The Man with the Sparrow Tattoo

A desteny revealed

Tia Dalma’s Shack was like a blast from the past, the bayou that we were born and raised in had not aged a day.  It was night when we reached her inner sanctum, the firefly’s floated and mingled with the musky sent of the Cuban air, Iluminateing the sky like stars picked strait from the heavens.  The water, though murky and green from the algae that resided there, was calm and peaceful and it seemed to soothe my nerves. A Bullfrog’s deep earthy calls haunted the silence between me, my sister, and Jack. We had not talked since we reached the bayou, whether it was out of fear or the constant flashbacks that flowed from our minds like a water fall, I wouldn’t know. What I do know it that although the warm childhood memory’s remained locked in my mind, something about the place was a sour taste to my soul.

The long boat stopped it’s peaceful glide towards land with a sudden thud, and I knew that we reached our destination, though the land was not visible due to the mist. Jack tied the boat to a wooden post that had seen better days. He held out his hand to me and helped me out of the boat, I still tripped and he grabbed me by the waist to steady me. After a quick kiss he let me go and I took a moment to compose myself. I was a goddess, and so was my mother, I could not be emotional during our meeting, for I knew that my mother would not shed a tear upon my return. I glanced over to Charlie, who had always been the non-emotional one, but even her eyes struggled to tear up.

Jack stopped me when I reached for the ladder

“I know the rule’s ladies first, but it’s best that you’d let me go first, Luv,”

I nodded and he began his climb, I followed soon after, with Charlie on my heals.

The door opened with a loud creek and a woman I would recognize anywhere rose from her seat.

She noticed jack first. “Jack Sparrow” She acknowledged in her thick Jamaican accent “I always knew the wind would blow you back to me one day”

And this was the awkward moment when I realized that my mother just hit on my lover.

“Tia Dalma!” Jack greeted warmly, giving an exaggerated bow,

I stepped into the shack and Tia Dalma’s eyes widened; she turned away from Jack taking in the sight that stood before her.

I stood frozen unknowing what to do or say. Hi mom, how’s it going, I heard dad cut out his heart and then bound you to your bones, love what you’ve done to the place, who knew my mom collected human eyeballs and animal skeletons.

Charlie’s voice cut through my trance

“Is SOMEONE going to LET ME IN?!”

Quickly I stepped out of the way and Charlie blew through the door, like TNT, she put her hand on her hip and pointed her finger at me.

“You better sleep with one eye open sister, because I was almost alligator food!”

“Um… Hello? Were bloody Immortals! We can’t die!” I retorted in a sarcastic, singsong voice.

“True.” she agreed apologetically

“Me Dearest Charlotte, Emily, me own blood and bones bound before me now.” Our mother said reminiscently “What may I do for me own daughters?”

“Mother, we need to find father.”

Her smile faded “You’ve met him once, isn’t it enough? “

I started to speak, but she continued, smiling once more

“Ah, but you are and strong stubborn woman, like me, I cannot deny you any request.”

I could see Charlie blanch at the attention I was getting from our mother in the corner of my eye.

Good I thought let her be jealous.

I stayed focused on the task at hand “We need father to raise the wench, Jacks ship, from her gave.”

“Aye, Your father can raise her from the locker, but it will cost you your soul”

“But I’m an Immortal.”

“But are you? You say your heart is safe from Jones, and you give it to witty Jack, but when you give yourself to Jack, Your immortality fades and then Jones owns your soul.” Her eyes warmed with concern “Ma petit file,” She said, calling me the affectionate Creole name for a little girl “are you ready for the fate that waits at the end of the road? Your destiny awaits you, my child, either way.”

I closed my eyes and took in the truth, my destiny was not to rule the seas for eternity, it was to, one day, die for Jack. And knowing full well that I would do it in a heartbeat, I nodded my head, It wasn’t hard to accept since It was something that I knew all along.  

Seeing my response Jack stepped forward

“We’ll be needing the location of the Dutchman, Tia Dalma.”

 She turned sharply towards him “De compass you bartered from me, it cannot lead you to dis?”

Jack looked at me and, I think he blushed, but the light was so dim I couldn’t tell “Certain desires may have caused some interference.”

“Ahh.” Tia Dalma said Knowingly “I will set your course…” She began, speaking to me, then turning to Jack once more she demanded, “You know I demand payment.”

 “I brought payment!” He said excitedly, and then whispering to me he added franticly “Don’t got payment”

Just then, a gecko crawled out of my shirt, from between my breasts, which probably almost suffocated the poor thing since they are fairly large. It probably fell down my shirt during the boat ride.

“There it is! Tia Dalma, your payment!” Jack said bowing    

“It is?” I asked, trying to look down at the happy little gecko

“Yes,” Tia Dalma said removing the gecko from me “The payment is fair.”

She went to the back of her shack rummaging through her many trappings and collected Items, mumbling something In Creole.

She came back with a handful of claws and she gave them to me

“Read the claws, Ma petit file, and the claws will show the way.”

I dropped the Claws on the table and watched them spin, It was something I used to do for fun when I was a kid, what didn’t happen when I was a kid though was getting a sudden vision as the claws stopped spinning.  

A wreck of rocks in the shape of a heart, lies before the untamed ocean, and on the ocean is the ship I saw those many years ago on the horizon, but it’s different, on board there are demons and devils, who walk like men but look like fish. And amongst them is my father, his beard now tentacles and his hands are now that of a crab’s claws.

 “Your destiny.” My mother whispered.