Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 2 - 2 | Page 149

Pirate Jack
Taoist Ching Chung Primary School (Wu King Estate), Chan, Isaac - 9
My new neighbour Jack is a strange man with a strange smell. My dad is a friend of his, I visit Jack’s home
when Dad goes to work. He tells me stories about people while I’m there. However, I wasn’t interested in
him until he revealed to me about his old days.
I first thought he spent his life as a farmer since he was tall, my mind was soon to change. He had eight
people in his family and was the smallest, giving him a feeling that he would be unlucky in life. Since his
parents treated gambling as a hobby, they could hardly educate their children. They were bankrupt by the
time Jack was in primary four
The worst time of his childhood was still to come during secondary school. His parents decided to take Jack
out of school and make him beg on the streets for money. He got enough to support his brothers and sisters.
After five years, everybody was working. How about poor Jack? It was time for him to find work too, but
most companies did not hire him. When he was fifteen a farming company wanted him, but a mighty crew
of pirates kidnapped him on the streets when it was dark. They brought him to a boat and made him part of
their crew.
He met his captain and was frightened when he saw him. He was cruel man, he had fed a lot of humans to
the sharks. He was greedy, there was no hope of getting a dollar after finding a big treasure chest, maybe just
ten cents. Also, he was very strict, if you didn’t do as you were told, expect your life to end in a shark’s
tummy. Therefore, it was the Lord’s first command to follow him. Since he was so horrid, Jack decided to
give him a nickname – “World’s Most Horrid Champion”.
The “Horrid Champion” asked Jack to be the Treasure Hunter. Not only did it just mean running on the
Islands to search for treasure, this duty needed the hunter to attack other boats for their treasure also! The
captain would ask Jack to bomb the boats, if he refused the captain would send him straight to the shark’s
tummy. If he did do what was asked, he may go to jail for bombing ships. Keeping the stolen goods was not
an easy job too. If a battle was lost, they’d ask you to give the them money. If you refused, they’d kill you
immediately.
He was very tired those days. Although he only went to a few islands and there weren’t any boats, he was
still tired since there was a big food shortage too. The food was given to all others before they gave it to
Jack. Therefore, Jack ate only a little, and found some food in the ocean to survive.
Arriving at a new island was always tiring, the size of the island was always different too. Jack would look for
ages and if lucky would find a small treasure box. Repeat this process a thousand times. Jack became smellier
day by day, and never had a bath. The captain always said, “We don’t have enough water for your bath!”
Jack’s job needed luck, thanks to the lord Jack got some of that. The captain gave him some money. Jack
was glad that he could finally get some save something for himself. He thanked the captain for it.
Those days Jack was happy. However, it ended when Jack was twenty-five and the captain wanted to
upgrade him to cannon fire duty.
This was very scary, and a battle happened by surprise during a storm. After ten minutes Jack was running
out of ammunition. However, the other pirates seemed to have plenty left. Jack’s boat had a hole in it and
water was gushing in. He was trapped, they shouted “Give us something worth or time and we’ll let you
pass!”. Jack had no choice, so he had to give them a chest of treasure. The enemy was still not satisfied
“More, more, more, this is not enough!”. Jack accepted and gave into their demands.
Jack’s captain was furious “You need to keep the treasure, otherwise we will be bankrupt, why didn’t you
listen to me? You disobeyed my rules so it is to the sharks you will go!” Jack didn’t want to die so he asked
his friends onboard to help him persuade the captain not to kill him.
In the following days Jack’s friends would always be near the captain saying things like “Jack is good, don’t
kill him”. The captain thought again and decided to downgrade Jack to a dishwasher instead of killing him.
Jack celebrated and thanked his friends.
He celebrated to early. Jack’s job was worse than death. He had to eat leftovers as punishment, he was
hungry every day. Also, he couldn’t have a bath, the tank was always full. Once, his shipmates caught a big,
yummy fish, everybody except Jack could share it. They said to him, “Sorry, none for you! The fish is too
small. Better luck next time, you filthy, smelly, dishwashing, cleaning machine!” Jack knew the reason
wasn’t that. He saw half of the fish was uneaten, sitting right on the table! The real reason was that they
were biased against him. He was angry but didn’t dare show it. The nightmare lasted for fifteen years and
ended because the man who replaced Jack’s old job had retired, by now Jack was forty. Jack was glad
because could go back to his old, respected job.