Jack: Book 3 in the Trilogy

"Don't Applaud, Just Clap for a Few Hours" Part 24

Mauricia and America headed toward the bow of the ship after leaving us in the cabin. The ship was moving at about 15 knots under full sail and slicing through one-to-two-foot -high waves that slightly inhibited our progress. It was noon under a burning sun. 

"Well, now they're showing their true colors," America said, "They have no intention of staying with us. We need to convince them otherwise. Jeremy isn't going to stay without Jackie and so it's useless to work on him - he'll just go along with Jack."

"Of course he will. He's a weakling in a way," Mauricia said.

"Not really," replied America. "He's just not a leader like Jack. He does stand up to him quite a lot so I suppose it was a little unfair of us to pick on him the way we did, saying he didn't have a mind of his own and such."

"Yeah, we should apologize but only after we get Jackie to change his mind about leaving us," Mauricia said. "So what's the plan, girlie?" They both laughed as they had become used to calling one another 'girlie' as a way of making fun of Jack. "Do you think we can outsmart them or at least convince them that the best thing to do would be to stay with us?" Mauricia said.

"What if staying together means we got to go with them to Charleston?" asked America. "Can we do that? Will they let us? They believe it would be way too dangerous for us. They'd have to smuggle us in illegally and then where would we live?"

"They're right. We cannot go to Charleston with them. So our only choice as I see it is to make sure they stay with us in Jamaica," said Mauricia. "And they won't do that!"

"We have to think of a way to make it real attractive for them to stay," America said.

"Girlie," said Mauricia. "We both know that won't work. I have an idea that will work but you might not like it!"

"Let's hear it girlie if you know of anything that'll work!" America said.

"We stow away on the ship and don't come out of hiding until we are near Charleston," said Mauricia.

"Yeah right," said America. "They'll find us in the first ten minutes."

"Not if we can get below deck without them seeing us - them and Morris," said Mauricia. There are only 30 men aboard and fewer when we leave Kingston and they'll be topside most of the time except for when they sleep. That's when we hide out in the provisions stored below - with all the barrels and boxes and bags of coffee and flour and stuff, they won't see us. There's fresh water below and plenty of food. The trick is to get on board without the watch seeing us - they'll definitely take a day of so and go into the city. Jackie won't be able to resist going ashore no matter how sensible it is not to. They'll leave one watch or two and hopefully they'll dock the ship - no they won't do that because it's a stolen ship. They'll anchor in the bay so we'll have to find a boat with which to row out to the ship. We can do this! Worry later about the problems in Charleston!"

"But Pendleton will be down below deck and he'll see us come down the ladder," said America. "They won't leave him loose topside while they go off to the taverns for two days - he'll be under lock and key."

"Well then," said Mauricia. "We can maybe involve the good Captain Pendleton in our little scheme. But what can we offer him for his silence? We need to solve that question for sure. I think he could be useful. Do you really want to do this?"

"There is no other way that we can be together. If they leave without us, we'll never see them again," said America. "Never."

"True," Mauricia said, "but what if they really don't want us once they see we have gone against their wishes and have made a big problem for them before they even get back home to Charleston? Then we're sunk. We'll have to try to get back to our island or try to make a life there, with no papers, no right to be there. We could end up as slaves - it's a real danger."

"Well, in that case, we do what Jackie always says when facing difficult situations - 'We play the hand that fate has dealt us,' " America said. "We've already faced very dangerous situations, we'll just have to take our chances and test fate a little more. And you know something?"

"What?" said Mauricia.

"Both of them cute sailor boys would die before letting us get into any kind of trouble and even if we did they would not stop until they rescued us - if, for instance, we did get sent to a cotton plantation or something."

"Right! To be some master's sex slave or something," said Mauricia. "Still, I'd only be too glad to take that chance if it means not losing my love, even if he is more in love with himself than he is me."

"Jeremy loves me, I just know it," said America.

"He sure does, that's obvious. But he doesn't really know it," Mauricia said.

"So the plan is to just play along with them tomorrow night and agree with their explanation and their plan - not agree too fast, we'll need to show some resistance or they'll know we're plotting something underhanded and evil," America said.

"Yeah, what a great plan. When we get to Charleston Harbor and we reveal ourselves I can't wait to be able to say, 'Don't applaud kiddies, just clap for a few hours!" The girls laughed until tears flowed at the cleverness and irony  of that remark. But it was highly questionable that anyone else would see it as comical.