Week 4

“Let me take Elayne for the day tomorrow. I’m teaching some of the younger kids how to swordfight, and I think she’d get a kick out of it, if not be really good at it.”

“Sure,” Brianne agreed. “You have to come get her and drop her off, though, I can’t drive until Tuesday – doctor’s orders.”


Elayne was unusually quiet when Michael picked her up the next morning. “We’re going out for a nice relaxing light breakfast,” he told her, “then we’re going to meet with some of the other crew members and I’m going to show you guys how pirates swordfight.”

Elayne was thrilled with the concept. All she knew about swordfighting was the little bit she was able to get in with sticks before her mother or someone else’s mother yelled about ‘putting your eye out.’

They stopped at MacDonalds to enjoy breakfast before the swordfighting lesson began. Michael ordered a breakfast sandwich for himself, and Elayne asked if she could have pancakes. “Of course,” Michael answered.

They sat quietly at the table by the window, enjoying their breakfasts. Elayne figited with her pancakes, eating a little, then using her fork to play with the syrup. “The big kids won’t hurt me with their swords, will they?” she asked suddenly.

“They won’t hurt you any more than you’ll hurt them. Today you’re going to be just practicing what I show you, really slowly, and with practice swords that won’t hurt anybody.”

Elayne nodded slowly. Michael watched the gears turning in her eyes. “So I won’t get killed?” she asked.

Michael fought the urge to laugh at the absurdity of the question. The expression on Elayne’s face convinced him that she was serious. “No, I promise you won’t get killed. The most you’ll ever have to worry about are bruises. And as long as you follow directions, you shouldn’t even have to worry about that. Did you really think that your mother or I was sending you to possibly die?”

Elayne shrugged, looking down at her food.

“Elayne, your mother loves you. She’d be heartbroken if anything ever happened to you. And I’m your Captain, and hopefully your friend, and I hope you know I’d do my best to keep anything bad from happening to you, too.”

“I know,” Elayne said to her food.

“What’s that?” Michael asked. “I didn’t hear you.”

“I know,” Elayne whispered even more quietly, but this time she looked up from her plate. Her eyes were glassy with tears.

“C’mon, kiddo. You’re going to have fun today, I promise. Are you ready to go?”

Elayne took a last bite of her food, and orange juice, then stood up. “Thank you for breakfast, it was good,” she said.

“Sure thing, I’m glad you liked it.” Michael threw their dishes away, and led Elayne back out to the truck.

Gina was sitting on Michael’s front steps reading a book when they arrived at his house. “Elayne,” she said, “I didn’t know you were coming today.”

“Since neither of you have learned any swordfighting before, you two are going to be partners today,” Michael said.

“Yay,” both girls said. Holding hands, they followed Michael to the backyard.

“Could you girls please make all of these into circles that have enough room between them for me to walk,” he asked, gesturing at a box of heavy rope.

“Sure,” Elayne agreed.

Michael returned to wait in front of the house, while the girls laid out the various practice rings. Within the next half hour, the remaining children arrived – seven boys and Allison.

Michael led the group out to the back yard where Elayne and Gina had just finished laying out the last ring. The girls had already slightly broken a sweat, and the day was quickly heating up to warmer than the average late-fall coolness.

“All right,” he said, “Gina and Elayne over here,” pointing at one of the rings, “then Allison and Miguel, Jason and Jake, Chris and Steve, Devon and Aaron.”

The children were paired up according to size, with Elayne as the youngest, and Devon at twelve as the oldest. Every Sunday morning, Michael hosted a swordfighting class for any of the kids that were interested. He only required the crew who planned to attend to let him know during the week so he could plan accordingly. Aaron and Jason attended most frequently, at just about every week. Aaron could easily match Michael in sword skills, and Michael sometimes let him teach the younger kids. Jason kept attending, and understood the technical aspects of sword-work, but just didn’t have the talent or strength that it took to be truly good at it.

Once they were all paired up, and standing in their various circles, Michael handed out the wooden practice swords that he had carved. Each looked similar to a real sword, but without the point, and for the younger children, with considerably less weight.






*Brianne reading Michael’s novel and suggesting a couple improvements
*Michael talking to Evan, and Evan denies it obnoxiously

Evan lived in a small house in a subdivision on the eastern side of town. Michael rang the doorbell, once, twice, no answer. Michael went around to the back and tapped on the door. Evan’s grandmother answered.

“Michael Davis, what are you doing here,” she asked.

“I just stopped by to talk to Evan – is he home yet?”

“He should be home in just a couple of minutes, come in, come in,”

Michael stepped into the kitchen. It was small and cluttered with fifties kitch, and heated too warm for the day. “How have you been, Mrs. Miller?”

“Oh, good, good, nothing new, nothing new. I wonder if since you’re here, you would mind taking just a quick look at my car. I pushed a button the other day, and I don’t know what I did, but I swear someone was talking to me. It frightened me just so much that I called Gregory for a ride home. You know Gregory, Evan’s father? He was two years before you in school.”

“Of course, Mrs. Miller. Let’s go outside and take a look.”

Michael sat down in the new-model Buick, and looked to see what button she might have pushed. Mrs. Miller plopped into the passenger seat. “It was that one,” she said pointing at a button near the rear-view mirror.

Michael pushed it. “Hello, this is On-Star,” an androgynous voice said.

“Sorry, pushed the button by accident,” Michael said, and pushed the button again. He touched Mrs. Miller lightly on the arm. She seemed transfixed by the On-Star button. “Let’s go in the house, where it’s warm, and I’ll explain what that was.”

They sat at Mrs. Miller’s small kitchen table, sipping weak coffee. “On-Star is like the telephone operator used to be. If you push the button it’s like dialing the operator, and you can ask them for assistance, especially for things like directions if you get lost, or a mechanic if your car won’t start. You can also call them from a pay phone or a cell phone if you lock your keys in the car, and they can unlock it.”

“So it’s like triple-A?”

“Not quite,” Michael said. “For example, if you get lost while you’re driving, you can push that button, tell the person on the line which city you’re in and the interesections and addresses that you pass, and where you’re trying to go, and they’ll give you directions about how to get there. Triple-A is nice for towing and getting maps and what-not, but they don’t help you get where you’re going like that.”

Mrs. Miller nodded. “I don’t need it. Can we get it shut off? I only drive to and from the grocery and my bridge game. I don’t get lost there. I don’t need it.”

“You can have it shut off, but it might be useful just in case you lock the keys in the car, or your car breaks down.”

Evan walked into the kitchen just as Michael finished explaining. “Hi Gram,” he said, not noticing Michael. “Can I have a snack?”

“Evan, Michael Davis is here to talk to you. I’ll leave you boys alone for a bit. Michael, more coffee?”

Michael shook his head.

“Ok, I”ll leave you boys alone for a bit,” she said again.

“What da’you want,” Evan said.

“I have reason to think that you might have saboutaged my ship last Friday,” Michael said, bluntly.

Evan’s eyes widened, but he simply said, “Saboutaged, how? And what makes you think that I did it?”

“Saboutaged the steering of the ship, for one, and for another, cut the line on the primary anchor, and stole the spare anchor. And then painted grafitti all over the deck. And the reason that I think you did it? Because you were the only person not on the ship who knew where the treasure cashe might be that has a reason to do anything to wreck the steering and generally make everyone’s life difficult

“It’s not nice to accuse someone of doing something when you have no proof,” Evan said.

“I wouldn’t accuse someone of doing something with no proof, unless I was pretty damn sure that the person I was accusing was the person who did it.”

“I’m afraid you’re mistaken,” Evan said cooly. “I was home all Friday night. Mom and Gram grounded me from going anywhere until Christmas because I quit Pirate Club. You can ask either Mom or Gram.”

“Is that the story that you’re going to stick to?” Michael asked.

“It’s the truth,” Evan said, smirking.

“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Michael said. “It was too bad when you quit Pirate Club, and it’s even worse that you don’t even live by it’s rules anymore.”

Evan rolled his eyes. “There’s no reason for me to live by your stupid rules. And I think you should leave now.”

Michael nodded briskly. “I’ll be seeing you,” he said.

“I have no doubt,” Evan answered in a smarmy tone.
Michael meant to drive straight home, but at the last second, decided to stop at Judy’s for dinner.

“What’re you doing here,” Judy asked.

“I’ve decided to crash your dinner, if you don’t mind,” he answered.

“Why?”

“No reason, just don’t feel like eating alone tonight.”

“I’m just having spagetti.”

“That’s fine, I don’t need anything special. I just stopped at Evan Miller’s house to ask him about the ship, and he was a smarmy little jerk. He did it, I know he did, but he says that his mom grounded him and he spent the whole night in his room. I don’t believe it, but I don’t think there’s any way to prove otherwise, either.”

“You didn’t just stop over there and accuse him, did you?”

“Um, yeah, what should I have done?”

“You can’t just go around accusing people of sabotaging your ship,” Judy said. “You don’t have any proof that he did it.”

“Who else would do it?”

“I don’t know, me, Eleanor Wilkins, Trisha Smith for god sakes – it could be anyone, and you just go over there accusing him of doing it. Don’t you think that boy has enough problems?”

“But you don’t understand—“

“No, I think it might be you that don’t understand – that boy has no father any more. He has no one to look up to. And now you go over there and tell him that you think that he deliberately sabotaged yoru ship? That’s the part that I don’t understand.”

Michael stood suddenly. “I think I might go eat dinner at home instead.”

“I think that might be better tonight.”

Michael slammed Judy’s front door on the way out of the house, and he slammed his car door after he flopped into the driver’s seat. The door rebounded open, so he slammed it again. It rebounded open again. Finally, he shut it slowly but firmly, and started the car.

He decided to go over to Brianne’s for dinner instead. At least there someone would understand – especially since whoever was responsible for the damage to the ship was also indirectly responsible for Brianne’s injury.

Brianne graciously invited him in.

“We just finished dinner,” she said, “But can I fix you a plate of something?”

He hesitated. It was one thing to crash someone’s dinner, and quite another to impinge on someone’s leftovers. Finally hunger won over courtesy. “If you wouldn’t mind,” he said.

Brianne put a chicken breast and some homemaid macaroni and cheese on a plate, and put it into the microwave. She then fixed a small bowl of tossed salad for him. Setting both on the dining room table, she took the seat next to him.

“How was your day?” he asked between mouthfuls.

“Really good, actually. Elayne got an A+ on her spelling and math quizzes. I finished the book review that I’ve been working on, and I finished reading over your manuscript. It’s really good, but I just suggested a few changes that I know any book review or editor would pick on.”

“Oh really,” Michael said. “What kind of changes?”

“Mostly just some grammatical and style weirdnesses, but there were a few places where I didn’t think what you were trying to say was coming through at all. I hope you don’t mind, but I marked the manuscript up quite a bit. You don’t have to take any of the suggestions that you don’t like, of course, I just wrote what I thought.

Brianne walked to her desk, and pulled Michael’s printed manuscript out of the top desk drawer. “Take a look and let me know if there are any comments that you don’t understand, or want to discuss.”

Michael flipped the manuscript open to the middle. The page he opened to was covered in red ink. He riffled through, and it seemed like there were more pages covered in red than not. In fact, it seemed like every page had something written on it.

“You’re kidding, right? These aren’t all ‘suggestions’ are they?”

“Well, no, some of them are just comments about what I thought worked, or didn’t work. Some are mentions of things that I thought you might want to add, to a description or whatever.” Brianne shrugged. “I thought it would be helpful.”

“But you don’t understand, I’ve been revising this forever. This is the revised version. And then you come back with pages and pages of writing like this, criticiazing everything that I’ve written. I was looking for a few ideas, not…” he flipped through the book again, “not pages and pages of what you didn’t think worked.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” Brianne said. “I’ve done this before for friends, and they all said it helped.”

“No, helping would be telling me that it was great except for the misspelled word on page one seventy-two. Helping would be telling me that it was wonderful except that you think the title of chapter eighteen isn’t representative enough of the chapter. This isn’t helping – this is making me redo my book.”

Michael’s face was icy. He set his fork down on the napkin next to his plate, and said, “I think I might as well spend the evening alone tonight, thank you for dinner.” He picked up the manuscript with the tips of his fingers, as if it were contaminated. “Have a wonderful night.”

Brianne was stunned. “What’s your problem?” she asked. “You come in here, have dinner, get completely pissed off that I tried to help with your novel, then leave in a huff? I don’t get it – why did you bother coming over to start with?”

“I was momentarily insane,” Michael answered. “I thought you might be sympathetic. But apparently I was wrong.” He slammed the front door of Brianne’s house and stormed out to his car. She watched as he carefully closed the drivers’ side door, and belted himself in.


“Judy, what was Michael’s problem tonight? He just stopped by and freaked out at me for making comments on his novel, like he had asked me to.”

“I think he was mad because he accused Evan of graffiti-ing his ship, and Evan had the audacity to deny it. I wonder was Michael was thinking he’d do – just admit it?”

“He just stormed out of here, and said he was going home to spend the evening alone. Do you think I should go out there and talk to him?”

“He was the one acting like a jerk, right?”

“Yeah, I don’t think I did anything that was out of line.”

“Then just leave him alone – he’ll get over it eventually.”
Brianne struggled against the urge to apologize for who-knew-what to Michael. She didn’t feel bad for anything in particular, but it was possible that she had been too harsh in her novel critique. Finally, Wednesday morning, she gave in to the urge and called his house.

No answer.

She called Judy. “Is Michael ignoring me, or is he working?”

“I think he’s working,” she answered. “You’re not apologizing, are you?”

“No, not apologizing, but we had our date from the auction scheduled for tonight – and I don’t know if it’s still on since he’s mad at me.”

“Ah, that’d be a good thing to find out, I suppose. Run over to the garage and see if he’s there.”

Michael was working on a green Honda when one of his co-workers called him into the office. “Your girlfriend’s here,” the man said. “Don’t take too long, they’re picking the Honda up at noon.”

Michael nodded briskly. Brianne was sitting on the blue molded-plastic chairs in the garage waiting room. She was flipping through a Time Magazine that was probably from before the last election. She stood when he walked into the office.

“Sorry to bother you at work,” she said. “I just wasn’t sure if we were still planning to go out tonight, or not.”

“I had been,” Michael said coldly, “but it doesn’t seem like you’re very interested anymore.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? If I wasn’t interested, I wouldn’t have come out here to ask if we were still going.”

Michael shrugged. “I don’t know if I’m interested in going with you any more. It seems like you might want to go out with someone else – maybe someone with a little more talent.”

Brianne sighed deeply, and closed her eyes for a second, praying for patience. “Look, when you’re over your little snit, why don’t you give me a call? I didn’t do anything today or otherwise, and if you don’t want to go out because you’re in a pissy mood, that’s fine, but don’t blame it on me.” She turned and walked out the front door of the garage.

Michael stood in the waiting room for a second longer, watching the door that Brianne had just left through, trying to figure out what he had just done.

“Yo, Mikey,” his co-worker yelled from the garage, “you gonna finish that Honda now that your girlfriend’s left?”

Michael slowly walked back to the car he had been working on.

Friday came more slowly than Michael expected. He had been spending more time than usual at the garage, and so he felt like he hadn’t done as much preparing as usual for the night’s ‘adventure.’ Maybe the best thing to do would be just to run drills in the lake, rather than any specific puzzle. Rather boring, but it did need to be done now and again to keep the crew fresh.

Michael slumped onto the couch, and flipped on the television. He didn’t really have anything special that he wanted to watch, but it was an easy way of distracting himself until the crew started to show up.

It wasn’t long before he felt his mind start drifting back to the problem at hand – what to do about Brianne. He knew he wasn’t being fair, and in fact was probably being a real jerk. But he seemed unable to help himself when he was around her, and on top of that, he knew himself well enough to recognize that he was completely jealous of her using the ‘Pirate Club’ idea, and irrationally irritated by her comments, valid though most of them were.

He sighed and picked up the scribbled over manuscript again. Flipping open to a random page in the middle, he read “Great job – I can almost see it!”, “I think you might mean ‘wretched’ rather than ‘wrenched’,” and “Sp. – should be ‘assessment’.”

Michael closed the manuscript with a discontented sigh. He wasn’t being reasonable, and he knew it. But he didn’t want to have to apologize, either. Why had he gone over there for dinner anyway? Because Judy was being annoying. Not that she was wrong, either. There – he could blame it on Evan. That’d work.

He wondered if Judy was going to come stow away on the voyage, or if she was mad enough at him, especially for canceling their date, that she’d stop coming. He hoped not. It was surprisingly nice to have her waiting in the cabin for him when he came down. But then, especially considering the way he had treated her, he couldn’t really blame her if she stopped coming. His hand moved unconsiously toward the phone, but he stilled it before he could even pick up the receiver.

Not really much use in especially pushing things – if she showed up, great, if not…well, he could apologize over the weekend. But maybe holding his cards close would work best in this situation. Not that it made him feel great to have to worry about it, but ultimately, he was the one in the wrong, so it was fairly deserved to have to suffer a little.
Brianne walked out of the garage, annoyed that she’d even bothered. She should have known better than to push, when she could obviously tell that he was annoyed.

On her drive home, she took some deep breaths to help calm herself down, then she tried to analyze the situation logically. Yes, he was acting like a jerk by leaving her uninformed about the date until the last possible minute. That said, maybe she did go a little overboard with the notes in the manuscript. But also, what did he expect? Her to smile, hand the manuscript back, and say ‘It’s perfect – I can’t think of a single thing to do for it!’ He’d have another thing coming if he thought that was how she worked.

Breathe, Brianne. You’re getting worked up, again.

The worst part of all of this was – she didn’t mind that he’d canceled the date, but now she didn’t know what it meant for Pirate Club. Would she now be intruding if she stowed away on the boat on Friday night? At this point, it wasn’t so much that she was worried about Elayne any more. Elayne had adjusted miraculously, and even had her own friends on the crew. Instead it was that Brianne herself craved the adventure, and, she was honest enough with herself to admit, maybe the romance of sneaking aboard a Pirate ship, and hiding out in the Captain’s private Cabin.

But, she thought a little more, Michael had said the date was canceled. He hadn’t said anything about Pirate Club – and of course, realistically, the ‘mission’ was on, since she hadn’t received a call about Elayne. So maybe she could just sneak onboard, and Michael might not think to say anything until it was too late. And maybe if he was nice, she’d even apologize for possibly going a little overboard with the red pen. She smiled to herself – all the comments hadn’t really been needed, but she wanted to impress Michael with her zealousness and intelligence regarding his novel.

Brianne shrugged. So much self-analysis, so little time. It was decided, though – she’d stow away onboard, even if she hadn’t been explicitly invited this time.

Judy was already sitting on Brianne’s step when she returned from taking Elayne to school Friday morning. “I need caffeine,” she moaned.

“Me too,” Judy answered. “I went out with Ryan Graves last night, and it didn’t go well at all…”

“Ryan Graves, like, the one at the grocery store fish counter?”

“Yep, that’d be the one. The problem was that, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, he’s a pretty good looking guy.”

“A little big for my tastes, but,” Brianne shrugged, “yeah, I guess I can see that…”

“So we go for dinner at Larrison’s, and I order the fish and chips. Silly of me, I guess… But anyway, he couldn’t stop telling me about the fish’s life before it was chopped up into ‘whitefish’ for my fish fillet. It was disturbing. I wound up just eating french fries for dinner – I couldn’t stomach the fish after everything he said about it.

“And then we went home, and I figured that as long as I stayed away from the fish topic, we might be ok. Except that we started making out, and he smelled like them – fish, I mean. I didn’t notice it until I was right up close to him, but he definitely smells like fish – maybe salmon, but definitely something fishy-smelling.

“I wound up having to tell him that I was having a female problem to get him to stop and go home… Ugh. I couldn’t imagine getting that up close and personal with someone who semlls like a dead fish.”

Brianne laughed. “I can’t say I blame you, there,” she answered.

Judy filled Brianne in on more of the specifics that naturally related to ‘fish man’ while they were brewing up the pot of coffee.

Finally, the conversation got around to Brianne’s possible expedition onboard the LeChuck’s Revenge.
Michael called Brianne early Friday afternoon. “Are you coming tonight?”

“Unless I’m not invited.”

“No, you’re invited. I’m sorry, I was a jerk. I’m at work now, but I’ll talk to you more tonight, ok?”

“Sure, that sounds good. I’ll see you tonight.”

Brianne’s heart felt lighter than it had all week. Banter with Michael was fun, but all out fighting was miserable. Especially when she wasn’t sure what they were really fighting about.

Brianne dropped Elayne off at Judy’s on Friday, and smuggled herself on-board the ship a half-hour before the crew was due to board.

Hiding in her usual spot in the closet just off the Captain’s cabin, she was disturbed by the occassional banging coming from the direction of the crew’s quarters. She carefully stepped out of the closet, and peered in the direction that the noise was coming from. It sounded like someone was systematically emptying the crew’s cubbies.

Brianne stepped to the door into the crew’s quarters. Evan was standing in the middle of the row of cubbies with a trash bag. She watched as he opened a cubby door, pushed all of the personal articles from the cubby into the bag, and slammed the cubby door closed. He repeated on the next one.

Brianne stepped into the room. “What do you think you’re doing?” she asked.

“Captain Michael asked me to clean out the crew’s cubbies for the mission tonight – they’re doing it with no supplies. What are you doing here?”

“Aren’t you the old first mate? The one who quit?”

Evan’s eyes widened. He wasn’t expecting the lady he’d never met before to recognize him. “Uh, no,” he said slowly. “That’s my brother, ma’am.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” Brianne said. “I think you should leave right now.”

“This isn’t any of your business, lady,” Evan said coldly, turning back to the lockers.

“Of course it’s my business,” she answered. Pulling her cell phone from her pocket, she said, “I’m calling Michael right now, he’ll be here in a just a minute.” She pressed the speed-dial button she had programmed for Michael.

“What,” he answered.

“There’s a kid on the ship emptying all the crew’s lockers. He says you told him to do it, and that he’s the brother of your first mate.”

“Evan Miller doesn’t have any brothers. Do you think you can keep him there until I get there?”

“How long will that be?”

“Ten minutes or so,” he said.

“I’ll do my best,” she qualified.

While she was speaking to Michael, Evan said, “I hope you don’t think that I’m just going to wait around here for him.”

Brianne shrugged, and backed out of the crew’s quarters, slamming the door shut behind her. She braced the door knob with the back of a chair, and ran upstairs to do the same with the door on the deck. Evan had unfortunately beaten her to it. He was just running toward the gangplank as Brianne emerged on-deck. She stood in his path, preventing him from leaving the ship.

“Look lady,” Evan said. “I’m sorry to do this, and if you had just left me alone, I wouldn’t have had to.” He hauled off, and punched her, full-force, in the head. As Brianne collapsed to the deck, Evan kicked her in the stomach. He then grabbed her legs, and dragged her to the side of the ship.

Brianne kicked and screamed as Evan forced her up on the ship’s rail, and she managed to kick him hard in the head as he pushed her off the ship into the water. Her mind flashed back to the lesson Michael had given Elayne before her first night with Pirate Club.
Michael’s voice rang in her head. “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.”

Brianne struggled to tread water near the ship while she figured out what to do. Her head and face hurt from the punch, and she could tell from wiping her nose that it was bleeding prolificly. She was having a hard time breathing, and even the small back and forth movements to stay afloat were causing excruciating pain.

Realizing that she wouldn’t be able to stay afloat much longer, Brianne lodged her fingernails into the side of the ship, and tried to guide herself around the boat to the side of the dock. At least there, she’d have something to hold on to.

Brianne’s last dregs of strength ran out just as she touched the anchor line. She reached up as high as she could, to get a good grip on the line and keep her head out of the water. She floated like that for a minute, breathing shallowly, and trying to overcome the pain in her face and chest.

“Brianne,” she heard. “Brianne, where are you?”

She struggled to shout back, but even a whisper was painful. Brianne felt more helpless than she had that night Elayne’s father left them.

Michael kept calling out for her, his voice sounding increasingly panicked. Brianne sunk in and out of consciousness, but she held onto the line with a death-grip, as if even in her unconsciousness, she knew that it was all that kept her from a watery grave.

Brianne woke up later in the hospital. She tried to sit up in bed, and discovered that she couldn’t. She pressed the ‘call’ button beside the bed for the nurse. Instead, the doctor who had cared for her ankle a few weeks prior entered the room.

“You’re just an accident waiting to happen, aren’t you? What’s your name?”

“Brianne Claire Clarke.”

“How old are you?”

“You don’t really expect me to answer that, do you?”

The doctor laughed. “Ok, how about… how old is your daughter?”

“Six – she’ll be seven in January.”

“And who is the current President?”

“Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” she answered promptly.

The doctor looked at her, startled.

“I’m just joking,” she assured him.

“All right, if you’re good enough to make jokes, let’s see how you do with some visitors.” He stepped into the hallway.

Michael, Judy, and Elayne entered the room.

“Mama!” Elayne shouted, launching herself toward the bed. Michael caught her from the air before she landed on the Brianne.

“What did we say in the hallway?” he asked Elayne.

“Sorry, Mama. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No, baby, but you have to be careful, ok?”

“Uh, huh. Michael already told me. I just forgotted.”

“How about if you come stand on the chair, and give me a hug that way?” she asked.

Michael helped her up onto the chair, and Brianne gave her a big hug and kiss. As they pulled away, Elayne said, “I’m so glad you’re ok, mama!”

“Me too, baby, me too,” Brianne answered.

“Hey Elayne, why don’t we go get your mama a snack from the cafeteria?” Judy asked.

Elayne looked at her mother for permission.

“Yes, please,” Brianne said. “I’m starving, and I’d love some coffee if you can find any.”

They left in search of snacks, leaving Brianne alone with Michael.

“How’d you find me,” she asked quietly.

“I noticed a spot of blood on the ships’ rail – it was probably where you went over. I didn’t see you in the water, and I started panicking. Fortunately, Travers spotted you hanging on to the anchor line. Wrapping your wrists up in the rope like that was a great idea – probably the only thing that kept you alive.”

“It was a good thing it was there – my only other thought was holding onto the dock, and I don’t think I could have made it all the way around the ship to get to it.”

“Do you remember what happened?”

“I tried to keep Evan on the ship, and he punched me,” she touched her face and winced. “And kicked me in the stomach and ribs. Then he tossed me overboard. I kicked him in the head, though, as hard as I could as he pushed me over.”

Brianne started to cry softly. “I thought I was dead. I couldn’t figure out what else to do – I heard you yelling for me and I was so tired and my ribs hurt so much I couldn’t even yell back to let you know I was there.”

Michael lightly rubbed her hair, and patted her gently on the back until the crying subsided. “I’m sorry for asking you to keep him on the ship. I never thought that he’d do anything like this. I truly thought he was a good kid.”

Brianne shook her head. “You couldn’t have known. It wasn’t your fault or my fault. It was Evan’s fault for not doing the right thing when given an opportunity to.”

Michael rubbed her hair in silence for another few minutes. “Do you mind if I talk to Evan before I turn him in to the police?”

“Please do what you think will work best with him – I don’t think that it even occurred to him that I might drown in the lake -- I think that all he was thinking was to remove the obstacle that was keeping him on the ship from the ships’ deck.”

Michael nodded, then said, “Regardless of whether he meant to, or not, he could have killed you. I don’t know what state prison is the right place for that, or maybe just yardwork around our two houses and working on the ship, depending on how he acts when I talk to him about this all.”
Michael again drove to Evan’s house, and knocked on the back door.

“Hi Mrs. Miller, I need to see Evan again, is he here?”

“Of course, of course, come in, come in. He’s just up stairs,” she said.

Michael followed her up to Evan’s room. A big “Keep Out” sign was scotch-taped to the door. Mrs. Miller tapped gently. She tapped again. She knocked full out. “Evan, may I come in,” she said.

She turned to Michael. “I guess he’s sleeping,” she said.

“Can we try the door?” Michael asked.

She wiggled the handle. Locked.

Michael pulled a ballpoint pen from his pocket. He used his teeth to pull off the end, and used the ink filler to unlock the door. Mrs. Miller had stepped back, but was looking on disapprovingly. “We try not to invade his privacy any more than we must,” she said.

“It’s an emergency,” Michael said brusquely. He pushed open the door. The window was wide open, and Evan was not in the room.

“Maybe he’s in the bathroom,” Mrs. Miller suggested.

Michael swung open his bathroom door. “Nope, ‘fraid not. If you’ll excuse me, please, ma’am.” Michael ran down the stairs and out of the house back to his truck. Mrs. Miller yelled out the window at him, “If you see Evan, please tell him he’s grounded until Easter, now.”

Michael waved as he pulled out of the drive.

Not knowing where else to go, Michael drove toward home. As he pulled into his driveway, he was startled to see Evan sitting on the front steps of his house. The boy had dried blood all over his face and the front of his shirt.

Michael left his truck, and went to sit next to the boy. “What’s up, Evan?” he asked quietly.

“Like you don’t know,” Evan said. “I didn’t mean to hurt her, really I didn’t. I just didn’t think. Is she ok?”

“She almost drowned, you know. You came very very close to killing someone. The only thing that kept you from being the cause of Brianne’s death was that she was smart enough to grab onto the anchor line and hold on.”

“I didn’t think of that,” Evan said. “I figured she could swim.”

“She can, but not with a broken nose and cheekbone, and of course, ribs,” Michael answered sarcastically.

“I didn’t think of that,” Evan said again.

“What did you think of?” Michael asked.

“I just wanted to get revenge for you basically kicking me out of Pirate Club. I didn’t want to leave, you just didn’t play fair. So you’re right, I cut the steering lines, and the anchor line, and stole the spare anchor. And today I was just trying to clean out all the cubbies – I wasn’t going to take anything, I was just going to leave it in garbage bags with the trash. “

Michael forced his clenched hands to relax, but didn’t say anything as Evan continued his explanation.

“And then you told that lady to keep me on the boat so that you could catch me. I didn’t know how else to make her stop – I didn’t really want to hurt her, but I didn’t know how else to make her stop! I don’t think I punched her that hard. And I wouldn’t have kicked her, but she kept trying to get up! If she had just stayed out of my way, I wouldn’t have even hit her.”

“Evan, the only thing that Pirate Club has ever done, ever stood for, was to take responsibility for your actions – even if the results aren’t what you thought they would be. And every time I tried to teach you that lesson, you blamed someone else for your mistakes – even now. All you needed to do today was to say, yes, I did it, yes it was a mistake, yes, I’ll do whatever it takes to make up for it. Not I’m sorry. Not I didn’t mean it. And most definitely not, ‘if she had stayed out of my way…’. What makes me really sad right now is that I came over to give another chance to take responsibility and that you still can’t take advantage of it.”

“You think you’re so much better than me, don’t you?” Evan said with a sneer. “How do you think all the Pirate Club mommies will feel when they find out you’ve been screwing your girlfriend on the ship while their babies are sailing it unsupervised?”

“What are you talking about?” Michael said.

“You think that I didn’t hear you on their moaning and groaning the night that I messed with the steering? I was onboard the entire time, until after you and your girlfriend left. Then I left you my little present, and swam back to shore.”

“Tell whomever you want, whatever you want,” Michael said. “I don’t think anyone will really believe anything of someone who just admitted to beating someone else up just because she was in your way. Not to mention, tossing an injured woman overboard and leaving her there, essentially to drown.”

Michael was halfway expecting it, but hadn’t really fully braced himself. Evan punched him full-force in the face. Michael reeled backwards, and caught himself against the top step of the porch. Unlike Brianne, however, one punch wasn’t enough to bring him down. Michael launched himself off the steps at Evan, catching him in a [bear-hug] tackle around Evan’s legs.

Evan folded onto the dirt path leading up to Michael’s front steps, down but not incapacitated. He kicked and elbowed Michael, finally getting him to loosen his grip enough to wiggle around and start throwing punches. Michael had never realized how
difficult it was to be in a fight with someone intent on killing you when you didn’t want to hurt them.

Finally, he succeeded in hog-tying Evan on the ground using his belt to hold hand to foot. Michael didn’t think it would hold for long, so he looked around for an alternative solution. He spotted it across the yard in the form of the box of heavy rope that he used for his swordfighting class.

Michael sprinted across the lawn, and grabbed two of the lengths of rope from the bin where he stored it. He sprinted back and again threw himself at Evan, who had escaped from the hog-tying and was fleeing down the dirt path to the road.

Michael chased him until Evan ran into in the thick forest about a mile out of town past Michael’s house. Michael stood, panting for breath, at the edge of the road and watched as Evan disappeared from view.

Michael staggered home and called Brianne. “Evan was at my house,” he said. “He admitted to everything, but still didn’t take responsibility for any of it. He tried to beat me up, and then ran away. I lost him in McMillan’s Woods. I’m going to call the police and give them a statement, but I wanted to talk to you first.”

Michael, Judy, and Elayne picked Brianne up at the hospital two days later. “It’s good to go home,” Brianne sighed.

“I liked it at Judy’s, mama. I got to sleep in Alex’s bedroom, and there was all sorts of boy things in the room.”

Judy smiled at Brianne. “Maybe you can come back and we can have another sleepover some night soon,” she told Elayne. “But you have to wait until your mama’s all better, ok?”

“Uh-huh, I have to help Mama while she’s sick.”

Michael helped Brianne into the house and onto the cot they had set up in the living room. Outfitting her with a selection of novels, the remote for the television, a box of chocolates, and a bowl of fruit. “Now you can pretend to be a woman of leisure,” Michael said as he adjusted her pillow. “You can watch all the soap-operas that your heart desires, not to mention…” he lifted a DVD off the stack by the tv, “…The Little Mermaid. Maybe I’ll stop by with some other movies later, I don’t know if making you watch Disney movies when you can’t run away is quite fair.”
It took Brianne a full week of unrelieved bed rest before her ribs were in suitable enough shape for the doctor to approve walking around. By that time, she had completely caught up on her to-be-read list, she had watched every movie on her ‘to watch’ list, and eaten much more chocolate than was good for her.
Finally, the doctor having approved short drives, and walking and standing in short doses, Brianne drove out to Michael’s house. He let her in, and helped her lay on his couch.

“Thank you for saving me,” she said. “I know you were mad at me, and I really appreciate you looking so hard for me when you didn’t even know for sure that I was still there.”

Michael looked puzzled. “What did you think I’d do?” he asked.

Brianne shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s not what I think you in particular might have done, but that you weren’t positive I was even in the area – you had no way of knowing – and yet you kept looking for me until you found me. Oh, and the crew knows that I was on the ship, now, don’t they?”

Michael nodded soberly. “I told them the whole story. Elayne was a little annoyed that you wouldn’t let her go by herself, but the rest of the crew was so excited by the idea of a stowaway that even she didn’t get too mad.”

“I guess I should apologize to them – at least to Elayne. I’m sure she felt like I was babying her. And I guess I might have been, to start with. But then …” Brianne shrugged. “I went along more for the adventure – it’s not often that adults get to be sneaky like that, doing something that we’re not supposed to do.”

“Was that it?” Michael asked, gently pushing a piece of hair out of Brianne’s eyes.

“No, I guess that wasn’t all. There was the little matter of the dashing Pirate Captain, and a certain…je ne se quios about being the stowaway that only the Captain knew about. Now I suppose I’ll have to stop sneaking onboad, hm?”

“Unfortunately,” Michael agreed. “But you could go on our adventures as the Pirate Captain’s woman.”

Brianne smiled up at him, “The Pirate Captain’s Woman…that sounds like the name of a cheesy romance novel, doesn’t it? I’m picturing a demure blonde woman with the front of her dress ripped, and a strong, long-haired man with his hand around her, leaning in for a kiss.”

Michael leaned in to kiss Brianne, but was cut off when she turned her head. “I have something I need to tell you,” she said after he pulled back.

Michael raised an eyebrow in curiousity.

“I don’t know how to tell you – I don’t want you to be mad at me again – but I got an agent for my novel. I found out last night.”

Michael was quiet for a long time, but Brianne was slightly reassured by the fact that he didn’t stop gently rubbing her hair. Finally, he said, “Congratulations. I’m happy for you.”

“Really?” Brianne asked.

“I’m sorry I was such a jerk about your comments on my manuscript. I read through them while you were out of commission, and while I don’t agree with some of them, a lot of them were very good points. I’m going to go through and do another round of editing, and then send it out again. Maybe someday, we’ll both get published.”

“You weren’t a jerk exactly. I might have overdone it a bit, I guess.”

“A bit?” Michael asked jokingly. “I think there was more red than black print in that novel when you finished with it.”

Brianne shrugged, blushing. “I was trying to help.”

Michael bent and kissed her, this time full on the lips. He let his fingers trace her face, her lips, and then he kissed her again, longer and more passionately. Eventually, he stretched out on the couch, laying beside Brianne, careful not to crowd her, as they lay entwined together, kissing and touching.

Brianne was healed up to her doctor’s satisfaction within a month. She was warned not to lift anything heavy, and while she still wasn’t feeling perfect, she was well enough to go about her daily routine without the past month’s severe limitations.

A full four months after Brianne first bid on Michael at the charity auction, he picked her up for their date. Brianne begged and pleaded for Michael to tell her what his plan for the date was, but he wouldn’t break down, other than relenting and telling her to wear a nice dress and to be ready at noon.

Brianne had dressed her winter best in a long black silk and burnt velvet dress that she had only worn once, to a friend’s New Years Eve wedding in New York. She was tempted to wear the stilettos that she bought to go with the dress, but had second thoughts due to the still-healing state of her ankle and ribs. Eventually, she settled on a strappy and sparkly pair of low heels, that were nice enough to go with the dress but safe enough to walk in.

Michael knocked on the door promptly at noon, and entered in response to Brianne’s shouted “Come in!”

“I’ll be ready in just a minute,” she said yelling from the bedroom. “Make yourself a drink if you want, or there’s cola and OJ in the fridge.”

Michael sat on the couch, and flipped open one of the writing magazines that were laying on the coffee table. “Is Elayne staying with Judy?” he asked.

“Yeah, she was all excited about another sleepover in Alex’s room. Judy apparently agreed to even let one of the dogs in to sleep with her… I don’t even want to think about it because she’s going to want a puppy as soon as she gets home. I think it’s Judy’s way of getting her favorite puppies adopted,what do you think?”

Brianne stepped into the living room, and was please at Michael’s stunned expression.

“You look beautiful,” he said.

“You look very handsome, yourself,” she answered, fingering the buttons on his dark grey jacket. She stood on her tip-toes and pressed her lips to his in a welcoming kiss. “So will you tell me now where we’re going?”

“No,” Michael smiled. “But you’ll find out soon enough.”

Michael helped Brianne into the passenger seat of his truck, then went around to his own side. He flipped the radio on to the Christmas music station as he backed the truck up onto the road.

Brianne started to get an inkling of some of the plan five hours later, as they pulled onto the [White Plains Parkway]. “Why are we going to New York?” she asked.

“You’ll find out,” was Michael’s only answer.

Brianne smiled in pleasure as Michael helped her out of the truck at the valet parking station of the Four Seasons, her favorite Manhattan hotel. It had snowed the night before, and there was still a light coating on the windowsills of the building and in places on the sidewalks.

“May I help you with your bags, sir,” a bellman asked politely.

“Yes, please,” Michael answered, handing him two suitcases from the back of the truck that Brianne hadn’t noticed when she got in.

“I didn’t bring a change of clothes,” she said quietly to Michael.

“Yes, thanks to Judy and Elayne, you did.”

Michael left Brianne sitting on one of the beautifully upholstered chairs in the lobby, watching the bags, while he checked in.

“I hope you don’t mine, I only got one room,” Michael said as he returned. “It has two queen beds, though,”

“I don’t think we’ll need them,” Brianne answered archly, winking at him, and kissing him on the cheek.

Michael wisely chose not to respond to that particular flirtation, and instead asked, “Do you need to freshen up, or are you ready to head out? We have six-thirty dinner reservations.”

“I’m ready, but could you help me on with my coat? I can’t get it myself…”

Michael took it from her, and helped her place on arm in it, then the other. Very delicately, he lifted her hair from underneath the collar of the jacket, and kissed the nape of her neck, just behind her ear. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured.

Brianne enjoyed the seconds that he held her, then turned and kissed him, face to face. “I’m so glad I’m here with you,” she said, looking into his eyes.

Michael had made a dinner reseravation for them at XXX, one of the nicest restaurants in the city. Brianne had only eaten there once, paid for by a magazine that was courting her as their in-house book reviewer. “Why here?” she asked.

“Don’t you like it?” he said.

“I do, it’s just so expensive,” she said. “Between the hotel room, the dinner, and god knows what else, this is costing you way more than the seven-hundred that I paid for the date.”

“You’re worth it,” Michael answered, kissing her on the forehead lightly. “Just relax and enjoy yourself, and don’t worry about how much it costs.”

Michael and Brianne enjoyed the ultimate in a luxurious dinner, with five courses including a perfectly decadent chocolate dessert.

It was nearly nine o’clock when they finally pulled away from the table. “I think that was the most wonderful dinner ever,” Brianne sighed. “Thank you.”

“The night isn’t over yet,” Michael said. He hailed a taxi, and quietly told the driver where they were going. Brianne sat quietly in the backseat of the cab, cuddled in Michael’s arm, basking in the glow of a wonderful dinner, until they pulled up in front of the XXX theatre.

“Oh my god, how did you know?” she gushed.

The usher helped them find their seats for the ten o’clock show, which Brianne was stunned to see were in the second row in front of the stage. “These are the best seats I’ve ever had, not to mention on opening night of my favorite play ever.”

Michael spent nearly as much time watching Brianne’s reaction to the play as watching the play itself. Her joy was almost luminescent, and when her face clouded over in reaction to the death of one of the characters, Michael couldn’t resist leaning over and kissing her. In response, Brianne took his hand and held it in both of hers for the duration of the play.

When the cast took their final bows, Michael and Brianne stood with the rest of the audience, giving the cast a roaring standing ovation. Brianne turned to Michael, “I love you so much! That was the best play of my life!”

She realized what she had said, and suddenly went quiet. Then her face took on a determined expression, and she said, “I do, you know. Love you, that is.” She shrugged as if it didn’t matter to her how he felt.

Michael’s face almost broke from smiling so widely. “I’m glad you said that. I love you too. I’ve never felt like this before, ever.”

Michael and Brianne held hands out onto the street. “The night isn’t over yet,” Michael said. He again hailed a cab. This time the cab took them back to the hotel.

Michael led Brianne up to their room. “Stay out here and close your eyes,” he requested, as they stood in front of their door. “I’ll be just a second.”

Brianne did as he requested, almost dancing from the excitement of the surprise. Finally, Michael returned to the hallway to let Brianne in. “Keep your eyes closed until I tell you to open them, ok?”

Michael led Brianne into the center of the hotel room. He stood behind her and put his hands over her eyes for good measure. Then, after they stopped walking, he lowered his hands and said, “Okay, you can open your eyes now.”

Brianne slowly opened her eyes, and found herself staring at a full two walls of the New York Skyline. The suite was positively decadent for downtown Manhattan. The North and East wallls of the ‘living’ room were entirely glass, giving a panoramic view of the nighttime lights of the city. Brianne was captivated. “It’s amazing,” she said, turning to Michael. But he wasn’t there. Instead, she saw a trail of rose petals leading into the other room of the suite.

Brianne followed the path, wondering what she would find at the end. As she entered the other room, she was shocked to find a large pile of rose petals on the center of one of the beds, with a small wrapped box placed squarely in the center.

Michael stepped from behind her. “Open it,” he said.

Brianne slowly lifted the gift from the bed, and untied the ribbon from around it. Slipping the box from the paper, she waited a long second, thinking. Opening the box, she saw the most exquisite diamond and ruby ring she had ever seen. She turned to look at Michael, who was still standing behind her.

“It’s not what you think,” Michael said. “I just saw it, and I’ve never seen a more perfect piece of jewelry for anyone. I had to buy it for you. Consider it an “I love you,” ring.”

Brianne turned and kissed him, deeply. All of a sudden, she turned and led him to the rose petal free bed. “Let’s see what kind of “I love you” gift I might be able to find for you.”

Michael and Brianne spent the whole next day doing typical New York at Christmas activities – ice skating at Rockafeller Center, shopping at FAO Schwartz, enjoying the windows on 5th Avenue, and strolling through Central Park.

Brianne noticed what was different as the strolled through Rockafeller Plaza to get coffee after ice skating – they felt like a couple now, to her. It was an effort not to constantly hold hands with Michael. She wasn’t sure if he noticed it or if it was only her, but it didn’t really matter because she liked the feeling.

Another wonderful dinner later and night later, it was time to go home.

They left first thing in the morning, the back of Michael’s truck much more package laden than it was when they arrived in New York. As they pulled into Brianne’s driveway, she let out a sigh. “I’m sad to be back – I had such an amazing weekend, I wish it could have lasted forever.”

She slowly got out of the truck and opened the door to the house. Michael helped her carry her luggage and packages in from the truck, and get them hidden in places that Elayne hopefully wouldn’t look before Christmas. Finally, there was no more reason for Michael to procrastinate leaving.

“When will I see you again,” he asked.

“When do you want to see me again? I’m always either here or at your sister’s house.”

“You know that’s not what I mean. When can we go out again?”

“How about if we go out on Tuesday night as a family – you, me, Judy, Elayne, Alex if he’s in town. Would that work?”

“It’s not what I had in mind,” he said, “but it’s a start. I’ll admit I was afraid that once I got you back here, you’d tell me that you never wanted to see me again, especially now that our ‘date’ is all evened up.”

“No,” Brianne answered slowly, “I don’t want to lose you.”

“Trust me,” Michael said, “I’m very hard to get rid of on purpose, much less lose by accident.”

Brianne laughed and kissed him, and Michael kissed her back, and soon the kissing turned into much more than kissing. They collapsed onto Brianne’s bed, shoving the still-packed luggage off onto the floor.

They lay in bed for a long while afterward, Brianne’s head nestled into the little hollow on Michael’s chest just below his collar bone. They didn’t say anything, but Michael’s breathing told Brianne he wasn’t asleep. She felt content and safe, just laying there, spent, in his arms.

Brianne and Michael picked Elayne up together at Judy’s. As soon as Brianne walked through the door, Elayne launched herself at her mother. Brianne started laughing at the hugs and kisses that Elayne was showering on her.

Judy stepped out into the living room, and a knowing look passed over her face as she looked at the way Brianne and Michael were standing together. “I see you had a good trip,” she said simply.

“You could say that,” Michael answered for both of them.

Brianne blushed. She didn’t know it would be that obvious for anyone who knew both of them. “Thanks for watching Elayne while I was gone, Judy. Will you and Alex, if he’s home, come out to dinner with us tomorrow night? My treat, to say thanks.”

“No need for thanks,” Judy said. “We had a great time. It’s been a hoot watching all the Disney movies—I haven’t seen a lot of them since Alex was a kid. But you know my cooking – so I’d love to go to dinner with you. Alex is at school for another week, though. Right now, the lucky boy is studying for finals. I don’t miss those days at all.”

Michael dropped Brianne and Elayne off at home, and drove back to his own house. He’d lived alone forever, and this was the first time that his house had felt empty with just him in it. He wouldn’t have thought that just spending one full weekend with Brianne would have made such a difference in his life.

He spent the evening unpacking his suitcase, wrapping the gifts that he bought for Judy, Alex, Elayne, and of course, Brianne. When he finished, it was only ten o’clock – to early to go to bed, and he was too stir-crazy to watch television or a book as was his usual tendency.

By eleven-thirty, Michael was attempting, for the third time, to focus on the home-improvement show that he had recorded, when his doorbell rang. Brianne was shivering on his front steps.

“I had to call Judy to watch Elayne for a minute, I needed to see you.”

“I missed you,” Michael said. “Isn’t this pathetic, we’ve only been apart for three hours.”

“Come home with me,” Brianne said. “I don’t want to stay without you any more. I know this is competely stupid and rushing things and everything else bad that I could possibly do in a relationship, but I love you and I want to be with you. Please come home with me?”

“Let me get a change of clothes. Can you drop me home tomorrow morning, so you don’t have my car parked in your driveway all night long to let the neighbors know exactly what’s going on?”

“Of course. I’ll drop you when I take Elayne to school, if that’s ok with you.”

“It’s fine with me, but are you sure you want Elayne to know that I’m spending the night?”

“I want you to be part of our lives for a very long time – so I think she may as well get used to it now, rather than hiding it from her.”

Michael threw a change of clothes into his suitcase, and tossed it into Brianne’s trunk. They arrived back at Brianne’s house where Judy was babysitting while Brianne was out.

Judy’s eyes widened as they walked in the door. “Brianne asked me to sit for a minute, and now I know why… I’m happy for you both. I can’t think of anyone more suitable for one an other.”


Six months later…
Michael walked into the house from outside. “I just got a call from Troy,” he told Brianne.

“Oh?” Troy was the Assistant District Attorney who was prosecuting Evan’s case. He and Michael shared an affinity for carpentry, and more specifically, model ship building.

“Evan got forty-eight hours community service, and a minimum of three years probation. The community service is going to be helping scour graffiti off the walls of the high-school, so there’s retribution for the mess he made of LeChuck’s Revenge. I’m just disappointed that he didn’t get something that might force him to take responsibility for his actions – because I’m sure he’ll find a ton of reasons why his cleaning takes him so long, or it’s so much harder for him than everyone else.”

Brianne shrugged. “I’m not bothered by it. He’ll either learn or he’ll keep doing stuff and getting caught for it, and eventually learn that way. He’s getting too old for the excuses to be cute any more.”

“Where’s Elayne,” Michael asked, changing the subject.

“On LeChuck’s Revenge, doing something – I’m not sure what, she told me it was a secret. All I know is that she said she’d call me when the surprise was ready.”

“Uh-oh. Should I be concerned?” Michael’s smile told Brianne he was only joking. Elayne’s behavior had improved a thousandfold when she joined Pirate Club, and even more than that when Michael started living with them.

“I think you know about as much as I do,” Brianne told him. “I have no idea what she’s doing – I’m just hoping it’s something nice like scouring the hold or something gross of that nature. I think I might be overestimating this surprise, though.”

“Oh, you slacker. You’re just trying to push your responsiblities as the Pirate Captain’s woman off on some other unfortunate person.” He laughed affectionately, and pulled Brianne close for a hug.

She cuddled in closely, and kissed him as well. They stayed like that for a few minutes, just enjoying the closeness of one another.

“Have you looked at the mail today,” Brianne asked. “There was a certified letter for you in there.”

“I wonder what it could be,” Michael said, walking toward the table where they stacked the mail. He opened it, and his eyes widened.

“Did we win the lottery?” Brianne asked, laughing at his expression.

“Almost as good,” Michael said holding the letter out reverently. “I got an offer for my novel, plus an offer of an advance for the next in the series if I want to write it. I did it, Brianne! I got an offer for my novel! About Pirate Club!”

Brianne hugged him, laughing as he started jumping up and down, holding her and the letter, looking from one to the other as if he couldn’t believe either were true. “I’m so happy for you, I just knew you could do it! Call Judy, tell her the good news.”

Michael leaving a message for Judy when Elayne walked back into the house. “What’s going on?” she asked.

“Michael has an offer for his book,” Brianne told her. “That means it’ll get published soon.”

Elayne’s face lit up. “That’s so exciting. He’ll be a real published author! And all my friends parents can buy his book!” She ran over to Michael and gave him a huge hug.

Michael finished his phone call, and swept both Brianne and Elayne into another hug. “I’ve got everything I’ve ever wanted. My two girls, and I’m going to be an author!”

“Can I show you my surprise now?” Elayne asked.

They followed her down to the dock, and onto the ship. “Follow me,” she requested, as she nimbly decended the steps into the Captain’s cabin. “Close your eyes,” she said as they reached the foot of the stair. She guided them both into the cabin.

All of the usual navigational accoutrements had been put away, and the table was set with a white table cloth, white and gold porcelian dishes that Brianne recognized as her formal set that she normally only took out at Christmas, white linen napkins, and gold napkin rings. Two taper candles were set in the middle of the table. “I didn’t want to play with fire, so I didn’t light them,” Elayne explained.

“This is beautiful,” Brianne exclaimed. “What made you do all this?”

Elayne and Michael shared an conspiritorial smile. “Just ‘cause,” Elayne said. She walked to the sideboard, normally covered in maps held down by paperweights, and picked up two gold and white folders. She handed one to each, Brianne and Michael. “Your menus. And your chef for tonight is Judy Davis, who specializes in the finest of cuisines.”

Brianne applauded. “Very nice, very nice.” She gestured at the two place settings on the table. “Aren’t you and Judy going to join us?”

“No, mom! I’m your waitress tonight!” Elayne held out the chairs for both Michael and Brianne to sit down, poured them some water from the decanter left on the sideboard, and left the cabin.

“Did you plan this?” Brianne asked Michael.

“Me? Of course not! Would I plan something so devious as this?” His sparkling blue eyes and huge sexy smile told her that he was lying through his teeth.

“Why? This must have been so much work! You didn’t need to do this!”

“Just sit back and enjoy, Brianne. I love you, I want you to have a wonderful night.”

Brianne sat back in her chair, mind still wrapped up in all kinds of questions that she chose to ignore in favor of admiring the wonderfully male specimen before her.

Dinner was actually more relaxing than Brianne expected. Elayne provided a rather more unobtrusive waitress than Brianne was used to, the food was good, which was to be expected since it was food that Michael had cooked and frozen for Judy that had been re-heated.

The only eventful moment occurred when Elayne brought out an unopened bottle of wine, and tried to uncork it at the table as she’d seen waitresses do in the fancier restaurants that she’d been to. First she struggled with getting the wrapper off, nearly cutting off a finger with the waiter’s corkscrew trying to cut through it. Then she broke the cork in half, trying to remove it from the bottle. Michael eventually took pity on her, and claimed the bottle and the wine opener, promising to give her lessons later.

Brianne leaned back in her chair, pleasantly full. Elayne had just gone off to pour coffee and bring dessert, and Michael was lounging in his chair similar to Brianne. The dinner conversation had been sterling, and the company was exactly what Brianne had always dreamed of.

“You look happy,” Michael observed.

“This was such a wonderful day, your book finding a publisher, this wonderful dinner, just everything. I can’t think of anything that might have made it any better.”

“Really?” Michael asked. “I can think of one thing that might make it a little better.”

“What’s that?” Brianne asked, curiously.

At that moment, Elayne walked in with two steaming cups of coffee and three plates covered in silver [covers]. The first she set in front of Michael. The remaining two, she placed in front of Brianne. Brianne looked up at her daughter, “Why two?” Elayne shrugged, and took a step back, hovering in front of the sideboard.

Michael lifted the cover off his plate – a delicious looking slice of chocolate cake. Brianne lifted the cover off her first plate – also a piece of cake. She looked from Michael to Elayne with confusion apparent on her face. Receiving no answer, she lifted the cover off the second plate. Resting in the middle of the plate was a silvery gray ring box.

Brianne stopped breathing, and looked up at Michael to see if what she expected was true. She caught his eyes, and the anticipation on his face was more than she could bear. “Open it, Mom!” Elayne urged, breaking the spell.

Brianne slowly lifted the box from the plate, and opened it. A beautiful three-stone diamond ring winked back at her. “One stone for each of us,” Michael said. “I’d like to be a part of your and Elayne’s life forever, if you’ll have me. Will you marry me, Brianne?”

Tears welled up in Brianne’s eyes. “Yes, yes, forever yes. Oh, I love you.”

Michael leaned over the table and slipped the ring on her finger. He then stood and came over to her side of the table, and started kissing her, just tiny little pecks all over her face, kissing the tears of joy away.

“Uck,” Elayne said loudly. “Get a room, you two.”

Both Brianne and Michael laughed, and included Elayne in the group hug, and then Judy as well, as soon as she poked her head in to confirm Brianne’s acceptance.


Another six months later…

Judy and Elayne helped Brianne into her wedding gown – a sleekly white and dark red silk confection. “I’ve always dreamed of a winter wedding,” Brianne said as she waited patiently for Elayne to finish buttoning the endless row on her back. “Now it’s finally time for it. Are you happy? Are you sure you’re ok with this?”

“Mom, I love Michael as much as you do. I’m so happy for you, and for our family.” Elayne was dressed in a dark red dress to match her mother’s. “Now if we could only get a puppy, everything would be perfect.”

Brianne snorted. “You and your puppies – I’ll tell you the same thing that I’ve told you before, we’ll talk about it after Christmas.”

“But what’s so special about after Christmas? Judy’s going to find homes for all of Guybrush and Bettina’s puppies if you don’t hurry up,” she wheedled.

Brianne looked at Judy and smiled. “So you know what that means?” she asked Elayne. “That means that you’ll just have to wait for another litter of puppies to come along. They do, fairly often, if you think about it.”

“But it’s not the same,” Elayne whined. At Judy’s sharp look, she stopped, and busied herself adjusting the back of her mother’s wedding gown.

Finally the music started playing. Judy stepped out first, winding her way down the long aisle. As she reached the altar, she stepped aside and looked back toward the church entrance, waiting for Elayne and Brianne.

Both Brianne and Elayne were glowing in their wedding dresses. Elayne escorted her mother down the aisle, only waving to her Pirate Club friends once when Allison hissed her name. As they reached the altar, Elayne kissed both Brianne and Michael, and went to stand next to Judy.

The ceremony was brief and traditional, but both Brianne and Michael had insisted on writing their own vows. Brianne struggled to keep her voice from wavering as she recited from memory: “Michael, I promise to love you and cherish you for as long as I live. [fill in the rest of Brianne’s vows. Make sure to say something about respecting the successes of the other]

Then it was Michael’s turn. Michael knew that in front of all their family and friends, he didn’t want to risk being caught speechless, so he had written his vows on an index card. He withdrew it from his pocket, and read, “[fill in Michael’s vows – mention becoming part of their family to include Elayne in the vows, and respecting Brianne’s sucesses].”

“And you may now kiss the bride,” was the next thing that Brianne heard. Michael swept her up in his arms, and kissed her to the applause of their friends. And he continued kissing her until Elayne shouted “Get a room!” The entire church cracked up.


Brianne and Michael had decided to hold the reception at the Elk’s Club where they first met. The band was set up on the stage where Michael was first auctioned off, the walls were draped in velvet that matched the exact white of Brianne’s dress, and tied off with satin rope that matched the red sash of her dress.

In the center of each table was a small ceramic pirate ship flanked by gold candles, and instead of place cards, in the center of each plate was a fake gold coin with the name of the person sitting in that spot engraved on it.

Each door was festooned in poinsettia and white roses, and an arch of red and white roses was placed behind the Bride and Groom’s seats. Judy had taken special responsibility for decorating the buffet table. She had used a red tablecloth matching the rest of the décor and Brianne’s dress, and white porcelain dishes. White roses and gold coins had been placed decoratively around the table, and a pirate-ship ice sculpture took the place of honor in the center of the table.

The guests slowly trickled in, and the band started playing – Brianne had made a few stipulations in terms of the music – no Electric Slide, no Funky Chicken, and definitely no Hokey Pokey. But besides that, the band was free to play whatever they wanted and the guests requested.

The band suddenly cut the music off, and the lead singer said, “And now, I’m told that the wedding party is ready to enter. May I please present the maid of honor, Judy Davis, and the best man, Connor Davenport.” The band played a riff of funky music as Judy and Connor walked in arm in arm, and Connor swept Judy into a dip.

“And the best daughter, Elayne Clarke” the singer continued. Elayne skipped in, waving to her friends, and took a huge dramatic bow in the middle of the dance floor.

“And I’m pleased to present, for the first time as husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Michael and Brianne Davis. Let’s give them a round of applause, ladies and gentleman.” The band broke into a fast paced version of the “Wedding March” that sounded closer to Queen’s “We are the Champions.” Michael and Brianne entered and kissed one another in the center of the dance floor. Michael then spontaneously picked Brianne up and spun around with her, then deposited her neatly in her seat.

Michael and Brianne started the dancing to a romantic eighties song that they both loved. As they were sweeping around the floor, Brianne whispered in Michael’s ear. “Guess what I found out today?”

“That you love me more than life itself?” Michael whispered back.

“Well, that too, but that wasn’t actually what I was going to say. My agent called this morning – I’ve got a two-book deal for Pirate Princesses and it’s sequel. Pirate Princesses will be published in the spring. Can you believe it?”

Michael’s face lit up with joy for her. “That’s so wonderful. I knew it’d happen.” He stopped dancing and turned to the audience. “Folks, my new wife here just told me that her novel that she’s been working on, about the ladies of Pirate Club,” dramatic gesture at Elayne, Gina, and Allison, “is set to be published this coming spring. Let’s give her a round of applause.”

As the guests clapped, Michael and Brianne resumed dancing.

As they finished their dance, the rest of the guests began dancing. Michael left Brianne at their table, and offered to dance with Elayne. Elayne accepted with a grandiose gesture, and proceeded to step on Michael’s toes so often he started to think it was deliberate.

Brianne noticed that Judy and Connor were still dancing together, three songs later. That was interesting. She made a mental note to ask Judy about it later.

It was early in the morning when the last guests left to return home. A few of Michael’s former Pirate Club Crew had volunteered, as a wedding gift to the couple, to be designated drivers for anyone who needed it within town, so they finished ferrying the last of the partiers to their homes or hotels.

Judy had taken Elayne home with her a few hours before, and Michael and Brianne had said goodbye to the last guests and gone home shortly thereafter. They had decided that rather than taking a honey-moon as a couple, they would take a family vacation to California instead, leaving the following week. So rather than rushing from their wedding reception to a flight, Michael and Brianne returned to Michael’s house – their family’s new home – to enjoy their first night as a married couple.

What they hadn’t expected was the decorating that Judy and Elayne had apparently done on their way home from the reception.

Brand new, silk-feeling white sheets, and a richly luxurious feeling gold and red comforter adorned Michael’s bed. Fresh-smelling candles were placed strategically on the bed tables and in front of the mirror on the dresser to reflect light across the room.

A bouquet of white roses sat square in the middle of the pillows, and a white envelope was placed on each nightstand. One envelope read “Mom,” and the other read, “Michael.”

Brianne opened hers first. It read: Mom, I love you very much and I hope you had the best day ever, today. I know I did. Your Pirate daughter, Elayne Marley Clarke-Davis. Her eyes teared up at Elayne’s thoughtfulness.

Michael opened his next, and Brianne read over his shouder: Captain Michael – or I guess I should call you Dad, now, if it’s ok with you. I love you very much and I hope you had the best day ever today. I know I did. Thank you for joining our family. Your Pirate daughter, Elayne Marley Clarke-Davis. PS. I hope it’s ok if I call myself Elayne Clarke-Davis, now. It sounds nice. Love you!

Brianne and Michael carefully set the letters down to be added to their wedding album. IT had been the best day ever.

Michael smiled at Brianne, with a special glint in his eye, and said, “We have to change your name, now, you know?”

“Oh?” Brianne answered.

“Yeah, you’re no longer the Pirate Captain’s woman. Now you’re the Pirate Captain’s Wife.”

The End.