Encounter with Mary Reed

I slowly opened my eyes looked around the room, disoriented and dazed from my daily afternoon nap. As I rubbed my eyes and tried to wake myself up a bit, I realized that something was off. Maybe it was the fact that I slept before eating or that my phone had disappeared from my pocket. Maybe it was the fact that there was jewelry, gold, and swords scattered all around my room. Maybe it was the fact that what should be my room looked more like a room from the 1700s. Suddenly, I realized where I was. My entire body was frozen with fear. My mind was racing with a million questions on what was happening to me and why I was here, but the biggest question I had was why I was dressed like one of Christopher Columbus’ crew members. As I began to inspect the room in hopes of finding answers to my questions, loud, English-like yelling erupted from the outside of the room. I made my way towards the door, curious as to what was going outside. As my hand reached for the doorknob, my eyes wandered towards a painting of a fierce and intimidating woman. It was clear from her stance that she was the one in charge, not the other men. She looked like she could control anyone and anything - even the seas.

As I walked out from the room the only question that I received was “What were you doing in the captain’s chamber?”, but before I was able to give an answer a disruption occurred within the crew. Insults were thrown by one crew member to another who would be described as the word “milksop”  as I learned from the copious amount of whispering that he lacked any form of courage or bravery. However, this “milksop” with a burst of courage shouted the words, ``Duel me you hooligan of a pirate” and that was his invitation to challenge his insulter to a duel. Soon afterward, a long-haired individual came in between the two. The crowd dispersed and gave room to this person as respect, honor, and sheer pirate aura illuminated off of the individual. I would soon recognize that this was the infamous female pirate Mary Reed that I was reading about the night before. A large number of the crew members including me began connecting the dots that it was her husband who was challenging the other crew member to a duel. Mary Reed had stepped and decided that she would volunteer to be in her husband’s place to duel the insulter that decimated what little left of pride he had. From there, it was decided we would find a nice destination to be the arena for the battle of the infamous female pirate Mary Reed and her husband’s insulter. Wagers on who would win the match were being placed, but the entirety of the crew would know Mary Reed would be victorious. The underdog insulter would soon regret saying atrocious words to her husband. The ship began to slow down and the crew began to flock to one side of the ship to view where they had proposed for the duel. We dropped the rusty anchor enveloped in barnacles near a small island with a few palm trees insight as the two began ruffling around for their swords covered in enemy pirate blood and pistols with burn marks sheathing the ends of the weapon. They struggled walking over the shallow shores and the watery sand as it slowed them down. The crew including her husband stayed back on the ship as no one wanted to cross the waters and get their boots covered in sand to spectate the two of them slay each other. They came at each other quick and viciously. With a blink of an eye, a winner was already chosen. A lifeless body had already appeared on the sands of the island; it was the body of the male who had insulted none other than Mary Reed's husband. His fate was already decided when she chose upon herself to intervene in the duel. We had all witnessed her dueling skills in the countless acts of piracy in which she accompanied us. As she approached the ship, silence embodied the lives of many from the fear we would be her next victim.

After all the shock and awe, I finally snapped back into reality. I had remembered the night before I was attempting to travel back in time to the 1960s, but I must have thought of the Golden Age of Piracy due to me reading about female pirates such as Mary Reed. In one of the stories, I remembered these exact events had happened to her husband, but I must have forgotten about it. Mary Reed was unlike most women who stayed at home and tended their children as she was one that did not sit around too long and fought for what she longed for. She showed that in a man's world she was the one who dominated.