The Black Cloud

I wrote the following story to be used in storytelling with my pirate puppet. It is designed to be interactive with the audience. The audience should be divided into four groups, and each group is assigned a phrase to shout out when they hear their group identified in the story. Here are the group assignments:

Group #1 Captain Jack -- Cap'n Jack (Ahoy!)
Group #2 Bosun –(Blimey!)
Group #3 Long John Silver - (Avast!)
Group #4 Mermaid – (You Hoooooo!)

Each group is identified by the underlines in the story below.  Pause in the story and allow the audience to guess highlighted words as rhymes to previous lines. 

A Pirate's Tale

The Black Cloud ship did sail the seas, in charge was Cap'n Jack
His Bosun ' too did ride aboard, a man who had the knack
To guide the ship through calm and storm, he knew just what to do
And seagulls flew about as they did sail the ocean blue

Then Black Cloud came up to the shore of one forgotten isle
And anchored in the harbor there where it could rest awhile
Then all the crew, and Cap'n Jack , and Bosun ' went ashore
While seagulls flew above the ship, and in the air did soar

A rowboat split the morning mist,toward Black Cloud it did come
With Long John Silver ,parrot too, you couldn't tell where from
He climbed aboard the old Black Cloud , the parrot on his back
While seagulls flew he hoped to find a treasure chest to crack

A mermaid spied the old Black Cloud , and swam up to the boat
The seagulls swooped as she came near and on the waves did float
Then from the shore cameCap'n Jack , a rowing with his crew
The mermaid dived beneath the waves a-hiding from his view

Then Long John Silver 's parrot squawked, alerting Cap'n Jack
That Black Cloud had intruders there, it was a certain fact
The seagulls dived, the mermaid splashed, the Bosun climbed aboard
And Cap'n Jack looked stern and mean and drew his pirate sword

While Long John Silver searched about the cabin and the deck
The parrot squawked again and moved in closer by his neck
“This old Black Cloud is empty, bird. There's just some seagulls here”
But Long John Silver didn't know that Cap'n Jack was near.

Then Bosun hollered out real loud, as also did the crew
And pirates swarmed the old Black Cloud to catch intruders two
The seagulls screamed, the parrot yelped, the mermaid too did cry
And Long John Silver, Cap'n Jack confronted eye to eye

They drew their swords, began to fight, aboard the Old Black Cloud
And Cap'n Jack did poke Long John and made him yell out loud
The Bosun kept the pirates back, he held them back right now
And mermaid slapped, and mermaid slapped her tail against the bow

Then Cap'n Jack and Long John too looked down from Old Black Cloud
And spied the mermaid in the Sea, just swimmin' there so proud
The Bosun gasped, the seagulls screeched, the parrot squawked anew
And all the crew rushed to the side to get a better view

And when they did the Old Black Cloud did tip toward one side
It turned right over in the soup and threw 'em in the tide
The mermaid swam away real fast a laughin' as she went
To see the pirates in the drink, where they'd been surely sent

So Cap'n Jack, and Long John too, and even Bosun there
They shoulda knowed to stay away from mermaids with long hair
The parrot and the seagulls flew away because they knew
Ya don't go chasin' mermaids just to get a better view.

No, don't go chasin' mermaids just to get a better view.