Chapter 2 – The Shrinking World
Rebecca de Cristao stood in the doorway and watched the doctors examine her mother in the quarantined room.
"Senhorita, você não pode estar aqui," the older gentleman doctor said to Rebecca.
"Don't tell me where I can and can't be in my own home," she spat back, fighting tears. The older doctor mumbled a brief word to the younger male doctor, who then closed the door. Rebecca turned around and peered down the stairs to see where the sound of footfall was coming from.
"Rebecca Dulcea, lá você é. Embale sua roupa e o que pertences você pode continuar sua parte traseira."
"Por que, Drusilla?"
"We have to go. Rebecca, Mummy asked me to take care of you, and I promised her I would."
"Is she going to die?"
"Eu não me encontrarei lhe. É provável."
"What is it? What's making her sick?" Rebecca couldn't hear Drusilla's answer, but it sounded something like "I don't know" in their native Portuguese.
Rebecca and her older sister, Drusilla, lived with their mother, Aurelia de Cristao in the seaside city of Lisbon, Portugal. Drusilla was twenty-one. Rebecca was five years younger. Two years ago, Aurelia had fallen ill, and the condition only worsened over the course of time. Their father, Julian de Cristao, had died six years before. The fortune of the de Cristao family had been squandered away. Now there was nothing left.
"Where will we go?"
"Mummy secured a place on board a ship for you, Rebecca. Hurry, there isn't much time. It sails at midnight."
"That's not what I asked you, Drusilla. WHERE ARE WE GOING?" she demanded.
"You're sailing to Tortuga. I won't be with you, but I will meet you in Tortuga when you get there."
Rebecca was both horrified and crestfallen all in one. First, her mother was slowly passing away. Now, her sister was abandoning her for who knows how long, and she had to find her way around in an unfamiliar place. She finished packing her bag and prepared herself for the worst.
"Mummy wanted me to give you this," Drusilla said, giving Rebecca a small, distressed and stained envelope. "She said not to open it until you were aboard the ship."
"Why?"
"I don't know what it says. Come on, it's time to go."
Drusilla led Rebecca out of the manse and out to the harbor area of Lisbon, where she saw a large ship docked at the marina.
"Be good, Rebecca. The captain's name is Remington. You will do well not to cross him."
"I'll remember that."
"I will see you in Tortuga. I will find you there."