Night Swimming

Night. Moonlight. Water. But this time, Jack and Anna had already been swimming, and were now standing on the Pearl’s deck. Jack had been thinking about the Pearl all day, and wondering what she wanted him to do about Anna. The Pearl seemed to have gone back to sleep after she told him that Anna was good for him.

Despite all his urging, subtle and otherwise, Anna absolutely refused to go to sea with him. She was adamant about staying on land. What Jack couldn’t understand was how she could stay there and be unhappy, as she had been last time he showed up and shook up her life for her. She seemed better now, but she was still missing something, and he flattered himself that that something was him. He didn’t think she would marry somebody else, but he knew she wouldn’t marry him, either. Unless he asked…but the Pearl couldn’t want him to do that, could she? The only reason he could think of for that would be if she knew she wasn’t going to come back with him the next time he came back here.

“Oh, my love, no. Please don’t tell me that.”

“What, Jack?”

“The Pearl. She wants me to promise to come back to you…without her.”

“Without her? Jack, do you think she would listen to me?”

“She likes you; she might. Why?”

“I want to ask her something.”

“Well, you can try it. She doesn’t usually talk to me in port, though.”

“She’ll have to talk to me here, since I don’t sail.” Anna went to the bow, and laid her hands on the rail beside the bowsprit. She wasn’t sure how to start, so she just started talking.

“You know Jack better than any human. You know what will happen to him if you leave him. I can’t replace you, if that’s what you’re thinking. I can’t offer him freedom, only friendship and comfort. If I’m his friend, you’re his life. Are you trying to die, or only expecting to?” She closed her eyes and listened. Water, various wildlife, creaking wood…and then, deeper than hearing, Anna felt sadness. Exhaustion. Age. The Pearl was a lady, but she was an old lady, and she had had a hard life. She knew that soon there would be a storm she couldn’t fight. She loved Jack, and she was glad he had come back for her, but the day would come soon when she couldn’t do what he asked of her. If she had the refitting she would need, the spirit that made her the Pearl, that lived in her timbers and lines, would be killed by inches. Jack would have nothing but a soulless wooden shell with the Pearl’s name attached. Otherwise she would sink, and be gone completely, and her soul would hopefully be reborn in Jack’s next ship. He would know her soul when he felt it again. The mixture of weariness and pain and hope brought tears to Anna’s eyes, but now she knew what to tell Jack. She dried her eyes on her sleeve and went back to the helm. Jack took one look at her face and knew he wasn’t going to like this.

“She talked to you, then.”

“She did. Jack, she’s dying. She knows it. She wants you to let her go so she can come back and find you again. Did you know she believes in rebirth?”

“We spent enough time in the Orient, she ought to. Did she tell you when?”

“Soon. She won’t let you go with her, but she wants to go.”

“All right. Luv, do something for me. Go back up and get Gibbs, and tell him I want him back here.” He was planning something, Anna thought, and she was almost certain she didn’t want to know what it was. She did what he asked, though. Back in town, she roused Gibbs out of another tavern and sent him back to the Pearl. Then she went home and curled up on her bed and cried herself to sleep, crying for the Pearl and the end of an era.

The next morning, she went to the tavern trying to deal with business as usual, but her mind kept wandering off down to the docks. She hoped Jack would let her know when he was leaving. Which he did, indirectly. He sent Gibbs up to find her that evening. Gibbs looked like he would rather be practically anywhere else.

“Jack says he’s leavin’, and he’ll be back when he’s done what he’s settin’ out to. He says he thinks it won’t be too much longer than six or eight months, and he says if the crew shows up here, feed ‘em and give ‘em whatever drink they want, and I’ll pay you for it.”

“You’ll pay me for it, hmm? That’s generous of him.”

“Oh, it’s his money. We unloaded the Pearl this morning. I know where everything of his that’s worth anything is.”

“He’s taking the Pearl out to die, then.”

“Aye, he is. He gave me the crew and said he wouldn’t let any of ‘em come with him and drown. He says the Pearl won’t let him go down with her, but he can’t promise anyone else. Oh, and he said to tell you not to forget how to swim before he gets back.” Anna sighed.

“I’ll try. What are you drinking?”

“Whiskey. I’ve given up on the rum while I’m keepin’ track of the crew.”

“Probably wise.” She brought him his whiskey and went on with business. After she closed that night, she went down to the pier again and went swimming. As she would do every night until Jack came to Tortuga again. She would let the world shrink down to moonlight, or starlight, and water, letting it hold her in lieu of Jack’s arms around her.

Jack was wrong. It was almost a year before he came back, and Gibbs had gone from whiskey to porter to gin by the time he showed up in the tavern again.

“Anna, luv! I’m back.”

“Good! Take Gibbs down to the pier, will you? You’ll have to dry him out before he can round up the crew again, and by the time you get done with that, I’ll be closed up and you can come back here and tell me the story.” Jack heaved Gibbs up from his chair and weaved out the door with him, and Anna began the process of chasing people out. She was just getting rid of the last hangers-on when Jack came back in, alone.

“Did you stash him someplace, or drown him?”

“A little of both, luv. Got any rum left?”

“I think I can find some.” She did that, and sat down, waiting for the story she knew was coming. Three tankards later, Jack started talking.

“You were right, luv. The Pearl broke her back on a shoal a month or so after I left. She did it on purpose; there was a storm coming and she didn’t want me drowning in it. She fell out from under me and I got to land the minute before the storm broke. I saw her break up in the storm, and after it was over I made my way to the nearest port and started looking for her soul again.”

“Did you find her, or did she find you?”

“She called me. I heard her call me. It took me months to find her, and when I did, she was brand new and she belonged to a son of a bitch Spanish privateer, and me without a crew. Being the brilliant strategist that I am, I got him drunk and got him in a card game, and won the ship.”

“And only cheated a little, I’m sure.”

“Pirate.” Jack grinned. “And he had something I needed. Anyway, so I got her, and took her on a voyage to get her used to me and vice versa, and she saved my life a time or so, and we ended up here.”

“What’s she called?”

“Well, she was born La Reina de los Angeles, and it’s bad luck to change a ship’s name, but it didn’t suit her. She answers to the Pearl. It’s the soul’s name, not the ship’s. Of course, I had to get her looking the part, what with paint and sails and all. Want to meet her?”

“I’d love to.” So they went down to the pier, and Anna met the Pearl as she looked when she was a lady worth courting. It happened to be high tide that night, and Anna was missing her regular swim, so Jack let down a rope ladder and they swam off the ship instead of off the shore.

In the past year, Anna had progressed beyond dog-paddling. In fact, she was a very good swimmer. So much so that Jack teased her about being a mermaid, and she tried to drown him, and one thing led to another, and they were reacquainted in every possible fashion by the time the sun came up.

It took Gibbs a week to dry himself out and collect the crew again, and another half a day to get everything they had unloaded a year ago back where it belonged. Jack wanted to get the new Pearl used to her crew, and vice versa, so they were heading out again. “Short voyage, luv. I promise. I’ll be back.” Anna looked skeptical.

“Pirate. You think I believe in your promises?” She grinned anyway, though, and sent him off with a promise of her own, which she always kept. “I’ll be here.”
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A/N: This is finished, because I'm out of time to write anything non-academic until May. I'm not done with Anna yet,
though. I'm also not sure where that whole "replace the Pearl" bit came from, but it wanted to be written, so I wrote it.