Jordan, another of the children on the cruise ship, was twelve years old and had long blond hair and a mischievous look on her face. Her mom had home-schooled her while they were homeless to keep her out of sight from the authorities, so she was enjoying her new-found freedom! It was a constant fear of many of the homeless people with children that the child protection agency would be called on them and they would have their children taken away from them. She was a very intelligent girl and was giving Gloria, her teacher, a run for her money! Jordan wasn’t malicious, just having a good time.

Susie, whose seat was next to Jordan, raised her hand. “Teacher, I can’t get into my chromebook. I don’t know what’s wrong. Can you help me, please?”

Gloria walked over to Susie and picked up the chromebook. She tried to get in and had the same result. “What is your password?”

Susie told her and Gloria tried it several times, but without success. She happened to see Jordan hiding a smile behind her hand and instantly knew what was going on. “Jordan, you wouldn’t have happened to have picked up the wrong chromebook accidentally, would you? Can you help us sort this out?”

Jordan hopped to it and got into the chromebook right away. She handed it to Susie, who thanked her. Gloria walked back to the front of the class and when she glanced at Jordan, saw her grinning again. What a stinker!

Jordan spent the afternoon reading her book for the history report. Her mother was going to take her shopping when she came back from work, so Jordan wanted to get as much done as she could before that. Her mom cleaned all of the public bathrooms on the ship for her job. The individuals who lived in the cabins were responsible for cleaning the bathrooms in their cabins, so she didn’t have to do that. Jordan was growing so fast now, that she needed new clothes often and she was pretty excited to see what the shop had to offer! While Jordan and her mom, Sharon, walked to the lower deck where the clothing shops were, Jordan filled her mom in on the book she was reading.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“ So, my book is about Robin Hood and the King of England at that time, mom. Did you know the people were super poor and had to really struggle for food, but if they shot a deer for food from Sherwood Forest the King would have them put to death? Doesn’t that seem cruel?” Jordan asked.

“It sure does, Jordan,” her mom replied.

“Did you know I have been keeping up with current events by watching the news after school and Oregon is making it very difficult for the citizens to grow their own food. Also, they are making regulations to make it difficult to have a few chickens or goats or cows. This is being done under the guise of protecting the water for people, but not letting them even use the water in wells on their own property! It really makes me mad. It doesn’t affect me personally, but I just think how it would affect me if I did have my own property!” Jordan explained.

Just as they walked into the clothing shop, Sharon said to Jordan, “I am impressed at how empathetic you are and also what a deep thinker you are. Are you thinking that modern day Oregon compares to the story you are reading in the book?”

“I sure do, mom!” Jordan said and then saw some clothing that drew her attention.

Some changes had been made to transporting people out to the ships. After the first couple of days, it had become obvious that not many drug-users were interested in going through rehab, so all of the vans were assigned to taking people to the cruise ships and two large u-hauls were booked to use for collecting the sleeping drug-users. The hours just before dawn were found to be the ideal hours as this was the time people usually slept off their high.

As a result, the first cruise ship was filled after a week, just as Clark had predicted. Carl had continued to deliver the meals at the clinic and it didn’t take him long to realize that he wasn’t seeing the same people twice on any floor, except for the top one. He thought it over and scratched his head, trying to figure out what was going on, until on the third day, he heard one of the orderlies say while he pushed a screaming patient, “He is going to Hotel Roche!” He snickered and said to the other orderly, “They check in but they don’t check out!”

Carl thought, “Where have I heard that before?”