No Prey, No Pay, No Peace

Sunday. Talk Like a Pirate Day again. I have stopped fighting it. I sat on deck in my best hat and let them arr at me.

One prisoner asked what my motto meant. No prey, no pay. I explained that it is the oldest rule of the sea: a crew shares what it takes, and if it takes nothing, nobody gets paid. No wages. No pension. Just the plunder, or nothing.

She thought about that and said, so if we leave your ship with your treasure, we get paid. I said that was not the point of the story. She said it sounded exactly like the point of the story.

Her crew took everything that was not nailed down, and Scarface swears he saw them eyeing the things that were. They shouted my motto on the way out. I have never heard my own words used against me so cheerfully.

I have asked the management for a new motto. Something like ‘no escape, no exceptions’. They said it does not have the same ring. Scarface agreed with them. Everyone agrees with them.