Chapter 28 Newton

For the rest of the day and into the evening the Rose steamed on, water calm and weather fair.Taking turns on the helm with Minnie he worked on his grill.The mortar had set, the andirons fit perfectly in their slot to cook on, and the firebox was ready to go.But they were not going to use this today .A light evening meal of bread, cheese and hard sausage was appreciated after the shrimp fest of yesterday.

The light was failing fast as they anchored for the night, a solitary lantern hanging from the smokestack. The boat rocked gently as they went below to relax before sleep. The mess was where they spent most quiet evenings, like this one. Will had pulled easy chairs, from the unused cabins, in for them rather than the hard wooden ones. Arranged in a circle around a low table was the crew, sipping tea or milk and eating a cake Naomi had baked earlier.

“If I keep eating like this I will have to go on a diet” remarked Will, on his third slice. “What’s a diet dad,” asked Minnie. Will rubbed his chin to think for a bit, “it’s when you only eat certain foods, so you can lose weight.”. Minnie shrugged “I don’t weigh very much now, what would I want to do that.”. Naomi added “some girls at home would say they were too heavy, and stop eating cakes and cookies but I have never heard the word diet before.”. “Where we came from diets and dieting were big business, a new diet would come out every month. Everyone would do it, then the next one and so on.”,said Will.

“Pretty silly dad”, Minnie was confused, “why not just stop eating bad stuff.”. Will tried to answer best he could, “Some people need help sometimes, can’t do it by themselves. Other times it’s bad people stealing from others, lying to make money.”. “Your world is very different than ours is Captain, the idea of getting ahead by hurting others…horrible,” said Naomi. “I’m glad we came here dad, real glad, not just cause I’m smart now but there’s no bad people here. I’m tired dad, can we go to bed.”. Minnie sounded tired and a bit sad.

Will gave her a quick hug and held her small hand as they went to their cabin, Naomi was heading to bed too. She turned off the mess and galley lanterns and just had a small one to see her to her cabin. By this time Will and Minnie had reached theirs and said goodnight. Will hit the head first and got ready, then Minnie did her necessities. Will had planned ahead and had filled hot water bottles to heat up the usually cold sheets, and they slipped into the toasty warm bed. Minnie rested her cold wet nose on wills cheek for a moment…”night dad, love you.”, and dozed off. Will rested his hand on his little companion’s narrow shoulder and he also dozed off, his last thought was..

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William Harris

Age 47

Intelligence 16/50

Strength 25/50

Vitality 24/50

Stamina 25/50

Affinities for gardening, cultivating, fishing, knitting, swimming, mariner ,

Captain of the heartboat Rose

Navigation 2

Mechanic 2

Mason 1

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Minnie

Best dog of all

Age 5

Intelligence 8/25

Strength 13/25

Vitality 18/25

Stamina 18/25

First Mate of the heartboat Rose

Piloting 3

Mechanic 2

Crab Catcher

Shrimper

Will woke early, Minnie was still snoring away, cuddle beside him in a nest of blankets and pillows. He was actually not sure what time it was, his phone was long dead and stuffed in a cupboard somewhere, along with everything he had brought with him from, his home dimension, or earth, Terra, wherever. It just felt weird to refer to his previous home by any of those. But back to the concept of what time it was. Right now they had a schedule of what needed doing, then meals usually governed by the sun. Especially lunchtime, that was an easy one, but as summer came on the days would be longer, nights shorter. He made a note to ask Naomi about clocks, did this world have them, why wouldn’t they? Once you start living by a clock, you will find it nearly impossible to stop.

Visiting the head to wash, brush teeth and so on, he tried to be quiet and not wake Min. Dressing in shorts today, with a simple shirt and sandals he felt ready to greet the day. It was coming dawn by the look of things through the port and he decided to meet the sun on deck.

Naomi was still in her cabin as the galley was dark and the stove was not lit yet. As he puttered around lighting the firebox of the large wood stove he hoped she was happy in this life. Filling the percolator with coffee and water, setting it on the burner, and headed up.

As he thought, the eastern sky was starting to pink up, the temperature was chilly so he draped a blanket from the wheelhouse over his shoulders and leant on the rail. We need deck chairs he thought. And what’s the name of those cabin chairs, the ones everyone had by the fire pits, or by the docks. Moscow? Nope, umm marmite? No…millennial, anything but that. Muskoka that was it! And the other one, they were a bit higher and wider. Oh come on brain, get working. Coffee was needed.

He stepped back down to the mess and found that the coffee pot was indeed sputtering away.Pouring a large mug and adding three heaping spoons of their coarse sugar he returned to the deck.Now what is that chair called…no internet to search for it here.Mumbling away he tried to sound it out, all the vowels first then adding a letter her and there, sipping coffee.Eventually it came to him, Adirondack.“ I must have sounded like an idiot…mumbling away.” he muttered.

Now to figure out which chair to make.Pulling out his notebook he wrote down each name and started sketching them out.He had each one on its own page and then was stumped yet again.What day is it?What month even.I know it’s end of spring, so June, early June.Again he would ask Naomi.For now he just numbered his pages.

While he had been pondering the sun had shown itself and it was a beautiful sight. Clear skies today for sure. Heading to the wheelhouse to stow the blanket away he looked at the course he had laid out. They were now roughly 300 nautical miles from Laketown and still heading east. The maps showed a few coastal towns ahead that he hoped to start regular trade with. He knew previous captains had, but some more than others.

If he put his mind to it he could kind of access a general memory of what happened before, to do with the Rose. She had started as a sailing ship. Keel cut and shaped of heartwood, carefully and lovingly built and launched. Far far from here, those details were hazy. She sailed with the winds for many years, hundreds of years until the advent of steam. Taken back to her mysterious shipyard and refitted and had worked under nearly a dozen captains until he and Minnie came along.

Remembering Elaith’s words, live as long as you want. Be the captain as long as you want. It would be hard to give up this life they had fallen into.

Shaking his head and coming back to the moment he needed more coffee.It seemed the right time to wake the crew as well, so down below he went.Not trying to keep noise down this time, singing happily.He could hear stirrings in the cabins.

Sitting and enjoying his second cup Will was startled a bit by a hug from Min. “Morning dad, you got up before me huh. Silly. Seen the sunrise too, I like to see that. Starts my day yeah? Always tomorrow right, hey wanna look at my pictures with me? I drew a crab that I dreamed about, yuck.” Will was quite used to her stream of thought and happily looked at her drawings with her. There was no more milk though, her favourite drink but they did have apple juice. Large demijohn wicker bottles kept cooling in their storeroom. Very tasty indeed.

As they paged through Minnie’s sketchbooks Will could see how her skill was growing.Starting out enthusiastic and slowly refined as days and weeks of practice showed through.Everything that caught her interest was there, including Will and Minnie herself.“How did you draw yourself, this is really good, looks just like you.”. Will asked.“A bucket of water, showed me, me.”, was the answer.

Naomi came into the mess then, in a bit of a rush “Captain, I saw something out my porthole…to the east.”. They all hurried to the deck and to the east there was several smoke trails rising up. Some light but some black and heavy. Still a fair distance away but within an hour of sailing.

“Hmmm”, wondered Will “ think we should head in that direction.”.