Writing for Children Competition - Money - Winner

Ghastly Greenbeard used to be the most feared pirate in all the Seven Seas and all the other seas in between. He and his dreaded crew sailed around on their equally dreaded ship the Jolly Jack.  
Ghastly’s crew were a miserable lot. There was first-mate, Bonny who wasn’t at all bonny, Tall-Pete, who was actually quite short, Fat-Sam who was skinny and Barry the cook, who only ever made sandwiches. Oh, and Polly. She was small and green with a large beak and usually to be found on Ghastly’s shoulder.  
Ghastly had one aim in life and that was to steal all the treasure he could and he didn’t care who he took it from. The Jolly Jack was very fast, so even though other ships tried to get away, the pirates would always catch up. Then Ghastly and his crew would swing across on ropes to the unfortunate ship and take all the gold and every last penny.
Afterwards, they would carry the treasure off to their secret island. They hid it all in a big wooden chest which was buried exactly where X marked the spot. But shush don’t tell anyone that, otherwise you might have to walk the plank.
You would think with all that treasure that Ghastly was a happy pirate, but he wasn’t. It didn’t matter how much he stole, he always wanted more. His crew weren’t much better. The more they nicked the greedier they became. The greedier they became, the grumpier they got and the grumpier they got the more they fought.
One particular day the Jolly Jack caught up with a rather poor looking fishing boat.
‘Aha, me hearties,’ said Ghastly, landing with a thump on the deck. ‘Hand over your treasure right now!’ (Ghastly had read in the Pirate’s Handbook to always shout, ‘Aha, me hearties!’ when pirating).
‘But we don’t have any,’ the fisherman said. ‘All we have are a few fish.’
Ghastly didn’t believe him. The crew went off to search the boat, but they didn’t find anything except a few sorry looking haddock.
‘I’ll ask one more time,’ said Ghastly, ‘where is the treasure?’
A little girl stepped out from behind a pile of nets. She was clutching a worn-out teddy. ‘You stole all our money last year,’ she said.
‘She’s right,’ said Bonny. ‘They only had a few miserable coins.’
Ghastly didn’t know what to do. His crew were waiting for him to say something. He looked at the little girl and at the teddy. (Some of you might want to stop reading right now because this is the worst bit of the story.)
‘Well if you don’t have any money, I’ll take the teddy’ said Ghastly, snatching it from the girl.
She didn’t cry; instead, she gave Ghastly a look that made him feel like a child again being told off by his mother for taking the last cookie without asking. He stared back, but the little girl was much better at staring and he felt his face go very red. Ghastly quickly swung on to his ship, followed by the crew. They sailed away, but when he looked back he could see the girl still watching them.
That evening Barry made peanut butter and jam sandwiches and brought them up on deck. The crew were playing cards, but Ghastly didn’t feel like joining in. He sat on his own, with Polly on his shoulder and the teddy in his hand.
Polly nipped him on the ear. ‘You’re a very bad boy,’ she squawked.
‘Oh, be quiet!’ said Ghastly.
Over on the other side of the ship, Fat-Sam accused Barry of cheating at cards, Barry shouted at Fat-Sam and soon all the crew were having a big argument. Ghastly told them that if they didn’t stop fighting they would all have to walk the plank, or worse go to bed.
He went off to his cabin and sat down on his bunk with the teddy. Every time he looked at it, he could see the little girl staring back at him and that made him feel very sad. Until now he’d always enjoyed pirating and stealing people’s money, but suddenly it felt a rather silly thing to do. He lay down and tried to sleep. He tossed and he turned, and then he turned and he tossed. But he just couldn’t get comfortable.
‘Oh Polly,’ he said, ‘being a pirate just isn’t fun anymore.’
‘You’re a very naughty boy,’ Polly replied.
‘Yes, I know, but what am I to do?’
Polly hopped onto his shoulder and nipped his ear again. And right then Ghastly knew the answer.
Later when the moon was high and everything was quiet, Ghastly tiptoed out of his cabin and across the deck. He was a bit surprised to not see any of the crew as they usually stayed up very late. He went to the side and lowered one of the rowing boats. He didn’t notice that the second boat on the other side of the ship was missing.
He got in with Polly and the teddy and began to row out across the dark, calm sea. They had anchored not far from their secret island, but it still took Ghastly a long time to reach it.
Once he was there, Ghastly walked a hundred paces north, then ten paces east and thirty paces in a very big circle, which made him a little bit dizzy. He reached where X marked the spot and was quite aghast at what he saw. Right, where the treasure was buried there was a massive hole. In fact, Ghastly nearly fell down it. He carefully leaned over the edge and saw the worst possible sight, his treasure chest, open and empty.
‘All gone,’ Polly said rather unhelpfully.
Ghastly sat down on the sand and thought. It all made sense. The crew must have taken the other boat and stolen all the treasure for themselves. All he had left was the teddy. What was he to do?       
‘Only one thing for it,’ he said at last.
Back across the dark water, he went. He rowed and rowed until he thought he couldn’t go any further. At last Ghastly saw the same fishing boat that they’d captured earlier that day. He climbed up the side, Polly still on his shoulder and the teddy clutched in one hand. He tiptoed across the deck, but as he went he heard a rustling sound. He stopped, but everything was quiet. He tiptoed on again to a pile of nets and was just about to put the teddy down when something glimmering in the moonlight caught his eye; by the nets, there was a small pile of gold coins.
‘Pieces of eight, pieces of eight,’ said Polly.
‘Shush, Polly,’ said Ghastly.
But it was too late, the game was up. A bright light appeared. There in front of him was the little girl, and the fisherman holding a lantern. She ran over to the teddy.
‘You brought Theodore back!’ She hugged the teddy close, then much to Ghastly’s surprise hugged him too.
Her father put the lantern close to the gold. ‘What’s this?’
‘Pieces of eight,’ said Polly again.
Somewhere close a voice shouted, ‘Get off my foot!’
Ghastly marched over to a barrel and pulled out Bonny and Tall-Pete. Then from behind another barrel came Fat-Sam and Barry. ‘What are you lot doing here?’ Ghastly asked.
‘Well we… we all got to talking and realised we don’t like pirating anymore,’ said Tall-Pete.
‘Stealing’s just not fun,’ said Barry.
‘It was making us cross,’ Bonny added.
‘So, we thought we should give it all back,’ said Fat-Sam.
‘Give it back?’ asked Ghastly.
The crew nodded nervously, wondering what their captain would do.
He started to laugh, which was not what they expected at all. ‘But that’s exactly what I was going to do,’ he said. Then the crew joined in laughing and so did the fisherman and his daughter.
That was the night that everything changed.
These days Ghastly Greenbeard and his crew are no longer the most dreaded pirates across Seven Seas and all the ones in between. They still chase other ships, but not to steal treasure. Instead, they give it back. It’s taking quite a long time, but it doesn’t matter because everyone is having such fun being nice. You might like to know that Ghastly has two new crew members, a little girl called Sally and her teddy Theodore.