Later that night, Elizabeth walked out of the small house that she shared with her son. It was nothing special, just a few rooms but it was comfortable and cozy. She walked over to the cliff, where her son enjoyed playing and called his name.
"Will! Will! It's time to come inside and get ready for dinner. You need to wash up. Will! Will! Where are you?" Elizabeth called. "Where is that boy?" She walked closer to the cliff and then looked down. Below her, in the sand, she saw fire burning words. They said,
"My name is Calico Jack and I have your son."
Elizabeth screamed and called out,
"WILL!!" but no one answered. She ran back to the house as fast as she could. There she changed into her clothes so that she could disguise herself as a man. Then she grabbed enough money to rent a ship and crew. She probably wouldn't need it though, her name was enough to get any pirate at her feet.
Will was sitting in the ship's brig. He leaned against the wall wondering how he had gotten into that mess. From above, he heard the shouts of the crew and the Captain, and in a strange way, he longed to be up there, helping them make the ship go. Tightening the lines, letting the sail down, even swabbing the deck would have been great if only he was a part of that.
"It's in my blood," he said. "Sailing is in my blood. I can feel it."
For the next few days he had no visitors, except a tiny man with a large stomach, who brought him food and drink, though barely enough. After the fourth day down in the brig, a man came down. He was tall, with brown hair and a close cropped beard. He wore calico from head to toe and had a sword at his belt.
"Hello, boy. My name is Calico Jack. I'm sorry for taking you from your home like that but your mother owes me something and well, she's a bit harder to catch ain't she. Or at least that's what my first mate tells me. I guess he's right. Anyway, I have decided that until your mother gets here, you will help out on deck. You ever sailed a ship before boy?" the Captain asked.
"No," Will said, as petulantly as he could. The Captain reached forward and slapped him across the face. Will cringed at the sudden pain. His mother had never hit him and apart from a few scuffles with the town boys, he really hand't gotten beat either. This pain was a sharp wake-up call for him.
"You will address me as either sir or Captain, understood?"
"Yes, sir," Will said, through gritted teeth.
"Very good, now shall we go. My men will be glad to teach you. Don't worry their methods are very good, you will learn quickly," Calico Jack said, a twisted smile creeping across his face. He grabbed Will roughly around the arm and pulled him up the stairs to the main deck. There, everyone stared at him for a seconds and then they smiled to match their Captain's.
"You men need to teach this young one how to sail and in less than a day. Think it can be done?"
The men laughed loudly.
"Yes, sir!" they called in perfect unison. The Captain pushed Will forward. He stumbled and crashed into one of the men. The man pushed him back and Will fell on the floor. Everyone laughed at him as he stood up with as much dignity as he could muster.
"Back to work, you scurvy dogs," the Captain called out and everyone turned back to their work. The man that had kidnapped Will on the beach walked forward.
"I'll be teaching you how to sail boy and you better pay attention as if your life depends on it because it just might," he said. Will noticed that the man was missing a chip off of his front tooth.
"Got it," he said.
The man raised his had in an obvious threat.
"Sir," Will added, reluctantly and the First Mate smiled.
"Now you're getting it."
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