Chel looked at him coldly for a moment
Chel looked at him coldly for a moment. Her mouth twitched as though she were about to say something, but then she turned away from him and continued on. Miguel was quite relieved. He had been largely avoiding thinking about the whole "Chel Issue" and wanted to keep it that way.
Fortunately, after their first brief encounter, Miguel and Chel rarely had to see each other. Being on opposite watches, they would pass each other a few times a day near the forecastle door but almost entirely ignored each other, much to Miguel's pleasure. He didn't like confrontations as a general rule, so he was mostly content to pretend Chel didn't exist. Even more to his relief, Chel and Tulio had also evidently decided to ignore each other.
Without having to worry much about Chel, Miguel found it rather enjoyable to be at sea. He and Tulio were catching on fast to the job routine, and Alano was a surprisingly good teacher. Not that their work was very complicated anyway. As long as they had the Santiago in their sights, all they had to do was follow her and keep the boat from falling apart.
Within a few days, they had fallen into a comfortable routine. Sleep-wake up-work-relax-work-sleep. While they were working, they chatted with each other. Don, the other man on their watch, was a life-long sailor who loved to tell stories of his voyages. He often traded tales with Alano, who had quite a few of his own to tell from his time at sea. Sometimes Miguel doubted their authenticity. Given Alano's young age, he had only spent a handful of years at sea, seemingly not enough to rack up so many stories. Then again, the lad could spin a good yarn, so Miguel never questioned him on it.
Miguel generally spent the off-watches when he wasn't sleeping lounging on the deck with Tulio. Sometimes they reminisced about old adventures, sometimes they whispered about the new plan, and sometimes they just sat quietly. If he weren't so excited about the map (that he always kept folded in his pocket) and their upcoming adventure, Miguel thought he'd be content to stay on this boat a very long time. A man could get used to this, he thought. He should have been suspicious. His tranquility never lasted long.
It was something like two weeks into the voyage (they hadn't been keeping track of the exact time since Gerard hadn't been able to give them an estimate of the duration of the crossing anyway) when Miguel woke up one morning to find the sun had forgotten to rise.
He generally woke to the sound of the watch bell to see the forecastle door open with the morning sun coming through. Today when the bell roused him, he opened his eyes to almost total darkness. There was no urgent clanging of the bell to call all hands, just the usual call to watch, so it couldn't still be nighttime. Must be the door was still shut. Miguel groped his way out of his hammock, still muddled by sleep, and heard his watchmates doing the same. With a lot of stumbling and some cursing, he made it to the door. He reached out to pull it open and his hand found only empty air. As his eyes adjusted to being awake, he realized the door was already open. The sky outside was full of dark rolling clouds.
"Uh-oh," he heard someone behind him say.
He turned around. Tulio had made it to the door, rubbing his knee where he'd bashed it into something in the dark cabin.
"This doesn't look promising," Tulio said.
They stepped aside as the members of the other watch filed past into the forecastle, ready for sleep. They looked miserable. Stepping out onto the deck, Miguel could immediately tell why. It was cold. For someone used to (and dressed for) a fairly warm climate, it felt like it was freezing. Tulio came out behind him muttering something about a brass monkey.
"Over here!" Gerard called. He was standing at the watch bell. Ad they crossed the deck, Miguel looked up. The sky, a menacing dark gray, looked almost like it was boiling but below it the sails hung completely limp.
"We're in for some difficult weather," Gerard said when they had assembled. "Best we can do is hope to ride through it."
Miguel exchanged looks with Tulio and Alano. The chances of this wreck being able to ride through much of anything seemed quite slim.
"Most important," Gerard continued, "is to not lose sight of the Santiago. One of you for at all times on the lookout. The rest, well…you know what to do."
Gerard walked away. Yeah, Miguel thought, they had a vague idea what to do. Very vague. And that idea was to not cause the boat to sink. Alano headed fore to take the first shift at lookout. As he moved away from them, a low rumble of thunder started. It crescendo-ed until it suddenly gave an almighty bang that would've made Miguel jump out of his shoes if he were wearing any.
He looked up and a giant raindrop hit him square in the eye, followed by another. And another. A sudden gust of wind billowed the sails out with a loud snap and the ship lurched, sending Miguel stumbling against the railing. Steadying himself, he looked down at the water. It now matched the sky in color and texture. Lightning overhead. Another crash of thunder. Howling wind. The rain began driving down in sheets. Even louder than the storm was the sound of wood cracking and splintering but it was impossible to see where it was happening. The chaos was so loud Miguel could barely hear Gerard clanging the watch bell and screaming for all hands. Miguel tried to gain his footing on the already flooded deck and staggered toward the mast. He had no idea what to do but felt he must do something. Through the water that seemed to fill the air, he could see Tulio attempting the same. He tried to call to him but the wind whipped his voice back in his face. He staggered on, bending against the wind and squinting against the rain. So much for their peaceful voyage.
Wow, it's been a long time! There's a longer chapter coming, but I wanted to get something posted to get myself back in the swing of things. Thanks for being so patient with me and my easily distractedness. Things have settled down a bit now, lifewise, so it's back to writing!
