A Quibble: Unequal Shares

[honorat]

By Honorat
Rating: G
Disclaimer: If any of you as much as thinks the word “profit,” I’ll have your guts for garters.

Summary: Jack gives Mr. Cotton a gift. A Quadruple drabble. This is a companion piece to Answered Prayer which insisted on being written.

Thank you, geek_mama_2 for the beta read.

* * * * *

Jack has seen him in the dim, guttering candlelight as the plaintive songs of minstrels waft on rum-redolent air. Sometimes his eyes glisten with unshed tears. Sometimes his hands clench into knotted fists. Other times his lips curve in that wondrous childlike joy and his fingers tap. And there are times he rises abruptly and leaves the tavern, and they do not see him until the Pearl is about to depart.

So when they discover the violin in a passenger’s cabin, Captain Sparrow does not add it to the swag in the holds, for sale in the next port. Instead, when he joins Mr. Cotton at the helm that evening, eager as always for the moment he will be completely in communion with his ship, Jack spares a moment to hold out the worn, black case.

He watches, a small smile chasing itself across his lips, as the man raises bewildered eyes to his captain. Not equal shares this time. Life has already dealt this man an impossibly unequal share. This is a gift.

With a flourish, Jack flips open the latches and raises the lid.

The instrument glows in the last light as though fire burns at its heart. Reverently his silent crewman runs sea-roughened fingertips over the ebony neck. When he looks up again, some of that fire has lit in his faded blue eyes. Mr. Cotton reaches out a hand to touch his captain’s arm, and Jack feels the weight of the man’s parrot settle on his shoulder.

As Mr. Cotton lifts the case from Jack’s hands, the parrot shifts its claws, a brooding, approving presence beside Jack’s ear. He hears its heavy beak clacking as it preens along the string of beads dangling in his hair, one at a time. For once, he does not swat the animal away. They will observe the truce.

That night, as the darkness slips her arms around the Black Pearl, the captain catches the faint strains of music floating back from the bow. Longing and loss, loneliness and love. The pent up songs of years of silence.

Jack holds his Pearl a little closer, remembering.

For the first time, he hears Mr. Cotton’s voice.

Comments

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

Oh, JOY! This brought a huge smile to my face. It's interesting that so many folks in fandom see Cotton as possibly being musical. You're the first to write him with a fiddle, which is a sometimes mournful, sometimes ecstatic instrument...and one very like the human voice.

Thanks for sharing this one.

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Happy to have mad you smile! I think none of us can bear for Cotton to have no outlet for his feelings. I'm sure I've been influenced by other writers of Cotton. I did run through a few instruments in my head before deciding on the violin. It does have the flexibility and range to be very like a voice. And it is the only instrument I play well enough to even imagine in written form. Thank you for commenting on this.

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

Very cool that you play the violin, and of course, we each write what we have the experience of.

Just to clarify: I wasn't at all saying that you giving Cotton a violin was in some way negatively "derived" from the fanfic of others. :-) I personally like to make Cotton a singer, albeit one with a lack of certain phonemes. Pure tone, though? He should be capable of that.

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Oh I wasn't worried about that. I know I've read some beautiful fics of Cotton as a musical person. And tone would be possible. It is only words he'd lack. In a sense a musical instrument is another shared set of symbols like words. It communicates because its hearers understand the language. I think perhaps he'd be shy using his voice, unadorned with words, before the crew. Of course, there's nothing saying Cotton couldn't be the bardic type--instrument and voice--afterall. :D The interpretations are endless.

[classics-lover.livejournal.com]

This is just such a sweet story! It really communicates the sorrow of enforced silence (something unbearable to contemplate for someone as verbiose as myself;-)) and the joy to be found in the making of music. Lovely - just lovely.

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Yes, after the painful prequel, I apparently had to write something to get out the taste! I do think that Cotton's loss of language would be a terrible and frustrating tragedy. Especially since your average pirate could not read and write. So, while he might have developed some method of signing for basic communication--or in this case Parrot cryptograms--he'd have a hard time communicating feelings or complex ideas. So I thought music would be another language for him. So glad you liked this and thank you for commenting.

[jenthegypsy.livejournal.com]

Melancholy, and quite lovely - I love this "other" voice you have given Cotton. Of course, I am particularly drawn to this paragraph:

As Mr. Cotton lifts the case from Jack’s hands, the parrot shifts its claws, a brooding, approving presence beside Jack’s ear. He hears its heavy beak clacking as it preens along the string of beads dangling in his hair, one at a time. For once, he does not swat the animal away. They will observe the truce.

[honorat.livejournal.com]

*bounce* You who are master of all things Parrot approve of my parrot paragraph. I'm so happy. This passage called forth almost all my memory of experience with an actual parrot. And one can't write Cotton without Parrot. *Loves the icon*

I do feel that leaving Cotton with no voice for his feelings would be too unbearable, so I had to give him something. I'm glad you liked it. Thank you.

[thekestrel.livejournal.com]

Oh --- so touching, and a bit bitter sweet, like the sound of a violin. Jack holds his Pearl a little closer, remembering. Ah -- so he does, for wasn't he close to half a man, with out her? And now through the night, he can hear Mr. Cotton's song. For no man should be left without his voice, or his heart. I always thought that Jack see's things - in people and in nature, perhaps he see's too much? But if one does not see -- one can not either help or change anything - now can they? And Jack, who perhaps curses his seeing, see's more than most, and can't ignore it -- can he?

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm. Such a lovely poetical comment. Thank you. I did think that Jack would understand great loss, and especially, as such an eloquent man, he would understand the lack of freedom that comes with a lack of communication. Sometimes all Jack's had left were his words. And you're right. Jack does see more than most--he uses people's movtivations and desires to manipulate them into doing what he wants. But that is also a talent that allows him to sympathize. He seems particularly horrified by what happened to Cotton, so I thought he would do what he could to help the man in his own creative way.

[kellan_the_tabby]

I think I read this four or five times through before I realized that Jack doesn't _say_ anything to Cotton...in words...

Beautiful.

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Ah! You did notice. This little piece was all about voice and not about words at all. Jack speaks without words, and so does Cotton. So for that matter does Parrot. And communication occurs. The most important things are ineffable after all. Thank you for commenting. I do appreciate it.

[hendercats.livejournal.com]

I have a huge grin on my face and tears in my eyes. Perfect companion piece.

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Awww! I'm so pleased you found this so moving. I did need to make things up to Cotton for the terrible treatment he received in the previous piece. Thank you very much for your kind words.