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As the sea calms down a captain with his ship sail into the docks, the ship had seen better times but that didn’t matter, the captain jumps off the ship and excitedly runs to a mother and her son. Happily the ginger son hugs him and his mother watching along with a smile.
“Dad! You’re back!” The child says while he hugs his father. “Did the trip go as planned Wilbur?”
“Oh Sally, don’t worry. It went exactly as planned. We did have an idea of the next trip.” The mother, Sally, didn’t seem happy when Wilbur told her that he was going to leave for another trip.
He had been on and off on trips with his crew and ship, as any sailor that age would. He was only 25 years old after all, full of curiosity and excitement.
At home they catch up on the trip and treasures he found during dinner. After dinner Wilbur went somewhere he almost always went when he wanted information, the library. He goes to the sea myths and reads through all of them searching for that one story he longs for. The tale of the shadow, a myth about a sailor searching for The Shadow, a sea creature that drowns all that try to tame her. The sailor’s crew drowns and he gets cursed to be the captain of The Shadow. Of course, this isn’t real… Wilbur reads this story to confront himself out of his little fantasy as a sailor and make him realize the dangers of being one. He was a realist but lived in his fantasy and imagination most of the time, as a child he was inspired by pirates and sailors as easily as his father, Phil was when he made books for the library. He would often go to his father for stories. In the town he was considered a peculiar child as he went reading and loved bad endings more than happy ones. He couldn’t help that once he met Sally that changed a bit. He was never one to be lovesick but with her he wanted a happy end.
A year later he had a son and his loving wife with a home he can come back to. But every now and then he still returns to that one story that gives him comfort, although a sad one, it makes Wilbur realize how good he has it and makes him grateful for his belongings and loved ones.
The next weeks he enjoys the sun and time with his son Fundy and talking to Sally, catching up with his childhood friend Alex, who also has a ship and crew but doesn’t sail that much after he got in the accident and came out paralyzed with his legs not working anymore. When they were teens they would fantasize about what they want to be, they decided to be pirates, fighting for freedom of the sea and being best friends on adventures. It was all planned perfectly and happened until on their second adventure the ship tilts and falls over in a storm, making them fall out in the sea. Wilbur grabbed Alex and swam all the way to a piece of wood to lay Alex on. From that time Alex was never able to use his legs anymore.
Wilbur thought in himself, what if he and his crew searched the sea to see if The Shadow was real? Who knows? Maybe they would succeed, after all, the story had left subtle hints at the location which you wouldn’t catch up if you read it a few times but as Wilbur had read it for years he picked it up in no time.
“Sally, I’m going to get my crew and we’re going on an adventure again. There’s something I need to explore and prove wrong or right.” He sounded determined as his mind was settled firmly on proving the myth wrong or right, preferably wrong as he doesn’t want to die or be cursed but his curiosity and a part of his mind wanted it to be right, as he cherished this story for as long as he can remember.
So after a long goodbye from his family and a visit to Alex he makes his ship ready to sail off in the ocean. He smiles as he sees his crew scattered on the ship doing things he forgot himself and waving back at him.
He walks on his ship to his cabin and spends a few hours on maps and books as he puts the clues together for their location. His crew spends the time preparing the ship to leave the shore.
As the morning arrives Wilbur wakes early eager to leave. “CREW PREPARE TO LEAVE!” He calls out despite the crew being half asleep annoyed at their captain for waking up this early wanting to leave land. As the crew look at each other they decide to mess with him and say “ITS ONLY MIDNIGHT CAPTAIN, ARE YOU IN YOUR FANTASY AGAIN, ITS NOT EVEN MORNING.” But this time they can’t fool Wilbur, he had stayed sober all evening just for this moment so he calls his crew on board anyway, no matter what they say to him to convince him otherwise.
As they raise the sails Wilbur hangs off a rope that he climbed to see the horizon better, as he did this he see his crew happily singing to a childhood sea shanty they all learned. “We owe our honor to the sea and not to any crown, yo ho, yo ho, the seas forever roll, the winds forever blow. Long after I’ve met Davy jones ‘till I’m naught but skull and bones…” As they sing this shanty Wilbur thinks of how to tell them that they’re going to be searching for a myth. Maybe they wouldn’t even believe him and leave him thinking he’s crazy.
“Crew, I’d like to tell you all what this trip is about.” The crew is interested immediately, normally they sail around without a plan exploring the ocean, that their captain had a plan was different and for some an amazing miracle to happen. They looked up at their captain, excitedly looking at Wilbur.
“So, crew, this might sound crazy but my plan was to go to specific coordinates and prove a theory right or wrong.” The crew didn’t seem all too pleased, a few of them insult Wilbur and leave the ship. The rest of the crew saw this and got angry. “oh I’m sorry, are we just leaving our captain now all of the sudden? What sort of loyalty is this?” and lastly “If this is the loyalty we are showing to our captain, what sort of pirate crew are we?” These comments made Wilbur shed a tear making some of the members of the crew come over to him to ask why he’s crying.
So when the unwilling crew members left and the ones that were willing to do it stayed which was more than half of the original crew. They set sail and went into the horizon.