NaNoWriMo 2007 Twelfth Chapter

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, in which participants need to write 50,000 words from November 1 to midnight November 30.  The point is to get the words flowing, push to the end, allow yourself to write a bunch of crap, and revise in December.  This motivation and urgency should help a writer put aside the internal editor and excuses that normally stop them from writing a novel in the first place.

Fresh Water Pirates- Chapter 12

Sheila recognized her pirate friends the minute Raven Red Tooth opened the heavy wooden door.  The greasy business buy with the comb-over smiled and held his martini-in-a-highball up to toast his heroes from the night before.

"Aaaaarrrrrr!" hollered Dog Face to celebrate his entrance to his new favorite tavern.  "Sheila, ye strappin' wench, pour me maties some grog!"  Dog Face smiled with his big square teeth and glittery black eyes.  "Ahoy, matie!" he cheered to the greasy comb-over man. 

Barley Bob took a loud slurp from his grog, nodded to Sheila, and gulped more grog before leaned on the bar on his left elbow.  "So Sheila, lass, ye se any sea scrogs we cen get te werk?"

Sheila smiled, let her shoulder-length red hair down fro her ponytail, and nodded her head to the other side of the bar, where three men huddled in a corner around pints of grog.  One of them looked larger than Dog Face, which Barley Bob found difficult to admit, and the other two looked just as wiry as he and Seymour, which he equally felt unreal.  In his head he imagined they would find just some average sized, average strength guys with a few tattoos.  These three men inked their arms, alright, but as far as their build, they touched the too extremes.  Barley Bob shrugged and elbowed Raven.  "Should we be introducin ourselves t' th' maties oer thar?" Bob asked Raven.

"Not yet, ye scurvy dig.  We be needin' a bit o grog in our bellies befar we be talkin' any business,' Raven took his second pint of grog already.  "We be keepin' our eyes on them thar sea dogs befar we goes an promisin' werk."

Barely Bob shrugged again, and finished off his pint of grog.  With a smile and a nod to Sheila, he had another one in his hands.

Captain Charles and Black Jenny entered the tavern behind the crew.  They pretended they didn't know The Others, as planned, just to keep the environment safe, not to gang up on any sea-faring folk unless necessary.  Sheila noticed the sword on Black Jenny instantly. 

"You folks aren't from around here, are you," Sheila asked with a wry grin, sliding pints of grog their way.

"Now, howd ye guess sech a thang, ye brassy wench?  Ye don' think we be fittin' in t' th city here?" Captain Charles poured on a thick pirate accent, and shed the little bit of class he possessed.  Black Jenny found this amusing, watching her captain grit himself up a bit, add a little swagger, and role play with the bartender.

Sheila laughed and then with curled shoulders and a shiny smile, she tapped the bar in front of their grog pints.  Captain Charles placed an emerald bracelet on the bar. 
"'Spose this be carryin' we sea dogs a ways in't' th' evenin'?" he winked to Sheila with charm spilling all over the counter.

As she does in her flirtatious mode, her tip-fishing mode, Sheila obediently flipped her hair, licked her teeth, smiled, and took the bracelet like a harlot.  Everyone at the bar cheered,  "Aaaaarrrrrrr!"  Even the lonely business suit man held his martini high in the air and growled like a pirate.  He laughed at himself and indicated to Sheila he wanted to buy a round for the house.  He knew the evening could only get more interesting from here on in, and his life was not short enough.

The three men huddled in the corner turned and joined in the "Arrrrr!" with the rest of the tavern.  Each of The Others took note of this as an affirmative and took another pint to observe a bit more before they propose their voyage to the three piratic men.  In the meantime, the four pirates on one side of the bar never gave any indication that they knew the two pirates on the opposite side of the bar, and likewise.  Captain Charles drank his grog, sucked on his mustache, and wondered if Black Jenny should be the first to introduce the voyage to the men.  At the next gulp of grog, and the glimpse of the three men sneering at Black Jenny in her boots, belt, blouse, and sword sheath, reminded him that sailors consider females bad luck on a ship.

"Jenny," Captain Charles spoke in a low voice, "I be thinkin' if we be gettin' scrogs fer this voyage, ye be needin' t' disguise yerself as a man pirate."

Black Jenny flashed her piercing blue eyes to his with a firm straight mouth.  "Ye think so eh?  Why should I be hidin' meself!  I be a pirate jest like th rest o them scurvy dogs!" Her voice lifted enough in volume for one of the three men to look over his shoulder in her direction.  Black Jenny took this as no reason to keep quiet.  "Cap'n, I be a pirate jest like th' rest o them!"  She repeated louder for all the bar to hear.  "I be a pirate! I be a pirate!  I be a pirate!" she started to chant.

Seymour's eyes darted around the tavern nervously.  Barley Bob did the same but soon began chanting with jenny.  "I be a pirate!  I be a pirate!  I be a pirate!" 

Dog Face, several pints into the evening, flashed his silly smile and chanted with drunken bravado, ‘I be a pirate!  I be a pirate!  I be a pirate!"

Raven Red Tooth swore in some gypsy language under his breath, then jerked himself into a bold upright stance and joined in the chant.

Excited to a tickling degree, the greasy comb-over man stood up with his martini and chanted as well.  After every phrase he laughed with a deep stomach laugh, having more fun that very moment than he had had in years.  His voice sounded so nasally and wimpy compared to the baritone guttural bellows from the real pirates.

A googly-eyed fellow in a green plaid shirt and wool pants started chanting along with glee, and the tall wide-shouldered man next to him in a Polo shirt and khakis started singing his frosty mug of beer back and forth like the sailors do in musicals.  "I be a pirate!  I be a pirate! I be a pirate!"
A smooth-face cleft-chinned guy in a silk shirt and jeans came out of the men's room with a clean slick gel do and started in as well.  "Hey alright!  I be a pirate!  I be a pirate!  Hey, I be a pirate!  Aye matie, I be a pirate!"

Sitting on a stool with his chubby legs wide apart and his chins resting on his shirt collar, the blonde fat guy with the red nose asked Sheila for a shot of whiskey and then proceeded to chat along.  "I be a pirate!  I be a pirate!  I be a pirate!"

One by one the entire bar chanted with Black Jenny.  The liquor flowed rapidly and the music hid under the loud boisterous chanting.  Even the three tattooed guys in the corner lost their edge and flexed their muscles as they pumped their arms in the air and shouted at the top of their lungs, "I be a pirate! I be a pirate!  I be a pirate!"

Finally, Black Jenny stood up on the bar while Captain Charles hid his face in embar-rassment.  "Hey, since we all be pirates, join me on me pirate ship!  Aaaarrrrrrrr!"

Caught up in the moment, all the chanters repeated, "Aaarrrrrrrrrrr!"

"Are ye pirates?  Are ye?" Black Jenny sounded like a motivational speaker.  "If ye be pirates, tell me ye pirates!  Lemme hear ye!  Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

"Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

"Ye think ye be pirates?  Say ‘yaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!' if ye arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

"Yaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

"Yaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrr!  Lets be pirates, then.  Lets grab some grub and take this party t' th' ship!  Who be wi' me?  Who wants t' see a real pirate ship!  Avast ye maties, t' th' Rotten Rose we go!"

Black Jenny felt her heart pounding outside her chest.  She had no idea earlier in the evening that she would be standing on a bar, encouraging the entire tavern full of people to follow her to the Rotten Rose.  Nobody had any clue that this is how the evening would flow.  The plan was basic- capture some people to take on the voyage to help man the ship, to help make soap, to help in pillaging and murdering once they reached new lands up North. 

Usually "capture" meant bribing or kidnapping, and she was pretty certain that the usual capturing techniques were what Raven and Dog Face were accustomed to.  But after delivering a still born baby, Black Jenny found herself again, trying to prove herself worthy of pirate status, and as a crafty thinker.  Much to her surprise, every single person in the tavern was grabbing their coats, throwing tips on the bar for Sheila, and lining up to follow her wherever she went.

Even Sheila started rolling up her waist apron and grabbing food from the kitchen.  Captain Charles was the only person in the tavern standing perfectly still, in awe.  He watched men slam the rest of their drinks, don on their jackets, ask Sheila if they can help her carry the food, and stand in line before filing out of the tavern, following Black Jenny towards the Rotten Rose.  He had never seen anything like it.  Nobody willing climbs aboard a pirate ship if they know what's good for them.  Have they any idea that once they board, there is no turning back?  No, of course not, no one ever knows that once they stand foot on a pirate ships deck they are bound to it.  The only way any of these men are leaving the Rotten Rose is of they get tossed off on the voyage.

Earlier that day, Captain Charles and Seymour brought the Rotten Rose up to their dock in preparation for dragging the potential unfortunate unconscious victims aboard.  By the graces of alcohol-induced loose humor and the blood-pumping excitement of encouraging chants, the long line of 32 people boarded the Rotten Rose without a single protest.  Not one man resisted climbing the plank towards the deck.

With a shrug and disbelief, Captain Charles himself pulled up the plank and called out, "Heave ho!"

Copyright 2007 Laura Beck Nielsen