Chapter 44 Home is where the…cookies are.

No matter who saw it first, they had returned to Laketown. Will supposed that, after living this life for the years to come, this would be routine, ho-hum. He hoped not. To take this wonderful life for granted would be terrible.

But here they were, sidling up to the quay at Laketown, Minnie holding them in place while Will jumped out to tie them off. He could see people gathering at lands end, more coming quickly as the word spread. He waved to Minnie and made a pumping motion, nothing. He repeated it, over exaggerating the motion, still nothing. He tried yelling up at her but there was too much wind. So up he went to the wheelhouse.

“Hey dad should I use the whistle to let people know we’re here”, asked Minnie innocently.

Will sighed “That’s a great idea, why didn’t I think of that?”. Min laughed “Too old I guess.”, and took off out of the wheelhouse at a dead run. Will set off after her but didn’t really have a chance of catching her. Too small and too fast, even though he did his best. Sadly he was left puffing and hanging on the port rail, trying to catch his breath. Minnie beside him, tongue hanging out but still ready to go.

“Had enough yet?”, she smirked.

“You win, Min, you win.Just too quick for me.”, he puffed.She reached over and hugged him, “I’ll let you win next time k?”.

Naomi was waiting to head down the dock to Regina , who was waiting not-so-patiently. “Captain, if you and Minnie are quite done can we get to land. I would love to see Regina.”. “Right..sorry..yeah let’s go.”, Will had recovered enough to be able to walk Naomi down the dock.

Stephen was also in the group waiting and hailed Will as he come along .“Welcome back my friend, welcome back, an uneventful trip I hope.”.Will laughed, “Well mostly, had a interesting journey back from Newton.Got stuck for ten days and had to dig ourselves out.”.

“Come to Regina’s for dinner and tell us all about it.”, replied Stephen.Will nodded, said he and Minnie would be there in about 20 minutes.

Returning to the Rose he found that Minnie had shut down the boiler.“I figured we’ll be here a while so…” she said, as they changed to head into the village.“Yeah, good job sweetie.”, he replied.

As they walked down the quay and into the village Will noticed it was more rustic, well compared to Newton really. Laketown was much smaller and he wondered why his heartboat was based out of here. Other captains had gone to Newton regularly but they had also declined to work out of that town. It was a question he meant to ask tonight.

Laketown was more than it appeared though.A long meandering Main Street, where all the businesses were.Side streets led off to several housing districts for the huge communal farms beyond the village.

“Maybe we should spend some time getting to know here more, before we sail again.”, he asked Minnie. “Why.”, was her response “We live on the boat and work getting stuff for these guys.”. Will had to admit she had a point. But he still wanted to know more about this place.

“Tomorrow we can get a couple of horses and…”, he stopped, Minnie was just looking at him.“What are we going to do with horsies?”, she asked.“”I was thinking we could ride around the area, pack a lunch and spend a few hours looking around.”, he stopped talking at the look of horror on his first mates face.“What’s wrong?”, he asked.

“Ride on a horse…like be on way up on top of one of those horrible smelly hairy things.”, she went on “Their hair would get over my lovely fur, I would smell like a blaaarrgh all day, their noisy with their dumb neighing and they poop, a lot.Never, ever.”, she was standing in front of him, hands on hips, finger pointing away.

“Okay okay, we’ll walk around then, good exercise for us.”.

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“Maybe for you, I don’t need it, I won remember?” Min replied.Laughing Will threw his hands in the air , giving up.They walked on until they reached the tavern.It looked very busy as they entered.

A shout from the far side of the crowded tavern showed Stephen, waving them over. Min and Will joined him at his table, Regina brought over a large foaming glass of ale for Will and, oh joy, a mug of fresh milk for Minnie. Grasping it with her small hands she drank deep, burped.. “aah, that hits the spot.”. Will laughed and lifted his glass of ale to cheers with her.

The evening wound on.Will and Min, joined by Naomi after an hour or so, told the story of their voyage.When they told Stephen the news of their cargo he was very happy.“Newton glassware, the best I have ever seen.Very welcome captain, very welcome.”, he said.The lenses, bottles and jars of all sizes, glassware, and window sheets would be used by the whole town.

Regina and Naomi had joined them and listened to the stories .Tales of the trip, what Newton was like, the sargasso they encountered, turtles and shrimp.

Later on, well much later, Will and Minnie were walking back to the Rose.Minnie kept looking at the stars, “Hey dad, do you see the patterns up there?”.Will looked up at the bright stars, “I sure do, people like us have been keeping an eye on the stars for thousands of years.”.“People like us?”, she asked. “Folk that live and work on the water.We have to rely on the stars to show our way.”.Minnie was staring up still “There’s so many, so many patterns of faces, people….dad is mom up there?Is that where we go when we die, is that where I’ll go, can I look down on you, keep you safe?.

Will could feel tears in his eyes, he knelt in front of Minnie, hands on her shoulders, “My little one…when we go to whatever comes after this world, I will be with you. I couldn’t go on without my best and favourite person beside me.”. Minnie had stopped looking up and was looking at him now, big brown eyes staring into his. “I was worried about that. I wonder what does come next though, I changed when we came here, will I change again in another world?”.

Will thought that was a fair question, and one he had thought about more than once.The truth was they had changed when they arrived here, and no one really knows how long they have to live.“We all change Min, growing all the time, learning and living.Let’s just live our best life here and see what’s going to happen tomorrow.”.

Minnie seemed to think about that, looking up at the stars and a look of peace came over her small face, “Let’s do that dad, let’s live our best life, together.”.

So as they walked Minnie asked him about navigating with the stars, and how the olden ones did it. Will told her you could set your eye or compass on one star and use it to stay on course. That different stars showed at different times of the year, different stars showed all the points of the compass.

“We find it easy but I think that’s our navigational skills, makes us good pilots, helped by the mariner skill too.”.He couldn’t remember the names of the constellations at all, just the Big Dipper and the North Star.“I think we have star charts back on board, we are going to have to study them for sure.”.

As the two neared the quay they saw the Rose, glistening in the moonlight, rocking gently on the calm lake. “I sure love our home dad.”, said Min. “Me too, can’t think of a better place to be.” Will replied.

The lateness of their bedtime showed in their sleep in time.Wagons were coming today to unload their cargo, much welcomed but they needed to be careful it being glass and all.

They had to pull the Rose into the covered dock too. The sargasso had taken a bit of a toll on their hull, that needed tending. Their rudder had to be looked at too, and the prop. Will saw a lot of swimming and hanging on the side of the boat in their future. Good thing they both enjoyed the water.

As the one of the incoming wagons appeared at lands end they also saw Naomi with a large basket, hopefully it held food.

Will and Minnie walked down to meet the group, and yes, the basket had breakfast sandwiches , milk and nice strong tea. “Stephen said a resupply wagon will come this afternoon, after you unload and move over to the other dock.”, said Naomi. Min had opened the basket and was stuffing a sandwich into her maw. Taking one himself Will bit into the tasty treat. Naomi took one for herself and sat on the quayside beside him, dangling their feet over the water.

He thought, even this act was denied to the inhabitants of this world. So relaxing to him, so trauma inducing to them. He was interrupted.

“Cannonball!”, yelled Minnie, galloping past him and into the lake with a mighty splash. Will shouted and jumped in after his little friend, who had just soaked him and his sandwich….sacrilege which must be repaid. Stroking after her with as much speed as he had, he quickly overtook her, picking her up from the water, and tossing her with a tremendous throw. “Aaaahhhh”, screamed Minnie, who flew nearly thirty feet up and over into the water. Her soaked head appeared, “again”, she yelled.

Will laughed.He ‘agained’ for the next half an hour or so until they had both had enough of the water fun, and dragged them selves out.He was surprised to find Naomi still on the quay, alone.The wagons had all shown up now and were patiently waiting.

“We’re you okay here by yourself or were we still close enough for you?”, he asked Naomi.“I was fine, I think I might be like you two now, immune to the effects, oh I hope so, that looked so much fun, I nearly jumped in .”, she gushed.“Well I hope so”, he continued.

“Stephen asked for another quick ore run, fishing on the way back. The council is going to start on the barges right away, but they won’t be done in time. We need at least two days for repairs, restock, that kind of thing.”, he shook his head, “So busy, I love it.”.

The sun had dried he and Minnie a bit so he met the wagons and escorted them down the quay.There, he, Naomi and Min quickly unloaded their precious cargo of glass carefully into the wagons.The crates, marked with their contents, were to be taken to a warehouse and then distributed.

Will was not surprised to find out that Laketown ran on the same advanced barter system as Newton. He supposed that it worked well, so why change it. His coal bunker was well filled and he had nearly a half filled hold as well, so the crew loaded one of the wagons with a couple of tons of rich black anthracite. This would help with the coal deficiency Laketown currently had, and give them a much higher credit balance.

Not as much as several multi-ton barge loads would do though. Their construction was a high priority for the village and the plans Will had were to be used immediately. That would take time, so an ore run or two was no problem. The fishing though, Regina and Stephen, along with the three other council members had asked for something different.

This time they weren’t looking for the fat tasty floaters. No, this time they were hunting sharps.