An Aye for an Aye

The candlelight reflected off the old man's eye and the boy's look suddenly changed.

“What's wrong with your eye?” the boy asked.

“Gimme' ma' beer,” the old man growled.

The boy dropped the mug and ran off. The old man drank, and continued to drink. For two hours, he sat in the corner and sipped while the boy placed the mugs on the table and slinked away.

After the hands of the clocked marched past midnight and the tavern emptied, the old man grabbed the boy by the wrist.

“What's y'er name, boy?”

“Silo,”

“Ye' want ta' hear about me eye, Silo?”

The boy nodded and the old man grinned.

“It was a long time ago...”

***

I rubbed my chin and looked at the captain.

“Are ye sure we should take this one?” I said.

“Quiet,” the captain said. He pressed his heel into the lass' bosom. She went all still. She couldn't move or talk from fear.

“Now, lass, tell me where the doubloons are,”

The young woman pointed at the poop door.

“Go, ye rat,” the captain told me.

“Are ye sure?”

“Yes, ye squiffy,” The captain barked.

The woman whimpered and looked at me with the sea's own eyes.

“Do something,” her eyes seemed to tell me, but I stepped through the door. A chest sat against the wall of the cabin with an iron lock hanging off the clasp.

“Ye find it?” The captain yelled.

“It's locked,”

“Well unlock it!”

So I got thinking about what he could open the chest with, and that lead to me thinking about whether or not I liked the captain. I thought I didn't. I had no problem with steelin'. I was a pirate after all, but the captain just seemed mean in general, and then there was how the captain be treatin' the lass. It wasn't civil.

When I opened the poop door, the captain was forcin' a kiss on the lass. I felt rage boil up inside me like a very swells that sink ships.

“Ah, matey,” the captain said. He pushed the lass' face to the deck. “Did ye get the chest open?”

“No,” the first mate said. The sun shined off my knife.

“Ah, so it's bein' that, is it?” the captain said. He drew his sword.

“I think this'll be unfair for ye,” the captain said.

“Ye've ne'er been concerned wi' fair,” the first mate said.

“Right ye are,” the captain said.

Then the captain's cutlass flashed, and the fight started. It seemed we fought for days, knife on sword, with neither takin' a wound, but that couldn't last.

“Why are ye fighten' me?” the captain asked.

I caught the captains blade and pinned it to the mast.

“Because I'm a man, and yer a monster, and it's a man's duty to fight monsters.”

The captain's mouth broke into an evil grin.

“Duty's a squiffy's word.”

“Than call me a squiffy.”

The captain's grin widened as he dropped his cutlass and jammed his thumb into my eye.

“Aye squiffy,” he said.

Something crunched deep in my head, and pain shot through my skull like a cannon ball. I screamed like hurricane winds, but the captain pressed harder. I could barely control my limbs, but then the captain stopped and stumbled backward holdin' his gut.

“I gut yer eye,” the captain said.

A red stain spread through his shirt and he staggered back.

“Aye,” I said. He wiped blood from his face. “But I gut yer gut.”

“Aye, squiffy,” the captain said.

Then he tumbled over the side and splashed into the drink.

***

The old man stared into the bottom of his mug.

“And then what happened?” Silo said.

The old man shook off his daze.

“And then I talked to the woman. She was a messenger for the crown. She opened the chest for me, and showed me the booty.”

Now the tavern was empty.

“And then what?”

The old man slid his mug across the table.

“She gave me the treasure.”

“What?”

“She was a messenger. She cared not a wink about the doubloons.”

“And then?”

The old man smiled.

“And then she kissed me and sent me on my way.”

So that's how you lost your eye?”

“Aye,”

Silo picked up the old man's mug and put it on a tray.

“I don't believe you,”

The old man shrugged.

“The night be over, huh?”

Silo nodded.

“Then I should pay up.”

The old man pulled something from a pouch and dropped it on the tray, and the boy's jaw fell just as fast. There it was, a gold doubloon with the royal crest. Silo stared at it while the old man stood.

“G'night, Silo,” the old man said.

And the boy stayed silent as the old man walked out.