Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Stormy Seas: Part 4


 I slowed my pace when the noise of the tavern was well behind me. My shipmates were rowdier folk on land than I had expected and I had barely escaped before being roped into a game of dice.
It felt much nicer out in the cool night air anyway. I wandered through the lamp light in the direction of the Lethargy and saw that someone had lit a single lamp on deck. I climbed up the gang plank and was stopped by a large shadowy figure standing in my way.
“Hello?” I asked.
“Oh, Eldon!” First mate Rhoden stepped out of the way and into the lamplight. “I wasn't expecting any crew back so early.” He was a tall, muscular man with very dark skin and spectacles.
“The tavern didn't interest me,” I told him.
“I never go there myself,” he said. “It's not really the place for a good Christian is it?”
I smiled inwardly, grateful that he was our First mate. “No sir,” I said.
“Have you written to your family yet?” he asked.
“I was just going to,” I started to say.
“Mr. Rhoden, Mr. Elderton!” Ameya was running down the dock toward the gang plank.
“Everyone's coming back early tonight,” Rhoden said.
“I saw you leaving Mr. Elderton,” Ameya puffed.
“Eldon,” I responded habitually.
“I thought I would come with you, yes?”
“We were going to write letters back home,” Rhoden said. “Do you have paper?”
“Yes, yes, I have nice paper to write to my girlfriend,” Ameya nodded. “You will write to girlfriend Mr. Elderton?”
“Uh, no. To my mother,” I explained.
“Oh,” he said thoughtfully. “Not writing to girlfriend?”
“Momma's the only girl for Eldon,” First Mate Rhoden guffawed. He swiped the hat off my head and ruffled my hair.
Ameya joined in with a wheezy sort of laugh.
I snatched my hat back from Rhoden and yanked it down over my ears defiantly.
“Alright, lets leave Eldon alone,” Rhoden said. He lifted my hat off again and plopped it down in the proper place. “We should write to our mothers too.”
I hopped down the open hatch and into the dark hold. I knew my way around here even in the dark. I found the handle to the first crew cabin door and felt my way down the hallway until I found my cabin. Inside I reached up into the cup shaped shelf above my bunk and took out a box of matches. I lit one and used it to light the lamp hanging from the ceiling. The light from it shined down on the cozy little cabin I shared with Ray.
Both bunks were set into the wall with wooden cupboard doors that we could close to keep us in bed in case the seas were rough. Both were folded open now to show our neatly made beds with the CTC seal stamped across the blankets. On the opposite wall were lines of drawers and cupboards for our belongings.
I opened one drawer and took out my writing set. It was a medium sized wooden box that would open and fold over to make itself into a little desk. I moved my pillow out of the way and crawled into my bunk, setting down the writing box in place of the pillow. I stared at the paper and wondered where I should begin.
There was a knock on the open door and I looked up to see Ameya standing in the doorway with his own writing set. “I come share light with you?” he smiled.
“Sure, have a seat,” I said politely.
“Thank you.” He sat down on the floor, since there were no seats, and opened his writing box.
I turned back to my letter.
“This is girlfriend,” he said. I looked over and saw him holding up a photo of a Indian looking girl wearing a shirt that stopped above her waist and a ruffly European skirt. “She is very pretty, yes?”
I wasn't quite sure what to say. She looked immodest to me, but she had a shy, sweet look in her eyes and the tilt of her chin that made me believe she didn't mean to be. “She is pretty,” I said. “What's her name?”
He uttered a string of flowery sounds that I would never have been able to repeat.
“Ah,” I said. I turned back to my writing and left him to his.  

3 comments:

  1. I like it so far. Please keep these coming very regularly!

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  2. I'm now wishing the segments were a little longer.

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  3. Thanks guys! The segments will vary in length depending on the scene. I've got at least one upcoming scene that I might have to chop in 2 =P
    Also, smaller segments means I get more time to stay ahead of my readers ^.^

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