"Row, row, row yer boat swif'ly out ta sea," Ragetti sung quietly to himself, popping his wooden eye back into place.
"Would ya shut up already Rags?" Pintel pleaded as he and Twigg rowed the lifeboat they had found. "Ye've been singin' that fer hours."
"Sorry." He looked around for a while, the commented, "Say Pinters, tha' 'scape back there was pre'y 'mazin'."
Twigg and Pintel glanced to the young guard who had eagerly released them from the prison in Saba. It wasn't necessarily amazing. He had even told them about a treasure that had legendarily been buried a couple islands away. He sat up in the bow of the boat, showing the way to the treasure.
"Maybe our cursed souls is lucky after all," Twigg decided.
"D'ye think this treasure's cursed too maybe?"
"There's only one way ta find out," Pintel answered as they approached the treasure island.
"Waz tha'?"
"Dig it up," both Twigg and Pintel replied, jumping out of the boat. Ragetti and the guard boy did the same, and they pushed the boat all the way onto the shore. The threesome followed the guard boy down the beach, through a small group of trees, and into a clearing.
"Voila," the kid said, gesturing to the clearing, "da traysore."
"Where is it?" Ragetti whispered.
"D'ya think we gotta dig?" Twigg asked.
The three looked at each other. It only seemed logical. They had no shovles but instead fell to the ground and began digging in the sand with their hands. Their hole was not very big when the guard bou came back with a small cube thirty seconds later. He just stood there, and gradually the three stopped digging to look at him. A few feet away, a hatch had been opened leading to underground.
The boy pointed to the cube. "Da traysore."
Pintel stood up and examined it closely, even though it was still in the boy's hand. "What is it?" He questioned.
Twigg took it from the boy and read the word on the package, "Soap."
"Waz tha'?" All three wondered.
Twigg smelt it and shrugged, "Beats me."
Pintel grabbed it and smelt it as well. "Smell good," he added.
Then, it was Ragetti's turn. He took it, pulled the wrapper off, and took a bite out of it. That, he quickly realized, was a bad idea. He tried to spit it out, but it was soap! As the rest of us hygienic—or bad languaged—people know, it doesn't come off that easily.
As Ragetti desperately tried to get it off his tongue, the guard boy said, "Come on. There more." He led them through the hatch to a huge room filled to the top with soap explaining, "Da papa de ma papa had lot of gold. Then slavery come an' he hid gold so white man not take it. He change to soap an' hide down here for papa an' me. Now we sell an' have lot of gold."
The three pirates looked at each other, wondering if it were a good idea. Why not? They ferried the soap over to another island and set up a booth in a little market to sell their soap. Actually, the guard boy did most of the selling, while the three pirates sat around in the booth with this new drink they found that they called bubbly. It was sadly: rum mixed with soap. Before long, though, they were too drunk to notice the taste.
The booth actually did really well for the pirates' first entrepreneurial experience—and considering the didn't know the product that they were selling. Then, one day Barbossa just happened to walk by them holding a fresh granny-smith apple. The three pirates, who were seated around a barrel and drunkenly slamming their 'bubbly' bottles down on it, didn't notice him, but he noticed them.
When he approached the booth, the guard boy asked, "Wuld you be in-ter-es-ted in buying sum soap Suh?" He had practiced that sentence many times.
Barbossa ignored him and instead questioned, "Twigg, is that you?"
Twigg was the one facing away from Barbossa, so he cautiously turned to face the voice. "Capt'n Barbossa," Twigg responded, a little shocked but with mostly disdain in his tone. All three pirates walked over to their former captain.
"'Tis a surprise te see you here Capt'n," Pintel mentioned.
"An' the same in return," Barbossa replied, obviously implying he had expected at least them to die on Saba. Changing the subject, he held up a bar of soap. "What are ye lads doin' with this?"
"Why we're sellin' it Capt'n!" Ragetti explained.
"An' drinkin' it," Twigg added.
"Would ye like some bubbly Capt'n?" Pintel inquired as all three simultaneously slammed their bottles on the counter.
"Bubbly," Ragetti repeated quietly.
"No thank you," Barbossa declined, probably thinking, Now if it were apple and rum…He looked around at the piles of soap at their booth and asked, "Selling soap ye say? That is somethin' no pirate should e'er be forced to do."
"It ain't too bad Capt'n," Twigg proclaimed, definitely not catching Barbossa's drift. Still, he and Pintel placed a small chest full of coins from their profit upon the counter.
Barbossa fingered through their coins for quite a while before questioning, "Would ye like to come back?"
This is an advertizing scheme. To read the rest of this story, please see Last Second Miracles and start at the beginning. P