya hear! I don’t want yas anymore than you want me! I know when one doesn’t want to be around me! Be gone!”
Cleda sprang and rescued Scudder in the waters. Frank came to her aid and dropped his shaking body on the wet sand. They caught their breath as they saw the trinity of ships, heading for the island.
Scudder shook with horror and held his neck, rubbing it.
“Are you OK, cousin?” Cleda asked, horrified.
“Can you breathe?” Frank asked. “The damn pirate is mad with rage.”
“Don’t avenge me. I’m alive,” Scudder said, spitting out salt water. “I’ll go find him. You two swim to Uncle George’s ships. It’s too dangerous!”
“We won’t leave you!” Cleda insisted.
“Stop this, Cleda! We all know this was a terrible idea from the start. I should’ve never stayed on the Lady Kraken. I should’ve told Uncle the truth. But I was too afraid.
“Now, Frank and Cleda, don’t be afraid as I was and swim to the Emerald Owl. Go! Black isn’t too far gone. He needs my help now more than ever.”
The two fled and swam to the approaching ships. Scudder, lying down on the sandy shore with his hand on his stomach, breathed in and out. Then, after a moment, rose and sprinted to find Captain Black.
To Be Continued…
