Marie accepted a glass of lemonade as she shared the story of how she had found her home on the Time Bandit. "Years ago I left home to travel the country. I'd pick up odd jobs and then move on when I had the money to. I ended up in Dutch Harbor, broke, and no one was hiring. John was three sheets to the wind and offered me a job as a greenhorn. I showed up at the dock the next morning and the rest as they say is history."

"That's it?" asked June disappointed.

"Hardly," laughed Norman, "Ava, you're leaving out the best part!"

Marie laughed as well and began to elaborate, "So the next morning I show up on the dock. The guys are all busy rigging the boat for the season and Andy sees me trying to get their attention. He yells down to me that whatever John told me the night before, there was no way he was going to get married in this lifetime and that I should move along before I got hurt. I yelled back that John had hired me as a greenhorn not proposed to me. The deck fell silent as the guys all looked at each other in disbelief. Andy started screaming for John to get his ass on deck. John comes out of the wheelhouse with Mike Randall from the Artic Dream to see what's going on."

"Did you hire us a greenhorn yet?" shouts Andy.

"Yeah I hired a greenhorn last night. Is he here?" says John.

"Yep, SHE is here brother. You want to tell me why you hired a girl?"

"She? I didn't hire a girl. I hired a young kid. Named Mark I think. Little fellow."

"I piped up,'From the Midwest? Been traveling the country? Couldn't find a job?'"

"Yeah, that's him!"

"'No that's me. And it's Marie not Mark. I knew you were drunk, but I didn't think you were that drunk." "The look on Johns face is priceless!"

"From the deck I hear Russell Newberry laugh, 'Time for the Ax Man to visit!' "

"Andy steps up and gives me an apologetic look, 'Sweetheart, I know you mean well, and I'm sorry about the job. But a crab deck is no place for a lady.' "

"Sonofabitch! Dammit I need a job," I yelled back."

"Mike Randall speaks up and says that if the Hillstrands are going to renege on Johnathan's offer then he'll hire me on for one trip. That doesn't sit well with them so they agree to keep me on for one trip. They would decide to keep me for the rest of the season after they saw how it went."

"And lucky for you they did," commented Sig.

"I never forget it," replied Marie

"Why's that?" asked a puzzled June.

"The Artic Dream sank two weeks later," answered Marie quietly. There were a few moments of uncomfortable silence. "After the trip they decided to keep me around and I was dubbed 'Ava Marie' since I was working for the pirates of the Bering Sea."

"Anybody care to tell me what started the rivalry between Edgar and Marie?"

"She's temperamental. That's enough. All I did was send her a drink," replied Edgar with a wide eyed, "I'm so innocent" expression.

"A pink fru fru cocktail with 'skirt' on it," huffed Marie.

"Retaliation?" asked June.

Norman doubled over with laughter, "We had bullied Ed into karaoke. She switched his song to "Dancing Queen"."

"And it's been war ever since," finished Sig.

Just a short update to tide you over. Ch 3 is taking longer than expected and life has thrown me a curveball (as usual). My mom is having heart problems (worse than normal for her) so I have TONS of paperwork to take care of for work before her surgery next week. Thanks for all the reviews, they make my day! And for all you readers who aren't leaving reviews...shame on you! Makes me sad (heading to pout now).