Gaspar's Last Tale

They departed from Gasparilla Island under a blood red sky.  Gaspar feared no omen.  The brothers, however, taking their maiden voyage onboard the Floriblanca, knew at once that their grand adventure with the pirate king was doomed from the start, and not entirely due to their own intended treachery.

***

“Let cannon fly like thunder!”  Jose Gaspar bellowed command after command, the urgency of the moment driving him to greater lengths of shipboard tyranny than his crew, many of whom had sailed with him for more than a decade, had yet experienced.  It was enough to give even the sturdiest of these hardened men chills.  It had been a torpid day in January 1821, and the Floriblanca had at last been found in the sights of the infamous U.S.S. Enterprise, known as the destroyer of pirates.  These were men who had participated in and experienced all manner of depravity and violence, and had seen Gaspar flaunt his authority with impunity, losing many a companion to his mercurial whims.  The romance of serving under the pirate king had lost its appeal many years ago, except in the lyrics of sea shanties many of them still sang.

None of them knew the exact circumstances that brought the brothers Gomez into their ranks.  Nico and Zachary Gomez arrived under a cloud of obscurity.  No one had served with them before, whether in legitimate circles or otherwise.  The most popular rumor was that they weren’t even Spanish citizens, but American.  Any of this would have made them instantly unpopular and subject to even rougher living than the norm, but Gaspar himself had taken them under his wing, and his decisions were respected, because the alternative was grim.

What the brothers Gomez became privy to, and what they had never themselves expected, was the discovery that Gaspar’s private cabin held a startling secret, the existence of his daughter Roxanne.

Women, in naval, merchant, and pirate circles, were unheard of aboard ships at sea.  Far too much trouble, for all considered.  This was the most obvious reason why Roxanne’s presence remained unknown, except for those Gaspar trusted.  What treasures the brothers Gomez had promised him would remain a mystery for the ages, since this was to be the final tale of Jose Gaspar, and all those who sailed with him.

***

 It might have amused those filled with instant jealousy, but Nico and Zachary despised each other.  Theirs was a sibling rivalry that had existed throughout their lives, a constant competition that held no limits and knew no quarter.  They would go to any lengths to outdo each other, so it is natural to assume that the very moment they set eyes on Roxanne, they were determined to take the prize from between them.

On the morning they set out, the crew held no expectation but what Gaspar allowed them.  Nico felt himself banished in the eagle’s nest, even if it was the rare agreement with his brother that had led him there, a part of the plot.  From his perch he could see the activities on deck and at sea, but he couldn’t find Zachary anywhere.  Nico was the younger of the two, and assumed that he had more to give Roxanne, but he imagined Zachary making a different case in the darkness below. 

“Beautiful day,” he said to the boy unlucky enough to count himself among the crew, and stuck in the nest beside him.  Nico didn’t even know his name, but felt guilty that such a youth was in the trap he and his brother had set. 

“I suppose,” the boy replied.  “Captain Gaspar expects something great from the day.  I’m anxious to see what it is.”

“Tell me, boy,” Nico said, “Do you know much of what happens aboard Floriblanca?”

“Tolerably much,” the boy said.  “More than most.  No one cares what the boy hears.  No one will listen to him anyway, much less believe him.”

Nico felt a stab of guilt.  “What have you heard about my brother and I?”

“That you fought in the war,” the boy said, “recently fought between America and Britain, that you were pirates who joined the American fleet.  But no one believes that’s true.  The captain would never have allowed your kind aboard.  Pirate principle or something of the kind.  The crew doesn’t respect those that betrayed the life.  And you know what that means.”

“That I am alive to talk about it with you,” Nico said. 

“As you say,” the boy replied.

“Do you know much about the captain?”

“A little,” the boy said.  “I know what no one is supposed to.  I have access none is granted.  I go where I please, you might say.”

“So you know,” Nico said.

“I suppose,” the boy said.

“And you can guess the reasons for my current trepidation,” Nico said.

“As concerns the whereabouts of your brother,” the boy said, “among other things.”

“Among other things,” Nico said.

“That ship, on the horizon,” the boy said.  “Looks to be a British merchant ship.”

“That is what we will tell the captain,” Nico said.

“But that’s not what it is,” the boy said.

“No, it is not,” Nico said.

***

As it happened, Zachary was indeed courting Roxanne that moment, but as part of the plot.  The brothers had been careful.  They didn’t want Gaspar to catch either of them in the act.  Such an event would spoil everything.

“Milady,” he whispered in Roxanne’s ear.

“Don’t do that,” Roxanne replied.  “I hate that.”

“You hate what?”

“A man’s breath in my ear,” Roxanne said.

“Sorry,” Zachary said.

“And don’t apologize,” Roxanne said.  “I like that even less.”

Roxanne had been born in Barbados.  Her bronze complexion kept her hidden from Zachary’s sight, which was a disappointment.  “The Gomez charm does not work on me,” she added.

“So you have heard of it,” Zachary said.

“It is less than suggested,” Roxanne said.  “But I have heard of it, and my father warned me.  Naturally I intend to ignore him.”

“You intrigue me,” Zachary said.

“If it becomes relevant,” Roxanne said.

***

Nico was climbing down as the merchant ship changed its colors to reveal the American standard, as Gaspar began to charge the crew.  Zachary joined Nico, and the two nodded at each other.  All was going to plan.  Gaspar was a hard man, but also a handsome one.  It was sometimes difficult to understand why he’d made the choice to operate outside the law, when he might have succeeded at court with little effort.  Perhaps the rumors that he had been compelled to seek alternate fortunes for choosing the wrong lady were true.  That was part of why the brothers Gomez didn’t feel guilty about using Roxanne in the plot, if not some remorse on her part.  They weren’t monsters.  The monster was captain of this ship.

The cannons indeed flew, and wood shattered all around them.  When the ships were close enough, boarding parties entered the fray, and it was the Floriblanca that was visited first.  That was how Nico and Zachary had envisioned it.

For a cruel moment, however, they had cause to regret their decisions.  Roxanne emerged from below deck.  She locked eyes not with Zachary or Nico, but her father, Jose Gaspar, and in that moment, they saw Gaspar not as a monster but a man, whose eyes were filled with love, and horror.

He unsheathed his saber, and swore to defend his daughter.  No one said a word about it.

Nico and Zachary drew their blades as well.  Each wanted the honor of felling the pirate king, and so attacked him together, once more united despite themselves.  Gaspar understood immediately, even before they turned against him, what was happening.

“Gaspar dies by his own hand, not his enemy’s!”

And he plunged overboard, before either brother could intervene.  The ship was burning, and Roxanne let loose a terrible scream.

***

History records that the Enterprise was lost, finally, two years later, but the records of John Gomez, youngest of the brothers, swear that the crew of the Floriblanca took it down with them.  He is silent about the fates of Nico and Zachary, and Roxanne.  Legend has it that he was aboard the Floriblanca that day, that he was the boy in the eagle’s nest with Nico, unknown to his own brother, just another detail lost at sea, in the great tumult in the years before Florida left Spanish hands and entered America’s.

John Gomez was called many things, later, a liar chief among them.  He settled into life all the same, on land, in Tampa on the shores of Hillsborough Bay.  He never paid the epitaphs much mind.  And he was always drunk.  Sometimes he could be persuaded to recapitulate the events of that day, but never when sober. 

He cried every time.