Week 2

“I’d considered that, but I still haven’t figured out anything in my life that might be interesting to anyone other than me. I could write a book about life as a single mom of a nuts-o daughter…” Brianne pulled the curtain aside so that Judy could see from where she was sitting. Elayne was laying on the grass with her feet draped over the swing, and it appeared that she was still singing to herself. “But again, who would want to read about a mom who criticizes other people’s books for a living, and a daughter who sings to herself and plays with her imaginary friends, the “Mouseys’?”

“Give it some thought,” Judy said. “I’m sure you’ll come up with something. And if not, you’ve always got a career in writing for daytime television ahead of you. Now, let’s get down to the important stuff… World of Warcraft… what’s your strategy?”


Michael was sitting on Brianne’s doorstep when she and Elayne arrived home.

“Mama, what’s he doing here?” Elayne asked loudly.

“I don’t know, Elayne. Michael, Elayne wants to know what you’re doing here. Quite frankly, I’d like to know as well.”

Michael did his best to display a charming smile. “What if I told you I came because I noticed that your plants were dying, and I could help you bring them back to life?”

Brianne shook her head. “Anyone can do that – it’s called watering them. I have yet to learn the patience required to stand in front of my house for the required amount of time to keep them alive. Try again.”

“Ok,” Michael answered, starting to get into the game, “how about if I told you there was a massive colony of people-eating ants that scientists have just discovered next door to your house? I’m here to rescue you.”

“You’re talking to two women living alone. Do you honestly think I don’t have the exterminator on speed-dial, and at least two different cans of Raid under the sink?”

“All right, I’m on my last legs here. How about if I came to offer Elayne a tenative membership to Pirate Club, pending a vote after the rest of the crew meets her?

“Elayne, would you like to join Pirate Club, and sail on the ship that we saw last night? You’d have to follow directions, and work hard, but I think it might be fun for you,” Brianne asked her.

Elayne nodded. “I can follow directions. I even learned to raise my hand when I have to pee!”

“So what does she need to do?” Brianne asked.

“Well, she needs a uniform to start off. Navy blue pants, a white shirt, and a warm over-shirt and warm jacket. We meet each Friday just after dark, if it’s going to be a late night, I’ll let you know in advance. We usually only have one late night a month, and almost never as late as last night. If it is going to be that late, we have a phone tree to let you know. The phone tree will also let you know when the kids are done, each Friday.

Elayne will start at the bottom rung of the crew – as a cabin girl. She’ll be responsible for fetching and carrying light things, helping keep the ship clean, and making hot chocolate for everyone that wants it as we sail. After her first voyage this Friday night, the crew will vote on whether she’s ‘in’ or not. Generally for kids as young as this, she’s ‘in’ right off. From there, she has only to follow the ‘code’.

“And the ‘code’ is? And are there any other girls in this?”

“The ‘code’ is basically the commandments of the Pirate Club. In short – and we have these written up much more explicitly:
1. Stand up for yourself - Unreasonable brutality is never acceptable, but standing up when someone questions your ethics or authority is allowed depending on circumstance
2. Stand up for your crew members – you can’t sail a ship without a full crew.
3. Stand up for your actions – only cowards lie.
4. Believe in yourself – and know that there is only one of you, and you are very special, and the only one who belongs in your place on this crew.
5. Believe in your crew – and know that even if someone is doing something in a way different than you might do it, they are doing things in the best way that they know how. However, feel free to offer ideas on means of improving the different ways to do things.
6. Believe in your actions – and know that everything you did, you did the best you could, in the best way you can think of

The crew have to memorize them as one of their first Pirate Club assignments. And yes, there are two other girls on the crew right now – Gina Spaddaccini, she’s seven, and Allison King, she’s eight. We also have twenty-two boys on the crew, ranging in ages from seven to fourteen. Because they’re so out-numbered, the girls definitely tend to be close friends.”

“Well, that’s certainly an interesting offer,” Brianne answered. “How about if we think about it and let you know tomorrow?”

“No, Mama, I want to do it.” Elayne said.

“Elayne, let’s talk about it tonight, and we can call Michael tomorrow and confirm with him that this will work for us, ok?”

“No, Mama, I want to do it.”

Brianne closed her eyes for a second of frustration-relief. Why did Elayne have to behave her worst in front of this guy?

When she re-opened her eyes, Elayne was sitting on the step next to Michael, calmly braiding her doll’s hair. Brianne shrugged. “If you’re sure you want to do it, you can go next Friday. You can’t be scared, though, going to the new kids on the crew. I’m sure they’re all very nice.”

Elyane nodded solemnly. “I’m going to love it,” she assured Brianne.

“I have no doubt,” Brianne answered back, equally as solemn.

“You know you have to follow the rules, right? And be nice to the other boys and girls?”

“Yes, mama, I know.”

Brianne looked at Michael who was splitting a stem of grass, still blocking her back-door. “So did you want something else?”

“Well, yeah, I went through all the what-ifs but the one that I came here for and really couldn’t do as well over the phone. I owe you a date, if you’d recall. A fairly expensive one.”

Brianne nodded. “Did you have something in mind?”

“How about if I cook for you? Say, next Saturday? I’m a very good cook, just ask Judy.”

“I don’t know about expensive, but sure, that sounds wonderful. Let me know what I can bring, and what time to come by at. That was your house right next to the dock, correct?”

“Indeed,” Michael answered. “’Til Friday and Pirate Club, then, ladies.”


Brianne had almost convinced herself that Elayne had forgotten about the invitation to join Pirate Club. Friday night, just after dinner, that hope was cruelly dashed when Elayne emerged from her bedroom wearing a pair of navy-blue courderoys and a white silk blouse that Elayne bought the Christmas before for a children’s holiday party in Manhattan.

“Do I look like a pirate, mama?” she asked. “I looked and in the books they’re all wearing frilly shirts just like this one.”

“You look beautiful, baby, but that’s a Christmas shirt, remember. How about if you change into the new white turtleneck that I got you? It’s hanging up in your closet.”

“Do I have to? I bet all of the other kids will be wearing frilly shirts just like this one.”

“Actually, don’t you remember that Michael said most of the rest of the crew were boys? Can you imagine a boy wearing a shirt like that one?”

Elayne giggled. “No, mama, don’t be silly. Boys don’t wear shirts like this.”

“So since most of the crew won’t be wearing shirts like that, you won’t fit in wearing that lacy shirt, will you?”

“No, guess not. I’ll wear the turtleneck.”

“Smart girl. Now put your shoes on, and I’ll go bundle up a warm shirt for you, and a warm coat. If you get cold, don’t forget to put them on, ok?”

“’Course, mama. Do I look dumb?”

Brianne stood there for a second, dumbfounded. There were definitely times that she missed the Catholic girls school that Elayne had started attending in New York. Then again, in New York, she wouldn’t be getting an opportunity to sail on a real live pirate ship.

She recovered herself and tossed Elayne’s winter parka and a hooded sweatshirt into a plastic grocery bag. She also tossed in a pair of extra socks and shoes, just in case.

“Elayne, are you ready?” Brianne thought she might quite possibly be more nervous than Elayne.

They drove to Michael’s in silence, and pulled into the driveway behind his truck. “Mama, I’m scared.”

“You shouldn’t be, baby. Just be nice to everybody, and do what Michael and whoever else is in charge tells you to do. But not anything that you know you’re not allowed to do, and nothing that makes you feel bad, ok? You can do it. You’re such a big girl.”

The back door of Michael’s house opened, and he came bounding down the steps. “I figured it was you,” he said. “Most of the other parents just drop the kids at the road – backing out of the driveway is a pain.”

He turned to Elayne. “So are you ready for your first night as Cabin Girl? I can show you both what you’ll be doing tonight if you’d like.”

Brianne nodded. It might make it easier on Elayne if she were along at least to start out with. At the same time, Judy had said that Michael didn’t let any other adults on the ship. Uh-uh, that wasn’t a good sign. But all the other parents let their kids on-board, and Elayne really wanted to join. Well, a veto could always come later on.

Onboard, Michael offered she and Elayne a seat. “Let me explain the basic rules to you both. Elayne, please pay special attention because this is the only time you’ll hear these explained out like this.

The first rule is that other people aren’t allowed to be mean to you unless you’re mean to them first, and the second rule is that you aren’t allowed to be mean to people first. But you’re not a mean person, so those won’t be hard, right?”

Elayne nodded. “Mama says I should try to be nice to everybody.”

Michael smiled, “Mom’s usually know this stuff without being told the rules. They learned it when they were your age. It’s super important that way you can tell your kids when they need to know.”

Brianne sat back in her chair, just watching and listening. It was amazing the way Michael got Elayne to understand the rules and behave without getting impatient, condescending, or irritated. She knew she was guilty of acting all three way too frequently.

Michael’s face turned serious again. “Rule number three is that you can’t lie. If you do something bad, you have to tell the truth so that we can fix it.”

“Yup, mama says that lies only get people in more trouble than if they told the truth in the first place.”

The answer sounded recited, and Michael made a mental note to pay attention to whatever Elayne said the first night to make sure that the recitation was due to Brianne’s over-teaching, not Elayne’s propensity for lying. Michael’s smiled revealed nothing of his thoughts, however, as he once again congratulated Elayne for having it all figured out.

“Now another thing that you might want to think about, and this isn’t a real rule, it’s just how everyone else does it, is that on the ship, I’m called “Captain.” So instead of calling me Michael, or Mr. Davis, or ‘hey you,’ the crew calls me Captain. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but you can.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Elayne answered.

Michael genuinely laughed. It wasn’t often that a kid would come up with such an apt comeback with such appropriate timing. And he wasn’t one of those people who thought everything that children did was hilarious. “Very good. I think you’ve got it.”

“Last thing before I start showing you what you’ll be doing. If anybody, and I mean anybody, touches you on any place that has clothes on it, or asks you to touch them anyplace that has clothes on it, I want you to throw a fit. Loud as you can. That’s when it’s ok to scream and yell and even kick, hit, or bite, if you need to. That’s very important, and I need to to especially remember that part.”

Brianne thought she’d nearly bite her tongue to keep from saying something as Michael very calmly told Elayne about that last rule. Throw a fit? If that was his only way to keep someone from hurting her daughter…

Michael placed a hand on the back of Brianne’s arm. It was obvious how tense that last directive made her – and it was amazing how predictably frightened mothers of girls were. He knew that most mothers were aware that their sons could be abused as well, but it was the mothers of girls that took it to the furthest extreme. He guessed it wasn’t unreasonable – Elayne couldn’t be expected to fight off a person much bigger than she was, for example, and she was a lot cuter than the average dirt-encrusted six year old boy, but…

Michael kept a light hand on the back of Brianne’s upper arm while he turned to Elayne. “Do you remember where the hammocks were that you got caught up in last time you were here?”

Elayne nodded.

“Let’s go there now. Slowly, please, and bring your bag of warm clothes, I’ll show you where to put them.”

Elayne moved out slightly ahead of the two adults. In a whisper, Brianne said, “If that’s all the security that you can provide for my baby, she can’t do this.”

Michael stopped Brianne. “What do you mean, if that’s all the security that I can provide? She doesn’t get that kind of security in school, or at soccer practice, or many other places for that matter. She’ll be with two other girls her age, at just about all times. I just came right out and told her that if anyone so much as touches her elbow, which is covered by a sleeve, she has my personal permission to throw as big a fit as she needs to. I understand your need to protect Elayne, but please tell me what else I can do? What else can she do? Are you going ot keep her home forever, just to guarantee that she’ll never get hurt?”

Brianne shook her head.

“What is it, Bree – Brianne, I mean. What’s really bothering you about this?”

She shook her head again.

“All right, so just withdraw your daughter from an activity that she seems excited about, that might benefit her and help her make friends, just because you can’t tell me what specifically your problem is.”

Brianne took a breath. “Fine. You want to hear it, great. Why am I the only adult allowed on this ship besides you? Why do you spend your free time hanging out with children, for no benefit to you that I can see? What’s your deal?”

“Ah.” Michael pursed his lips in thought for a second. “I can see how those might be hard ones to ask. At least you didn’t come right out and accuse me of abusing children, though. That’s a start.”

“My instincts tell me you’re not a bad person,” Brianne answered more calmly. “But I’m not willing to trust the welfare of my daughter to my instincts.”

“Look, the reason that I invited you onboard the other night is because you seemed interested. You didn’t act like I was nuts. And for some unknown reason, you spent seven hundred dollars to go on a date with me. That’s definitely a little flattering.

The reason I haven’t invited any of the other adults in this community onboard is because no one else has shown any interest in being invited onboard. It isn’t any big secret, and quite frankly, I’m surprised that none of the crew’s parents have insisted, if only to check on the welfare of their child, but I think I’m mostly viewed as harmless.

And what was your last question? Oh yeah, why I spent my free time hanging around with kids. That’s a little harder to explain. Some of it is because my baby would be about your daughter’s age, had my wife not passed away. I really regret not having a child to teach things like this to. Besides that, because a lot of these kids need some extra help – whether it’s someone to pay a little extra attention to them, or someone to trust if they’re in trouble, or in the worst case scenario, someone to run to if home isn’t safe for them anymore. Fortunately, so far, there’s only been one boy from the last scenario, and he’s now attending Duke on a full ride scholarship for journalism.

That’s my deal. I don’t have any family who really needs me anymore. My wife and baby are long dead, my sister’s doing well on her own. And life’s pretty empty without someone who needs you.”

Brianne was speechless. Michael stared at her for a long second after his speech, then turned and walked quickly across the ship to the staircase down to the crew’s quarters. Elayne was sitting quietly on a hammock, bag of clothing on her lap, humming to herself.

“Ok,” Brianne said, in as cheery a voice as she could muster. “Why don’t you show us with Elayne will be doing tonight?”

Michael raised an eyebrow in confirmation.

Without considering, Brianne winked at him. She almost wanted to hide her head in her hands when she caught herself mid-wink. So stupid!

Michael smiled and winked back, apparently not put off by the gesture. Ok, maybe all was forgiven. Or, in Brianne’s experience, maybe not, but she’d see about that later. She tried to focus on the tasks that Michael was describing for Elayne.

“…Your biggest job will be to make sure that none of the crew above deck are cold. That means… can you read?”

“I can even read chapter books, can’t I, mama?”

“Reading’s not a problem,” Brianne assured him. “She gets that from me.”

Michael nodded. “That means,” he continued, “that your if one of the crew tells you he’s cold, he’ll tell you his name. You’ll come down here and find the cubby with his name on it, and take out his warm shirt, or jacket, whichever he asks for.” Michael pointed to the cubbies lining the walls, and the brass name plaques just above each cubby. “Do you think you can do that?”

“Uh huh,” Elayne answered.

“Now don’t be afraid to ask me or anybody else if you don’t understand something, or can’t find something. Nobody will yell at you, or think you’re silly, or anything bad. We’ll all just help you to learn what you need to know.

The other thing that’s going to be your job tonight is to make hot chocolate for the crew. Do you know how to do that?”

Elayne shook her head this time, looking a little sad that she didn’t know all the answers.

“That’s ok, it’s really easy to learn. Do you like hot chocolate?”

“With marshmallows,” Elayne clarified.

“Great, so you can learn how to make hot chocolate by making it for yourself this time.”

Elayne listened carefully as Michael gave her directions about finding the packets of cocoa mix, the paper cups, the lids, the stirrers. After she had retrieved one of each, she very carefully ripped open the hot chocolate packet and poured it into the cup. Then she added hot water from the water cooler, and a dollup of milk from the half-gallon in the mini-fridge. She stirred, careful not to slop on herself, then put the lid on.

“And voila!” Michael said with a dramatic hand gesture. “Now you know how to make hot chocolate!”

“Yay!” Elayne shouted. She tried to clap her hands, but since she was holding the cup of hot chocolate, it did little except slop onto her shoes. “Uh-oh,” she said.

“That’s ok,” Michael said. “It happens. You just need to clean up where you spilled so that no one falls in the wetness.” He pointed her to a roll of paper towels, which she used to blot the spill.

“Great job, Elayne. Do you think you can do this tonight with the rest of the crew?”

“Yeah!” she shouted, but this time she was careful to put her hot chocolate down on the table before clapping her hands.

“Great,” Michael said. “Why don’t you go put your clothes away in your cubby?”

Elayne picked up the bag of her clothing, and found her name on the cubbies. Without even removing the clothes from the bag, she shoved it all into the cubby.

Michael cleared his throat. “Elayne, don’t you think it might be a little easier to get things if you fold the clothing neatly in the cubby like everyone elses?” He gestured at the other cubbies.

Elayne made a noise in the back of her throat, but did as she was asked, removing the bag, and stacking the clothes and shoes neatly in the cubby.

“Ok, now if you want to explore on the deck while your mom and I talk, you can.”

Seeing Elayne’s face light up, he added, “But you have to walk slowly as you’re exploring, and be careful.”

The light on Elayne’s face didn’t dim, as she picked her way carefully out of the crew’s quarters and up the stairs onto the deck.


“What’s up?” Brianne asked Michael. “I don’t want to leave Elayne up there for long – you never know what kind of trouble she’s going to get into.”

“I just wanted to get back to what we were discussing before—“

“I didn’t mean to insinuate that I thought you were a child abuser or that you wouldn’t ensure that Elayne was taken care of. I’m sorry it came out that way. Please forgive me, I certainly didn’t intend to accuse you of anything, or to make you feel like I felt that way.” Brianne felt a little stupid, because she had been worried that he was a pedophile or something similarly awful when she pulled into his driveway that evening.

“No, no, it’s understandable. I’m sure if I had a daughter, I’d be similarly worried, and believe it or not, I’m not offended. I admire how much you worry about Elayne, but at the same time, I think that she needs to stop being babied so much.”

“I don’t baby her!”

“Does she normally put her clothes away at home without a fuss? Or help cook dinner? Or do any other chores without complaining? Pirate Club will help her learn to do that. It’ll also help her learn to stand up for herself, and to stand up for her friends.”

Brianne nodded. “I guess you’re right. I just have a hard time thinking of taking care of her as much as I do, as babying her.”

Michael shrugged. “Maybe I put it wrong, I don’t know, but all I mean is that by being forced to take on responsibility without anyone to clean up behind her, she’ll be more apt to do it at home as well.

Anyway, all I was going to say was that if you wanted to – and if you don’t want to, that’s ok, I won’t think any less of you either way – if you wanted to, you could pretend to leave and then sneak back on board after the rest of the crew has boarded. It’d take some planning, but you could stay in my cabin during the duration of the voyage, just in case anything happens.”

“Really?” Brianne asked, “You’d let me do that, and trust me not to bother Elayne?”

“Do you want to? If you do, I have to explain now how you’re going to have to do it, because you’re right, we shouldn’t leave Elayne up there by herself for too long.”

Brianne and Michael finished their discussion, and climbed back on deck to look for Elayne. They found her sitting on the rail of the boat, her feet dangling off the side.

Brianne gasped, and tried to dart forward to drag Elayne back fully onto the ship. Michael held her back, as he walked up calmly beside the girl.

“Intentions of comitting suicide?” Michael asked casually.

Elayne turned around, and pulled her feet back inside. “I was just watching the fish by the dock.”

“You know if you fell off, you probably wouldn’t be able to get back on the dock or to shore, and you definitely would have a hard time getting back up on the ship.”

“I was being careful,” Elayne whined.

“Can I show you something?” Michael asked her.

“Sure.”

Michael guided Elayne to the rail dividing the [top deck] from the [bottom deck]. The total fall was about [five feet], and the rail was exactly the same width as the side rail.

“Brianne, could you stand below, please?”

Brianne could see where this was going, and though it wasn’t a far drop, she felt better to be there to catch her daughter.

“Elayne, could you please sit on this rail, with your legs hanging over the side toward your mother, like you were doing on the side rail?”

Elayne obliged, not understanding the point of the exercise. Michael came behind her and hip-checked her, sending her flying down the five feet toward her mother. Elayne screamed as she fell, but Brianne caught her before she hit the deck.

Michael walked toward them. “Do you see now how easy it would have been to fall in the water?”

Elayne nodded, her bottom lip sticking out.

“Do we need to show you how hard it would be for you to get up on the dock, or the ship, or even to land?”

Elayne shook her head mutely.

“Please don’t sit on the side rail like that again? Even if you’re being careful, like I’m sure you were, I’m sure you see that it’s very easy to fall.”

Elayne nodded, and started crying.

“Elayne, did you get hurt when you fell?”

“No.”

“Then why are you crying?”

“’Cause you were mean!”

“Is it mean to try to help you, and show you what could have happened?”

Elayne sobbed a little more, then sniffed, and said, “Guess not.”

“And have you learned not to do it again?”

“Yes.”

“Then why are you crying?”

“I’m a big girl, I’m not crying anymore.”

Brianne’s heart tore at the exchange. She knew Elayne was scared from the fall, and that’s why she was crying, but she also knew that Elayne wasn’t old enough to understand what exactly that emotion was. As long as Michael kept asking reasonable questions, Elayne would answer reasonably.

“Are you ok, now?” Michael asked Elayne.

“Yes.”

“And do you still want to go on the voyage tonight?”

“Yes”

“Okay, good, I’m happy you decided that. Let’s walk your mom back to her car, ok, and I’m sure the rest of the crew will be out there by now. Do you remember everything that you learned today, ‘specially all of the rules?”

Elayne nodded. She ticked them off on her fingers, “Be nice to other people, Don’t let other people be mean to me, No lying, Aye Aye Captain, No bad touches.”

Michael laughed. Brianne hadn’t noticed it before, but he had a really deep laugh, it started out low and then increased in rumbling volume.

“That’s right,” he said. “Those are all the things we told you to remember.”

“I’m very good at remembering things,” she assured him.

Brianne was walked to the end of the driveway by Elayne and Michael. The crew that she had seen the prior Friday, less the older boy, was lined up at the end of the driveway.

Each child had a flashlight, and they were standing at attention.

“Crew, this is our newest prospective cabin girl, Elayne. You all know the procedure, at the end of the evening we’ll vote as to whether we think she’ll work out or not.

This is Elayne’s mother – she’ll be here to pick her up at the end of the night. Please perform the same checks as you do with all the other parents. No one walks home, no one goes home with a stranger.

In other news, Mr. Travers has been promoted to first-mate beginning tonight. This will be an easy night, hopefully, just to introduce him to his new duties. Mr. XXX will take over Mr. Travers’ steerman duties.”

Michael nodded to Brianne, who walked over to where her car was parked in the driveway. Brianne waved good-bye to Elayne, who looked as if she were fighting tears.

“You can do it,” Brianne mouthed at her. Elayne broke out into a big smile.

Brianne watched from her car parked a little further down the road as Michael and the crew marched onto the ship and into the crew’s quarters to get ready for the evening’s sail. As soon as she saw Michael give the ‘go ahead’ wave behind him, she quickly locked all the doors of her car, and sprinted across the lawn and dock. Once on the ship, she tiptoed quickly down the ladder that Michael had shown her, directly into the Captain’s cabin.

Brianne locked herself in the storage closet off his cabin, and waited for the ship to set sail. Michael told her it was essential to remain in the closet until he came and knocked at the door because there was a good chance Travers, the new first mate, would be in and out of the cabin until their direction was determined.

Brianne spent time prowling around the closet, quietly examining the various charts and maps, and extra warm clothing he had stored in there.

Finally she heard a tap at the closet door. She waited until he tapped again, just to make sure that everything was all-clear before she stepped out. She could just imagine the shock of poor Travers if he accidently tapped the closet door, and out stepped Elayne’s mother.

She stepped out of the closet, and into Michael’s arms. Not deliberately, of course. The new steersman was getting used to steering, and the ship had suddenly veered off-course. Of course, that was it.

As Brianne righted herself, Michael said, “I can only stay for a few minutes, it’ll look suspicious if I stay down here for the entire first half of the voyage. I usually only check in down here initially, and then I spend the entire second half down here.”

“Of course,” Brianne said. I’ll be fine entertaining myself here. If you don’t mind, I’m just going to pick up one of your books.” She gestured at the bookshelf in the corner of the room.

“Help yourself. If you find anything to interest you, let me know… these are all extras that wouldn’t fit on my shelves in the house.”

Brianne spent the next half-hour perusing Michael’s overstock collection. She was most amused by an hardcover out-of-print fantasy novel, in good condition, besides the library stamp on the spine and the card slot on the inside back cover. He had a nice selection of fiction and non-fiction, and it appeared that he was telling the truth when he said there was truly no category, it was just the books that wouldn’t fit on his shelves at home.

Shelves… she wondered what that meant to him. To some people, shelves meant one book case. To other people, like her, she thought ruefully, shelves actually referred to bookcases. Brianne herself had… seventeen, or was it eighteen book cases. Eighteen. Definitely eighteen.

And that wasn’t even counting the books piled underneath the bed (categorized as ‘not necessarily needing to be out, but can’t get rid of), and the books on her nightstand (categorized as ‘I want to read this soon’).

Brianne heard foot-steps coming down the stairs toward the cabin. She scurried into the closet and shut the door behind her, until she heard the pre-arranged tapping again, signalling that Michael was back in the cabin.

“Well, that went well,” he sighed, smiling contentedly as he spread out on the day-bed, his booted feet propped up on the metal foot of the bed.

“It did?” Brianne asked. “And Elayne is doing well?”

“That’s what I meant. She’s settled right in, fetching and carrying with the best of ‘em. And she also seems to have made fast friends with Gina Rogers, which is another weight off my mind because she was on my ‘list to worry about.’” He sighed again.

“So what have you been up to down here?” he asked.

“I’ve been finding evidence of your illegal activities,” she said.

He raised an eyebrow in question.

Brianne walked toward the bookcase and took down the library-marked book.

“Oh yeah, that was my thieving high school days. It was out-of-print at the time, and I needed it.”

“So you stole it from a library… that’s so wrong!”

“I keep trying to figure out how to return it, but…it’s been like thirty years. I think the insurance will have covered it by now. But it’s been re-released since then so I have a lovely new unmarked copy.”

Brianne shook her head in mock-dismay. “You, a thief, I never would have expected it.”

Michael gently took the book from her hand, set it down on the corner of the table, swept Brianne up in his arms, and responded, “No, madam, I am a pirate.”

Michael didn’t mean it to happen. If he had meant it to happen, it definitely would have been with a nice dinner, a glass of fine wine, some good music – not in the Captain’s cabin of a swaying pirate ship, prompted by a thirty-year-old stolen library book.

But when Michael swept Brianne into a mock embrace, somehow it didn’t feel pretend. It felt comfortable. And without planning to, Michael lowered his head to Brianne’s, and kissed her. It might have lasted only seconds – minutes – a half hour, Michael wasn’t sure when they broke apart, only that the ship was still sailing and that he had not ever kissed a woman like that before in his life.

Brianne stood there in his arms for a second after the kiss ended, savoring the memory of his lips on hers, his strong arms holding her against him. When she felt recovered enough to speak, she said in a light tone, “So, Messieur Pirate, I suppose I should be grateful to get away without being raped and pillaged?”

Michael was glad that she had decided to keep the conversation fun rather than immediately starting in on an examination of ‘the kiss.’ He wasn’t quite sure how he felt about it yet, and he knew he definitely wasn’t ready to examine it or explain it away. He raised and lowered his eyebrows in a mock-lacivious manner, and answered, “I’ll let you escape without being raped, but pillaged…I don’t know… I might need to steal…” he bent down as if to kiss Brianne again, but instead, pulled her wallet out of her back pocket.

Flicking it open, he noticed quickly that her birthday was only a month away. He filed that bit of information, and handed the wallet back to her with a smile. “No Amex Gold, no Visa Plantinum…I can find richer victims to pillage than you.”

Brianne took her wallet back and pocketed it just as the ship’s steerman called out that the dock was ahead. Michael excused himself to go above deck to assist with the docking.

As soon as she was by herself, Brianne touched a gentle finger to her lips, tracing where Michael kissed them. She picked up the book that Michael had taken from her, the one that he has stolen, and stared at the cover for a long second before re-shelving it. That was it! She knew what she was going to write about now! She had her novel…now she just had to write it.


Brianne smuggled herself out of the ship and back to her car. She had just pulled up in front of Michael’s driveway when Elayne came racing at her, and flopped into the back seat.

“Did you have a good time?”

“I had a wonderful time, mama! I met two girls, Gina and Allison, who are really nice. And they helped me carry stuff, and it was fun!”

“Do you get to go back next week?” Brianne had needed to hustle out of the ship while they were voting for and against Elayne, so she was a little anxious that they had accepted her as a crew member.

“Uh-huh, everybody voted to keep me.”

“And you behaved yourself?” Brianne assumed Michael would have said something if Elayne had been acting bratty, but she asked anyway.

“Yes, mama. I was a good girl, and nice to everybody.”

“Good girl. I’m so proud of you!”

Elayne curled up in the back seat. Brianne could tell she wasn’t far from sleep when she anwered with a simple “Mmm-hmm.”

When they arrived home, Brianne tucked Elayne in to bed. It was midnight, but she felt excited and enthusiastic. She would start her new novel, and write for a while before going to sleep.

Brianne flipped on her computer and settled into the deep cushioned chair in her office. Elayne’s door was open, so she’d hear her if she yelled or tried to slip out again.

“Pirate Princesses” she wrote on the top of the first page. The story centered on three girls, best of friends, who infiltrate a boys-only ‘pirate club.’ To make it fun, none of the boys except one knows that the ‘new boys’ are really girls. That one is the older brother of one of the girls, and the other two girls have a crush on him.

Brianne looked up with a start from her computer. The phone was ringing. She glanced down at the clock in the corner of the screen.

“Morning,” she answered as she picked it up.


Brianne woke Elayne and listened to her chatter about Pirate Club as they walked over to Judy’s for coffee.

“You look like hell – er…heck,” Judy greeted her at the door.

“That’s ok, she hears a lot worse from me.”

“So what’s wrong, didn’t you sleep well?”

“Elayne, why don’t you head out into the yard and play on the swingset or with the dogs.”

After Elayne went outside, Brianne explained, “Sleep, what sleep? I found my novel last night. You said to write something that I knew about. Well, I’m sort of doing that. I’m at least doing something that I can easily research. I’m writing about Pirate Club. My novel is tenatively titled “Pirate Princesses.”

Judy looked a little guarded, and Brianne took it to mean that she thought the idea wasn’t very good.

“Yeah, I know it sounds kind of dumb,” Brianne said, “but just think about how fun it would be to someone who hasn’t heard about it every day since their brother started it. I was up all night working on it, and I’ve got a pretty good outline for the first half or so. I know what I want to happen, and I like the story, and so far I like the characters – I just feel so… happy!”

The guarded look on Judy’s face lifted with Brianne’s last words. “I’m glad you’ve got something to work on that excites you – it’s the only way you’ll finish writing, much less editing, a novel. And it’s not so much about Pirate Club, right, more about these princesses?”

Brianne shook her head. “No, the three girls, the Pirate Princesses, decide to infiltrate Pirate Club, which is a club only for boys, to do an article about it for the school paper. Once they’re in, they decide that there isn’t any point to the article when they just proved that girls can be pirates just as well as boys can.”

“Oh,” Judy said, her face falling.

“You don’t think it’s a good idea?”

“No, it’s not that. I think it’s a great idea, and it’ll make a great, really fun, novel. I just have some unrelated reservations about it. It isn’t really my place to tell you, though. You should mention this to Michael, though, and see what he thinks.”

“What,” Brianne asked, “he doesn’t want people writing about Pirate Club? It’s not like it could be any real secret, I mean the whole town knows about it. And it’ll be a piece of fiction anyway, not like an expose of the secret underside of Pirate Club…”

“I know that, and you know that. But I think you might want to talk to him about it, and soon, rather than waiting until it’s done and springing it on him – at least, if you value his friendship, that is.”

“Ok, sure, I’ll talk to him about it. Speaking of valuing his friendship, he let me sail with the Pirate Club last night. I got to hide out in his cabin while the crew sailed. It made me feel so much better about Elayne being part of it, since if anything happened, I wouldn’t be so far away.”

“Really?” Judy asked, intrigued.

“He said that the reason no other adults in town had been invited on-board was that no one expressed any real interest. I suppose, also, it makes it more magical for the kids to be able to sail something that their parents haven’t examined and nit-picked for safety hazards. Elayne being the exception to that, I guess.”

Judy shrugged. That wasn’t technically true, she knew a lot of parents had asked as a matter of form. But when told no, they quickly lost interest and let their child join Pirate Club any way. She, herself, was a different case… but she guessed she didn’t count. “I suppose that could be it,” she answered ambiguously. “I know I expressed every interest, and I’m still interested, I can’t believe he built the whole thing from scratch. But I guess there wasn’t any real reason for me to need to go on board at this point. When Michael started Pirate Club, and took Alex under his wing, I would have given anything and trusted almost anyone that could make Alex behave like a normal human again. So I guess, in that sense, I was just like the rest of the parents.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Brianne assured her. “Alex turned out well, right? I think Michael mentioned that he just started college somewhere?”

Judy thought for a second. “Yeah, you’re right, of course. Alex turned back into a great kid, and after he started Pirate Club, his grades improved, he didn’t smart-ass me as often, and he started cleaning up after himself without being begged. He’s going to UCLA, now, he says he wants to be a doctor.” She smiled proudly. “Wouldn’t it be fun to be the mother of a doctor? When I’m old, I’ll have someone to tell me that all my aches and pains are because I’m ancient, not ‘rheumatoid arthritis.’ And I’m sure he’ll tell me when I’m getting senile, because he teases me about ‘senior moments,’ as it is. You’re right, he’s just a good kid.”

Judy shook her head vigorously. “Now I’m sounding like a proud parent. I don’t know where that came from. Promise that you won’t tell anyone you heard me say any of that, especially Alex when you meet him. Our relationship is based primarily on sarcasm, so if he found out that I got all touchy-feely for a minute, he’d never let me forget it.”

Brianne laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ll never tell a soul. We couldn’t have Alex thinking that his mom’s a pushover, could we?”

Judy winked at her. “So what are you doing for dinner tomorrow night?”

“If the pattern of this week continutes, likely something that comes in a paper bag accompanied with a spork, why?”

“I’m having a small Barbecue for some friends from around the neighborhood. And Michael, of course. There should be…four couples, Michael, me, six kids ranging in age from two through fourteen. You and Elayne are more than welcome to come join us. I think I’m going to cook burgers and hot dogs for the kids, and shish-kebabs and grilled salmon for the adults, what do you think?”

“I think I’m definitely in. What time can I come over to help you set up?”

“I’ll just ask Michael to pick you and Elayne up on the way over. There shouldn’t be much to do, the kids usually just play on the swing set or with the dogs, and the adults sit at the picnic table and watch them. And the food-part is easy… I get Michael to prepare it all, and I just grill it.”

“Everything sounds good, but I’ll drive Elayne and I. Michael’s done enough for us lately, without playing chauffeur as well.”

Judy shrugged. “Whatever you want, I don’t think he minds though. Everyone should start getting here around six, if you want to come earlier and start pre-partying with me, that’s cool too.”


Brianne’s key was just in the lock of the front door when she heard the phone start to ring. Quickly turning it in the lock, she rushed inside, dropped her purse by the door, and picked up the cordless phone that was sitting on the arm of the couch.

“So dinner tonight,” Michael asked.

“Hello to you too. Can we re-schedule dinner to some night during the week? I’ve got a great idea for my novel, and I want to start writing before it goes away. If you want, you can come over here and join us for take-out, though.”

“Don’t let me block your noveling flow,” Michael said. “What should I pick up for dinner, and what time?”

“Whatever and whenever,” Brianne answered.

“You’re not even going to order it?”

“Well I can if you want me to. I just hate ordering things over the phone, so I usually stop in to the restaurant and order them. That way I don’t have to pay delivery fees either.”

“No, no, don’t let me break your trend. Illogical though it is. But what do you all eat?”

“Anything. No, I’m serious. There is nothing that I don’t eat that I’m aware of… and Elayne’s pretty much the same. Fast food, Chinese, Mexican, whatever you feel like. We usually eat around six, but if that’s too early or too late for you, bring it over whenever you feel like it and we can eat then.”

“You’re just the queen of decisiveness, aren’t you?” Michael said.

“Why, how kind of you to have noticed,” Brianne answered using a mock-British accent.

“See you at six,” Michael answered.

Brianne sat and stared at the phone for a minute. She’d only known this man for a little more than a week, they’d only kissed once, and she was already acting like they had been dating forever. She knew that she needed to be more careful, to take a huge step back. She liked him, though, and she hadn’t truly liked a man in a really long time. Liking someone, though, wasn’t an excuse to get involved in something that could hurt Elayne.
And especially with Michael being the ‘captain’ of Pirate Club, if they were to start a relationship, it could backfire badly on Elayne, whether the relationship went well or poorly.

Brianne flopped onto the couch, her legs hanging over the arm. Maybe she was jumping the gun. Maybe he was being so nice to her since she spent the money at tbe bachelor auction, and because his sister liked her. But that wouldn’t explain the kiss. Not that she had a ton of experience to draw from, but that kiss was amazing, and was completely unintended.

She made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat. Whatever. She’d just leave it for tonight and see how things went at the barbecue. She forcibly put her feet down on the living room floor and pivoted so that she was sitting correctly on the couch. She stood up, and almost felt like stomping her foot. “Fine,” she said outloud to herself. “Wait until tomorrow to decide, but then you have to.”


Brianne had finished outlining her novel and written the first three pages into her computer’s word processor when the door bell rang. It was six exactly, and she tried to ignore how her heart leapt with excitement at the thought of dinner with Michael.

He walked in, with two shopping bags held in one arm, and a bottle of red wine in the other. “Here,” he said, handing the wine to her. “Do you have an opener?”

“Is the pope Catholic?” Brianne answered, quickly opening the wine with one of the fancy restaurant wine de-corkers that she had affixed to the corner of her kitchen cupboard.

“So what’s for dinner,” she asked as she poured them both a small glass.

“Steak, baked potatoes, home made coleslaw, and macaroni salad. And brownies for dessert. You’re in charge of that,” he answered, tossing her a boxed brownie mix.

“Take out wasn’t good enough for you?”

Michael patted his flat stomach. “Do you know how bad that crap is for you? It’ll only take ten minutes to cook the steak and potatoes, and you won’t be eating all the artificial garbage that they put in the take-out food.”

Brianne just smiled as she pointed out the grill for the steaks, and the microwave for the potatoes. She set to work mixing the box of brownie mix with the requisite oil, water, and egg.

Michael was almost right, barring dessert, and including the time it took to heat up the grill, dinner was ready in fifteen minutes. “No real veggies, but with all the goodies that Judy’s having at the house tomorrow, you can make up for it then.”

“Coleslaw counts as a vegetable. Although, the mayonaisse may negate any vegetable benefits, I’m not sure.”

Elayne flopped down on her chair at the dining table. Her hands were grubby from playing outside, and Michael held in a wince as she picked up her fork and knife, and began eating.

“Hey, Captain, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“Just came to make sure that you two got something more nourishing that burgers and fries for dinner. How’s school going?”

“I’m doing good in English, but I don’t like Math very much. We’re learning multiplication, and Mom says that I need to learn it to be able to go out to restaurants.”

Michael looked at Brianne, and raised an eyebrow. “Restaurants?”

“The tip. You can’t go out to a nice restaurant without being able to calculate a tip.”

“Ah, of course,” Michael said. “There’s also things like… well, in pirate club, for example, I have to be able to figure out how much stuff we’ll need each night. So, let’s see, I’ve got twenty-six members of my crew, but six of them don’t drink hot choclate. So that’s how many people that drink hot chocolate?”

Elayne frowned. “That’s too big a number, we’re only doing up until tens.”

“But don’t you think it makes more sense to understand why you might need to know math by doing the kind of math that you might need to do?”

Elayne puzzled over that one for a minute. “Fine.”

“So how many of the crew drink hot chocolate?”

“Twenty.” Elayne rolled her eyes. “Even babies know how to subtract.”

“Ok, so twenty of the crew drink hot chocolate, and it’s a really cold night, so they each drink two cups. How many packets of hot chocolate would I need to buy at the grocery store?”

It was a long second before Elayne answered, “Forty!”

“That’s right,” Michael congratulated. “But here’s a different problem for you. The hot chocolate packets that we buy only come in boxes of one hundred. We already figured out that there are twenty crew members that drink hot chocolate. How many cups of hot choclate can we make for each person?”

“I don’t know,” Elayne answered.

“Well think about it,” Michael said. “If two cups of hot chocolate per person is forty, what’s three cups of hot chocolate?”

At his prompting nod, she said, “Sixty.”

“And then four cups of hot chocolate is…”

“Eighty.”

“And five cups of hot chocolate is?”

“One hundred!”

“So one box of hot chocolate packets makes how many cups of hot chcolate for each crew member?”

“Five!”

“See? Doesn’t it make it more fun when you understand what you’re trying to figure out? You just subtracted, multiplied, and divided!”


Brianne half-listened to the math conversation between Michael and Brianne as she typed another paragraph into her laptop. It didn’t fully register, though, when the conversation stopped.

Michael smiled at Elayne, pointed at Brianne, and waved his finger in a circle near his head. “She’s crazy,” he mouthed at the girl.

“No, she’s writing,” Elayne whispered. “We have to be quiet when mama is writing. Do you want to come play with my dolls?”

Michael shrugged. “Ok, I can do that.”

Elayne led him proudly into her bedroom. Michael was shocked by what a mess it was, the rest of the house was tidy and uncluttered.

“Your mother makes you clean your own room, doesn’t she?”

Elayne nodded.

“You know your room is a mess, right?”

“Yes,” she answered. She didn’t seem to especially care, she just sat down on the unmade bed and picked up a naked Barbie from the nightstand.

“Why don’t I help you pick up your room? It won’t take very long, then we can play with your dolls.”

“No,” Elayne pouted. “You’ll go home right after we finish cleaning, and you won’t play dolls with me.”

“That’s not true,” Michael said. “I promise that I will play dolls with you for a half hour, but we need to pick up your room first.”

“Pinky Promise?”

“Even better. Pirate’s Promise.”

Michael and Elayne shelved books, boxed up toys, folded and put away clothes, changed the sheets on Elayne’s bed, and doing a quick dusting of Elayne’s trinkets.

After they were done, Michael said, “You know what would make this a lot easier for you than doing a big clean-up like this?”

“What?” Elayne asked.

“Well,” Michael said, “You know how on the ship, when you take something out of your locker, you have to fold it when you put it back away so that everything fits right? That’s what you have to do here, too. If you just leave things on the floor or the table when you’re done with it, soon nothing fits where it should go anymore, and you have a really big job on your hands. And you’re only a small girl, so a big job is really big.” Michael made a spreading-out motion with his arms, pushing Elayne back onto the bed with the back of his forearm. She giggled as she struggled to sit up.

“But if you put everything away when you’re done with it,” Michael continued, “then it stays a little job and you can get it done real quick so you can play with your dolls more. Now – where are those dolls? Isn’t it time to play with them?”

Elayne quickly retrieved them from the appropriate box in her toy cupboard. Soon she and Michael were engrossed in pretending that Barbie was on a pirate ship, sailing the high seas.

Unbeknownst to both Michael and Elayne, Brianne stood just outside the doorway holding a plate of brownies for the two, and listening to the conversation.

“Arr, and Avast ye, mateys,” Elayne said in her high-pitched voice.

“No, no, it’s “Ahoy and Avast ye, mateys,” Michael corrected.

“Ahoy, isn’t that some kind of cookie?”

“That’s Chips Ahoy, and those are chocolate chip cookies.”

“Chips Ahoy, like Ships Ahoy.” Elayne giggled. “That’s funny.”

“You know, I never picked up on that.”

“Me neither,” Brianne said stepping into the bedroom. She was shocked to find it completely clean. Michael and Elayne were sitting cross-legged in the middle of a clean floor playing Barbies.

She turned to Michael. “You didn’t have to clean. This is Elayne’s room, and it’s her responsibility to keep it clean.”

“I only helped Elayne clean, she did most of the work. And we had a little talk about how such a huge cleaning is too big a job for a small girl, so Elayne agreed to pick up after herself when she plays with her toys and books.”

“Really?” Brianne asked Elayne.

“Uh-huh. See?” Elayne picked up her Barbie dolls and put them back into the box in the toy cupboard.

“Wow, I’m impressed,” Brianne said.

“I know,” Elayne answered proudly.

“Unfortunately, though, it’s bed-time. Can you get yourself all ready?”

“Of course!”

Michael and Brianne walked out to the living room. “Sorry for ditching you like that. I just had an idea that I couldn’t wait to write about, and I got a little absorbed.”

Michael shrugged. “Elayne and I had a little quality time. I haven’t played Barbies in…oh…ever.”

“And thank you for dinner. It was wonderful.”

“Stop apologising and thanking me, already.”

“Ok, what should I do instead?” Brianne asked, teasing him.

“I’d say, kiss me, but that’d be a little cheesy, wouldn’t it?”

“I should go put Elayne to bed. Let me pay you back for dinner some time this week – I can actually cook, you know?” Brianne’s voice was a little louder and quicker than normal.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you at the barbecue tomorrow,” Michael said. His confusion was evident on his face. First they were having a nice conversation, next thing you know, she was throwing him out.

“We’ll be there.”

Brianne shut the door virtually in his face, turned around to go into Elayne’s room and started kicking herself. Michael seemed like a really nice guy, who was clearly interested, and she felt equally interested in him. The only thing holding her back from a perfectly lovely relationship was the conviction that there was no such thing as a perfectly lovely relationship.

She shook her head to herself as she walked toward Elayne’s room. What was wrong with her? She done anything other than the most casual of dating since Elayne’s father, and he turned out to be bastard enough to last her the rest of her life… But no use dwelling on that.

Brianne read Elayne a quick good-night story, and left her to fall asleep in her bed. Sitting by herself on the couch in the living room, she again opened her laptop and tried to write, but she couldn’t help thinking what an idiot and a jerk she was being. The guy not only didn’t give her a hard time about breaking their dinner date, put he agreed to pick up take-out. And then, rather than the normal pizza or Chinese, he made them steak and baked potatoes. God, and lastly, he helped Elayne clean her room, which wouldn’t normally happen in a week of Sundays.

Brianne sighed. Why did things have to be so complicated? She missed the high school days when dating was fun, and it didn’t really matter which of the guys you liked that you were dating as long as you had someone to take you to the high school dances.

She sighed again. Fine. Dragging her feet, she walked over to the cordless phone laying on the dining room table, and punched Michael’s number in. No answer. But worse, no voice mail. She pondered for a moment, then came to a conclusion.

She punched Judy’s number into the phone.

“Hey, Judy, are you right in the middle of anything?”

“Just re-watching a Julia Roberts movie, why?”

She steeled herself to confess. “Could you watch Elayne while I go apologize to Michael for basically throwing him out of my house? I don’t know how long it’ll take, but I don’t think it’ll be too long. Michael’s just not answering his phone, and I’m just not used to being interested in someone.”

“You’re actually interested in Michael? I thought you were just looking for a fun way to donate money to the shelter.”

“Well, I was, but huh?” Brianne answered, momentarily stymied.

“I’m joking. Of course I knew you were interested in Michael. And unless I’m very much mistaken, which I’m not, he’s interested in you, as well. Do you want to drop Elayne off here, or do you want me to come over there?”

“If you’re ready for bed, or something, I can drop her off. It’s just that she’s sleeping…”

“No, no, I’ll be right over. I just have to put the dogs out.”

Brianne hung up the phone, and sat, perched anxiously on the edge of the couch, all sorts of negative thoughts coursing through her mind until she heard a light knock on the door.

“I didn’t want to ring the bell, in case it would wake Elayne,” Judy said.

“Do you think I’m being stupid?” Brianne asked.

“For what? Apologizing to someone that you care for if you’re rude to them? Or going after something that might be good for you, if only as a close friend?”

“Well I was thinking more along the lines of letting someone into, not only my life, but Elayne’s life as well. You’re a single mom, you know how hard it is. I knew when Elayne was born that I wouldn’t raise her with men coming and going in her life. I wasn’t a great role model for a relationship, but at least she knows that you don’t need a man to get along just fine.”

“I do know what you’re saying, and my only suggestion is to try and look at it as a friendship. That way, even if it doesn’t work out, you don’t feel awkward or awful next time you see the person at the grocery store.”

Brianne nodded. “I guess that makes sense, it just seems easier said than done.”

“Well, just think of it from my point of view – I think we’re getting to be pretty close friends…you know, me babysitting your daughter at at ten at night while you go shack up with my brother. No, no, I’m joking…” she raised a hand as Brianne started to protest. “All I’m trying to say as that as your friend, I’d rather not have to pick and choose which functions I invite you to, and which I invite Michael to. He is my brother, after all, and he gets a little annoyed when I consistently ignore him. It’s fun, though, I recommend you try it.”

Judy gave Brianne a one-armed hug, and pushed her toward the door. “I don’t think you’re being stupid at all. Just keep being as smart as you have been.”

Brianne slowly walked down the front steps of her house, got in her car, and put the keys in the ignition. Breathing a tired sigh, she backed the car out of the driveway. She idled in the road in front of her house for a minute, then, as she made up her mind, commenced driving.

Brianne decided to loop around the neighborhood a few times, work through the apology in her mind, and then drive over to Michael’s. After the fifth loop, she decided that she was no closer to figuring out what to say, and that she might just be better off to go over there and get the stammering and fumbling over with.

Brianne pulled up behind Michael’s truck in the driveway. Gathering her courage, she quickly climbed the steps and rang the doorbell. Knocked. Rang the doorbell again. Pushed down a residual feeling of irritation at him not answering the door when she wanted to apologize. Rang the doorbell once more, for good measure.

She walked around the house, trying to see if Michael was doing something in the immediate area, and after not finding him, Brianne decided to walk down to the water and see if he was onboard LeChuck’s Revenge.

It wasn’t far from the house to the dock, but it was an unusually cold evening for mid-September. Brianne hugged herself, rubbing her hands briskly up and down her biceps, trying to make the goosebumps go away. She stood on her tip-toes trying to see if the light in the Captain’s cabin was on, but the port-hole was too high above her head for her to be able to tell if it was a light or merely the glow from the dock-lights.

Brianne stood at the foot of the ramp leading up to the ship. “Michael,” she called quietly. Her voice didn’t carry far in the night. She tried again. Still no answer. Brianne was stumped. Now that she had made up her mind to apologize, she didn’t want to go home, but she wasn’t sure if walking uninvited onto a boat was bad manners akin to entering someone’s house unasked.

Plus, she wasn’t even sure he was on the ship. He could just be in the house, taking a really long shower, or gone for a long walk, or dead in a ditch somewhere. She didn’t know for sure, and she wasn’t quite sure how to resolve the situation. Finally, Michael resolved the situation for her by striding down the gang-plank, completely oblivious to her presence in the shadow of the ship.

She smiled to herself. From one perplexing situation to another. First, she wasn’t sure where he was or how to find him. Now, a little less pressing, but no less uncomfortable, she wasn’t sure how to make herself known without scaring the living daylights out of him. Finally, she just gave up.

Michael was filling some crates with bottles of wine and sparkling cider when he felt a small pair of arms slip around him and cover his eyes. It took every ounce of his self restraint not to dump her into the lake.

“Guess who?” Brianne said.

“Claudia Schiffer?” he answered. “Or maybe [mean woman]? She might be nicer than you were to me tonight? First breaking our date, then spending our whole dinner writing, then basically tossing me out on my rear. Now you try and give me a heart attack.”

Brianne looked so dismayed that Michael decided to take pity on her. “I’m just joking,” he said, smiling at her.

“I’m sorry I was mean to you. Mostly for throwing you out of my house like that, because there was no reason for it other than that I was scared. You didn’t do anything, it was all my own neuroses.”

Michael raised an eyebrow, and handed her a bottle of wine. “Let’s go in the house, it’s cold out here.”

They walked silently to the house, and Michael held the door for Brianne. She stepped inside, and waited for Michael to turn the light on.

He led her into the living room, and they sat on the couch. “Here,” Michael said handing Brianne his pocket-knife, “you open the wine, and I’ll get a couple wine glasses.”

Brianne pried the knife opened, and tried to use the tiny attached cork-screw to open the wine. She was still fumbling at it when Michael came back in the room.

“Ok, if you wanted to be waited on hand and foot, you should have told me.” Michael held his hand out for the bottle of wine and the pocket-knife.

Brianne was expecting him to open the wine with just a couple deft flicks of the kife, but he wound up struggling with it as much as she had. “Okay, maybe this isn’t the right tool for the job,” he said.

He took the wine into the kitchen, and Brianne followed him, curiously. Michael reached into the back of a drawer, and pulled out an odd-shaped plastic tool. “Voila,” he said. He put the opener on top of the wine, twisted once, removed it, and the foil was removed from the mouth of the bottle. Then he inserted the corkscrew, pumped twice, and pulled the cork out.

He poured a little wine into each glass, and handed one to Brianne. “Cheers,” he said. Brianne clinked her glass against his. “What are we toasting to?” she asked.

“I’d say… late night apologies.” Michael guiding Brianne back into the living room.

Brianne winced. “Well, then, to late night apologies. I just stopped by to tell you I was sorry I kicked you out like that. Like I started to say before, it wasn’t anything that you did, I’m just not used to being around a man that I’m interested in.” Though she struggled not to, she started blushing.

Michael touched her cheek very lightly, then let his hand drop down to her elbow. “I’m interested in you, too.”

“Oh. Well. Good. Um…”

Michael gently took Brianne’s glass of wine, and set it on the coffee table. He again touched her cheek, but this time, he leaned in close, and kissed her softly on the lips, then on the cheek he had just touched.

Brianne initially tensed as he kissed her, but then loosened up enough to caress his arm as he pulled away. “I need to go,” she said. “Judy’s sitting for Elayne, and I know she’s got the barbecue to do tomorrow, so I don’t want to keep her all night.”

“I guess you’re right.”

*Brianne tells Judy about making up with Michael*

Michael walked Brianne out to her car.

“I’m really glad you came over tonight,” he said.

“Me too,” Brianne answered. “Sorry I was a jerk before.”

Michael shrugged, and stood by Brianne’s car, rocking back and forth on his feet a little.

“Well, this is awkward,” Brianne said.

Michael shrugged again, but continued standing where he was.

Brianne finally got the hint. She stood on tip-toes, and kissed Michael on the mouth. It wasn’t a long kiss, or a particularly passionate one, but it did feel nice to have someone to kiss goodnight.

Michael wrapped his arms around her, and gave her a big warm hug. “Ill see you tomorrow, he whispered into her hair.

Brianne turned the radio off in her car on the drive home so she could think better. This time she only did two loops around her neighborhood before pulling into her driveway.

Judy was sitting sprawled out on the couch watching “Notting Hill.”

“I didn’t know you had the movie channels over here,” Judy said. “I’ll have to babysit more often…especially if you time it to coincide with certain HBO specials.”

Brianne smiled. “You’re always welcome to come and watch TV. I keep the movie channels because on nights that I don’t feel like reading or writing, and Elayne is already sleeping, it gives me something to do.”

“So what happened?” Judy asked curiously.

Brianne shrugged. “I’m not really sure. We came to an understanding, but I don’t know what that means.”

“Well, tell me what happened, and I’ll help you figure out what it means.”

“Judy! It’s your brother that we’re talking about here!”

“So? It’s also your boyfriend,” Judy said in a sing-songy voice.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Brianne said, blushing.

“You’re blushing. He’s your boyfriend. You’re going to have like a million of his babies.”

“I think one baby is quite enough, thanks.” Brianne answered ascerbically.

“But c’mon, tell me what happened?”

Brianne made an annoyed sound in the back of her throat.

Judy just sat there, looking stubborn. “If you don’t tell me, I’ll call my brother and tell him that you told me.”

“Oh, that’s harsh! Fine, just stop being annoying and I’ll tell you.”

“I’m being persistant, not annoying, get it straight. So tell me!”

“I couldn’t find him when I first got there, then I scared him and I think he almost threw me in the lake. He invited me in the house, we had a glass of wine, and I left.”

“That can’t be it,” Judy said. “You said you came to an understanding. None of those things indicates any kind of an understanding.”

Brianne rolled her eyes. “Fine. I told him that I was interested in him. He said he was interested in me too. We kissed, a little.”

“You kissed! How do you kiss a little? Isn’t that something that you either do or do not do?”

“We did. But only a little, not a full make-out session or anything.”

“So is he going to pick you up for the barbecue tomorrow?”

“He didn’t say anything. I’d rather drive myself anyway – I feel like we’ve been relying on him too much.”

“Brianne,” Judy chided, “you’re almost dating him. If he minds you relying on him, I’m sure he’ll say something.”

Brianne threw her arms up in the air. “There’s no winning with you, is there?”

Judy shook her head, smiling. “But I think I’ll go home now, and leave you to ponder your kiss rather than my annoyingness – is that a word, do you think?”

“No I don’t think so. Thank you for babysitting. I’ll see you tomorrow. Give me a call and let me know if you need any help cooking, cleaning, setting up, or if you want me to bring anything.”

“Will do.” Judy left, and Brianne plopped on the couch to contemplate the evening’s events.

Her stomach growled and alerted her to the fact that she hadn’t eaten much of her dinner while she was writing, and she re-warmed her steak and potato, and plopped down on the couch to watch Julia Roberts.

Brianne woke up three hours later, turned the TV off, groggily took out her contacts, and put herself to bed.
One of the particularly unfortunate things about having children was that they seemed to wake up much earlier than adults do. Brianne was awakened at six-thirty by Elayne shaking her. “Mama, mama, I need some breakfast.”

Brianne tried to tug the blanket over her head, and muttered, “Don’ wanna’ get up…”

Elayne giggled, and pulled the blankets away. “Mama can’t hide!”

Grumbling, Brianne pulled herself out of bed, and padded into the kitchen to make Elayne a bowl of cereal. She wondered if preparing ones’ own breakfast at a god-awful early hour of the morning was something Pirate Club taught, but she supposed not.

Brianne left Elayne sitting with a TV tray in the living room watching cartoons, and went to shower and get dressed. Unless Judy called, she’d have a good six hours to write.

Brianne took a long shower, almost until the hot water ran out. She spent the shower trying to think about her book, but actually thinking about Michael, and more specifically, she and Michael.

It was weird. She literally hadn’t seriously considered anyone as ‘date-able’ since Jeremy walked out and left her with Elayne, when Elayne was a newborn. She had struggled and strived to make sure that Elayne had a chance at a good life, regardless of her own choices.

Realistically, the ban on dating wasn’t initially related to Elayne in any way other than not having time for dinenr, much less a relationship. Brianne spent the first two years of Elayne’s life working at a factory job during the morning, as a waitress in a diner in the afternoon, and taking night-classes three nights a week to get her bachelor’s degree.

Once she had her bachelor’s and she could support the two of them on just one job, Elayne was old enough that Brianne definitely didn’t want men in and out of their lives, so she threw herself into her job and Elayne’s activities. She was proud that while Elayne might not have had a strong male influence in her life, at least she didn’t have a negative male influence, or the bad influence of her mother bringing home an assortment of men.

Brianne still cherished the hope that Elayne might have the happily-ever-after life that she had dreamed of until Jeremy. Brianne had generally gotten past it, now, but at the time she thought she and Jeremy were perfect together. When he left her and Elayne, without an apology or even looking back, it had planted the seed of doubt that maybe there wasn’t anything that was as perfect as that happily-ever-after dream. The seed that was planted then had only grown into a full grown doubt-tree since.

Brianne stepped out of the shower, and wrapped herself in a fluffy towel. She brushed her teeth, then took her hair down and finger-combed it into some semblance of not sticking up all over the place.

“Elayne, are you still in the living room?” she called.

“Yes, mama, we’re just watching cartoons.”

Brianne finished dressing and put her usual sunscreen on her face. Since she had quit working in a formal office, Brianne had stopped applying full-out makeup each day. Now she normally just wore sunscreen as moisturizer, a little mascara, and if she was activly going somewhere, some lipstick.

Brianne threw her towels over the towel rack, flipped off the bathroom light and fan, and stepped out into the house, ready to confront her growing word count.

Elayne was sitting on the floor in the living room, altogether too close to the television.

“Elayne, what have I told you? You’re going to ruin your eyes sitting that close, you know.”

“That’s not actually true,” Michael said from off the couch. Brianne grabbed her chest and nearly jumped a foot. “I guess that’s payback for scaring me last night.”

“I think you might have given me a minor heart attack,” Brianne said. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see if you guys wanted to go over to Judy’s early with me. I told her that I’d cook, and I’m sure she needs a hand setting up.”

Brianne shrugged. “I asked her last night, and she said that she didn’t need me for anything. If you think she will, though, we can definitely head over. Otherwise, if we’re just going to be sitting around, I’d rather stay here and work this morning.”

“Work? It’s Sunday!”

“Well, yeah, I want to write some more. I didn’t get a chance to get much written last night, since I was feeling guilty about abandoning you to clean Elayne’s room.”

“Ah, I see. You should stay here and write, then. I can come back and pick you up around noon.”

“No, no, I can drive us over. I do have a car, you know.”

Michael rolled his eyes. “Can you explain the sense of taking two cars, which means that two of us can’t drink, rather than just one car, and you can drive my drunk a— um, rear, home?”

“Or you could just not drink enough to need a designated driver… that’s generally the option that I choose.”

“See, I figured you’d feel like that, but you’ve also never tried Judy’s spiked punch. I don’t mind cooking for these things because she makes as much punch as anyone asks for, and as soon as you try it, you’ll know what I mean.”

Brianne nodded. “I see. ar, and you can drive my drunk a— um, rear, home?”

“Or you could just not drink enough to need a designated driver… that’s generally the option that I choose.”

“See, I figured you’d feel like that, but you’ve also never tried Judy’s spiked punch. I don’t mind cooking for these things because she makes as much punch as anyone asks for, and as soon as you try it, you’ll know what I mean.”

Brianne nodded. “I see. You cook, Judy gets you drunk, and you want me to drive you home in exchange for…what? Driving us over there when we can just as easily drive ourselves?”

Michael smiled that smile – the one that told Brianne that she probably wouldn’t like what was coming. He checked to make sure that Elayne was out of earshot. “Well, you could look at it like that. Or it could be in exhange for sexual favors.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“You do realize that when you do that it makes you look more like a perverted grandfather than anything else, right?”

Michael looked crestfalled. “No, I hadn’t realized. So I’m guessing that performing sexual favors for your perverted grandfather is mildly inappropriate?”

Brianne burst out laughing, causing Elayne to turn around and see what was so funny. When she got ahold of herself, she said quietly, “You could say that, yeah.”

“So I’ll pick you up at noon?” Michael said.

Brianne waggled her eyebrows in turn. “As long as it’s you performing the sexual favors, buddy.”


After Michael left, Brianne sat down to do some writing. It took severe force of will to make her mind turn back toward Pirate Princesses and away from Michael.

By the time the doorbell rang at noon, Brianne had written eight pages. It wasn’t all usable, but she was pleased with her wordcount, if not the words themselves.

It was with a self-satisfied smiled that she opened the door. “Wait,” Michael said as he stepped in. “You’re not supposed to have that smile until afterwards!”

Brianne laughed. “It wasn’t quite that kind of a smile, although I suppose it’s close. I’ve been writing since you left, and I got almost five thousand words.”

Michael smiled at how enthusiastic she was. “Five thousand words, huh? When do I get to find out what you’re writing?”

“I’m writing about Pirate Club,” Brianne said. “You can’t read it yet, though, it’s still really bad.”

Michael carefully licked his lips. “You’re writing about Pirate Club?”

Brianne nodded, excitedly. “It’s tentatively titled “Pirate Princesses” and it’s about sort-of a girl’s view of Pirate Club. When Elayne joined, it got me thinking about it.”

“Oh. That sounds interesting.”

Michael was quiet on the drive over to Judy’s, but Elayne was so excited about the barbecue that it was hard to tell what kind of quiet it was. When they arrived, Brianne sent Elayne off to play with the other children, and she stopped Michael before they reached the rest of the barbecue crowd.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked. “You’re being very quiet.”

“What? I’m not allowed to be quiet, now? There’s nothing wrong.”

Brianne didn’t say anything, but walked with him to where Judy was standing. Michael left her with Judy, and walked over to tend the grill.

“I’m not sure what I did,” she said, “but I think whatever it was pissed him off.”

Judy looked as if she wanted to say something, but she wasn’t sure if she should. Brianne raised an eyebrow at her. “Do you know what I did?”

“I think you should talk it out with Michael. I doubt he’d want me involved in this.”

Brianne snapped sarcastically, “Well, based on how he talked to be when I asked what the matter was, I doubt he wants to talk to me right now.”

Judy looked taken aback.

“I’m sorry, Judy, I didn’t mean to snap at you like that. Michael snapped at me in the car, and I just took out my aggravation on you. Please forgive me?”

“There’s nothing to forgive,” Judy said. “He’ll get over it, he always does. Sometimes he just goes inside himself to figure stuff out.”

Brianne nodded, but the assurance didn’t make her feel any better about it. She plopped into a lawn chair next to Judy. “I’m just going to sit here and be anti-social for a minute, ok?”

“Of course,” Judy assured her. “You’ll like the people that are here, though, so make sure not to be anti-social for the whole time.”

Brianne sat quietly next to Judy for just a few minutes, until she had completely regained her temper and equilibrium. When she felt roughly normal again, she said to Judy, “This might be why I was smarter to stay single and not in a relationship, you know.”

Judy smiled at her. “It’s over-rated, as I’m sure you know.”

Brianne winked. “I know. It’s just going to be an adjustment.”:

“So are you feeling better, now?”

Brianne nodded.

“Great. Let me introduce you to my writing group.” She pointed at the small group of people hovering over the buffet-table.


By the end of the afternoon, Brianne felt like she knew some more really nice people from the area, and received an invitation to attend the next writer’s group meeting. Normally, she would hae dismissed the idea out of hand, but Judy assured her that they actually got writing and critiquing done at meetings, rather than just gossipping.

Michael walked over to her, the first time since they had arrived. “Are you ready to go?” he asked.

“Not yet,” she said. “I told Judy I’d stay to help her clean up.”

“Well, I’m heading home,” he said. “Judy can give you two a ride back when you’re done.”

“Uh, ok,” Brianne answered. She watched, puzzled, as he strode away toward his car.

Brianne gathered up an armload of dishes and condiments to take inside. She waited in Judy’s living room until her friend walked inside.

“I have no idea what the hell is wrong with him, but he just ditched us. After I help you clean up, could you give us a ride home?”

“You’re kidding, right? Michael just went home and left you here after he told you he’d drive you both home?”

“Nope, not kidding. In fact, that’s exactly what he did.”

Judy and Brianne finished cleaning up in silence, then they walked into the house. Elayne was saying a final goodbye to the dogs.

“I wasn’t going to say anything, because I thought it might be better for you two to have a conversation about it. But since my asshole brother seems unable to vocalize what’s bothering him, I’ll have to do it for him. I think he’s angry because you’re writing a book about pirate club.”

“Why would he be angry about that?”

“Because he’s been writing a book about Pirate Club since he started it…what…six years ago?”

“Oh, and he thinks that I stole his idea. That’s pretty stupid.”

“Well, not really. It’s a combination of the ‘you stole my idea’ concept, and that he’s so protective of pirate club, it’s more like is baby than his pet-project. He’s allowed basically no press about the club at all, he wanted his book to be the first thing written about it.”

“So how much of this book has he gotten written.”

“See, that’s the part that I’m not entirely sure about. I know he’s told me different stories that he was planning to write, in the past, but I don’t know which, if any, he’s written. Much less how much of it he’s written, or how close to publication he is. All I can tell you is that he’s taking this as a personal attack rather than how a normal person might take it.”


***possible problem – I think they’ve jumped into their relationship a little too fast – it seems like they might need another couple days between the nightime apology scene and the barbecue-day flirtation to make it seem natural that they’re this comfortable with one another.