The Waiting Room
~ Chapter Thirty-Four
Sparrow and Spencer Form an Alliance
Sparrow
was still smiling over the Metamucil situation when he heard a
familiar voice behind.
“Captain?”
Sparrow turned as
he placed his empty glass to the bar to find the Commander Armacost.
The pirate narrowed his eyes at the astronaut. They were not
that much different from one another in their exploration of the
world around them, his adventures led him to explore different
countries and the open sea…Armacost had explored other planets and
the open space.
“What is it lad?” Sparrow inquired.
“I
think we can help one another, Captain. You need to catch a monkey. I
want to help Alice.”
Jack looked towards the rafters
searching for the elusive primate, remembering that it had the
helpless fairy that Barrie thought was Tinkerbell, in its
possession.
“What makes y’ think the poor imp is still
alive? For all ye know the bloody thing ate her thinking she be one
of Hannah’s bananas.” The pirate waved his empty glass to young
Jack calling for a refill.
“She talks to me.” Armacost
stated matter-of-factly. “Just as Emily does.”
Sparrow
rolled his eyes as Spencer referred to the woman he heard daily
through the radio.
“Bloody ‘ell Commander. First ye have
me believe you hear a woman’s voice in that contraption’s static.
Now ye tell me that the wee one is speaking to ye. She talked nothing
but gibberish. How can ye understand such things. Me thinks ye spent
a bit too much time out there!”
Sparrow made a gesture towards
the heavens.
“Me thinks there be not enough air for that brain
of yers.” He drained the whiskey from the shot glass, pounding the
empty to the bar.
“Trust me Captain.” Armacost assured
him. “I hear and I understand. Emily tells me things. She confirmed
to me what Barrie said earlier…that you will be the next one out of
here.”
Jack gave Spenser the evil eye. How many times had
he been told that now? Why should he believe their lies?
“But
I know that before you leave you need the monkey. Am I right? The
monkey has an artifact in its possession that you require for the
outside world. A coin, if I am not mistaken.”
“And what is
it ye be wanting from this arrangement?” The Captain shooed young
Jack away when he attempted to refill the glass. He wanted to hear
what Armacost had to say and he wanted to hear it with a sober mind.
“I want to free Alice. She is not of our world, yours or
mine. She does not belong here. Barrie was wrong to bring her here. I
need to help her. You cannot know what it is like, Captain, belonging
to one world while stuck in another.”
“Ahhhhhh” The
pirate made a sweeping gesture indicating the Room, rolling his eyes
again.
“Ye think that this is t’world I belong in, Commander.
Think again, lad. There is solid land beneath these feet-- not a ship,
not a sea. I’d give me very soul to be back on The Pearl. Instead I
am doomed here trying me best to walk on land. Not an easy task for
one who has spent most of his life on the sea, ye know?”
Spencer
nodded. “Well put, Captain. My apologies.” The astronaut watched
as the pirate called for young Jack to fill the glass. Armacost asked
for the same.
They clinked glasses and downed the amber
liquid, the fire burning their throats. Sparrow seemed to be
pondering his empty glass, his thoughts drifting elsewhere.
“What is on your mind, Captain?” Spencer inquired.
“Thinking about being land-locked. Brings back memories, ye
know, lad. Memories of a woman. Lovely singing voice. Better than any
eunuch this side of the ocean, I tell ye.”
Spencer watched as a
smile on the Captain’s lips revealed his gold-capped teeth.
”She
was a siren, I tell ye. I swear, if she were of such fiber she could
lure men and their ships to the rocks with her voice. But m’Carrie,
she was an angel. An angel without wings, but an angel who still had a
voice made in heaven.”
The Captain allowed his gaze to
follow the bookcase upward, up to where her name would be forever, as
it would be in his heart.
“I’d like to hear your story
Captain. Is this the woman who had the accident with the megaphone?”
Sparrow nodded.
Young Jack appeared again to refill
their glasses. As he poured, Jack began his story.
“It all
began on land…in a city called Paris.”