Bloodlines

Day 78: There was a strong temptation to allow Morgan Corbye's biographer the rights to this story, but it is unusual enough in its own fashion that I have pre-empted that privilege for my own task, largely because I have known of Capt. Corbye's piratical lineage for a very long time now and the historian would be compelled to present it as new information. That said, this particular document was a startling discovery when it came into my hands this morning, the product of a search for a box of sewing patterns which turned up a trove of my mother's things instead. Until the moment when I put my hands on the canvas scroll shown here, I did not know of its existence.

My mother and her best friend Carol were adventurers of the Tom Sawyer-Huck Finn kidney as teens, always into some sort of reasonably harmless mischief from which my grandfather invariably had to extricate them at some cost. One of the most notable occasions manifested when the two girls ran away from home intent on purchasing a sailing vessel "for to go a-pirating." They had the whole sum of $26 between them and hitchhiked from Washington to San Francisco, there to swim out to a schooner in the harbor (or maybe it was a sailboat...I am simply relating the story as my mother told it to me). After hauling two drowned rats aboard and giving them dry clothing and a meal, the owner of said vessel set about attempting to contact Grandpa. The two erstwhile pirates soon were returned to home port and put in figurative irons until they repented of their evil ways.

Their friendship persisted into adulthood (a double-date arranged by Carol was my mother's introduction to my father), and always between them was the Pirate's Code of loyalty:

"Inasmuch as this is the 15th day of Dec., in the year of our Lord one thousand, nine hundred and thirty eight, I hereby inscribe this document to my bosom companion and mess mate, (my mother's name). / My years with you have been and always be among the happiest of my life. We have been thro many storms together, but we have always drifted into calm, still waters. We have cast anchor here in these sheltered, cloistered harbors, but always we would up anchor and go on to further adventures. / Now we have just passed thro one of those storms and you are leaving me for a while; but during your absence I shall not forget you for a minute. / Please keep this document forever as a sign of my ever-lasting love, and as a stimulus to your memories of me. Your Best Pal, Carol Wilson 'Czar' W."