I have subsequently been sent to the past... It is about 1710 A.D. according to my phone. How do I even get reception here? I walk through an alley, towards a light in the distance, hoping I am greeted by friendly people. I see a coastline with a few boats a few feet further away. I run, hailing one of the men I see grumbling, walking around, and carrying huge loads of who-knows-what. He looks towards me, drops what he's carrying, which is a sack of flower I presume, and pulls me aside. "What do you think you are doing here and in that get-up?"
I am fairly confused by this until I peek over his shoulder to see loads of men; they're not just men but pirates. Tons and tons of pirates, cleaning the boat and supplying the ship with enough stored meat and bread to last months. I could not believe my eyes, and when I looked at the pirate, he began to undress. "That is totally unnecessary," I say with a bit of caution and fear in my eyes.
"No, look," he commands, or she?
The once fearsome-looking pirate has unbuckled her cloak and coat to reveal he is actually a she, a real-life women pirate. I am utterly shocked because what I learned in my English 1102 class is that no woman was allowed on deck of a pirate ship unless authorized. By the looks of the girl standing in front of me, she was about my age, around 19 to 20 years of age. She pulled her slick, velvet-looking jacket back over her slender body and her silk cloak over her head. She slightly gestures to my clothing, and I notice that not only I look like a female, but my clothes haven't even been thought of yet. She puts one finger to her lips, motioning that I stay here and be quiet. I wait, while she leaves and returns with a bag of garments for me to slip into. After changing and somehow masquerading the fact that I have a working cellphone in this century of little technology, she brings me aboard the ship. She tells me I will get off at the next raid, and I can see what real woman, although dressed as a man, can do with a double-edged cutlass and a pistol of admirable caliber. I stay in "his" bunk because the captain has nowhere else to put me; he greeted me with reluctance but allowed me to stay from my dedication to hard work and learning new things. We end up on some foreign coast several days later, my feet and hands aching at the jobs the captain had lined up for me. Sometimes I'd see the girl, Mary Read, sneak out of her room and head into the captain's, and I pondered whether or not he knew she was not actually a boy. When she came back one morning, right before a raid, I questioned her of this, but she just laughed and grabbed her weapons. It was time. We had a city to raid and people to steal from and kill. I knew subconsciously I wasn't ready for this, but I was going to try. I grabbed a pistol and hitched it in my holster. Then, I grabbed an unmanned cutlass, double-edged to my liking, and threw my arm into the air with a battle cry. I never actually killed anyone, just lowkey took an entire bag of coins for my classmates as proof. I watched Mary in her wrath, weed-whacking down soldiers as fast as they could run to her. She was magnificent, but little did I know, in the midst of my thievery, my cloak had fallen off; I was exposed. What did I do next? I ran. I ran as fast as my little, size 6 1/2 feet could take me, and I high-tailed it back to 2017 with gold in hand. When I got back, I started to wonder how I'd ever share my story without having anyone doubt me. That's when my English teacher proposed a piratical blog post where I, the main character, had to make up a tale about meeting a woman pirate. So as I am writing, you, the reader, have to decide is this fact or a work of pure fiction from a real, woman pirate.
No comments:
Post a Comment