The Secret Life of Annie B.

by Teresa Tennyson

Those days in Charleston, you likely died before forty. Annie was eighty-three. Even on this darkest day, she was indomitable, spitting every time we passed a Redcoat. She tossed bits of story back like scraps, I at her heels like a faithful dog.

“Captain Calico Jack, gentleman pirate. Mary ran the ship. The men were rum-groggy when they raised the Jolly Roger. That flag drew Barnett’s sloop.”

A Redcoat inspected Annie’s basket, then slunk away from her withering scorn. We continued, my child’s legs pumping.

“In Jamaica, they hung immediately. Except the two women, who ‘pled the belly’, even though they dressed as men. Their reprieves were temporary, until the births. Formidable Mary and her closest companion.”

Down the docks, the gunpowder thickened, making Annie’s eyes water.

“I don’t remember Mary in prison, but brandishing her cutlass at three Navy bilge rats.”

At the prison ship, a Redcoat took the basket of bread made with precious flour. “For our boys,” Annie said. Another Redcoat smirked at this pint-sized biddy in sea-foam white braids. They waved us away but took the bread, maybe for themselves.

“Mary died. They said in fevered childbirth. Tombstone said, ‘Mary Read, Pirate.’”

I trotted after her, waiting for the rest, but she yielded nothing. I became enamored of pirates. When I finally read about Anne Bonny, it was funny the infamous fiery-haired pirate had a name similar to Annie Burleigh, gentlewoman with eight children and fifty grandchildren, who taught me about pirates in the first place.

About the author

Born in southern Virginia, Teresa Tennyson escaped to live in many interesting places, including Montreal, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Kuwait City. Teresa is currently taking a break from city life and makes her home in bucolic New Hampshire, where she hangs out with her Anatolian Shepherd Mix, Bonnie, and her two Persian cats, Jareth and Ziggy.

Teresa Tennyson became a full-time writer after putting 20 years of military service behind her. She mainly writes speculative fiction and is working on her first novel. "The Secret Life of Annie B." is her first published story. More information can be found at https://teresatennyson.com.

About the artwork

The illustration is Anne Bonny by Anushka Holding, 2016. Used here under the ShareAlike 4.0 International license via Wikimedia Commons.