Irene TrimbleChapter one
Jack Sparrow's Return
The moon was high above a dark ocean. A stone prison stood above a beach. A group of guards carried six wooden boxes to the prison wall and threw them into the ocean below.
Suddenly, there was a gunshot inside one of the boxes. An arm reached through the newly made hole and opened the box. It was Captain Jack Sparrow, the smartest pirate who ever sailed the ocean.
As he looked around, his gold tooth shone in the moonlight.
Jack seemed calm... at first. Then his eyes grew round with fear and he quickly searched the box. He found it-his hat! He placed the hat on his head and smiled.
He reached into the box again. "Sorry, my friend," he said. He pulled hard at the leg bone of the other body in the box.
With the bone in his hands, he lowered one end into the water. Then he rowed the box toward his ship, the Black Pearl.
Gibbs, a fine old pirate, was waiting on the Pearl for Jack's return. He helped his captain onto the ship.
Jack took a piece of cloth from his jacket and looked at it carefully.
"So you found something?" asked a toothless pirate named Leech. Every man on the ship wanted news about the treasure.
"Yes, but I haven't studied it yet," Jack said.
Suddenly, a small monkey jumped in front of Jack and screamed. It took the piece of cloth and ran into the sails. When the moon shone on the monkey, its skin disappeared. Only its bones were left. This was Captain Barbossa's monkey and, like its owner, it was cursed. It was the living dead.
Jack hated the animal. He took out his gun and shot at it. The monkey fell and dropped the cloth, but quickly jumped up again. It smiled.
One of the pirates caught the piece of cloth.
"It's a key," he said.
"It's even better than a key," Jack said. "It's a drawing of a key." The sailors didn't understand. They looked at Gibbs. "Captain," Gibbs said. "We wanted gold, and..."
Jack turned to his men. "What do keys do?" he asked.
"They unlock things," Leech said, suddenly excited. "Important things," Gibbs said. He imagined chests full of gold. "So we're going to unlock something!"