Right, so everyone has to give me a break with the title. This is my first fic. Titles are hard. Just…yeah. Live with it.
I started this fic under Jeeze Louise, but now that has stopped letting me on that account, I have reposted and will continue on with the story here.
Constructive criticism is loved.
Orphan's Sea legs
Chapter One : Arrival on the SS Venture.
It hadn't even been three days since I'd gotten the note from Mr Englehorn announcing my father's passing, and I was already selling all that I could from our minimal flat to pay my way onto his old ship, the Venture. Mr Englehorn had written that they were in New York for a few days, but I'm sure he wasn't expecting me to come begging for a home.
My father and Captain Englehorn had been very close friends for the most of the 30 years they had known each other – the captain had never known me, though. My father was rarely at home, always having those adventures at sea. When Mam had died in winter last year, he'd come back for about a month to help me, but was then called back to the oceans in that mysterious way of his. It was unfortunate that the next I would hear of him would be news of his death at sea.
By the time I reached the shipyard, night had begun to fall. I recognized Englehorn talking to a short, round, well dressed man. I stepped up to them, rallying all the confidence I could, and announced, 'Excuse me, Mr Englehorn?'
The Captain raised his chin and looked down at me with furrowed brow and squinting eyes, lips playing with the cigarette in his mouth.
'Who are you?' he finally asked.
I squared my shoulders as best I could. 'June Leighton.'
Englehorn's eyebrows shot up, and he brought his chin back down to a normal level. 'Well, then,' he slurred past the cigarette, 'You look just like you're old dad.'
The short, now ignored man, began to look bothered with this interruption, sensing it would last longer than he had time for.
'Yes, well,' I cleared my throat for good measure, 'I'd like to buy a spot on your ship, sir. Got nowhere else left without my father about.'
Englehorn squinted once again, whether it was from suspicion, smoke, or the cold weather settling into the city, I wasn't sure. He tossed the cigarette to the ground and butted it out with his boot.
'How old are you?' he asked, his german accent thick.
'16, sir. 17 in March.'
He frowned at me. The short man was now visibly annoyed with me. He seemed to be in quite a rush.
'I'll pay you all the money I have, and cook and clean the best I can.' I said hastily, 'I wont be any trouble.'
He snorted lightly, 'Women are always trouble.'
'I'm a fine cook!' I insisted. 'I wont take up more room than I'm taking up right here, honest!' Urgency was now weaving through my words.
'We've already got a well enough cook,' he said slowly, 'But having a face light Leighton's around might cheer up these old bastards.'
I looked hopefully up at him, a smile pulling at the corners of my lips at hearing the familiar way in which the captain and my father had taunted the crew. Having my father's distinguishing features didn't hurt my chances at getting a home, either.
He saw the look on my face and raised a threatening finger. 'Any trouble and you're off at the next stop, got it?'
I grinned and stuck my hand out for him to shake, which he did, raising an eyebrow in amusement.
'Hayes!' he yelled, and a dark man stuck his head out of a door up on the ship.
'Sir?' the man answered.
'Come and show our newest crewmember around.' Englehorn turned back to me. 'This is Mister Hayes, my right hand man.'
Mister Hayes had made his way to where we were on the dock.
'This is June Leighton. She's our new apprentice cook.'
Mister Hayes smiled an easy smile, white teeth flashing attractively, and shook my hand. 'Welcome aboard, Miss Leighton.'
Hayes quickly showed me around the rest of the small, less than glamorous ship, introducing me to the animal cages in the hull, the rooms where most of the crew slept, and the galley and mess where I would end up spending most of my time.
The current cook, Lumpy, didn't take much liking to me when we were introduced. He didn't want someone else in his kitchen, getting in the way and changing the way he worked.
Most of the crew was out enjoying the solid ground of New York while the could before the SS Venture set off again. Once Hayes showed me to my small cot off the galley, I dropped my bag and went of to see Mister Lumpy.
He was churning some thick foul smelling stew and poking at a squawking bird that was caged above his workplace.
'Anything for me to do, Mister Lumpy?' I asked timidly.
He turned and peered at me through the one eye that he kept open, chewing on a cigarette. 'Not here, there isn't. No woman will be working in this here galley!'
He gave a slight shooing motion. I smiled uneasily, retreating to me bunk once more. They were just sore old blokes, I reasoned. They'd have to get used to me sooner or later.
I pulled my dog eared sketch book and charcoals from my bag and made my way out to the deck. I was surprised to see that we had begun chugging out of the shipyard and were heading out into the river. There was a number of new faces pulling ropes and heading into the galley. I pulled a wooden box to the foredock to sit on and began mapping out a picture of the New York skyline that was fanning out before me. I was nearly done before I realized there was someone in the crow's nest above me.
A book of only about 100 pages flittered down next to me. I packed away my charcoals and stood, picking up the book. Looking into the sky, I could see a figure in the nest, lying completely still, half-hazardly slumped in the bars.
'Oh…excuse me?' I tried.
The person didn't respond or move in any way.
'Excuse me! Sir!' I called, raising my voice.
The person jolted, the grey hat on his head falling down next to me like the book had. He spun around, caught and twisted in the bars, before straightening enough to look down at me.
He was a young man, much younger than the rest of the crew that I had already seen. He was probably a year or two older than me.
'You, um…' I started awkwardly, 'You dropped your book.' I waved it in the air. 'And your hat.'
He patted a head on his rumpled, dirty hair and cursed. He scampered down the mast ropes with an incredible fluidity.
He reached the deck and bent to pick up his hat, which he scrunched on his head. I passed him his book, a wrinkled little novel. He shoved it into the back of his pants.
He looked at me with open interest. His sharp, not yet mature features in turn made me ache to draw him.
He scrubbed a hand against his shirt before holding it out to me. I shook it.
'I'm – '
'Jimmy!'
Our heads shot towards the wing bridge, from where Mr Hayes was calling. 'Get up here and give me a hand!' He paused, nodding in my direction. 'And you'd best be in with Lumpy, Miss Leighton. Those men will be expecting a meal from the two of you right about now.'
Jimmy turned back to me and grinned, shook my hand and said, 'Nice to meet you, Miss Leighton.'
He straightened his newly recovered hat and made his way up to Mister Hayes.
I gathered up my charcoal and sketches and made my way back into the now bustling galley.
There's chapter one. Nothing much happened. Review, please. Next chapter up soon.