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Under the pink traces of sunset, Pirate Island cradled its laughter.
Of course, the breezes that shook the palm trees had carried many a giggle, and the sands themselves treasured the little bootprints that painted the shores. It wasn’t hard to find a smile; just a sail by its shores would bring you to something that brought a smile; a game of pass the coconut, a pirate gathering beneath the stars, shadow animals in the evening.
But there was a different kind of laughter that trailed Cubby and Brightly, following them across the beach, weaving in and out of the waters that tried to catch the young boy’s boots. He made a game of it, running as close as he could to the waves and moving out of the way just before they could get at him, and cackled when he nearly succeeded.
The kind of laughter that came from having fun. As well as knowing that something wonderful was coming..
Cubby skidded to a stop beside Izzy, who was kneeling on the ground. He smirked at the firefly as it landed on his shoulder, then coiled his hand around her eyes.
The young pirate girl shifted away, roughly pushing his arm away. “Cubby!”
“Guess who!”
“Okay, now you’re just ruining it,” Maybe teaching Cubby that game a little while ago wasn’t a good idea.
“Nice to see you, too!” Cubby replied, blue eyes shining. Neptune, he was good at that; getting her so riled up but making it impossible to stay that way for long. From the bucket he held came an empty green bottle, rushing to thrust it out for Izzy to see. “How’s this one?”
Izzy looked up from her work. At her side was a little pile, brimming with every kind of washed up treasure: seaweed, seashells, bottle tops and other such things. She turned the bottle over, her eyes looking every inch of its surface and, seemingly satisfied, smiled. “Perfect.”
She placed it in the sand, just below a cluster of seashells. She broke off two little bits of seaweed and placed one on the left and right side of the bottle neck, then stood up. Together, they looked like a pot of flowers.
“There!” Izzy exclaimed, shaking three-hours worth of sand off her palms. “That’s the last one!”
“Looking shipshape there, Izz,” a voice said. They turned to see Jake coming in with a bucket of his own, Skully flapping behind him. “We’ve found some more stuff here if you need it.”
“Thanks! But I think we’ve got just enough pictures.” She replied, looking out beyond them. All around were dolphins, mermaids, starfishes and other sea creatures, made up in the same way. It had taken her a few days to cover the whole area just in front of their hideout.
“We have some beauties here, alright!” Skully chimed in.
“I think that’s just about everything! Or, almost everything . . .”
“Izzy, I swear if you-”
“You think she would like some sawdust pudding to go with this?”
Izzy watched as Jake’s face deepened several shades of red. “Okay, one, it’s not my fault the sawdust and cornmeal jars looked the same.”
“They didn’t,” She heard Cubby’s whisper to the firefly at his side.
“And it’s been two days. Two days. Can’t you guys let that go?”
“Nope!” Three voices chorused at once. There was a grumble under her friend’s breath, but Izzy couldn’t make it out.
“I just know she's gonna like it,” Izzy said, turning back to her creations. Her voice caught slightly on “gonna.” Time would only tell what “she” thought of it. But she was sure her work would pay off in some way.
She just has to like it. She just has to.
When the green bottle bearing the rose insignia came in with the tide, Izzy could hardly contain herself. A visit from Red Jessica was always exciting because she brought in many flowers for the young girl’s scrapbooks and always smelled like a garden of roses. The invitation to visit the Midnight Flowers had been exciting, but what caught Izzy was the little bits tucked right at the end of the letter.
I hope you all don’t mind, but I’ve invited an old pirate pal of mine to join us. Zuri’s her name. She used to be a part of my crew back on Pirate Island when I was no bigger than you three. It’ll do her a lot of good to see it again.
Another pirate girl! Izzy had studied that line over and over again when they’d first gotten that letter, trying to piece together what she would look like. It wasn’t hard to find them out on the Neverseas: Marina and her sister, The Pirate Princess . . . but this was a girl from Pirate Island, who had probably played hide-and-go-pirate under the very same trees she did. Maybe she wasn’t alone anymore.
That morning, Izzy pulled the boys out of bed and thrust a bucket each into their hands. When she strolled by the waters of their home the previous night, it seemed a little lonely to her. Pirate Island was still the same as it always was with its nodding coconut trees and Shipwreck Rock pointing out to sea, but it didn’t seem fit for a guest just yet. With her crew’s help, they had worked from sun up till sunset setting up little pictures with whatever they could find, even adding in a few tiny trinkets from their treasure room.
A hand came up to cup her shoulder. Jake gazed at her with his big green eyes that always seemed to understand what Izzy said before the words came to her. “She will like it. I know she will.”
“And speaking of “she,”” Skully added, gesturing his wing straight out. “Ship coming in at twelve o’clock!”
Izzy watched as the vessel grew larger. It wasn’t much larger than Bucky, with the exception of its grand sails, marked with two lilacs that crossed at angle. Apart from the flowers that danced in the white and the brown of the wood, there wasn’t much in the way of color. Still, with her heart fluttering, Izzy bounded to meet it just as a pirate jumped out.
The amber eyes that met Izzy pinned her to where she stopped. They glared at her with a steel that seemed to go right through her. Two scars crossed the dark face that stood before her, one crossing the cheek and the other the forehead. A violet bandana similar was tied around her head, filled with many slits and holes.
There were words somewhere within her. Izzy had practiced them over and over again all that week. But in the hard stare of the woman, they melted away in the tightness of her throat. She could hear her crew catching up to her side, but they seemed to lose themselves in the same silence that had caught her, until Jake reached out his hand to her.
“Ahoy there! Zuri, is it? Welcome to Pirate Island! I’m Jake, and these here are my mates, Izzy, Cubby and Skully.”
The strange pirate’s hand never rose to meet her friend’s. All that followed was a nod so swift Izzy nearly missed it. She walked past them, looking up at the hideout. Then, after a long while, came the curt reply, “Well, the place is still in one piece. At least you lot managed that.”
“Managed?!” Skully asked, fire rising in his voice. “You oughta know-”
“-that we’re very glad you think that way!” Jake interrupted.
“Hmm,” Zuri began trekking away from them. “Don’t just stand there. I haven’t got all night for this.”
“But the sun’s not even gone yet!” Cubby protested.
“Then stay back and wait for your sun, then. See where that gets you.” Black boots carried on, trailing through and kicking away anything beneath them. Flower drawings included.=
The walk to the other side of Pirate Island felt longer than usual, and Izzy knew it had nothing to do with how far away it was.
Zuri had a strange way of taking the conversations out of people. Usually, the four of them would talk about whatever came to mind, or sing a couple of songs Cubby managed to pick up. There was always something to take their mind off the walking even when their feet cried out in pain. Tonight, the wind was doing the talking, with the occasional cricket answering back.
Jake had tried to get something out of her, but even with him, there were only so many things he could string together with her answers.
“Nothing much.”
“Adventures? They don’t come to me.”
“Don’t concern yourself with what isn’t yours to worry about .”
“Are you sure that’s her?” Izzy muttered to Jake, briefly glimpsing behind her. Cubby lingered far behind with Brightly and Skully, laughing about something only they knew. Zuri kept to her place in the middle, as distant as she could get from everyone else.
“I guess,” Jake answered, unable to cover the unevenness in his voice. “I mean, she’s still here. If we got the wrong pirate she would’ve left.”
“Red Jessica has some weird friends.”
“Izz!”
She shrugged. “If the boot fits.”
“Look, maybe Zuri is a little-”
“Weird?” Izzy interrupted, not bothering to hide her displeasure now.
“. . . I was gonna say, “interesting,”” Jake countered, trying to keep his voice down.
“Mateys, look at this! I think we found it!” Cubby called out. He pointed to a long stretch of sapphire petals. They lay curled up tight in the grasses, looking like tightly binded gems. Izzy and Jake approached the flowers, looking them over.
“Good eye, Cubby! Looks like we got here with enough time to spare,” Jake said.
“Thanks, but how will Red Jessica find us all the way out here? The sun’s gone now.”
Izzy studied the area. Cubby had a point. How would Red Jessica get here? The sky had gone completely dark, and the first traces of stars were beginning to appear. Even with the sharpest eyes and the brightest of constellations overhead, it was difficult to navigate the waters with so little light.
“That’s how!” Jake pointed ahead. Just before them stood the Pirate Island lighthouse, crumbling and tangled with vines. Izzy had seen it many times before when she came up for berries, and it was the perfect subject to sketch and imagine what kind of stories it could hold. When she was younger, it was a sea witch’s house that she always made sure to run away from whenever she saw its roof pointing out of the hill. And even after she had shook the tall tale out of her mind after her seventh birthday, she made sure to always look at it from a distance.
“But that hasn’t worked for years,” Izzy reminded him.
Jake led them to the door. He brought out his sword and began clearing away the vines. “Maybe there’s something in there that could get it working. It’s worth a try.”
Izzy really had to give it to Jake. No matter how dire the situation, he would bear through it. It was a hustle to convince him on things he stood firm on, but there were times where it was a comfort to count on.
As they climbed the stairs twisting up towards the sky, little bits of conversation floated up towards her. Izzy had been the first to enter, with Cubby just behind her and Zuri and Jake bringing up the rear.
“Your wood’s gonna fade out.” Zuri turned to Jake, pointing at his sword.
“Huh?”
“Your wood. You can’t be hacking away at things the way you do. Your sword may be wood, but see the lines here? Things get at it eventually.”
“Oh.”
“And make sure you run a rag over that blade of yours.”
“Already do. Every night.”
“Then maybe it’s the oil that is the problem. Get the good kind from Turtle Island. Any old oil from anywhere leaves those marks.”
“Huh . . . that actually helps a lot.”
Izzy chose to focus on the climb.
Soon, the long trail of spiraling stairs opened up into a small room with a big window running all the way around it, looking out into the oceans beyond. Cubby ran to the railing, pulling himself up to look at the view.
“Whoa!” He gasped. “Look, Brightly! We can see the whole Neversea from up here!”
“Looks like there used to be some kind of light up here,” Jake said, gesturing to the center of the room to some kind of stand in the center of the room. Beside it were a couple of gears and a handle.
“A diamond.” Zuri corrected. Izzy turned to her with confusion. “It was a diamond. My brother used to bring me up here. When you’d turn this here, it would spin. Those things at the ceiling would open and get the light from the stars.”
“Cool! But where’s the diamond now?” Cubby asked, approaching them once again.
“And how would you expect me to know that?” Zuri shrugged. “Some scoundrel snatched it or something.”
“Maybe there’s a way to get a new one.” Jake suggested.
“There’s no way we’d get it here in time for Red Jessica,” Izzy said, running her fingers over the empty spot. “And we don’t even know where to look.”
“True,” Jake agreed. “But it wouldn’t hurt to . . . Zuri? Zuri! Where are you going?!”
Izzy liked to think she knew Pirate Island like that back of her hand, and Neverland nearly as well. Sometimes, when the heat hung like heavy fog in the hideout or when the walls seemed to be closing in, she would slip into the folds of the island or allow her pixie dust to carry her wherever the seas took her. Time was never a concern and neither was the distance; the further flew, the longer she settled by a crystal clear stream, the more rocks she gathered in the tidepools on the raised edges of the shore, the more she claimed the world for her own. The world, it seemed, was hers for exploring.
So when they ran after the dark boots laced with long strings and buttoned up with gold, Izzy was astounded by the path she could no longer recognize. Zuri hadn’t strayed too far from the way they came up, but when she wandered into the hedges that dipped into the hills, the roots and branches that seemed eager to catch her boots were strangers to her. Soon enough, the thick cluster of waist-high thickets cleared into an open space of grass. A large pit ran through it, separating the earth.
“Yesh, lady,” Skully said, sounding slightly annoyed. “You brought us through all that just to show us an old pit?”
Zuri extended her hand toward it. “Look inside,” she instructed.
Inside, Izzy could see tips of something shiny . . . no, many shiny things. There, cradled in the dirt, laid many crystals in every size. They glistened in the dark like a cluster of stars.
“Whoa,” she gasped. She would have to come back later. There were enough crystals to make all the necklaces she wanted.
“If it’s a diamond we be looking for, this be the place for it.”
“It’ll be hours before we find anything in this,” Skully retorted. “And how will we know which one’s for the lighthouse?”
“I know!” Cubby held out his finger for Brightly to land on. “Brightly, get all your friends!”
Brightly chipped and flew off for a bit. Moments later, hundreds of golden lights flickered around them.
“There! Now we can use all these lights to find the diamond!”
“Hmm, clever,” Zuri nodded. Was she . . . agreeing with them? “It’ll be . . . Sky? Sky, is that you?!”
A firefly zipped around Zuri, zipping around her head before settling on her nose.
“Look at you! Fit as a fiddle! How have you been? I never thought you still be . . . but how?“
“Cubby,” Jake explained, hands clasped around Cubby’s shoulders. “He saved them.”
“Saved them?”
“Well, “ Cubby scratched the back of his head. “I didn’t really save them. Just helped them out-”
“Crackers, Cubby. Helped them out? You’re the reason they’re still here!”
“Well, all I did was map it to the Forever Fountain for them.”
“And maroon the Jolly Roger,” Izzy teased.
‘Yeah, that,” Cubby looked down, tracing his shoes in the dirt.
“Hey, ya can’t say they didn’t have it comin’” Skully told him. “Best thing that happened all month!”
Zuri stared at Cubby for a long while. “I’ll be a dolphin’s aunt.”
They had decided the search would be more effective in separate groups. Izzy walked alongside Zuri, carefully weaving between the diamonds. They observed the fireflies, each of them flickering above a crystal and, seeing no light emerge from it, flew over to the next one.
Izzy was grateful for the silence. Brown eyes met amber on occasion, but quickly shifted away, staring straight ahead where the valley was leading them, trying to center on the fireflies only. Diamonds. Think about the diamonds. The sooner we find it, the sooner she can go away.
As the diamonds gathered closer together, it grew harder for Izzy to walk. The space between them grew narrower and narrower, and soon, after a while of carefully tiptoing around, Izzy stumbled. She landed elbow-first in the dirt. The fall hadn’t hurt her beyond a couple of scrapes that lined her knees, but she felt her face growing hotter at the thought of losing her balance in front of Zuri, of all people. She dusted the dirt off her pants, running her fingers all over for anything missing.
Her pixie dust pouch was still full, thank Neptune. No tears in her boots or clothes, so she wouldn’t have to spend the next few days pricking her fingers with the stupid needle. Izzy dug her fingers into her pocket and, to her horror, found nothing but empty space.
Yay hey, no way! My shell! Desperately she patted the ground around her, gazing around for its smooth, white surface. She couldn’t lose it! Not out here. Then, she noticed the tall, lace-up boots beside her, and looked up. Zuri was inspecting her shell in her hand, turning it over and over between her fingers.
Izzy shot up, reaching to grab it. “Don’t touch it!”
Zuri handed it to her, keeping a cool expression. “Settle your seahorses, tiny pirate! I’ve no use for this.”
Tiny fingers gathered the shell, and Izzy let out a breath she didn’t realize she had held in.
“Got a good one, there.”
“Huh?”
“That there’s a cowrie shell.” Zuri explained. She dug into her shirt and pulled out one of her own, strung on a chain of silver that rested on her neck. Her mind seemed to be somewhere else. Somewhere she didn’t want to be. “Supposed to bring fair winds to those pirates who wear it.”
Izzy tried to keep her eyes on her cowrie. She felt the hot sting of tears growing stronger and tried to keep them back. “This was Mom’s.”
The rigid curtain on Zuri’s face softened slightly.
“Sometimes I like to have it here,” Izzy continued, trying to piece together the voices and faces. She remembered a steady voice that would sing her to sleep on stormy nights, but go back and further and all she would see were burning sails. “It almost feels like she’s here. But-”
“But it’s not enough.”
“No.” Izzy agreed, hastily shoving her treasure back in her pocket. Before them, the fireflies were still swirling, golden against the dark. The memories of her mother hadn’t made their way to her in a long, long time, and it was easier to keep it that way.
Suddenly, Zuri kneeled down towards her boots. She undid the knots, slipping a long lace out of the hole and handed it to Izzy. “Here.”
Izzy was puzzled. “What’s this for?”
“You’re lucky that shell hasn’t gotten away from you sooner.” Zuri said, standing up and beginning to walk a few paces of her. “Won’t do you any good to keep it there, and it works better on the outside.”
Izzy followed her, contemplating the shoelace, before a white glow shot out in front of her. Sky raced back, zipping around them before landing on Zuri, motioning towards the pearly beam that glowed straight to the sky. They followed the direction she was guiding them to, until they found the rest of the fireflies huddled around a diamond larger than all the rest.
“The lighthouse diamond!” Izzy exclaimed. “We found it!”
It took five pairs of hands - well, four if you didn’t count wings - to carry the diamond out of the gemstone pit.
It took them around an hour to navigate through the wilderness, and even longer to mount the trail. When they finally reached the steps and Skully spotted a ship bearing the symbol of a rose, Izzy was grateful for her pixie dust.
It took three pairs of hands to crank the diamond for it to rotate, and one to wave at the crimson ship that nearly sailed past them.
Izzy was sure they were only up there for two hours, watching the blue hues of the Midnight Flowers. But it seemed longer.
(It took a shadow of a smile on Zuri’s face for Red Jessica to understand that she had been right in bringing her friend.)
Zuri leaned against the railing of the bow, listening to the crash of the waves below. Red Jessica had insisted she stay at Crimson Isle for the night, and although Zuri had refused and negotiated and reasoned, there weren’t any words in the world that could rival her when the golden-haired woman made up her mind.
Stubbornness was what Zuri settled on when she agreed, tying her The Violet to the stern of The Rose. Just plain stubbornness.
Still, it would be nice to belong somewhere. If only for a little while.
“Those popinjays are jolly things,” Zuri said to no one but the moon hanging over them, casting a silver sheen on the waters below. Deep within her, she hoped they would remain that way as long as they could. A pirate’s life was no place for a child, and she knew that well.
(She felt the eyes of her younger self glancing at her between the waves.)
“That they are,” came Red Jessica’s reply from the helm. “Now you see? It did ya good to come out here, didn’t it?”
“I didn’t have much else to do.”
“Yes. And you see it’s done you some good.”
“Jess?”
“Yes?”
“That island was my only good thing.” Or at least, it used to be. Zuri closed her eyes, feeling as though she were still in the sands of Pirate Island, marching behind her crew. She had been the baby then, picking up the object left behind and rushing to keep up. First the crabs, then the hours of scaling up the coconut trees, followed by the morning hot with a new adventure, and finally her brother’s smile.
Touss’ smile. The only thing that could make her feel whole again.
“No,” Red Jessica disagreed, veering the wheel to portside. “There are many good things here, still. Ya just got to listen for them.”
Zuri said nothing more, losing herself in the sea's swells and the tide of remembering
The lantern sat next to Izzy’s bed, casting long shadows across the ceiling. Soft sighs and long, heavy breaths of sleep were coming from the bunk bed where Jake and Cubby rested, and just above her she could hear brief murmur from Skully - it sounded like “crackers,” but she couldn’t be sure - before feathers rustled and the parrot quieted.
Nights were made for sleeping. A pirate needed her rest, after all. But sometimes it was a thrilling thing for Izzy to be all alone in her thoughts while the whole world slept on. The peace of it all left room for thinking and the sounds of her crewmates close by felt safe. She was sitting up in bed, holding her cowrie shell in one hand and the string Zuri had given her in the other.
What a strange pirate Zuri turned out to be. Izzy couldn’t pinpoint her feelings on her. The sight of her walking over her welcome gift left a sinking feeling in her tummy. But then the sentences came back to her.
Won’t do you any good to keep it there, and it works better on the outside.
Even in Zuri’s quietness, Izzy felt like the older pirate understood.
She tied the shell to the string, and dangled it in the lantern’s warm glow. It couldn’t stay on her neck. There wouldn’t be room for her pixie dust pouch and a necklace. But it also wouldn’t remain in her pocket.
Izzy got to her knees and crawled to the edge of her bed, pulling out a drawer where Lisia rested.
Lisia had been many things to her over the years. A sailor, a queen, a princess, and other times a combination of those three. Tonight, she was simply her doll. The remnants of a teal was wrapped around her head, and one of her old shirts made her a cream-colored coat. The paint on her lips was beginning to fade, and on her black cheek was a crack she had gotten from being left out in the rain. Around her neck, Izzy tied the cowrie shell, then held her up in the flickering orange glow.
Even after all their adventures and every treasure they found, Lisia was worth more than a chest full of gold doubloons.
Izzy settled under her covers, Lisia against her chest, and knew that she wasn’t alone anymore.