Chapter 4: The Pirate

Tony threw a rock into a nearby silvery puddle and watched the circular rings made by the splash. “My hand is still tired from writing 5000 times, ‘I don’t know anything about who taught the parrot.’ What makes me madder though is that they took the parrot away to the brothers’ quarters and we’ll never see him again in our school courtyard. I really got to like that old bird. I sure agree that the brothers have absolutely no sense of humor.”
João shook his head uncertainly. “Brother Edward said, I’d be expelled the next time I got caught cutting school.”
“The secret is not to get caught!” answered Tony. “Come on, we deserve this break after all the writing we had to do.”
The two boys put their heads together and made plans, oblivious to the onlooker stealthily watching them from behind a kakui tree. He had dark swarthy features and a gold earring gleamed against his dark skin in the sunlight. He was not the type of person one would want to meet in the dark of night let alone the bright sun splashed afternoon. Yet here he was lurking behind a tree, listening intently to their plans.
He was hungry! He was tired! He was desperate! He was a hunted man! He had just escaped his ship, as the men clamored for his blood. He had slit one sailors throat and stabbed another man who tried to intervene. He had been running for hours!
Stalking the boys, he followed as they trudged along totally unaware of their surroundings. João arrived first at his ranch. “Come on in to the house and have a snack,” offered João to Tony.
“No thanks, I would love to, but I have to get home and help my sister Adelina clean the house and cook dinner. Since our mother died, we’ve been in charge of the house and it is too much for my sister to do alone on top of her housekeeping job. I’ll see you tomorrow by the sugar cane mill. Until then, adeus!”