Chapter 42 Freedom

It had been a long ten days. Very tiring days of chopping, not giving up and just plugging along. Getting baked by the sun, or drenched with rain. The rain wasn’t bad though, they replenished their fresh water that way. They had been scraped and cut, bruised and banged up, so had the Rose. When they finally returned to Laketown they would need a good hull cleaning and her paint touched up.

The last few feet had been cleared and they drifted out carefully, still dead slow to avoid prop damage.The care they had taken had paid off.Will and Minnie had dived under the boat at the end of every work day to check for damage to the hull and prop.They did have a spare prop but to change out in deep water is fairly daunting.

Keeping lookout on port and starboard Will and Naomi called out “Clear!”, as the last patch was behind them.The Rose surged ahead as Minnie hit full ahead, stack belching black smoke.It was great to be steaming at full throttle after so many days of creeping along.

Supplies were getting low now.A good thing that Laketown was at most a week away.Enough to bake a few more loaves, cobble up stews and meatloaf’s, perhaps a salt beef cottage pie.Fresh fish of course and chips too.“Don’t forget you promised pizza, whatever that is.”, added Minnie.Will made a note, pizza for Minnie.

One thing he missed was ketchup, mayonnaise was okay as a condiment. But on his burger he craved ketchup. Ah well, maybe one day.

By Wills calculations they were three days from Laketown, at this speed anyway.Their coal reserves were good and could easily maintain this rate of travel, at least for today.To put as much distance between them and the debris as possible.

Will had marked this area as dangerous on their maps. In the future they would have to see if it grew or moved, or even disappeared. While marking the map of this area Will made a point of checking for any notations about this phenomenon. There was nothing so it was a fairly new event.

“Captain, Minnie asked me to come down and see if you were still awake?”, Naomi asked from the doorway to his office, where he had been scribbling away for awhile now.This made Will jump slightly as he had been deep in thought, or snoozing but who could tell?“Oh hey Naomi, nope not sleeping, let little miss know I will be right up okay?”, Will replied.

With a knowing smirk Naomi nodded and headed back up on deck.Clearing up his writing supplies, rolling the updated map under his arm and tucking his oh-so-comfy chair under the desk, will followed her.Only to turn as he had forgotten to close the lantern and grab his tea mug.“I think I need to grow another arm”, he muttered.

“Can we do things like that?”, Naomi must have overheard him.“Our skills and affinities are amazing, the way we are growing and learning.It’s fantastic, and maybe we could grow arms and fingers back if we get badly hurt, or eyes, or noses, or what about ears, my uncle went deaf.”, she quieted for a moment.“Sorry captain, I just got carried away.”.

Will smiled “It’s all good, I have been thinking about the menus a lot, since the more command came up.Mine says nothing about healing either.So either that will come or we are normal that way.”.As the talked they had been walking too, up to the deck and along to the wheelhouse.Stopping at the stairs leading up Naomi asked “You said that you and Minnie are going to live a long time.Would you stay on the Rose all your life or do something else?”.

Will thought for a moment then “I can’t imagine a better life than the one I have. Minnie and I have only been here for a couple of months but this is where I want to be. Things could change I guess.”, he trailed off, thinking. Heading to the bow he opened up the grill, started cleaning it out. He had always found that doing a task helped him think. “I think that we can just take things as they come, can’t worry about things I can’t control.”.

Minnie saw them talking and opened up the bow windows. “Hey, why so serious? Something happened?”. “Nah”, said Will “Just yapping.”. “What’s yapping? Is that cooking, did you cook something without me…you made pie didn’t you, yummy pie and none for me, you greedies. I love apple pie, even without cream or custard. You could have saved me one piece, or brought it up here to me instead of sitting down below and stuffing!”. Will stood, mouth open and gaping at his ranting friend. Naomi was sitting on the deck laughing. Holding a hand up to slow Minnie’s roll he said “Yapping means talking, chatting, having a convo, catching up…that kind of thing.”. Minnie stopped yammering and simply said “Oh, so no pie then .”.

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Stepping up to the wheelhouse, Will hugged his little friend. “I would never eat pie without saving you a piece, but the cake we just had was amazing.”. Minnie’s head snapped around and she glared at him, saw that Naomi was laughing again and simply said “Very funny.”.

“How about you go help Naomi with dinner and you can snack away while peeling and stuff.” added Will “I’ll take over here until our meals ready then tie us off for the night.”. Minnie liked that idea, seemed like Naomi did too as she grasped Minnie’s thin arm, whispered in her ear and the two rushed off…giggling. “Oh oh, that’s not good.”, laughed Will.

As he held the Rose on course, wheel roped in place and checking the compass every little while, Will pondered.

I have to either invent a clock or, stopping his train of thought suddenly he spoke out loud, my bag, the one Elaith gave me. I remember there was a knife, sandwich’s, water flasks and a couple of other things. I totally forgot because I arrived in Laketown right after. Now where did I put it? It definitely here on the boat, but it completely slipped right out of my brain. I wonder what else I forgot.

Pulling out his notebook he jotted down to find his pack, after shut down for the day.Minnie would help him, she could ferret out the most amazing things while poking around their storage.Decks of cards, dice, her charcoal for sketching, lip balm, that was an odd one.

Naomi had complained that, while they had been marooned, that her lips were chapped from the sun and salt water.That evening Minnie had been tidying up their cabin and opened up a cupboard in their head.There on a shelf had been a small tub of what appeared to be balm.An amazing coincidence or something else, who knew.

But yeah, he would draft Minnie and Naomi to scour the boat until it was found. The only other place it could be was the Roses dry dock back in Laketown. There had been cupboards and bins there, many of them in fact. Ah well they would be there in a couple of days too. No worries.

The voice tube marked mess gave a piercing whistle. When he uncapped it he heard Naomi’s voice letting him know dinner was ready. He told her he was on his way. Setting the throttle to stop , he tied the wheel in place as the Rose swung to face the current. On the bow he let out the anchor chains, feeling them bite. The downstairs to the boiler room and shut the boiler to low.

Heading to his cabin to wash up andclean clothes, only then going to the mess.

Again when he stepped in he was always take back a bit by what a beautiful place it was.The well made wooden furniture, the polished wood deck.Brass lanterns shone like diamonds, various pictures hung on the walls.The ceiling was both roughly hewn and perfect.A hard to describe place indeed.

Minnie and Naomi were sitting at the lone table, various dishes and platters spread out, chatting away while they waited for him.A thought struck him..a Christmas tree would be an amazing addition, in the season of course.“Hey guys.”.Answers of hello captain and yo dad.

Sitting in his captains chair he starting serving himself, Minnie and Naomi did as well. One of his favourite meals, meatloaf. This time, strangely enough, the actual loaf was no loaf. Instead it had been formed into the shape of a shrimp, with the head still on. Hmm I wonder who did that he thought.

Mashed potatoes, carrots and turnips, and freshly baked cheesy rolls…so good. While the ate he mentioned his plan to look for both his side bag and Elaith’s bag. They both happily agreed to help. Then he asked Naomi about seasonal holidays, like Christmas.

Unsurprisingly she had never heard of it.There were a couple of times a year when Laketown celebrated.One was harvest time, a very important time in an agrarian society.The other was at the onset of spring.

Called George’s day, for some unknown reason.It was to mark when the farm animals didn’t need hay anymore and could graze outside.To celebrate the world coming back to life after winter.Much like Christmas in his old world, minus religious aspect.Gifts given on the day, communal meals, it sounded fun.It had just passed when Will and Minnie had arrived.

After dinner and dessert, Apple pie.Will laughed when he saw that.But after their meal was over, Will washed the dishes and cleaned up the galley and mess.He still enjoyed doing this, Naomi protested saying it was her job.

When all was done they scattered to look for his bag.It could be anywhere.

Will had a fault. He was not easily distracted but if he found something that needed doing he would change gears as it were, and take care of it. It had driven his wife to distraction. She would have left him gardening but when she returned he would be organizing their spice rack. The original chore would get done but so would something extra.

That’s how it was turning out now.While searching for his bag in their large tool/work room he had organized the two work bench’s, sorted wrench’s and drill bits, hung hammers and saws on the pegboard, separated screwdrivers, tidied the scrap bins.And found no bag.If anyone neededturnbuckles, hooks, nails, screws though, he had them.

He could hear Naomi and Minnie talking as they found some treasure in the storeroom next door, but no bags.Leaving the workroom, he went on to the next.

Minnie and Will shared the main cabin.A large room, but there were many storage areas to be checked.Netting on the ceiling, dressers, wardrobe, under bed storage, side cupboards.Will remembered cleaning out the previous captains gear, throwing in into a duffle and tossing it somewhere.Maybe that somewhere was the hiding place of his elusive bag.Wherever that was it wasn’t here.Mind you, his efforts had their room in tiptop shape.

Will left his cabin and headed to the engine room, there was a storage area there and it was next on his list.

Three hours later the tired crew met for tea in the galley.No luck finding his gear, but a much tidier boat.“Ah well, it’s probably at the dry dock in Laketown.”, said Will, “We’ll be there in a couple of days.”.

Minnie looked tired and a bit worn out, same with Naomi, with calls of goodnight, they headed to cabins for the night.