Chapter 17 Halfway Home

The good weather was a welcome sign that things were going to go well today. They were nearly at the drop off and Will was interested to see what progress the first group had made. Probably not too much, but you never know. Far ahead you could see smoke rising, a signal had been lighted for them. Minnie could have navigated there with her eyes closed but the thought was nice. Will took the conn while Minnie went down for a break and visit with her friends. Being alone in the wheelhouse took him back to his first days here, when Minnie was not who she was now. Just as beloved, but different. Time sure changed things.

The water was calm as could be now, like sailing on glass. The rough weather of the night was just a memory. He hoped everyone got through it okay, no lasting trauma. But they would never be on a boat again, with any likelihood. The lake effect eventually got to everyone, limiting their time on the Rose, even with the presence of all three crew. The children were safe though even if their parents weren’t. This trip was about it, nearly a full day on the water. Adults would be feeling it soon, good thing journeys end was in sight.

From the height of the wheelhouse he saw Cal, at least he thought it was Cal, and the two little girls Uma and Oona come on deck. He quickly opened the door and called “Mind the ice, it’s very slippery, use the sand bucket beside you there.”. The large teen got the message and spread sand out for a better grip. If they did lose their footing they wouldn’t go overboard, not in these calm waters. But they could be injured on a fall. They made it to the stairs and again Will opened up and let them all in for a visit. “Hello little ones, how are you enjoying the trip?” he asked. The girls giggled a bit at the big Cal being called little one, but he took it in good humour. Perhaps he remembered how easily Will had shifted the full loaded boat. Irregardless they regaled him with tales of how the boat had moved last night, nearly rolling them out of bed. Will laughed “Ah,” he said “There’s a trick to that.”. Big eyed they asked what it was. “It’s a secret but I’ll tell you all if you promise to never tell.” he whispered, looking over his shoulder and under the table. Checking for lurkers, he said. The three promised that they wouldn’t tell anyone so he beckoned them close and said “You have to learn to sleep standing up, like a horse or a reindeer, then you won’t be rolled out.”. Cal was blank faced for a minute, as was his sisters, then burst out laughing, followed by giggles from the girls.

“You are all very brave to sail with us though, you know what the lake does.”, he said afterwards. He had found a biscuit tin that Minnie hadn’t emptied and shared them out with the three children. “Are you married captain?”, Uma asked. Will gave a sigh “I was married for a long time, but she passed. Now it’s just me, Minnie and Naomi.”. “Are you their pa, for real?”, Oona asked this time. Hmm, he thought, how to put this. “Yes, it’s a bit complicated, you’ll understand when your older, and I know you must hate hearing that but it’s true.”. Cal nodded, he got it. He and Naomi had been sharing life stories and as much as he envied where she had been and seen, the thought of actually living on the water was horrible. After they had eaten a few biscuits and looked over the calm waters they went back below. It was very quiet after they left and as much as Will enjoyed visiting, he did value the solitude.

Time passed, Minnie had whistled up to check on him, she was napping for an hour or two, but would be back up after. He assured he he was fine, yes he missed her, yes he had eaten her hidden stash of biscuits too. There was an indignant squawk then a laugh “You shared them with the littles didn’t you? I knew you would, night dad.”, and she capped off her end. He then whistled down to the mess, them after no answer, the galley. This time Naomi answered. “Hey sweetie, is everything okay, need a hand?”, he asked. She was fine and everything was under control, she said, then promised to send him up some tea and oatmeal. He capped off after thanking her and went back to just staring out at the cold world outside. Breakfast arrived with Katya this time and after a minute or two she went back down, Will could tell the sight of all the water around the boat was disturbing her. It was coming time that more and more of the passengers would be feeling the waters.

After finishing his meal, there were only a few miles left to go so he opened up the whistle a few times to let the new burrows know they were close. Minnie joined him soon after “Another load huh, you think two more trips will do it?. “Yeah,” he replied “There still a couple of hundred there, so maybe even three more. Then after they’re settled it’s a quick trip south for a resupply at Newton, then Laketown.”. Minnie shook her head “it’ll be nice to go back, see all our friends again.”. “Warmer too.”, added Will, “And fresh food, we’re getting a bit low. Might have to stop and do some fishing.”. At that Minnie’s ears perked up, she loved fish of most kinds, just not sharps. “Can’t eat those, it was too bad cause we had tons of them, they probably taste like bleargh anyway.” she said, rambling away. Will just nodded.

Eventually, after talking about fish, fries vs fried potatoes, woolly hats and felt boots they got to the drop off point. Slowing the boat and anchoring about thirty yards from shore, Will and Minnie dressed warmly and left the wheelhouse to get the bigger boat ready. This time it was decided that Minnie and Naomi would stay onboard to calm the remaining passengers, Will would ferry them to shore quickly. After a few minutes the first group came up, with all their packs and bags. They were quickly helped in to the waiting dory and they were off to the beach. The boat reached shore in a couple of minutes there was a sigh of relief from everyone.

“Thank you captain, have a safe trip back, thanks for the bread.”, the villagers went to meet the first group that had journeyed down. It was a few minutes walk to where that camp was but they had been met by friends and family. There were many changes to the rough camp that had been set up. Herds of reindeer and elk milled around in paddocks, off to the west but still close. Huge piles of firewood and dried brush had been gathered as well. They were settling in nicely. The ground here was not as frozen over as it was two hundred miles further North. Still cold but not the bone numbing minus thirty it had been and less wind.

Din had been one of the first to come up and greet the newcomers “My family, did they come this trip captain?”. “Oh yes”, Will assured him, “They’re next to come to shore, the twins were still eating toast last I saw them, very excited to be here.”. He surveyed the land, noticing several piles of earth and stone. “You were able to dig”, he asked. “Oh yes, the ground is the same, just one burrow so far though. Out of the wind and cold.”, Din replied. Tor joined them, giving his brother a playful nudge “Ma’s coming, I won’t have to eat what you cook now.”. Din just looked at him, “Starve next time then.”. “Is the burrow big enough for all, there’s many more people now, and more coming.” Will asked. Tor shook his head “No, it’s just for the ten of us, but we found a good site near the cliffs to the north, lots of caves to start and go down from. We’ll be all right.”. In fact several groups were heading in the direction that Tor had indicated, carrying everything they owned. The sleds that the families used would be brought on the last trip of all, people were the priority. Will bid the brothers goodbye and headed back to fetch the next and last group.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

Rowing quickly back he could see people gathered on deck waiting. It was a few minutes but the boat was fully loaded again and back to shore they went. Dropping the passengers off safely, letting them know he would be right back he stroked back to the Rose. Minnie and Naomi had brought up two barrels of their emergency rations on deck, along with a few sacks of oatmeal. “Thanks guys,” Will said as he loaded the boat, “Anyone want to come along?”. Naomi declined saying there was lots to do still in the mess, so did Minnie who wanted a warm bath. Laughing he jumped in and took off again.

A quick row in and onto the beach, pulling the dory up out of the tide. Wouldn’t do to lose yet another boat. Lifting out the barrels and sacks he saw the entire Obb family waiting, “Hello my friends, feeling better back on land?”. “Oh yes,” Therd answered, Katya as well. The twins weren’t any the worse for wear and very happy to see the brothers. Tor and Din took an end of one of the barrels, and heaved it along as far as they could. Will took pity on them and hefted it to his shoulder while holding the other in a rope sling. “I’ll take these, but could you take the oatmeal please?”. Dins eyes lit up in joy and he seized one of the sacks happily, the rest were distributed to the rest of the family. “We’ll put these in the first burrow here, and you can distribute as you see fit, okay?”, Will said as he strode along. Again the boys were in a bit of shock at how easily he did this, to him it was just the way things were now.

The burrow that had been dug was large enough for about twenty adults to rest comfortably in. The amount of effort it had taken was impressive, and in a short time. The first ones must have worked nearly non-stop. Supplies were dropped off into an alcove for when they were needed and it was time for Will to rejoin the Rose. Tor saw him looking around, “Jeri went north with a group to search for more caves, and to find water, a good river we hope.”. Will nodded “When you see her, tell her I still think of,” he sighed, “Just remember me to her.”. “I will.”, Tor assured him. Bidding the family goodbye, he rowed back to the boat and secured the dory.

Going below he found Minnie and Naomi cleaning the mess and crew quarters. “No bath?”, he asked. Minnie snorted “Not much point of being clean then getting messy again, some of those guys were slobs. I don’t think they ever saw a head before. I’m gonna draw pictures of what to do, and what not to do and pin them up for the next load cause yuck.”. As he looked around the rooms did seem to be a bit amok, especially the bedding. The bunks had been slept in, and in some cases looked like a war had been fought in. “I guess the rough seas were worse than we thought, next couple of trips we’ll stay closer to shore.” he said, The three of them got the boat back in order in a short time, “We’re going to keep a closer eye on the passengers next time.” Will laughed.

After cleaning and a cup of tea Will checked the engine room and filled the coal bunkers and checked the boilers water. The bunkers were a little low, checking the main hold he found that the coal there was just about gone too. I didn’t realize we used this much, been busy though, he thought. “Hey Min,” he waited for her to answer. Her head popped out of the mess “What’s up doc?”. He laughed “Did you notice a shoal, a coal shore on the way here?”. Naomi’s head popped out, above Minnie’s “I noticed a small one on the way down yesterday, not very big though.”. “Oh yeah,” Minnie said “About three hours up coast, kinda near the earth crack, we gotta stop?”. Will thought for a moment “We’re okay on fuel, I just don’t like to see empty bunkers in the hold. After we’re done transporting we’ll stop and gather some.”. He headed for his cabin for a quick wash up, clean clothes and a shave. Rubbing his head he found a quarter inch of hair, unacceptable! That was going to go first thing.

Feeling much better it was time to get dressed warm again and start off back up the coast for another load of, hmmm passengers wasn’t a good fit, villagers was okay, refugees was a bit off, he would have to ask Minnie and Naomi what they thought. One last stop though. The galley for a fill of tea into a large flask he had found in his quarters. Big enough to hold a pint of something, glass lined with a leather case engraved with a ornate ‘E’. Must have been Eric’s he thought, probably the first times tea had been in it. Minnie and Naomi were waiting in the mess for him, mostly dressed. Just lacking hats and gloves. “Once more unto the breech dear friends, once more.” he greeted them. Looking at each other and shrugging, no questions asked, they just left to get dressed. He heard laughing as they left, what a pair they turned out to be. Shutting off the galley lanterns, as well as the mess hall ones. The corridor was still lit and would stay on low while they travelled, depending on how rough it got again. You don’t want a broken oil lamp in a wooden ship. All of theirs were either on gimbals or hanging secured by chains, no liquid fuel but cotton soaked, a little safer. Come to think of it, their stores of lamp oil was getting low too, He sighed, still lots to do though.

Minnie and Naomi were waiting at the stairs, ready to go, lower doors open. You could feel the chill coming down. Their gear could handle it and up top they marched. The light was just beginning to fade, it was only late afternoon but night came quickly now. Anchors up, and they turned back to the North, slowly at first but soon the water was foaming at the stern as the engine pushed them through the icy water. Bow lifting, black smoke puffing from the stack, it was time for another run of, now what were they called then? He put the question out there. “The burrowers maybe or just villagers.” Naomi said. Minnie liked “The stinkies”, but then said she was just kidding and didn’t want to be a meanie, “Just call them the villagers, we know what you mean dad.”. So that was official now, as they pushed on he wrote in his log the days events, dropping off the second load of villagers and they were on the way for the third. He was going to try and get as many as he could fit this time. The weather was much worse the further up the coast they went, and it wasn’t safe for them to stay there. “Give us a song guys.”, he asked. “Hmm, you pick one dad, if you whistle something I can pick up the tune pretty quickly.” Naomi said, readying her fiddle and Minnie her penny whistle. He thought for a moment and started humming then singing…

Ah De Do Ah De Do Da Day, Ah De Do Ah De A

He whistled and he sang till the green woods rang

and he won the heart of a lady

Gypsy Rover came over the hill

down through the valley so shady

He whistled and he sang till the green woods rang

and he won the heart of a lady

She left her home her castle great

she left her fair young lover

she left her servants and her estate

to follow the Gypsy Rover

It was a simple happy song and his wife had loved it so. Her father had sung it to her when she was young. When all the kids and grandkids were babies she had sung it to them as they slept in her arms. Later as they had all grown up and away, she still hummed it now and then. Minnie had picked up the tune as had Naomi, so he continued,

Ah De Do Ah De Do Da Day, Ah De Do Ah De A

He whistled and he sang till the green woods rang

and he won the heart of a lady

Her father saddled up his fastest steed

roamed the valleys all over

sought his daughter at great speed

and the whistlin' Gypsy Rover

He came unto a mansion fine

down by the river so shady

and there was music and there was wine

for the Gypsy and his lady

"He is no gypsy my father." she said,

"But Lord of these lands all over.

and I will stay till my dying day

with my whistlin' Gypsy Rover"

“It’s not a sad song guys,”, he saw a tear on Naomi’s cheek and Minnie was wiping her eyes.

“Don’t be glum, you celebrate people by remembering everything that made them dear to you, be glad you knew them and what that knowing gave you.” Will gathered first Minnie then Naomi into a hug and they sat there for a minute, just remembering those they had loved. Rocked by the waves and the boat, protected and comforted by the Rose.