FOUR

            Juliet Rhea Floyd was a girl, a very strange girl, who lived in our little Oceanside village whose father was the Admiral of the Black.  She lived alone with her mother and her Aunt and I would always see her playing on the beach.  One day, when we were both 10, I walked over to her.  She was wearing a homemade blue dress that was the same color as her eyes, and she had long, brown hair that to me always looked red in the sunlight. 

            I sat down next to her; she was making childish drawings in the sand with a stick.  She looked up at me and I pointed to a ship that was sitting in the harbor that belonged to a Captain that was a privateer directly under the Governor. 
            “I’m gonna be the Captain of that ship right there,” I told her.  She smiled and said back to me, in a precocious manner, “My daddy says I’m gonna be the first female Captain, and I’ll have a grander ship than yonder.”

            After that day, our families became good friends and we’d see each other every single day.  We were the best of friends that could be found, and soon we had a small group of friends, mostly boys a little younger than ourselves. 

            We’d play Pirate and I’d be the Governor and she’d always be the Pirate captain.  Our little group would always be split unevenly, but it was fun and it never really ended, the dream at least.

            When we were 12, and still best friends, I remember running back to town with her far ahead of me.  We had just come from playing Pirate up on the cliff.  Suddenly she stopped running, and I remember almost running into her.  She was looking towards her door, and a very strange, gruff-looking man was leaving the house, her mother’s face streaked with tears.  Juliet ran straight to her, pushing past the strange man, whose arm was branded with the Pirate ‘P’ by the governor.  I saw this as he walked past me.  Her mother kneeled down to be more at her height.  I saw her say something to Juliet, and she hugged her mom tight.  I walked back to my house, figuring it was important, but still very troubled. 

            It was that night that she started climbing through my window.   That night I was still awake, and I heard some shuffling.  I saw her climb through the window, which was open because it was summertime, and I sat up quickly.  She threw her skinny arms around me in a tight hug and began to cry. 

            “J-Julie!  What’s wrong?”

            “Eron…it’s my…my daddy!”

            “What happened?” I asked, pulling her away.  Her face was twisted in grief and it pulled at my heart to see her in so much pain, even at 12.

            She said nothing, but held out a pendant.  It was a very tarnished, very worn looking skull and crossbones hanging from an equally tarnished silver chain.  She dropped it into my hand and buried her face in hers. 

            “This-this belongs to the leader of the Brethren of the Coast!  Juliet, where did you get this?”  She sniffed and ran her arm across her nose.

            “It was my daddy’s…he…he was killed in a sea battle, and me mum says that he’ll be the last…the last leader,” she sniffed.

            “Your dad was the Admiral of the Black?” I gasped.  She nodded, still crying, as I turned the pendant over in my hands.  “Wait, Juliet, look at this,” I said, bringing my candle over to the table.  Engraved on the back was a shakily carved J.  I saw her tear up again and she buried her face again.  I bit my lip, not knowing what to do or what to say. 

            She took her hands down, rubbing the tears from her eyes.  I unhooked the chain and leaned forward.  I put my arms around her neck and hooked it.  I let it fall on top of her nightgown and she looked down at it incredulously and smiled at me.  She hugged me again and whispered, “Thank you, Eron,” into my ear.

            I watched her climb out of the window and disappear into the night. 

            Every day since that night, she got tougher and stronger and vowed to become the first female Captain, just like her dad wanted. 

            I watched her get taller than me, which she’d always tease me for, until I was about 14 and finally surpassed her in height.  I watched her ‘develop’ over the years as well; she’d grown into quite a beautiful girl, and I know I couldn’t have been the only one to notice.

            My Uncle gave me a real sword for my birthday one year, and Juliet was so enthralled with the work that she asked if I could get her one too, for her birthday, which came after mine.  I asked my Uncle one day, who asked to meet her.  I brought her over, and he looked at us together funny, and agreed. 

            “Don’t tell your mum, sweetie,” he told her on her birthday. 

            “Thank you, sai!”  Was all she said.

            I remember one night, we were sitting on the beach under the cliffs, and we were watching the ocean.  We were both 16, and it was very late August.  She sat up quickly and looked at me wild-eyed.

            “Let’s go swimming, Eron!”

            “We can’t do that!  We don’t have our swimming clothes, and my mum’ll kill me if I get this wet,” I replied, pulling at my vest.

            “What a cowardly dog you are!” she said to me.  I looked up at her as she stood up quickly.  She turned from me and started to unlace her corset.

            “J-Julie!  What are you doing!?”  She didn’t reply; she then took off her skirt and was standing in just her shirt and short underskirt.  I could feel the color flush into my face and I looked down ashamedly, wanting to see but knowing it was wrong.

            “Come on!  What are you waiting for?”  She said, coming over and tugging at my vest.

            “We can’t!  Stop that!” I said as she pulled it off.

            “Now, off with the shirt and let’s get in one last swim before the summer’s gone away, aye?”  She said playfully.  “Eron is a coward!” She teased.

            “Am not...”  I muttered.  She took in a deep breath.

            “ERON PHILLIP FALK IS A COWARDLY SCALLYWAG!”  She called at the top of her voice. 

            “Am not!”  I called out angrily.

            “Then come on!”  She insisted with a smile.

            “F…fine!” I said.  I pulled off my shirt, and she smiled and took my hand.  We ran into the ocean and swam and splashed each other, and she was so beautiful with the moon shining in her blue eyes.  It was the first time I noticed how much of a woman she was becoming…and how much I was starting to want her.

            Soon her mom was telling her that she should be finding a husband, and that plenty of girls were going to take the good ones and that she’d become an old hag that no one would want children with.  She paid no attention, always telling me that she’d find someone on the seas and that she had time.

            A year later was when everything happened.

            A cousin of hers who was a deckhand to some Pirate Captain that hailed from Normandy said that he’d help her get started on the seas, and that the Captain wanted a fleet and needed someone for his new ship.  Her cousin could do it, if he could find a first mate.  She immediately jumped at the chance.  She cut off her long hair and left it short and shaggy.  Her mother was appalled, she told me.

            “So I’m leaving in four days time.  Isn’t it great Eron?  I’m finally on my way!”  She told me with a smile.                       

            “But…I mean…aren’t you afraid?”  I asked her quietly.

            “No!  I mean…maybe a little, but this is my chance!”

            “I suppose so…but I mean…”

            “What?  I’ll come home I’m suppose, and we’ll still be best friends, right?”

            “Yes…but you know I want to work for the governor…”

            “Oh…well…”

            We didn’t say much more.  We spent the next three days together, and the evening before she was to leave, I took her to the beach.  The pendant her father had left her hung around her neck still.  I’d never seen it off.

            “What’d you want to talk about, Eron?” she asked me, her blue eyes so beautiful in the light of the sunset. 

            “Julie, I know that we’re best friends-“

            “And we always will be!  That’s a promise, sai,” she said with a smile.

            “I…I know.  But…”  I took her hands in mine and looked into her face.  Her beautiful face.  I leaned forward and kissed her soft lips.

            “I love you, Juliet.  I always have,” I said softly.  She looked up at me, and her mouth opened a little, as if she would say something.  She bit her lip, and for the first time in 5 years, I saw tears in her eyes. 

            “I…I…Eron,” she said slowly.  She let go of my hands and ran up the beach.

            That night I dreamt that I heard her voice.  Her voice told me that she’d see me again, and that she was sorry she had to leave me.  The voice said something else, but I couldn’t quite hear it.  I cried that night, and for many nights afterwards.