Week 1
The Rotary Club Hall that they had rented was packed to the gills with people. Michael and Judy had set up twenty-five tables, each seating fourteen people comfortably, and it was clear from a quick survey of the room that every table held considerably more than that number.
Judy was on stage, doing her best imitation of an auctioneer. “C’mon, ladies, I’ve got seventy-five, do I hear one hundred? Look at this specimen, here.” She gestured dramatically at the doctor’s six-pack abs.
A woman in the audiece raised her hand for a hundred.
“Two hundred,” another voice in the audience called.
“Do I hear two-fifty?” Judy asked. She waited a pregnant moment. “No? Going… Sold for two-fifty to Dr. Jacobson’s mother.” The audience laughed as a neat-looking older lady climbed on stage, and mock-pulled Dr. Jacobson off-stage by his ear.
“I bet he’s happy to have avoided you ladies tonight. That bidding was fierce! Now for our last bachelor, the reason I’m sure many of you ladies came out tonight, and my own personal favorite brother… okay, sure he’s my only brother, but he’s still my favorite… Michael Davis. And ladies, I can guarantee that our mother isn’t here tonight to bid on him.”
Michael paled as he stepped into the spot-light. It suddenly seemed like the packed hall held eight times as many women as it had before he got on-stage. He forced himself to breathe slowly through his nose, counting as he inhaled. One, two, three, four, five… no, no, I’m counting too fast. Exhale. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale. Exhale.
Michael forced himself to smile, to do his best to look appealing, dateable. Judy may have blackmailed him into this, but she was right, it was for a good cause.
“…All right, ladies, you pay more to have your tires changed. The least you can do is chip in a bit more to date the mechanic! Do I hear three-fifty?”
One of the women toward the stage shouted, “Five hundred.”
Michael forced himself to look past the glare of the spot-light to see who it was that was bidding so much on him. He couldn’t tell for sure, but he thought the voice sounded like Evan Miller’s mother. He hoped he was wrong.
“How about five-ten?” Judy asked the audience.
Michael couldn’t tell who was who past the chairs closest to the stage. He knew he must look ridiculous squinting into the lights, but it was hard not to when people were bidding, now more than five hundred dollars for a date with him.
The bidding was stalling at five forty-five. “Alright, ladies, you’ve gone this far. Let’s make it a nice even number, say five-fifty?”
In the middle of the crowd, a raspy voice spoke just above the crowd. “Seven hundred.”
Michael’s efforts at controlling his breathing failed when he heard seven-hundred. He finally regained control of himself when he started feeling slightly faint, and forced himself to breathe slowly, not to hyperventalate.
“Seven-ten.” Judy said. “Any takers? No? Sold for seven hundred to the lady in the purple sweater.”
It wasn’t Craig Tyler’s mother was it? She had a raspy voice, and she had certainly made it clear that she was interested whenever he was. But her husband didn’t make enough for her to bid seven hundred dollars in a charity event, did he?
The raspy voice helped narrow it down a little. Not many of his kids’ mothers were older, most were the sweet-faced, mid-twenties mother who was trying her best to trade in her expectations of being able to have everything, for focusing on having just one thing at a time. Most often that one thing was something as simple as getting Johnny to eat something that was not suffixed by ‘…and cheese’.
Giada Spadaccini’s mother might have a voice like that. She definitely looked like she might have a raspy Katherine Hepburn-esque voice, but then again, she’s never actually speaks. But between her figure and the chain-smoking, she could have a voice like that…
Michael stepped back stage and let out a heavy breath of relief. Good god he hated that out of his element feeling. And he really hated being center-stage.
The backstage was plastered with posters of the various plays that had been performed over the years. His eye was caught by the trailing plant tendrils creeping out of a sticker plastered chest on-stage. No, it couldn’t be. He fingered the tendrils. Audry II shows up in some strange places.
The lady in the purple sweater, the winning bidder, peeked behind the curtain separating the back-staage from the stage. It seemed to Michael as if she were checking to make sure there were no orgies going on while she was present. Her hair was tied back into a neat pony tail, and she wore very little, if any, makeup. The effect was only to increase the severity of her presence. If she wasn’t a stickler for the rules, he had no skill at all in reading people.
“Mr. Davis?” the raspy voice asked.
“Who are you?” Michael asked.
The lady raised an eyebrow, but replied, “Brianne Clarke. It seems I’ve just won a date with you.”
“Oh, ah, um, I’m sorry.” Michael’s face had an unpleasant habit of turning beet-red at the least provocation, something that he was certain it was exercising now. He cast around the back-stage area for something to say that didn’t sound rude or inane or both.
“Won’t your husband be upset that you’re donating so much money to a dog shelter just to be able to get a date with me?” He phrased the question carefully, hoping to elicit some personal information her without seeming overly pushy or nosy.
“Not that the state of my family’s finances is truly any of your affair, but no, since you ask, no, my husband will not be upset that I’ve donated so much to the dog shelter, nor that I’ll be going on a date with you.”
“Oh, erm. Yes, of course,” Michael responded.
Brianne stepped back a little as Judy came rushing backstage. She threw her arms around Michael, and said, “Thanks again for doing this tonight. I told you we’d raise a ton of money if you’d just agree to go on one date with one of them. Seven hundred dollars! Just think of all the puppies we can feed with that.”
Michael cleared his throat. “Judy, this is Brianne. Brianne is our seven-hundred dollar contributor. Brianne, my sister Judy.”
“Pleased to meet you, Brianne,” Judy said. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around town. Did you just move here, or are you visiting someone?”
“Just moved in, actually. I saw the fliers around town for the auction and figured it would be a good way to introduce myself around, meet people, plus do something to help the animal shelter.”
Michael edged back toward the wall, hoping to slip away while Brianne and Judy were doing the female get-to-know-you ritual. He was sure Brianne noticed, but instead of tattling on him, she further drew Judy into conversation.
Judy stifled a laugh as she noticed the wink that Brianne sent Michael as he slipped away. Who knew, this might benefit more than the dogs.
“…so you like dogs, obviously. What else do you like to do?” Judy asked.
It was late when Brianne returned to her home. The babysitter was sprawled across the couch with the TV on to a fifties sitcom rerun.
It felt good that she and Judy had hit it off so well. She didn’t think she would when she moved, but she found herself really missing a circle of casual friends from New York that she would go shopping with, have coffee with, and just generally have someone to talk about life with.
It was nice to start over, but she hadn’t realized how much she’d miss what she left behind.
Brianne shook herself out of her funk, and gently woke the babysitter. She paid the girl, confirmed that nothing out of the ordinary occurred while she was out, and walked her out to her car.
On her way back into the house, she noticed some strange lights flickering across a few blocks down. Too bad she’d already sent the babysitter home, she thought. It would be fun to investigate.
Elayne was sleeping quietly in her bedroom. True to form, she had kicked the blankets off onto the floor, but unlike most nights, she was actually buried under the six pillows that she insisted she needed. She woke up a little as Brianne straighted the pillows and re-covered her with the blankets.
“How was the thing you went to?” she asked.
“I had a really good time,” Brianne answered. “Did you have fun here tonight?”
Elayne nodded, fast falling back asleep. “I love you, mama,” she said as Brianne tiptoed out of the room.
“Love you too, baby,” Brianne answered from the doorway. She shut the door all but a crack, and went into her office to do her evening’s work.
Michael breathed a sigh of relief as he escaped the crowded hall. Realistically, Judy wouldn’t have given him that hard a time about leaving, but it would have required an explanation, and he really didn’t know how to explain without sounding stupid.
Brianne seemed…interesting. He didn’t know yet whether it was a good interesting or a bad interesting, but she definitely did have a way about her.
If she were my wife, I’d never let her go on a date with anyone else, least of all pay seven hundred dollars for the privelidge.
He shook his head like a dog, trying to knock that thought out of there. Where had that come from?
Instead of driving straight home, he stopped at the local ice-cream parlour. He tapped gently a few times on the glass serving window, until it opened.
“Hey Molly, I know you’re closed but I just had this awful craving for mint-chocolate chip ice cream. I was hoping you might see your way clear to selling me some if you haven’t finished closing up for the night,” he asked.
“Anything for you, Michael,” she answered. She disappeared back inside for a minute, and emerged carrying a heaping dish of mint chocolate chip ice cream covered in colored sprinkles.
“Ah, you know just how I like it.” He smiled at her as he took the ice cream. “What do I owe you?” he asked, as if he didn’t stop by at least three times a week.
“We just shut down the register, so why don’t you pay next time?” Molly answered the same way every time he stopped by.
She started walking back inside, but then turned and stopped. “Hey Michael, after you’ve finished your ice cream, would you mind coming it to take a quick look at one of the blizzard machines? It’s jammed up, and we can’t figure out how to take it apart to fix it. We’ve got an emergency repair call in for tomorrow, but if you could unjam it, we might be able to hold off on that a few days until our regular repair guy comes.”
“Of course,” Michael answered. “Let me see it, I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”
Twenty minutes later, with the blizzard machine up and running again, Michael strolled out of the ice cream parlour and drove home.
Michael lived on the outskirts of town in a six bedroom Victorian style house. Since he had moved in, Michael spent nearly every weekend lovingly restoring the interiour of the house and working on his passion --- the hand-built ship docked in the lake behind his house.
Modeled after the XXX, Michael’s ship, she was called LeChuck’s Revenge, was as close as Michael could make her to a working pirate ship from the movies.
Ever since Michael was a boy and he first read Treasure Island and even more so after his first ride on Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland, he had been in love with the idea of piracy.
Not real piracy, of course. Michael had no desire to be one of those real pirates in the Caribbean who stormed rich people’s pleasure boats, killed them, and used the boats to smuggle illegal drugs and aliens into and out of the United States. It was the pretend pirates, the pirates of Hollywood, that thrilled him.
Michael treated the ship like his child, starting it from plans he found on the internet and adding every possible upgrade, from teak decks and brass XXX to mahogany fixtures in the Captain’s cabin.
Michael started to discover the problem with his passion as soon as he finished the construction phase of the ship. When he started building it, he was married with a beautiful daughter. By the time he finished adding the final touches, he was a widower, and visited his wife’s grave as often as he could. And without anyone to sail the ship with, it was difficult to even pull it away from the dock. (Is this true???)
True to form, Judy found a solution to the problem of the crew, even if not the problem of his suddenly-single lifestyle.
As he pulled into the driveway, he noticed that a good portion of his crew were already ready and waiting to board. They were all holding flash-lights, a few of the younger ones using the glow from the flashlight as a light-saber. His first-mate, Evan Miller, a thickset fifteen year old with braces, stood aside from the others, clearly annoyed about something.
Michael stepped out of the car, and admired the discipline of his crew. A mere three months ago, he would have been swarmed as he stepped out of the car with tales of ‘this one did that’ or ‘this one wouldn’t do as I said.’
He stepped toward Evan. “What’s the matter, sir?” he asked.
“Nothing, Captain. Everything is as it should be.”
Michael was floored. Evan started as first-mate just a month ago, the shiest of the group, with a tendency to express frustration with his fists more often than was good for him. Now, Michael could see that he was perturbed, probably because some of the other crew wouldn’t follow his orders, but not only was he not fighting, he also wasn’t complaining and tattling about it.
“All right, crew,” Michael addressed them. “Stand attention until I return, I’ll be a mere few minutes.”
The crew saluted, and stood in rank with their shoulders thrown back and their flashlights held against their legs.
Michael walked away with dignity, but as soon as he entered the house, he tossed decorum aside for sheer speed. He quickly stripped out of the dress-clothes that he wore to the auction, and put on a pair of navy-blue slacks and a white t-shirt – his “Captain’s” uniform. He slipped into a pair of dock shoes, and tapped the ‘play’ button on his answering machine as he fixed himself a quick ham and cheese sandwich.
“Michael, this is Judy. I can’t believe you just left like that without saying goodbye to me, or even speaking to any of the Animal Shelter organizers. I gave Brianne your number so that you can set up your date. And yes, you have to go, she just paid seven hundred dollars for the opportunity to go out with you, and you cannot weasel out of it. Plus, she’s got a little girl who it sounds like would fit perfectly into Pirate Club. Give me a call tomorrow.”
Michael smiled at how well Judy knew him. She was six years older, but even growing up she never treated him like a baby. And when Marjorie died, Judy was a lifesaver, forcing him to eat, to sleep, to change clothing, and to leave the house.
Brianne was completely absorbed in the book she was reading. A fiction novel set in Elizabethan England, it was unlike most of the historical fiction out there in that the main character was male.
This was her second night reading it, and she vowed to finish before she went to bed, and then work on the review during the day while Elayne was at school.
It was about three before she set the book down with a contented sigh. Satisfactory ending, indeed, she thought. Already she was considering the positives and the negatives about the book – though she loved the story, she considered some of the minor characters a little stock-ish, definitely not fully developed. But, she did a mental shrug, if that was her only complaint about the story, then it was better than ninety percent of what she read in a year. Definitely an A+.
She lay down in bed, forced herself to breath slowly so that she’d fall asleep. Leaving New York had been a very good decision, and moving to this particular town was an even better decision.
She loved her neighbors, and just based on tonight’s conversation, she had a lot in common with that dog-shelter woman Judy. Now if she could only focus enough to write a novel, she’d be completely content.
Well, completely content for that minute, she was honest enough with herself to admit. Raising the bar of achievement ever-higher was one of her worst personal failings, but then again, it drove her to be one of the best reviewers in the business, which wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, if it always brought her preview copies of books like the one she read tonight, then it was definitely a very good thing.
Finally her deep breathing lulled her to sleep.
Michael’s crew was still standing ready when he emerged from the house. They ranged in age from the youngest at six, to Evan Miller, the oldest, at fifteen. They had all joined for different reasons, much like real pirates, Michael thought when in a fanciful mood.
“All right,” he said in a tone of voice pitched to be heard over the night water sounds, but not loud enough to wake the neighbors. “Are you all ready for a night of hard work and adventure on the high seas?”
“Aye, Captain,” they responded in cacophony..
He raised an eyebrow critically at them. “Pardon me? I don’t believe I heard you correctly.”
They all looked to Evan expectantly. He slowly raised his hand, and on letting it drop, the crew let loose an earth-shaking “Aye, Captain,” in unison.
“Much better. All aboard.”
They boarded the ship in an orderly fashion, according to rank. Once on board, they all went to their appropriate positions.
Michael strode on board last, and looked appraisingly over the ship and crew. “Hat, Mr. Crenshaw,” he said, and the boy in question guiltily removed his baseball cap and stowed it in the back pocket of his uniform.
“Miss Spadaccini, do you feel above working?” The girl was leaning against the side of the ship, examining the decking around her feet and obviously not doing anything.
“No, sir,” she answered. As she leaned forward to coil the rope, her duly appointed task, Michael heard her wince, and noticed that she was moving much more stiffly than normal. He made a mental note to make sure that the stiffness was due to sports or an innocent injury while playing and not something more serious.
Within a matter of minutes, the ship was moving away from the dock, and the crew continued going about their roles by flash-light.
During the first generation of Pirate Club, they would just sail around the lake, the crew learning to work together and the individuals learning to follow orders but maintain a sense of self and self-esteem.
Each year after that first, the Pirate Club became much more detailed. Children could become members of his crew starting at age six. Michael hand-picked the crew, trying to choose children who were overly quiet or noisy, pushy or submissive. Each child chosen was allowed to stay on his crew unless they chose to leave, they violated what Michael referred to as “the Code,” or they left school.
They met once a week, at first to learn their duties, and later to go on missions, one of which they were sailing to tonight. Michael had stowed fifteen crates of wine and sparkling cider in a cave on the other side of the lake. The Pirates’ mission was to discover the cave based on two cryptic clues, to load the ‘wine’ without breaking any bottles, and to unload it on Michael’s dock, and finally open the crates.
As first mate, Evan was given access to the ‘clue’ the night before. It was one of his responsibilities to act as captain and give sailing directions. Michael was perplexed tonight that the directions he gave were taking the ship in almost completely the wrong direction.
As Evan ordered the crew into the long-boats, Michael pulled him aside. “Mr. Miller, have you allowed any of your crew to examine the ‘clue’ for this evenings voyage?” It was really a rhetorical question, because Michael was almost sure that Evan had not.
“No, sir,” Evan answered looking at his feet.
Michael broke character for a moment. “Evan, look me in the eye when you answer this. Why didn’t you let any of the crew help answer the ‘clue’?”
Evan looked up, his bottom lip sticking out pugnaciously. “Because I’m the first-mate, not them. It’s my clue to solve, not theirs.”
Michael sighed. It was going to be a long night. “All right, lead the crew to the treasure.”
Michael never disembarked from the ship on these excursions. It was Evan’s responsibility to lead, not his, and Evan needed to learn that leading did not mean becoming a silo of information, never discussing or sharing ideas.
After forty-five minutes of fruitless searching, the crew returned to the ship. Evan looked even more annoyed. “Mr. Tyler,” he addressed the boy at the ship’s wheel, “Please take us on a course XXXXX by XX XX.”
“Aye, sir,” Mr. Tyler answered.
Michael raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. The new heading was again taking them in the wrong direction.
Upon getting as close to shore as possible at their new destination, Evan again ordered the crew to the boats. It was a positive point of the crew that there was no grumbling at the orders.
Once again, the crew searched the shore for the stockpile of wine, and found nothing. They returned to the ship looking annoyed at Evan – this ‘adventure’ had now lasted more than two hours longer than it should have.
Evan was also looking distinctly frustrated. “Mr. Tyler. Please get our destination right this time. XXXX by XX XX.”
Michael was tempted to intervene. The heading that Evan ordered would take them essentially back to their first point of disembarking. So not only would they not be in the right spot, but they’d be searching ground that they had already searched. Fortunately, Mr. Tyler was smart enough to realize that.
“Sir, that’ll be taking us back from whence we came,” he said. “We already searched there, and there was no treasure.”
Evan glared at the boy. “Are you questioning my orders, Mr. Tyler?”
Tyler’s face held no expression. “I’m sorry, sir, but I believe I am. I’d like to express for the record that I think the direction you just ordered will not take us in the right direction. I also think, and so do a lot of the other crew, that we might be able to figure out together where we’re going, rather than sailing around all night.”
“Just do it, Mr. Tyler, or swim home.”
Tyler saluted, and turned the wheel to the direction Evan ordered. The crew grumbled as they again loaded the boats, but it took much longer than Michael expected for them to return to the ship.
Tyler was limping when they returned, and he had a black eye that was just beginning to form.
“Mr. Tyler, did you run into a tree out there?” Michael asked.
Tyler glowered at Evan. “Yeah, sir, something like that.”
Michael turned to Evan. “Mr. Miller, it seems that you allowed one of your men to become injured on the shore.”
Evan was again staring at his feet. “No sir, you know how clumsy Tyler is…”
“Mr. Miller, I believe you’re lying to me. I believe that you punched Tyler for questioning your direction, and I believe that you just lied to me about it. Are my beliefs correct?”
Evan raised his head, pushed his shoulders back, and looked Michael in the eye. “Yes, Captain, that’s correct.”
“Mr. Miller, you’re on your last legs. Not only did you violate the code by not standing with your crewmen, but you also violated it by lying. Only blackguards will fight their own men, and only cowards will lie to you. Please give Mr. Tyler the correct heading. Let me warn you that if it is not the correct heading, and if the crew is unable to find the treasure cashe, you will be removed from your position as first mate. I’ll leave you for a moment to debate your alternatives and speak to Mr. Tyler. Please call on me in my cabin when before you and the crew take to the boats.”
Michael could feel the daggers that Evan was shooting with his eyes as he walked away. It was too bad to do it, really, but Evan had to learn that there were consequences for violence, for lying, and for failing. All the clues were there, and Evan had only to consider it and ask the right person. Unfortunately, Michael was fairly confident that Evan would not, even in this last-ditch scenario.
Michael sat in the cabin, relaxed against the pillows on the chaise. It was already three AM. The kids parents knew that exercises had gone on for this long before, that’s why they were only held on Friday nights. One way or the other, though, this particular ‘treasure hunt’ would only go on for another hour or so.
Brianne woke up when she heard the tell-tale creak of the floor outside her room. She lay quietly for a second, trying to determine if the noise was caused by Elayne getting a cup of water, or by something more menacing. When the creaks continued off toward the living room, Brianne decided that the wisest course of action would be to investigate, and at best she’d startle Brianne, at worst it’d be a burglar but she wouldn’t be attacked in her bed.
Almost silently, she reached under her bed for her father’s old baseball bat that she kept there for emergencies. She figured that a good crack upside the head on an unwary robber would convince even the stupidest person that her house was not a good one to rob.
She crept out of her bedroom, doing her best to avoid the floorboards that she knew squeaked. The front door of the house was just closing as she stepped out into the living room. She launched herself across the room and flung the door open, only to discover a startled Elayne standing in her bathrobe and slippers on the front porch. Elayne screamed, then started crying a little.
“Why did you scare me, mama?” she asked.
“I didn’t mean to scare you, baby, but I didn’t know who it was on the porch. You need to tell me before you go outside, please. You can’t just go by yourself.”
“But I’m a big girl,” she argued.
“And big girls still need permission before they go anywhere. Got it?”
Elayne nodded. “What are those, mama?” she asked, pointing at the lights that Brianne had noticed earlier in the night.
“I’m not sure, baby. Do you want to go see if we can find out?”
Elayne nodded again. “Can we go now?” she asked.
“Let’s just get dressed. You wouldn’t want everyone to see you in your pj’s, would you?”
Elayne shook her head.
“Well, then, lets go, go, go, go, go.”
Elayne laughed, and scampered inside to her bedroom.
Brianne surpressed a yawn. It’d be a long day, but she was curious about the lights, herself, and if it made Elayne happy, then she could deal with a little tiredness. Besides, she laughed to herself, this was nothing compared to the middle of the night feedings and changings of Elayne’s first two years. Brianne thought it was amazing that her memories of Elayne’s first two years weren’t more hazy since between the normal worries of being a new mom, the added stress of being a single mom, and the late night feeding and changings, Brianne remembered herself as looking like an extra from Night of the Living Dead.
Brianne threw on jeans and a sweatshirt. She was already missing the heat of the summer, but the changing leaves were beautiful and it was nice to be able to see them outside of Central Park.
Elayne was ready soon after Brianne, dressed in a pair of jeans with pink lace at the hem, and a Disney World Tinkerbell costume instead of a normal shirt.
Brianne cleared her throat suggestively. “Don’t you think you might be a little cold in that?”
Elayne made an exasperated noise in the back of her throat. “Fine, mom, I’ll just put on a stupid old sweatshirt, ok?”
“That sounds good to me, yes.” Elayne was an endless source of entertainment. She was seven, but at times she acted like she was four again, and other times she had the attitude of a miserable teenager. She’d been really good about the move, but she still didn’t have any close friends, so Brianne was trying to go out of her way to be flexible to Elayne’s requests.
It only took Elayne a minute to change, and she came bouncing out of her room, attitude apparently forgotten. “So can we go now?”
“Look, mama, it’s a ship!” Elayne pointed off into the morning darkness.
She was right, Brianne saw. It was a ship, a pirate ship if she judged the flag she was flying correctly as the Jolly Roger. [insert something about…no…that wasn’t the Jolly Roger, exactly. It was…no, it couldn’t be… [LeChuck’s flag]]
The deck of the ship was lit by probably twenty-five beams of light. It looked like the flashlights were probably stood on-end from the deck and created enough ambient light to work with.
The ship sailed smoothly into the dock. Elayne was bouncing up and down, waiting anxiously to see who’s ship it was. Brianne understood the excitement – it wasn’t every day that you saw a full-fledged pirate ship sailing across a lake.
Elayne started waving both hands over her head. She turned to look at her mother expectantly. Brianne self-consciously started to wave hello as well.
[insert information about docking a boat]
Brianne was shocked to see children climbing down the gang-plank from the ship. They clustered on the shore nearest the dock and stood there in military-like formation with their flashlights clutched to their sides.
After a few moments, an older boy stormed down the gang-plank. He stood near the other children, but didn’t join them. Brianne noticed that he wasn’t carrying a flash-light that she could see.
She wondered what they were waiting for. They all stared expectantly toward the ship.
Before long, a man, clearly an adult, walked down the gang-plank and toward the group of children, and gestured the older boy closer as well.
Michael was shocked to see Brianne standing on the quay near the dock. He glanced at his watch. Four-thirty. Who in their right mind would be up and about, un-invited, at four-thirty in the morning.
That must be her daughter. She looked young, but that was no surprise, Brianne didn’t look all that old herself. The girl still hadn’t stopped waving excitedly, and she was bouncing up and down. That was a little strange, most kids wouldn’t be nearly that awake and excited at such an ungodly hour of the morning.
He caught Brianne’s eye, and nodded to her. She nodded back, but stayed where she was standing rather than coming in closer or leaving. Perfect. First I get to deal with a spoiled teenager with an attitude problem, then I get to talk to Miss I need to go on a date with you. Ok, maybe that wasn’t fair, but still, it was the middle of the night.
Evan stood about ten feet away from the rest of the crew. Michael fought away the urge to roll his eyes at Evan’s angry pout, and instead, moved closer to the boy. The rest of the crew gathered around.
“Mr. Miller, you violated the code twice tonight, first by hitting a crew-mate, and second by lying about it. Additionally, you were unable to complete your task for tonight’s adventure. I’m sorry to ask you to step down from your position of responsibility as first-mate, but I’m afraid that’s what it’s come to.
Does anyone wish to speak in Mr. Miller’s defense?”
Tyler raised his hand. “Captain, Mr. Miller did not violate the code when he punched me. The code says that ‘unreasonable brutality is never acceptable, but standing up when someone questions your ethics or authority is allowed depending on circumstance.’ I did question Mr. Miller’s authority, and I don’t see that he violated the code by reminding me that he was the first mate, and as such, I had no right to register my disagreement regarding his orders.”
Michael nodded thoughtfully. “Thank you, Mr. Tyler. Would anyone else like to speak?”
Allison King hesitatingly raised her hand.
Michael acknowledged her with a nod. “Ms. King?”
“Captain, Mr. Miller was unable to complete his task for tonight’s mission, however, he was suffering equally with the rest of us. He’s just as tired and wet as I am, or anyone else on the boats is. Maybe he just wasn’t able to figure out the clue tonight. I don’t think it’s fair to punish him for that.”
Michael raised an eyebrow at her. “You don’t think it’s fair?”
“No, Captain. Mr. Miller is just as miserable as the rest of us, and I don’t think that demoting him is fitting punishment for not being able to solve the clue.”
Michael nodded as if he was considering what she had said. “Ms. King, let me read the clue to you and the rest of the crew.
[insert clue]
Now please tell me where the treasure is hidden tonight?”
David Stein, the six year old cabin boy, raised his hand in excitement. “I know, I know,” he said.
“Mr. Stein, where is the treasure hidden tonight?”
The boy looked a little shy, now that he was the center of attention. Some of the other children in the crew clustered closer to him to help boost his confidence. “Captain, it’s in the cave near my daddy’s house. That’s what it means.”
The other crew members murmured their agreement. It made sense.
Mr. Tyler raised his hand again.
“Yes, Mr. Tyler?”
“Captain, now that we’ve discovered where the treasure cashe is, can we take the ship back out and get it? Then Mr. Miller will have completed his task, and he won’t need to step down, right?”
“While you have a point, Mr. Tyler, I’m afraid it’s going to take more than just a suggestion from me to get this ship back on the water, and the crew ready to take one more run. Crew, it seems that Mr. Miller’s fate as first mate is in your hands. If you all would like to go back out and give it one more try, then let’s. If someone does not wish to take’er back out tonight, then that person is welcome to abstain with no ramifications.”
The crew murmured among one another, then started walking back toward the gang-plank.
“Ya know what,” Evan said in a voice loud enough to reach the members of the crew already boarding the ship, “Don’t bother on my account. I’m done with this. I’ve got better things to be doing on my Friday night than playing with a bunch of children, and an adult who plays pirates with a bunch of kids.”
The crew turned as one and looked at Michael to see how Evan’s rebelliousness was being received.
“Well, if it were me,” Michael said slowly, “and the crew had just stood up for me as they just did for you, I wouldn’t be in such a hurry to put them down as ‘kids’ and quit. But have it your way. Good luck, Mr. Miller. You’ll be missed.”
Evan tossed his flashlight at to the ground. “Screw this, and screw you. Screw you all.”
Brianne watched the scene on the dock with growing interest. What was this, and why was Michael hanging around with twenty-five little kids?
Elayne was still standing bouncily at her side, having finally stopped waving. She was now watching the other kids on the dock with great interest, trying to see what they were up to that she hadn’t been invited to play at.
Michael dispersed the crowd of children with a final salute, and they went from acting like a mini-military force to normal children, shoving one another down the rest of the dock onto the shore, and then breaking up into smaller groups to head home.
He then made a last check on the firmness of the ropes tying the ship to the dock, and walked toward Brianne, hesitance obvious in every line of his body. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Michael, this is Elayne, my daughter. Elayne, this is Michael, a man I met when I went out tonight.”
Michael bent on one knee. “Pleased to meet you, Elayne. That’s a very nice name.”
Elayne turned and buried her face in Brianne’s leg.
“How old are you, Elayne?” Michael asked.
“Six,” she answered, face still buried.
“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you when your face is covered up like that. Can you tell me again, please?”
Elayne turned around and stared at him. She was still clinging to Brianne’s leg, but Michael could see her face. It was a start. “I’m six,” she answered.
“Six is a good age,” Michael said. Without thinking, he added, “Do you like boats?”
She nodded, and pointed at the docked ship.
“Would you like to go see?” he asked, looking up at Brianne for permission.
“Of course,” Brianne answered for both of them. Elayne sprinted up ahead, and stopped to wait at the foot of the gang-plank.
“So what are you doing here?” Michael asked Brianne as they walked slowly toward the ship.
“Elayne saw the flashlights flickering in the distance and tried to go out on her own to see what it was. I caught her as she was just leaving, and decided that since I was curious too, we might as well go see. So here we are. What are we seeing?”
“Well, what you just saw is called Pirate Club. I started it about eight years ago when my nephew, Judy’s son, started getting out of hand in school. I try to teach the kids to respect themselves and that they need to do something to get ahead in life. The shy ones learn to stand up for themselves, the loud ones learn to be quiet and listen. And most importantly, the ones who don’t get enough attention, or a good enough example at home, get one here.”
“An enviable goal,” Brianne said slowly. “Not to be rude, though, why don’t they just join the Boy Scouts?”
“Just the question I thought you’d ask. Mostly because either these kids are too timid to join anything, or because they think they’re too cool for it. Boy Scouts is great if you can get the kid to join, get the parent to take the kid to meetings, and get the Troop Leader to do something more than handing out merit badges for breathing. Fortunately, here in town, we have a very good Boy Scout leader, and he’s actually one of the people who points me in the right direction when it comes to which kids would fit in here, and which wouldn’t.”
Michael unfastened the rope blocking off the gang plank. “After you, ladies,” he said.
Elayne started running up the ramp.
“Elayne, walk,” Brianne commanded.
Elayne started stamping her feet, but she slowed to a fast walk.
Brianne felt like she had been transported to another world as soon as she stepped on the deck. It was – the only word she could come up with was beautiful, but that didn’t begin to describe the handcrafted glory of the ship.
She ran a hand down the [side] of the boat, admiring the well-polished beauty of the teak.
Michael stood on the end of the gangplank and watched the two of them. Elayne started racing from one end of the ship to the other. Brianne’s reaction was truly telling, however. Her expression showed exactly the feeling of worship that Michael felt initially as he was building the ship, and every now and again, when the crew was working well together and the weather was just right. He wouldn’t have guessed that Brianne might feel that way, however.
Michael walked quietly up to Brianne’s side. He put a hand around her waist and guided her toward the staircase down into the [hold]. “Let me show you around – my cabin is downstairs.”
Brianne pulled away and looked at him like he was crazy. “Let me show you around, my cabin is downstairs,” she mocked in a disbelieving tone of voice. “What kind of line is that?”
“Uh, well, it wasn’t meant as a line. I only meant that you seemed to be enjoying what’s up here, there’s more to see downstairs. Uh, and by ‘more to see’ I didn’t mean…”
Brianne raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think I want to know what you meant, really. Let me get Elayne, and we’ll all go down together. I wouldn’t want to deprive her of a chance to really explore a pirate ship.”
Michael bit his tongue, trying to keep from laughing at the idea of Brianne preventing Elayne from exploring the ship. Already, as he had been watching her, she had managed to uncoil two [winds] of rope, stick her head into the [xxx], and open two different doors. She hadn’t ventured downstairs by herself yet, though, so he supposed he should give her a little credit for minding her mother.
Michael went first down the steps into the hold. “Watch your step, please,” he asked Elayne. “You can’t run around down here because you’ll end up tripping over some of the stores. But if you go carefully, you can look around.”
Brianne examined the carvings on the stairs going into the hold. “Did you do these yourself?”
Michael nodded. “I hand-built everything on this ship. The only thing that I didn’t do was any of the metal-work. I bought all the brass parts pre-fitted and just installed them myself.”
He opened the door to the Captain’s cabin. Brianne stepped in before him, but turned to him before he shut the door behind him. “Leave it open.”
“God, you’d think I was a high school pervert with as cautious as you’re being,” Michael said.
“Well, let’s go downstairs and I’ll show you my cabin,” she mocked again. “I wonder how I was supposed to take than, other than as a high school style method of getting me in your bedroom.”
Brianne turned to explore the cabin. “Oh,” she said. “This isn’t quite your bedroom, is it?”
“No, not quite.”
The room was dominated by a six-foot long, heavily carved, mahogany table. It was littered with various charts of the lake and the lake’s islands.
Two heavy magisterial-looking mahogany chairs were drawn up at the end of the table, and a bowl of apples sat in the middle, anchoring down a map.
Brianne’s eye was caught by the crown molding around the ceiling. She stepped to the wall to examine it more closely, and discovered that it depicted various sea battles. She turned to Michael, “You said that you hand-built everything. Did you carve that, or buy it?”
Michael smiled. The crown molding was his pride and joy, one of his favorite pieces on the ship. It surprised him a little that Brianne would notice and realize the level of time and effort that went into something like that. “Carved it myself,” he answered.
“I’m impressed.”
“Took me an entire winter. And just to warn you since you haven’t lived through one here yet, the winters are long.”
“Mama, come look at this,” Elayne shouted.
Brianne set down the hand-carved candlesticks that she was examining, and walked quickly to the door. Michael following more slowly – it wasn’t him that Elayne had called for, after all.
Elayne was sprawled out in one of the hammocks that the crew had strung in the hold. Realistically, the crew didn’t generally have time for sleeping, but every now and again, they’d hole up in the ship for a while after a mission and play cards.
Elayne had the hammock wrapped twice around her, and somehow on the second wrap, it had gotten caught on her belt, effectively pinning her in place. Michael examined her predicament frrom across the room, and realized that she couldn’t have gotten into that position without flipping herself completely over at least twice in the hammock. There was no way she could possibly get that tangled, otherwise.
Michael made a mental note to consider Elayne as a possible new member of Pirate Club.
...XXX…
Brianne helped Elayne finish getting untangled. “All right, my girl,” she said in a playful tone, “I think it’s time for us to be getting home. Your mama can’t stop yawning.”
Brianne woke the next morning at eleven to a steady tapping at her door. She quickly shoved her arms into an old terrycloth robe, and yanked the door open to find Michael standing on her doorstep.
“Do you know, I’ve been knocking more or less constantly for about fifiteen minutes now?”
“Well no, she answered. “If I had known it was you, I would’ve gotten fully dressed and kept you waiting until I was ready to answer it. I thought it was something important.”
Michael laughed. “I suppose that’s what I deserve for waking you up. I came to offer to take you out for breakfast in return for your indulging me last night , and well, so here I am.”
“Actually, I’m meeting Judy for coffee this morning. But you can come in if you want, since you came over here, anyway.”
“Judy? My sister, Judy?”
“That’d be the one.”
At Michael’s blank look, she decided to go into a little more detail.
“After you sneaked out of the auction last night, Judy and I got to talking, and we discovered that we have a lot in common.”
“Like…?”
“Well, we both enjoy computer games, for one thing. For another… well, we didn’t get past the computer games part last night, but that’s really good enough.”
Michael smacked himself on the forehead with the palm of his hand. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those ‘World of Warcraft’ women?”
“Well, yes, I’ve played World of Warcraft, but I’m much more into older adventure-style gaming. King’s Quest, Monkey Island, Seventh Guest…”
Michael rolled his eyes. “Even worse, I thought only my sister was obsessed with that type of game.”
“Can’t be only your sister,” Brianne said, “I saw the name of your ship last night, and the only LeChuck that I know of is from Monkey Island.”
“Okay, you got me. I do have a small weakness for those games. What do you want, though? Evil Zombie-Pirate, weakling good guy, hot governor…”
Michael’s eyes lit up, a thought struck him. “…You didn’t, did you? What’s Elayne’s middle name?”
“Marley, of course. I’m hoping she’ll be the governor of the tri-state area, rather than the tri-island like in Monkey Island, but… I just couldn’t resist.”
Brianne sat down on the chair that Judy offered. “Elayne,” she asked, “why don’t you go out and play on the swings in the backyard?”
“Okay, mama,” she answered calmly. “I’ll leave you ladies to talk.”
Brianne tried to restrain her laughter, but the mocking dignity of her daughter was too much. Elayne looked at her snickering mother in disapproval. “I’ll go swing now.”
As soon as Elayne stepped out the door, both Judy and Brianne broke into howls of laughter.
“Next thing you know,” Judy commented, “she’s going to be talking valley-girl, and pretending not to know you, so I suppose the “I’ll leave you ladies to talk,” is the training-grounds for self-restraint.”
Brianne looked at Elayne out the window. She was sitting on the swing, idly swinging back and forth, and it looked like she might be singing to herself. “I wish she had been this calm last night,” Brianne commented.
She turned to Judy. “Would you believe she tried to sneak out last night? The lights from your brother’s ship woke her up and she tried to go by herself across town to see what it was. Fortunately, she isn’t all that good at the sneaking thing yet, and she woke me as she was leaving. Then when Michael invited us onboard the ship, she was running back and forth like a little monkey. She actually got herself completely knotted up in one of the hammocks.”
Judy nearly dropped the coffee carafe she was pouring from in astonishment. “Michael invited you onboard his ship? The LeChuck’s Revenge – that ship?”
Brianne nodded. “Why?”
“Because no one… and I mean really, like no one, except the kids in Pirate Club, have ever been on that ship. I’m not exaggerating. I was allowed onboard exactly once, right before Pirate Club started, and right after Michael’s wife died. Since then, all my hinting has been ignored. The boat is for Michael and Pirate Club alone. I’m just shocked he let you two onboard.”
“I didn’t know that,” Brianne answered. “He took us and showed us around. It’s a beautiful ship. It was probably just because he knew it hadn’t been all hyped up to us.”
“Mmm, that must be it,” Judy nodded, but she had a knowing look in her eye that Brianne was trying to ignore.
“So… moving to less uncomfortable topics, did I tell you last night that I’m working on a novel?”
“Working on doing what to a novel?”
Brianne started to answer, but laughed instead when she realized that Judy was only joking.
“What’s it about?” Judy asked.
“Well, so far, it’s about this girl, Celeste, who’s in love with a bi-sexual college professor, Darius, who’s also having a love-affair with another male professor, Dr. Kingsley. Dr. Kingsley’s wife has just finished killing Celeste, or so she thinks, because she likes that her husband and Darius were having an affair. That way, she could have her own affairs without her husband noticing. But Celeste isn’t really dead, and she actually winds up really killing Dr. Kingsley’s wife and making it look like a suicide, but making the body look like Celeste’s. Then Celeste, Darius, and Dr. Kingsley run away together and live together in an endless love triangle.”
“That’s awfully… soap opera-like, isn’t it? How much of it have you written?”
“Thirty pages or so,” Brianne answered. “It’s really hard to write the story without it sounding overdramatic and full of angst.”
“Ya’ think?” Judy said. “Do you like reading stuff like that?”
“Well, no, not really. Normally I like science fiction or fantasy. But it was hard to work a princess into a story about bi-sexual college affairs.”
Judy burst out laughing. “I think that might have to go down as the line of the century: ‘It was hard to work a princess into a story about bi-sexual college affairs.’”
Brianne shrugged. “I had a plot. It was even a mystery, once. I mean, a mystery story, not a mystery to me. But I guess somewhere along the line, it morphed into a bad soap opera.”
“I’ll say it again. Ya’ think? Why don’t you write about something closer to home? Isn’t that what the writing books always say – write what you know? Unless you’re more experienced in unusual college hook-ups, you might try staying with the cleaner stuff.”
posted by bu_princess at 9:21 PM
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