“Shh, shh, now.”

Scattered giggling rises up through the air. The children at your feet all shuffle around from where they sit on the floor, and you shush them again, hoping to gain just a bit of peace.

“Tell us a story, Mx. Jackson!” One of them yells out, you huffing with a soft smile. You will never get an ounce of silence from these children. They’re too hyper and far too curious. It reminds you much of how you were when you were little, constantly running around, always needing to be told to sit down and sit still, lest you wander off right into the sea.

You like to think you was more well behaved then these ones, but you knows you’d be lying to yourself with that one. You’d always been a headache ever since the day you were found on the doorstep, or at least that’s what the adults around you have always said.

A hand tugs at your boot, nearly undoing the laces. “Tell us the pirate one!” One of the children scream, and it sets off a wave of excitement, all of them chattering and squealing with delight. “Tell us about the terrible criminals on the sea!”