A room lies in darkness. The sound of waves a seagull comes through the closed windows. A rustle between the small bed’s bedsheets betrays that the bed is occupied. Low, muffled sounds can be heard from outside of the room, constant steps that suddenly get louder as they cross from one side of the room to the other. The racket of a door’s handle twisting fills the room. The screech of the door opening is followed by the figure of a large shadow entering and, in a couple of steps, it reaches for the windows, opening both and letting the sunlight fill the room, bringing color to the penumbra and casting almost all shadows away.

The large man to whom the large shadow belonged, tall enough that he needs to bend in order to enter the room, turns to the bed and reaching his large hands he takes away the bedsheets, revealing a young boy, wearing pirate-themed pajamas.

-”Son…”- the man whispers as he closes on him, his beard almost touching him, then adding -”Time to wake up!”- elevating his voice a lot. At this moment, by instinct, his body straightens up and the man ends up hitting his head with the ceiling.

The boy, at the yell of his father, suddenly jumps out of bed, falling into the floor and crawling in all fours as he searches for something to grab and pull himself up, still sleepy and trying to keep his equilibrium.

-”I-I-I’m awame!”- Says the boy as he starts to stand up.

-”Awame?!”- The father exclaims, still rubbing his head from the hit, followed by laughter that echoes in the entire room.

-”Ugh! I mean, I’m awake!”-

-”Sure, sure. I can see that. Morning, son.”-

The boy, now standing and still wiping away at his eyes replies -”Morning, captain…”- and after some more wiping, he asks -”What’s the matter? You don’t wake me up in the morning unless it is important.”-

Raising his right hand, the father reveals a sand clock, moving it from side to side in a pendulum-like motion. Then, he asks -”Aren’t you forgetting something?”-

The boy stares at the sand clock, dumbfounded in part because he still hasn’t woken up completely.

-”You… had… a…”- The father starts saying slowly as he makes gestures with his left hand to let his son complete the sentence.

The boy stares at the clock again, then lets a yawn escape, and finally, like if a thunderbolt just struck him, he exclaims -”Curses! Curses upon curses!”-

-”Curses! Watch your language young boy!”- the father exclaims as the boy runs by him out of the room.

-”I’m sorry!”- the voice of the boy reaches his ears as the sound of a door outside of the room being opened and the sound of water running fill little by little the room.

Turning, the tall man lets a sight escape and walks to the window, peeking out to see the blue ocean in front of him. He takes in the view of the beach, at about five minutes of walking down the street, and looks to the sides, seeing old buildings made from wood to gray concrete. A couple of cherry blossoms trees extend their branches over him, now in full bloom, giving him refuge from the intense sun that is often present most of the year in New Arcadia. As he looks at the beach, his eyes move towards the horizon, and he finds himself looking at the wall of steam at the north-east, and as he keeps going up, he looks at a small dark point in the distance, small enough that if he could extend his hands and grab it, it wouldn’t be bigger than the wooden vases he uses to drink. This dark point in the horizon extended way up into the sky.

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To think that the Abyss is right there on top… it is so small from here, it almost seems like a lie.

As he is thinking this, without realizing he drops his sight back down to the beach as a group of girls is making their way into the beach, already in their swimsuits. A collection of white skin combined with pink, blue, black and some dotted ones, the big, burly man lets a sight escape as he mutters -”The season of romance has begun, uh?”-

-”What’s the season of romance?”-

Being taken by surprise, the man jolts and hits his head with the frame of the window. Backing a couple of steps as he puts both hands where he took the hit, he looks down and sees his son changed already. Sporting blue overalls and a brown shirt on top, he sees how his son is flashing a smile at him, fidgeting with his hands to the sides.

-”Look at that… your mom surely would say you are handsome.”-

-”Nice!”- The boy says as he motions with both arms, raising them up, and then back down, putting both elbows to the sides and his hands up.

-”Son…”- The father interrupts his little celebration.

-”What is it?”-

-”I… I’ll need soon to travel again.”- He says, now rubbing the back of his head.

The boy falls silent, both arms slowly going down.

-”How long?”- The boy mutters.

-”I don’t think it will as long as the last ones”- the father says, opening both arms and making a strange expression in a futile effort to cheer him up.

-”But?”-

-”It will be about… three months.”-

-”Well, it certainly is shorter than before…”-

Both fall into silence.

The father then kneels, and putting a hand to his son’s shoulder he says -”Don’t worry, I’ll be back. I already asked old lady Gertrude to take care of you in the meanwhile.”-

The son’s face suddenly shines up -”Really?! Her cookies are the best!”-

The father lets a chuckle escape -”She will too help you manage the shop while I’m out.”-

-”You… you’re trusting your shop, to me?”-

-”That’s right. Think you can handle it, my second in command?”-

-”Hell yeah!”-

-”The hell! Watch your language boy!”-

The boy and father chuckle together.

-”Now go, you will be late at this rate.”-

The boy falls again into silence, but this time he jumps and hugs his tall father. Ruffling the hairs of his large beard and hairy arms, he says -”I’ll someday have as much hair as you do.”-

-”Well, you can’t be a true pirate without pubic hair!”- the father lets a burst of roaring laughter escape -”You have to look the part indeed!”-

As the father puts down his son, he runs to the door of the room and turning one last time, he says -”Don’t worry, you can’t trust in me, captain Lee Sparrow!”-

-”Aye, aye, I’m counting on you.”- Lee smiles at his son, and his son smiles back. He then adds -”Now, go.”-

Turning once more, the boy then runs out of the house, his small steps in the wooden floor echoing in the house, not before being muffled and then, the sound of the main door of the house is opened, and then shut down.

Being left alone in the house, Lee raises the sand clock that he has in his right hand. Seeing under it, some letters can be made up “Celestials Trading Company. Clock provided for contract number 6. If you want to renovate your contract, please have the appropriate compensation at hand before the time runs out.”

Even when the sand clock was upside down, the sand grains still fell in the same direction, as if Lee didn’t turn the sand clock upside down.

He had trouble waking up... Time is running out… I have to be fast…