Understanding the World

I always grew up with stories of pirates being told by my dad. I had a crush until I became a teenager on the pirate Steed Bonnet aka The Gentleman Pirate.

The fluffy white clouds drifted by, as the cool breeze blew against the honey gold wheat. Elise was the only one who seemed to notice them moving above their heads, as the others who were her source of company, ran about acting younger than their age. While she lay amongst the brittle stems that contorted to make her a comfortable little nest. Elise, understood the world she decided, as she watched the drifting of the always changing clouds. One moment they looked like wild flowers, the next moment horses running in slow motion, and then sometimes like memories that would make her smile fondly as if she were dreaming.
Elise, as you can surely tell, was a bit of a dreamer. Always giving a secret little smile and making her peers wonder what in the world could possibly be so charming. They however would always have to wonder, because Elise would never tell them of the strangely fantastic ideas that were constantly running through her always dreaming mind. Her thoughts you see, were far too strange for most people to understand. She knew they would think her odder than they already thought she was, if they could even for an instant, think as she always did. So she kept them to herself, and only gave a hint of her dreams, with a wisp of a smile that would always seem to grace her lips.
“Elise! Child, come on now! Its time to get on back towards the town for the night!” Her father called in his loud drawl. He was a good man but a loud one to be sure.
Elise rose to her feet and brushed the dry wheat from her pink Sunday dress, before trotting on, a smile still gracing her expression as she loaded into the coach, along with her two sisters Anne, and Emily who were both only a year younger than herself, and her brother Charles who was two years older, and hadn't had a lick of since in him since the day he was born.
Emily and Anne sat across from Elise and Charles, in the tasteful dark wooded coach. They hadn't stopped their bouts of giggles and whispers since they had seated themselves, and even Elise, the dreamer she was, had taken notice and considered them with half lidded eyes.
“What has come over the two of you?” Charles asked, beating Elise to it.
“Sister has bits of straw, all through out her curls! Momma is goin' to make a fuss to be sure! Right Anne?” Asked Emily.
“So true, and after all the work she put into those curls, I suspect she will be quite scornful!” Chimed Anne.
Charles, considered his sister before reaching forward, and plucking a rather large straw of wheat, from his sisters perfectly messy auburn curls. He then too erupted with laughter, while trying to untangle yet another bit from its snare.
“How cruel you all are, to laugh at me so openly!” pouted Elise, before pulling from her brothers hands, and looking out the window to gaze upon the slowly dimming world. Her smile had faltered at their chatter.
Elise, said nothing more, as she let her mind wander to the world that lay beyond the coaches window. Everything was painted with pale purple shadows, giving it a look that was no more pleasing than her siblings teasing prattle. Elise could almost see the dark blanket, that was slowly enveloping the natural surroundings that were passing by, at what was almost too fast a pace. Elise's father, was pushing the horses more than usual. She wondered if he was anxious. She leaned towards the darkened world, to let her voice carry forward.
“Father, is something the matter?”
“No, nothing pet, fear for nothing.” Her father called back unconvincingly.
Elise knew something was wrong as she leaned back in her plush seat, and looked down at her hands, that had linked and begun to twist in a nervous manner upon her skirts. She then looked to her sisters who had gone still in understanding. Without even looking, she knew her brother too had settled.
“What do you think has happened?” Asked Anne.
“I don't know, did something happen out at the fields? I wasn't quite aware of the happenings of you all.” Elise asked, looking towards her sisters.
“A man did come and quickly whisper to father, before we left, but father didn't seem all too startled about the mans coming.” Whispered Emily, as she looked to link her right hand with Anne's left.
“The man spoke of pirates, he warned father that they might be landing near the harbor, and that it would be best if we were secure, before night fall.” Mumbled Charles, from his place next to Elise.
The rest of their journey was eerily quiet.
As the coach stilled before their Charleston home, Elise found only more quiet as the coach door was opened, to reveal a satin black world.
“Come, quickly now! Into the house, and away to your rooms!” Elise did as she was told, unable to find a dream in the cold black of the night to fixate on.
Once she was hidden away in her chambers, snuggly tucked into her down feather bed, she listened. The sounds were small but still audible. Elise, could hear her mother fussing over her sisters, and her father calling for drink in the parlor, adjacent to the stairs. His was the loudest of all, as was the norm. The clock chimed in the hall, signaling the time to be half passed Nine. The nerves that had wracked Elise and her siblings, had subsided at the lack of any further news, about the idea of pirates taking port. But still, Elise, found she could not shake a feeling, much like that of being watched. She only hoped it was only nerves that held her, like a vice, as she lay contemplating in her bed, of pirates, and old stories of scandalous romance, that had been told to her by her mothers hand maids as a child. This only made her tired however, to the point of drifting between consciousness and slumber, which after a time were filled with the sounds of loud cries, and banging doors which she thought must have been all in her dreams.
You can only imagine her surprise then, when the banging grew closer and without warning Elise felt the sensation of cool air and weightlessness. With this her eyes fluttered, and met with bright green fathomless pools, that were mischievous, but gentle as they consider Elise with her Blue wide doe like eyes.
“Do not struggle, and I will take you away, and promise you the world. Struggle, and I will take you away still, and force the world upon you.” The man said smartly, with a grin.
“Am I dreaming? I must be dreaming! I shouldn't have thought of those dirty stories right before shutting my eyes. Yes! Thats all this is, its a scandalous pirate story, made up to fill my wandering heart! Isn't it?” Elise asked her unnamed green eyed captor without consideration of who she was addressing.
“I am afraid not, my dear sweet dreamer. I am simply a pirate, here to plunder your jewels and steal away a pretty thing to keep for my own rewards. You just happen to be exactly what I wish to love for in a woman.” He replied without so much as batting an eyes to her accusations of dirty scandalous stories, of which she had admitted to thinking, without so much as a thought.
“Your a real pirate then?” She seemed so excited and not quite as frightened as he would have thought normal. It made Elise all that more interesting to this man, who indeed was a pirate but also quite a dreamer amongst his kind.
“Yes, quite real, and with my realness, I am also quite a scandalous fellow, in my own ways. As such, I am afraid to inform, that I must steal you now, and take you to fulfill the dreams of mine that I have not yet met.”
“Oh really? And what might those sort of dreams be?”
He stopped only to inform his men to leave Elise's family be, and come along as they were done here, while never once breaking stride. He stopped only to answer her, as he passed through the threshold of the house, and out into the black dreamless night.
“Dreams, that no one can ever truly explain.” That same dream induced smile appeared.
“Oh I understand, and I believe that the world may hold both of our dreams.” She mirrored his smile.
“You know, my love, I believe we may understand one another, much better than anyone else could. For we both understand the world through the eyes of those who dream while awake. We can see, beyond what others seem to see and understand all that changes.” The pirate said as he carried Elise away.
Without even knowing the dreams of one another, it seemed they already knew all of the secrets that each of them held.
“And shall we always understand the world as well?” Elise asked once more as she looked off towards a ship that could only be for a pirate.
“Yes, we shall understand this world, and all other worlds that we venture to.” The pirate explained as he stopped before his ship that stood so still in the black Charleston harbor.
“Reality, is merely a dream that we as people have no control over.”
“Yes, but isn't that the fun of a dream, my dear? To let it take us as far as we can take it, and beyond all common bounds?” The pirate looked up to his ship with dreams of plunder and eternity dancing behind his Emerald eyes, before looking back to Elise who still lay in his arms..
Elise said nothing then, in understanding, as she looked up and through his dreaming realized that her dreams of flying away from those who could not understand her, and never would understand was about to come true. Though this meant becoming a pirate it also promised an adventure with a man who would always understand her. Oh how wonderful it was to Elise, to be a young woman falling in love, at first sight with a pirate. Who knew that the one person to truly love and understand her, would be a man that would quite literally steel her heart.

Author's Note

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