by Matthew Gallagher
Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 EpiloguePrologue
The little raft spun 'round and 'round, and its two passengers were too tired, too frightened and too pressed to its life-saving planks to get sick from the motion.
The hungry sea had long since swallowed the yacht "Summer's Day." If they hadn't grabbed on to this piece of the deck as it cracked off and sailed from the ship, they would have followed the other passengers down to the depths below. Although, they didn't even have time to think about that -- their brains were focused on one thought, and one thought only:
"Hold on...."
While other pirates might have such colourful names as Yellow Beard and Bluebeard, the Crimson Hawk and the Black Swan, our pirate went by the name he was given as a foundling on the steps of the orphanage when he was a baby: Curly.
It's true that he had long since lost all the curly locks of hair that had crowned his head, but not because he had gone bald. There had been an outbreak of lice on one of his ships and he feared a return of the mites. But the name had stuck, and on his ship the Triumph, he was known as Cap'n. Curly. Which was fine by him, since his Christian name was Cuthbert, and his surname was Puddletupper. If you had a name like Cuthbert Puddletupper, you'd probably be fine by being known as Cap'n. Curly, too, wouldn't you?
Cap'n. Curly was a dreamer. He dreamt of making it big. He went after big ships that had big cargo, which usually meant they had big guns and big crews. This often led to the Big Retreat. Cap'n. Curly was known for his crew's ability to unfurl their sails and get under way faster than any other ship in the ocean.
Curly followed the stories about treasures that no one, not even the pirates at Napopo Cove, believed existed. Napopo Cove was one of those notorious hangouts where pirates store their goods and drink rum and fight. The last time that the Triumph had docked at Napopo, Curly had listened to the story that an old, old pirate had told about a treasure that was worth going to the ends of the earth for. The old, old pirate told of a bird -- the only one of its kind -- which had the ability to grant wishes. Now, most people don't believe in wishes any more, but I do. And Curly did. He had had several pints of what pirates call grog, which is a drink that makes sane people believe just about anything. Curly wanted so badly to make it big and get the crew of the Triumph off his back for the times that they had to run away while trying to steal the cargo from the King's ships that he was captivated by the idea of the Wish Bird. The old, old pirate (who never did tell Curly his name, by the way) had also had a lot of rum and grog to drink, and he showed Curly the bottom of his stein, upon which a map was stamped! Curly waited for the old, old pirate to fall asleep from drinking so much rum and grog, and then he pulled the stein from his fingers, and ran back to his ship, shouting "Make way! Make way!"
Without bothering to tell them why, he had the crew of the Triumph hoist the sails and off they went. The crew was so used to getting out of trouble in a hurry that they didn't even ask questions, and just left the harbor of Napopo Cove faster than fast.
The water lapped coldly at the feet dangling over the side of the makeshift raft.
"Don't do that. Pull them up."
"It feels good."
"It won't feel good when a barracuda comes along and bites off a couple of your toes."
The brown-haired girl pulled her feet up slowly and tucked them under her on what was once the deck of the yacht Summer's Day.
The sun had felt good that morning after the storm had raged all night. But now its constant beating from above had made the young women thirsty. The blond shielded her eyes with one hand and looked all around them at the vast ocean. No land in sight, which meant no place to paddle to, and no fresh water.
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