Anna hoisted herself on deck, grabbing Luke’s hand and landing squarely on the salt encrusted wood. The breeze was growing warmer as the sun rose higher in the sky, and the calls of sea birds mingled with the loud squawking of parrots in the jungle. She stood still, feeling the slow rocking of the ship beneath her feet as it rolled with the shifting tide.

“Anna!! Luke!!”

A boy, no more than sixteen, swung himself from a rope onto the deck, landing on his feet with a thud. Anna gasped delightedly as Jesse made a running leap and tackled them hard. The next few minutes were chaotic as the three attempted to right themselves, sorting tangled limbs and standing dizzily. Luke rubbed the back of his head in mock irritation as Jesse grabbed him squarely by the shoulders and shook him.

“Luke!!!!!!! Did you remember???!”

“Remember...? Remember what??”

Jesse made the slightest gesture in Anna’s direction. She choked down a laugh and turned to face the Captain’s cabin, where father was surely waiting. Behind her, Jesse was performing a frantic sequence of charades in an attempt to communicate to a clueless Luke. She could hear shuffling, and then finally a loud smack, followed by a groan.

“Anna’s birthday! Oh man...can’t believe I forgot...”

“But I didn’t forget, Sis!” Jesse walked up to her proudly, then began fishing around in the pocket of his tattered pants. His feet were bare and there was a long scar down his right arm that hadn’t been there before. Anna made a move to hold the arm still, thinking to ask him where it came from. But at that moment Jesse gave a triumphant shout and pressed a small package into her hand.

“I think you’ll like it, Sis. Actually, I can’t believe I found it.”

Anna carefully began opening the package, which was really just a wad of slightly damp brown paper crumpled over something very, very small. Jesse hovered over her expectantly, a wide grin splashed across his face. But just as the last layer of paper fell away, Luke gave a cry of alarm.

“Ahoy there laddie! An’ what’s it like ter be a landlubber, eh?” Luke, nearly choked by an enormous tattooed arm, drew his cutlass.

“It’s been a while, Father.”

“Aye, and ain’t it a tragedy.” The tattooed arm loosened its hold, and Luke sheathed the cutlass, laughing. The Pirate King, an enormous plume of peacock feathers pinned to his wide-brimmed captain’s hat, clapped him hard on the back before turning to flash a golden-toothed grin at Anna. “And if it isn’t me little lady herself! Bin keepin’ an eye on the scallywag, have ye Annie? Come, love, and let’s have a look at ye.”

Anna, despite all the speeches she had prepared for this moment, found herself unable to recall a single one. “Father,” she whispered, and ran into his open arms. It was this way every summer, every birthday. It was like being a little girl again, running down the path to the cove with Luke, pulling Jesse along by a hand, getting muddied and arriving at shore with twigs in her hair and both knees scraped. Her father always smelled like the sea, like the winds that filled the sails and took him away but always brought him home again. She could never be angry with him for very long, no matter how hard she tried.

Jesse piped up suddenly. “Ha! I bet Father forgot too. You did, didn’t you, you old biscuit eater?”

“Yar! Who ye callin’ a biscuit eater, young cad?”

“You! You forgot too!”

Anna laughed then, as Jesse dodged first a dagger, then a swipe from the Pirate King’s cutlass. “Why you–! And ye never saw fit ter remind me, did ye? Why, ye’ll be sleepin’ with the fishes tonight, that ye’ll be...”

Jesse gave a hoot and ran for the main mast, climbing up like a monkey as the dagger nearly pinned his foot to the smooth wood. “Biscuit eater! Don’t you know it’s dangerous to play with knives? Honestly, Father...just admit it, you forgot Anna’s birthday too! You forget every year!”

The Pirate King turned to Anna and took her face in his rough brown hands. “The blighter’s right, love. Yer old dad went and fergot yer birthday again. Me memory ain’t the same, after all these years.”

“Really Father, you don’t need to talk like that anymore. It’s really very silly,” said Luke.

“Ah, right ye are, Luke. I always said proper speech was second only to cleanliness, in pirates.” He winked widely at Anna, and then grabbed Jesse by the ear as he tried to climb down the ropes to the boat they had left alongside. “It’s a bit difficult ter get used to speakin’ properly after bein’ on the sea. Pirates have ter talk like pirates when they’re pillagin’.”

Jesse laughed loudly as he was thrown headlong into the water. Luke backed away slowly, a look on his face that bordered on disbelief. “Oh come on...I’m too old for this!” he cried, as he too was tossed overboard. Anna, knowing resistance was futile, merely waited for her turn. But instead of throwing her, the Pirate King kicked up a loose board, set it down so that a good half of it jutted over the water, and held it steady with a foot.

“And for you, lassie, as ‘tis your birthday this fine summer day, have the privilege of walkin’ the plank.”

Giggling, Anna walked as though dragging heavy chains, stepping onto the plank and waving to her brothers treading water below. She turned to her Father with a pleading look.

“Oh please, have mercy!”

“No quarter, little lady. Not even for me Annie.” The Pirate King bowed, looking up at her with a grin. But the grin became an odd sort of smile...a kind she had never seen before on his weathered face. It must be a trick of the light, she thought, when his good eye seemed to somehow shine with an unshed tear as he looked at her. She chose to pay no heed to it, and took a step forward instead. She kept going until she was at the very end of the rough-hewn plank, the water bright and cool beneath her.

It was while she stood there, in the moment before her foot took the final step that would send her plummeting off the plank, that she thought she heard her father say something quietly into the wind...something that sounded oddly like...

“...they'll not have you, Annie.”