Like most of the women on Melbourne, Mattie wore a long dress made from what looked to be scraps. Her hair was a sort of red brown and fastened back from her face into a braid. She had the clear face of someone who has never suffered. As far as Charlie Davis knew, she had never sold herself to the others of the town, like so many women did, but rather simply obtained chins from her father. Charlie Davis is so un-used to people talking to him directly that he's a little taken aback but he recovers himself quickly.
"Pardon?"
"I said I need your help. "
"My help?"
"Yes. Your help."
"What can I do for you, Mattie?"
"I want to get the fuck off Melbourne." Charlie Davis closed one eyes and examined her features. If he was interested, he could see why boys chased Mattie. She was a very beautiful lady. She had the most symmetrical face he'd ever seen. A real rarity out in these parts. Charlie Davis sat back, and gestured around himself.
"Okay. What the fuck does that have to do with me?"
"You're the only person I know who has ever been somewhere that's not Melbourne."
"Yeah. When I was fifteen." He said, unable to stop the annoyance seeping into his voice. He was tired of being known as 'the drifter' Lucien had been a drifter for years and years but no one asked him about it. Likely because no one liked him enough to inquire. Fact was Lucien was disliked rather much; when h wasn't drunk or treating illness he was rather a force of liberation. When Charlie had been eighteen, Lucien had gone to Martian directly and told him, quite firmly, that Charlie was not going to impregnate any girls, and to leave him alone. He had also stood up for new comers and travelers. He was, in all fact, a force of nature. Or he had been. He supposed as well, while he, Matthew and Rose had been fairly lucky, Lucien had not been so in his travels. Charlie didn't know much about it, other then that he'd been captured by Smokers for a time. Lucien had never told him; and he'd never asked.

"Charlie Davis, please. My father wants me to get pregnant with this boy and he's so horrible. I can't live like that. Maybe you can but I can't." He felt bad about it, he really did, but there was nothing he could really do about it.
"I don't know what you think I can do. I don't even have a boat."
"What if I could get you a boat." Danny looks up, interested now.
"How?"
"I stole some blue prints from my father." She produced them from between her breasts and offered them to him. He took them and unrolled the paper. Sure enough it was a blue print for a boat. "We could build it, the three of us." Danny looked over his shoulder at the blueprints. He didn't know why they were called that, given that they weren't blue. He turned to look back at Mattie.
"I can't leave Melbourne. I need to stay and look after the doctor."
"No, you don't. I don't know what debt you think you owe him but he treats you like shit. You should just leave. Go away. You can." Charlie Davis sighed and looked over at her and now Danny's hopeful face. She had a point: Lucien had been doing a bang up job of avoiding him these last few years. Which was hard considering Charlie ran their household, kept note of his patients and provided his meals.
"This boat is for one person. Leave it with me, and I'll see if I can modify it for more." Mattie pulled him into a hug.
"Thank you so much, Charlie Davis." She leaves after that, to go attend meetings with her father leaving him alone with Danny. He straightened his shirt and frowned. He wasn't sure he liked being hugged so much by someone he didn't know. It didn't take long for Danny to speak again.

"So you refuse to leave Melbourne for as long as I've known you but a pretty girl asks an-"
"I'm not leaving Melbourne."
"You just-"
"I wanted her to leave." He replied, hastily. Danny pulled his line up out of the water and wrestled briefly with the fish. It landed in their container with a wet plop and flapped around for a few moments while they both contemplated. Charlie Davis contemplated that the fish was dying so they could live and that indeed it was a mighty unfairness on the fish's but all the better for them.

'You'll help her?"
"I will."
"Why?"
"Because I know how it feels to be a commodity." They'd never talked much about Charlie Davis 's life. Mostly Danny's or events around the city. Charlie Davis told him stories, but only the good ones. Never anything past when he lost Matthew, because until he came here there were no good ones. Just stories of men with big hands and his desire for freedom. Corruption beating corruption. Death by liberty. He didn't feel compelled to discuss life with anyone. Something of his own. Danny doesn't have a reply to that for a long time. They catch more fish.

"I'm going to go with her."
"I thought you would say that."
"I hate it here."
"You're more than entitled to."
"But I want you to come with me."
"I won't."
"I know." They don't talk again until they are taking their fish to the market to be sold and keeping the best ones for their own families. Jean always made the best fish soup, Charlie Davis can't explain it but even when he was a teenager he loved going over to see her and try to score some soup. She mostly gave it, if in return he would do jobs for her that Jack and Christopher would never do.

He never liked Jean's other kids Jack was too loud and Christopher was always a bit odd. While of course it was sad that Christopher had died and Jack had left, he had never felt a great deal of sadness over it like he had when Mei Lin and Li passed away. He followed Danny home, and into his home.
"Good evening Jean." He said, cheerfully. He always tried to smile for her, pretend things were okay even if they really were not.
"Good evening Charlie Davis." She replied and then vanished into the kitchen and returned with a large pot. "Here, take this to Lucien will you?" It was rare that anyone called him Lucien, most just called his Doctor, after his chosen profession. His father before him and his grandfather before that had all been doctors from the stories Charlie Davis has heard over the years. Charlie Davis accepted the container into his arms. Though they were no longer seeing one another, it was clear that Jean still cared very deeply for Lucien and Charlie Davis knew he still cared about her. He nodded his goodbyes and made his way across the darkened Melbourne to home.

Lucien was awake when he came home, sitting at his table and drinking straight from the bottle. Charlie Davis scoffed at him, not that he noticed, and set about preparing something for him to eat.
"Did you have a good day?" He asked, words only partially slurred.
"It was fine. Jean made you soup."
"Did she? That was….Nice of her." Charlie Davis can taste bitter in his mouth as he served Lucien a cup full. His stomach is doing flip flops, as if Lucien is about to ask him about the boat. "Thank you, Charlie Davis." He smiled. Charlie Davis just gave a nod, and went to his room, passing Li's, and not even stopping to think about the girl who used to occupy it until he was in the safety of his own room.

When he was there, he took a couple of breaths and thought of his favourite memory of her.

"Li! Stop!" Charlie Davis shouted, chasing her across the wall that separated the Atoll from the ocean.
"Why?" She replied, her bare feet nimbly stepping out of the way of lose metal. Charlie Davis thunders through it, Danny hot on his heels.
"Because Lucien told you to!" He called.
"Father isn't the be all and end all, Charlie!" Li is the only person allowed to call him Charlie, not his actual name, Charlie Davis. Most people haven't got long names like him, but he doesn't mind it, he's proud of his name, in all actuality. Not even Danny is allowed to call him just Charlie. Just her. And he loves her. There's few people in Melbourne who Charlie Davis likes. They are Jean, Danny, Mei Lin, Lucien and Li. That's it; the whole list. They came to a stop suddenly and Charlie has to look around to see why.

Mei Lin is standing on the wall, hand on hips.
"Li, why exactly are you running on the walls?" She looks ashamed suddenly. While yes, you can get away with things around Lucien, like running around the walls or going in the ocean barefoot; Mei Lin was not like that. When she set rules, you followed them.
"Uh." She said, suddenly unsure. The walls were wide enough to stand on, but not enough to lie on. Small, that was to say. Suddenly, Mei Lin leant down and touched Li on the arm.
"Tag!" She called, before taking off in the other direction. The three kids burst out laughing and chased after her as fast as they could. Down below, he could see Jack and Chris looking annoyed, because they were much above running around and playing with your mates little sister, but Danny didn't care. Never had. He understood that Charlie loved Li and he loved her too. The three of them had been best mates.

The afternoon went on for hours, the four of them running backwards and forwards across the walls of the Atoll, laughing and screaming in joy.

…

After Charlie Davis adjusted the plans to support a whole crew, construction began. Now, on a world made of water, keeping a boat hidden is no easy feat. Eventually they settled on building it under Charlie Davis and Danny's tower. Of course, it didn't take everything long to go to Hell.

Charlie Davis liked Jean. He did, he really did. But she worked during the day, like everyone else. She knew where he and Danny fished and he knew that she used to make visits when they were younger but they were not expecting her to show up now. She hadn't come to see them in the middle of the day since they were seventeen summers old. But today, of all days, she decided to pay them both a visit.

Hiding a boat, on a world made of water, is harder than building it, so as soon as she stepped onto the platform they knew they were fucked.

"Aunty Jean…" Danny said, trying to hide the hammer he was holding. "We were…uh." Charlie Davis had even less of an idea what to say then he did. Charlie Davis was a fisherman after all he had little training in other areas.
"Building a boat." She finished for him. She looked at Charlie Davis. "Charlie Davis why are you building a boat? Is someone leaving?" She sounds hurt that Danny would leave without her. She has reason to be hurt, she's family. He was just a friend, friends came and left all the time so there was no real reason for him to be hurt Danny wanted to leave. (the thought of never seeing him again breaks his heart) The three of them all look at one another not sure how to proceed. Eventually, Charlie Davis speaks.
"Please don't tell Mattie's father." He said. Jean continues looking.
"No permission?"
"Yeah." She frowned deeply, and then folded her arms. Jean is the sort of woman who knows a good deal. She sells things for a living, she runs the local store. She taught Danny everything he knows about deals and bargains. She was the ideal person for the job; to. Most travelers thought she was just a middle age woman, easily duped but warm and kind. And she certainly could be warm and kind but those who underestimated her learned quickly that she was sharp as a blade and didn't take kindly to anyone trying daylight robbery. Now was no exception
"Fine. On one condition."
"Anything." Danny said.
"Take me with you."
"Why?"
"There's nothing left for me here without you Danny." She said, softly. They were all of the family that remined. Just him and her. Charlie Davis thought that must be nice, to have a family like that. Danny nods.
"Okay." He agreed and they hugged in the sort of heartwarming fashion that churns Charlie Davis 's stomach and feels like a rock in his shoes. He turned away to tend to his fishing lines.

…

He returned home late in the evening dragging his kettle of fish and supplies he brought from traders and the store. He set them all in the kitchen, and went to find the doctor. He was in his 'office' (another room but this one had a table and some bandages), sober for once. He looked up at Charlie Davis and offered him a limp smile. Charlie Davis doesn't smile back.

"What do you remember about your life before Melbourne?" Charlie Davis raised his eyebrows and leaned on the gap that allowed access to the room.
"Work."
"Work?"
"I scrubbed decks and cleaned cloth."
"How did you get sick?" When the slavers brought Charlie Davis here, they were going to unload him, one way or another. Be that by squeezing the last few chins out of him in a sale or by throwing him into the ocean. A sick slave was worth next to nothing, can't work if sick. He'd always heard one thing: The life of a slave is nothing if not short. Mei Lin saw him, when she was looking at other wares from other traders and had been unable to leave him to die. She was good like that. Kind. Of course it was her kindness that got her killed but he was grateful all the same.
"I was a nursemaid to the sick servants. There was no one else to look after them. When I got it to they sold me on."
"To Mei Lin."
"She brought me."
"What do you remember about her?" Lucien asked, even though he knows all the answers already, he's asked every single one of these questions at various points in their fifteen summer acquaintance.
"Why do you always ask me these questions? Do you think my answers will ever change?" Lucien sits back and shrugs.
"I don't know."
"Why ask me all these questions about the distant past? Why not the recent past? Why not a how were the fish today Charlie Davis? Did you see Jean and Danny? Anything interesting happen to you?" Lucien does not have an answer for him. Charlie Davis scoffed at him and went back to the kitchen to prepare them both something to eat. Lucien follows after him, standing by and watching Charlie Davis prepare the fish.
"How was work today?"
"Fine."
"How are Danny and Jean?"
"Also fine." Lucien sighed and watched as Charlie Davis sharpened one of his knives on a large pestle. Once he was satisfied with the blade he took it to the fish he'd brought home tonight. It seemed Lucien had eaten all the left over soup for lunch, which was fine.

He lit the fire with a flint acquired from a trader and proceeded to skewer the fish on long metal rods made for this purpose. While those cooked he turned his attention to the seaweed. He cut it into strips with a knife and put them on two plates. It wasn't often Lucien joined him for dinner.
"How was work?"
"Well."
"Anyone on the brink of death?"
"No, not that I'm aware." Charlie Davis sighed softly and turned the metal sticks in the small fire. They burned for the most, various small logs that were available from the city's small collection of trees. The fish could probably be eaten raw but he hated the taste so he never did. He supposed he should tell Danny to get used to raw fish, since that and lemons were likely all he was going to be eating.

Lucien finishes first. But he doesn't leave. He invited Charlie Davis into his office, which he declined, having no interest in the drink. Lucien vanished into his office, and Charlie Davis could hear the sound of bottles and liquid. He focuses on the never ending dripping, and allows it to soothe him to sleep.