Captain James Hook and the Curse of Peter Pan (12 page)

The men on deck tethered lines to hooks and cast them onto the
Jolly Roger
.
 
They drew the ships closer to one another and extended planks across each deck.
 
The crew of the brigantine hailed us with smiles and cheers of greeting.
 
Throughout this, Blackbeard remained steady, watching each man’s movement.

Three men stepped across the plank from the
Jolly Roger
. As each one passed, I realized that I had no idea what Jesse Labette looked like.
 
Someone so vile had to have a telling appearance.
 
I watched them closely for signs of monstrous horror, but not one had a tail, horns, or an inhuman glow in their eyes. The three of them lined up, demons in men’s clothing.
 
The one in the middle stepped forward and bowed.
 
The monster by my side spoke first.

“Welcome aboard the
Queen Anne’s Revenge
, Captain Labette,” Blackbeard said, returning the pirate’s bow with a nod. The pirate rose and removed his wide-brimmed black hat, revealing long hair that was tightly pulled back.
 
Its color was fair against his face, which was dark and dry from years at sea.

“‘Tis good to be welcomed,” the pirate grinned.

A thousand thoughts came to me at once.
 
Although he answered to the name, this man could not be Jesse Labette, the feared killer of honorable men.
 
He was no taller than any other man and despite the bulk of his coat, he was no broader either.
 
What if my mother was right and these pirates were only men and nothing more?
 
Blackbeard was certainly a savage, but he was no troll or beast.
 
If he was a man, then Jesse Labette was as well. A man can be betrayed.
 
A man can be killed. Blood pounded heavily in my ears and a red cloud crept in around the edges of my vision.
 
Buried in his chest beat a heart blacker than a moonless night and I wanted to tear it from his corpse with my own two hands.

Blackbeard stepped forward and motioned for Labette to follow, which he did.
 
Blackbeard chose Smee to talk this trade over with Labette in the captain’s cabin.
 
My job was to wait outside until I was needed to count the money and I assumed Labette’s third crewman was charged with the same task.

They walked shoulder to shoulder exchanging tense smiles as I strained to hold myself still.
 
If I lunged for Labette now, I’d surely be killed.
 
Here, surrounded by his friends and Blackbeard’s crew, was not the place. Today, I told myself, I am not prepared to win.
 
I stopped at the door and watched Jesse Labette, the murderer of my future, close the door behind him.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Blackbeard’s negotiations with Jesse Labette took over three hours.
 
Coarse talk was punctuated with shouts, threats, and laughter.
 
It was impossible to hear fully what was being discussed, but large sums of money were at stake.

My task in this trade was to guard the door until I was told how many louis-d’ors to count out.
 
Waiting wasn’t a difficult job, save for the company.
 
One of the pirates that came over with Jesse Labette was outside the cabin with me and reeked like brine, which appeared to be crusted into his beard. An evening wind picked up, and I wondered if I smelled any better.
 

The noise inside the cabin died down to a whisper seconds before the door burst open.

“You’re up,” Smee barked at us.
 
Stunned to alertness, I locked eyes with the crusty-bearded pirate, who already had his hand on the pistol in his belt.
 
He smiled and laughed to himself, shaking salt from his beard onto the deck.
 
Smee leered at him before adding, “Come on, then.”

The two of us entered and Smee closed the door behind him, sealing me in with my nightmares.
 
The two captains sat facing one another on either side of the dark table that Blackbeard used for business and dining. Jesse Labette laughed heartily as Blackbeard toasted the agreement.
 
Both men drank while Smee smiled through a scowl at Labette’s pirates, who sneered back at him.

“Mr. Hook,” Blackbeard said, finally noticing me.
 
“This is Captain Labette.”

“Yes, sir, I know,” I said out of reflex.
 
Labette perked the corner of his mouth into a smirk and tilted his head in curiosity.
 
I looked at the floor, purposely avoiding his gaze.
 
Earlier, I resolved to keep my temper at bay. One slip here and William and I would never see home again.

Then Labette leaned forward and asked, “Have we met, Mr. Hook?”

“No, sir,” I said, meeting his eyes for the first time.
 
“I’d only heard of you up until now.” He rested his back against the chair with a wide self-satisfied grin across his face.
 
His eyes remained fixed on me, as if he were examining me. Blackbeard roared with laughter and raised his glass to toast their notoriety.
 
When he set the glass back on the table, I asked him, “What do I need to count, sir?”

“No counting,” Blackbeard said. “Captain Labette just wanted to get a good look at ya is all, being that you’ll be carrying the chests.” Smee snorted at me and grinned. Blackbeard waved his arm over the two chests behind his chair.
 
“These are his.” Questions formed in my mind, but instead I nodded and lifted one of the chests.
 
The sooner I was out of this cabin and away from Labette, the better.
 
I got halfway through the door when Blackbeard dashed my hopes of escape.

“You and Smee’ll be taking these chests over to the
Jolly Roger
.” My heart and stomach changed places for an instant.
 
The
Jolly Roger
?
 
I could barely look at the ship without flying into a rage.
 
I stifled my panic long enough to catch Labette still watching my every move.
 
I managed to breathe an, “Aye, sir,” before leaving.
 

A strong gust caught me as I stepped onto the deck, but that wasn’t what chilled me. The
Jolly Roger
creaked and snarled as the wind cut through her sails.
 
I steeled myself before crossing the plank that connected the two ships.

As I stepped onto the dark ship, her crew watched me out of the sides of their eyes.
 
They were split in much the same way as ours.
 
Men were here and about, pretending to work while armed to the teeth.
 
They cackled and joked to themselves just before I was hit.

Something hard slammed into my back and I tumbled forward, spilling the chest in my hands.
 
It crashed and sprang open with a bang.
 
Coins leapt from within and scattered like mice behind the corner where Emily kissed me those years ago.
 
The men fell silent.
 
Some drew weapons.
 
I crawled on my knees to gather the money back into the chest.

“Look sharp,” Smee snickered loudly.
 
He took a few steps and placed the chest down on the deck before turning to sneer again.
 
He flicked open my father’s watch and looked at it briefly before speaking again. “You’d better clean up your mess, Hook.”

“No,” was all I said at first.
 
If the ships were quiet before I spoke, they were a cemetery now.
 
“This mess is yours and that watch is mine.”

Smee flushed red and looked about him at the hushed, dirty faces. “It is a pretty watch, Hook, but it is mine.”

“When we’re all laid low,” I said, “we’ll see who’s laid with it.”
 
Smee took two steps toward me and I rushed to greet him.
 
Up until this point, I hadn’t realized how much I’d grown in my time away.
 
I was almost eye to eye with him.

“If you’re going to stab me, then do it.” I challenged.
 
“No? How about shooting me?”
 
All the time that I’d spent cowering was over.
 
There would be no more fear.

Smee paused and then paced around me, snorting like an animal.
 
He stopped, pulled the knife from his belt, and dropped it to the floor with a thud.
 
His fists clenched in that most familiar preamble to my beating.

“Ahoy, Little Floater!” called a voice from a distance.
 
The blood drained from Smee’s face as he and I both looked to the
Queen Anne’s Revenge
. Calling out again, Jesse Labette sauntered across the plank.
 
“You handle yourself well, Smee,” he said. “You spend a few years on a ship and now you’re running trade agreements with the captain and ordering the boys around on deck.” Smee met his eyes with a murderous rage.
 
Labette strode up to him grinning like the devil himself. “You’ve come a long way from the board we found you floating on.”

The color returned to Smee’s face as he pulsed with anger.
 
They stared at each other for moments before Labette spoke again.
 
It wasn’t a long pause, but I had time to wonder. What happens when one beast swallows another?
 
Does he grow stronger for the victory or is he less of what he was from the fight?

“Mr. Hook,” Labette said to me without once looking my way, “have you ever heard how Smee came aboard the
Queen Anne’s Revenge
? Or how he got his name?”

“No,” I answered.
 
Although I wanted to know, I’d rather find a safe distance from the both of them.

“Back when I served as Boatswain under Blackbeard, months after we first took the ship, we saw this tubby Irish boy floating on a board in the open sea,” Labette said.
 
He squinted a little and pulled the corner of his mouth into a smirk.
 
“For the life of me, I have no idea why we didn’t just let him drift.
 
He had no valuables and he’d been stabbed through the gullet.”
 
Smee brought a hand to his stomach, much to Labette’s amusement.
 

“But dragged him up we did and we laid him across the deck and we listened. For although he was so near death, he kept saying the same thing over and over again, ‘Smee,’ ‘Smee,’ ‘Smee.’” Labette smiled even more broadly now.
 
“Even when he’d healed enough for us to be certain that he’d live, he kept saying that word, ‘Smee,’ ‘Smee,’ ‘Smee.’”
 
Since I was sure now that no one was watching me, I tried to slink away.
 
Labette shot me a hard look, freezing me in place.

“Soon,” he continued. “He was strong enough to talk so we asked him what ‘Smee’ meant.
 
The part that slays me to this day was that he didn’t know.” The men listening in on the
Jolly Roger
laughed heartily.
 
“He had no memory save for his time with us on the ship.
 
No history.
 
No name.
 
So we called him ‘Smee, the Little Floater.’” At this, several aboard the
Revenge
joined in the mocking as well.

Smee, reddened in his humiliation, stormed over to the
Revenge
.

“Go and run off, Smee,” Labette chided.
 
“Run off before I give you ol’ Johnny Corkscrew.” He took out a sword and twisted it in the air in a mock stabbing motion, laughing horribly.
 
The crewmates who took part of the teasing ceased immediately when Smee got back aboard.
 
I tried to follow quietly, but Labette blocked my passage.

“And where are you going, Mr. Hook?” he asked.
 
I opened my mouth to speak, but the dozens of questions I had caught in my throat.
 
How did he get my father’s ship?
 
What did he do to the men still aboard?
 
Where was the ship he once had?
 
My mind raced until I saw an oddly familiar sight.
 
Although Labette smiled often, he did so with everything except his eyes.
 
It’s a look I recognized, but still didn’t understand.

“You’ve still got a mess to clean up,” Labette told me, pointing to the spilled coins.
 
He spun on his heels and strode to my father’s cabin.
 
Before he disappeared into the room, he called out over his shoulder, “And be sure to count out the right amount before you leave.”

The long minutes I spent picking the louis-d’ors up off of the deck of the
Jolly Roger
stretched to nearly an hour.
 
I tallied the total twice to be sure that each coin was accounted for. When finished, I bolted back to the
Revenge
.
 
I sat below deck for an hour before my heart beat normally again.

The final exchanges were made in the fading light of dusk.
 
Both crews relaxed their hardened looks and began the celebration.
 
Although drunkenness is not generally allowed on board, the men told tales of their adventures with as much bluster as possible.
 
I did my best to join in, but there was only so much bragging I could stand, especially from Labette, who was now recounting his narrow escape from a tribe of savage cannibals.

As the men laughed and joked, I slipped away to the aft deck and hung my legs over the side.
 
The moon was so very full and bright that I could not look at it without wondering if Emily was watching it as well.
 
I was hundreds of miles away from home, surrounded by murderous liars and cheats, yet this moon was the same one over Port Royal tonight.