Chapter 45. Sharps

Well that information didn’t go over too well with Minnie. She still remembered the time a sharp attacked her in the hold. It had been caught in a net of floaters and gotten loose. Will vowed that wouldn’t happen this time, besides you didn’t use nets to get sharps. You use harpoons.

The kids that loaded the ore last time were all interested in coming back. That made life easier, rather than training a new bunch. However, the sharp catching was going to be all Will, Naomi and Minnie. They needed a haul of at least 20. 20 of the white-grey monsters, adults well over 18 feet.

Their flesh was inedible, but their bones and cartilage was where the value was.And since no one had figured a way to convince them to just give up their skeletons when asked, hunting was the way to go.Dangerous but the credit balance of the Rose and her crew would rise dramatically with every evil fishie caught.

But Minnie’s reaction was quite classic.Will had been telling stories in the evenings.Stories from their old world, from movies, tv series, books and so on.She had particularly like the stories about knights, riding the horrible horsies.Wearing their suits of armour.

She was quite adamant on the fact she was going to make herself a full suit, or at least legs and arms. Will gave her the go ahead, also telling her that as far as he was concerned, she was as much owner of the Rose as he was. She didn’t need his permission to do or make anything. This made his little friend happy, and that was important.

Later in the afternoon they cast off and steamed over to the covered dock.Will stood by, at the dock and threw open the large doors as Minnie carefully steered inside.It was all back to kill forward momentum and then stop.Will tied her off and they blew out the steam and set the boiler down low.

“Well that was fun,”, remarked Will.“Sure feels weird to be under a roof, but still onboard”, said Minnie.“It will only be a couple of days then out we go again, just lots to do and weather can hold us back.”, he explained.The dock was a bit gloomy, even with the door open, so he lit the gas lights on the inside.And there it was, his side bag and the leather bag Elaith had given him.Sitting on a tool bench.Stephen must have put it there when Will and Minnie connected with the Rose.

With a whoop he ran over and pulled his side bag open. Mostly empty water bottles, his phone…completely dead, wallet. Not much to show really. In the leather messenger bag he found a couple more water bottles…still full, the nice knife he remembered, a yucky green mess of paper that used to be a sandwich and…his grandfathers pocket watch.

At the sight of this watch, which was running still, any reservations he might have had about Elaith’s divinity were gone.“Thank you my friend”, he whispered.

According to his shiny watch it was 3:30.He eagerly showed it to Minnie, whose eyes lit up in interest, and to Naomi who was fascinated with the concept.She was from a agricultural lifestyle and was just used to farm time.This idea of actually knowing or keeping track was amazing.

Will knew he obsessed a bit about the time thing but coming from a life where he was governed by time, he had been flailing a bit without knowing. Hopefully he could reproduce this watch and introduce the idea here. It was nice to be able to plan things, supper in an hour, give me five minutes, how long you gonna be….and so on.

But for now…the Roses needs. Looking around the dock he could see everything that they needed. Rope seats to hang off the sides, paint and tar, fresh boards of all sizes, hardware and various iron mongery, brass piping, glass demijohns of lamp oil. Everything that he had been looking for in Newton’s various shops was right here.

Whipping out his notebook he starting giving out various tasks. “So Minnie, you and I are going to be swimming about for a while, Naomi could you please start readying the temp crew quarters. Our resupply should be here soon, that will be all hands on.”. The others agreed, Naomi was below and Will and Min prepared for their swim and jumped in.

They thoroughly checked the port side, diving under to check. Finding a few spots where the paint had been gouged, all above the water line, they mixed up the paint and touched them up. Halfway through there was a banging on the small dock door.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The supply wagons had arrived.

They threw their outer wear back on and went to unload.Two wagons fully loaded waited for them.“Hey captain, good to have you back”, called the driver, “Thanks neighbour,” replied Will, “I’m sorry but I can’t remember your name”.”“Neighbour….I like that, I’m Dave and that little fellow on the tother wagon is Owen.”, laughed the driver.The little fellow, about 7 feet tall and 300 pounds of muscle gave a wave and a grin… “Hi.”.

Minnie latched on to the other wagon and started helping Owen unload, so did Naomi who had come up on deck. The drivers eyes nearly popped when Will casually lifted a full water barrel under each arm and strolled on board. They were even more shocked when Minnie and her skinny arms, just as casually lifted one over her head and jumped onto the deck.

“Quite a pair aren’t they”, Naomi remarked to the drivers.“Are you like them too, like strong?” asked Dave.“Not yet,” she said, picking up two hundred pound bags of flour, “close though.”.The drivers shook their head and started to work.

The unloading and carrying below went fast and they were enjoying a nice tea in the mess just a little while later. “My lass Bree, she’s coming with you again.”, said Dave “She bout talked my ear off about last one, storm and all.”. The other man, Owen, spoke up too “So’s my two little ones, Rose and Larry, they’re so looking forward to fishing with Minnie, you too cap. But they sure like the first mate.”.

“Yeah, I kinda like her too.”, said Will, winking at Minnie. As they were finished their tea and the unloading Dave and Owen bade the crew good bye and wagon hoed. Will and Min got back to swimming and painting. Tomorrow they were planning to dismount the rudder, plane it smooth, repaint and re-tar, grease all the couplings and re-mount it. And check the prop for burrs, that might not need to be removed to grind it smooth.

Naomi had got a great start on the visitor cabins.The bunks had mattress, blankets and pillows, heads were checked, fire buckets or water and sand filled and ready.The supplies were still stacked in the mess hall, that would be tomorrow for her.

She heard a heavy knocking and went up on deck to find Regina whacking the railing with a belaying pin. “Hey I hear you, knock it off, if you dent Wills boat I’ll set Minnie on you.”, she yelled. Regina just smirked, ”Will is it now?”. Shaking her head Naomi said “Yes it’s Will now, and it’s Minnie and they call me Naomi….weird how names work.”. Regina laughed.

“So there’s nothing yet, no moonlight walks or swims, no longing looks across the breakfast table?”, Regina continued, “Do you even want anything like that from him?”. Naomi shrugged “He’s quite a bit older, like more than twice my age. He’s very dedicated to the boat and the job of captaining. Then there’s the memory of his wife , she was everything to him….they were married for over 50 years you know.”.

Regina shook her head, “Sweetie, I taught up you numbers and those ones don’t work out…try again.”.Naomi was pensive for a moment, then looked at Regina and asked “Have you heard of the menu?”.“Like what we’ve served for dinner, or lunch over at the tavern or it is the other one?”.

Naomi gasped, “The other one, you do know about it then.”. Regina sighed “I have just heard rumours, that some people, and that’s really very very few, over hundreds of years. Some people can get abilities, get better at things, live longer.”.

“Well it’s true, Will and Minnie can both access the menu and they have talents, abilities, whatever you call them. They are just getting better.”, said Naomi.

“Better?”, asked Regina. “Minnie has gotten fantastic at driving the boat, she never gets lost, if anything breaks or gets damaged she fixes it, she swims like a sharp, much smarter than she was, taller too.”, added Naomi, “ and stronger, never gets tired either.”.

“Is Will the same, getting better too?”, Regina continues “He’s a newcomer you know.”. Naomi nodded again “He doesn’t talk about it much, but he has gotten much younger than when he first came here, like half as old as he was. Stronger, rarely gets tired out, recovers very quickly if he does.”.

As they talked the kettle had boiled and tea was made. They continued talking. “Did Will tell you about the menu, there must have been a reason .”, Regina pressed on, “Was it about Minnie or himself, that he told you?”,

Naomi looked down at her fingers, twisting..looked Regina in the eye “ No, it was when I appeared on his menu, like Minnie did, when I gained abilities too. When I could access my menu.”. Regina sat back in her chair, face paled. “And that’s not all,” Naomi added “ We are pretty sure I am immune to the lake now too, but you can’t tell anybody about all this.”.

“Well of course I won’t, you’re my sister and my job has always been to take care of you, protect you.Being safe from the lake is…well it’s amazing.I was so worried about you here.” Regina said, voice catching.

Will voice carried across the room “ Keeping Naomi safe and happy is a priority for us, Minnie and I.”

“She’s my friend, makes great cookies and dads yucky weed tea, likes to play cards and sing with us too.And she cooks good, nice shrimpies.I love her, don’t make her leave, I promise to keep her safe.Naomi’s free like we are, free to sail around the world with me and dad.”, Minnie spoke, voice choking up.

Regina shook her head, “I would never make her leave a person that loves her so Minnie, I was just worried.”.“Well that’s good.”, replied Minnie, “Did you bring any biscuits, or milk?”.

Laughing Regina said “There should be biscuits in your supplies there’s but no milk..oh but there’s apple juice.”.Minnie began sorting through the supplies, looking for the elusive biscuits.“Apple juice is okays, but really sweet, makes my teeth tingle sometimes.”.Will stifled a laugh “ Yeah, mine too.That’s why we have toothbrushes and salt right?”.

Will sat down with Naomi and Regina and poured a tea. “I caught the last of your conversation as I was coming down”, he took a sip, missing the look between sisters, the ‘don’t you dare’ look. “And the menu has been with me since I came to your world, Minnie a few days later, and Naomi just a couple of weeks ago.”. Asking Minnie if she found the biscuits yet and receiving a snarky not yet, he continued.

“The lake immunity is new, we haven’t had a chance to test it thoroughly cause it’s pretty dangerous to do on open water,” he said , “and I don’t want word to get out that it happened because of Minnie and I, we would’ve been swamped with visitors wanting it too.”.

Regina nodded “I understand, even here there has been jealousy about Naomi going with you. And finding out this…it’s pretty amazing news.”.