Author's Note:
And now… we continue.
Chapter 3: Testing Your Reflexes
The new few days were lazy for the majority crew after the Legacy's launch at Montressor's Lunar Spaceport. Jim however, was kept busy with his cabin boy duties.
The eighteen-year-old was either scrapping the sticky space barnacles from the underside of the vessel, swabbing the deck clean until dusk, or learning basic sailing skills by John Silver himself.
One evening, Silver had cooked the crew a great supper of stewed astro-slugs with a side of pulped cedar bark. Although the ingredients appeared nauseating, the brew strengthened the crew's spirits and had it's own spicy kick.
The RLS Legacy's mess hall -being just barely separated from the galley itself- was warm with steam from the food and of the crew's conversation. After dinner, the crew left the tables jam-packed with stack upon stacks of soiled dishes.
The only considerate thing a few of the bunch had performed was pushing their benches out of the way. Some of them had overturned their benches or scraped the legs of their benches against the wooden flooring; leaving shallow marks in the mess hall's once immaculate floor. Then they exited the mess hall in a large raucous crowd and then they were gone, stomping off to their sleeping quarters.
Jim half-heartedly finished his portion of the dinner from the dark corner he sat in and sighed, preparing to clean up the incredulous mess that lay on the tables. He reached for one of the large empty pots that had contained the stew but it suddenly floated up towards the mess hall's low ceiling. Morph chirped from under the cast iron pot, he was shaped into a magenta hand, although sweat drops and whimpers of strain still came from him.
"So…" Jim smiled with a raised eyebrow. "…You're the only one helping me?" He sighed half-heartedly. "Well, I guess it's better than no one." He shrugged as he carried a large stack of plates towards the galley's counter.
"Oh he's not the only one, Mister Hawkins…" Ariah's recognizable voice drifted through the mountain of tableware.
The female sailor crept around a table with a wobbling stack of tableware in each hand.
"Don't I already owe you?" Jim asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"Nope, favours are free whenever I feel like giving you one." Ariah glanced at Jim as she rotated her shoulders to try to find a more comfortable carrying position. "However, you still owe me for saving you from severe disfiguration." She added with a wink as she walked past Jim into the galley part of the mess hall.
Morph was turning the taps to the four sinks, revolving between different combinations of hot and cold water per sink. The pink blob pulled out a long brush for scrubbing and two puffed up dishtowels for drying, from the shelves of the galley.
"Catch anything I drop, Morphy." Ariah commanded as she balanced another large stack of plates past the mess hall's wooden tables.
"Aye-aye..." Morph squeaked. Ariah smiled at the little pink blob, setting down the wobbling stack onto the galley's grimy counter.
Once all of the tableware was stacked in the galley, Jim and Ariah both washed the tables and began stacking the pots and pans used to cook the dinner.
"Catch…" Ariah absent-mindedly flicked the long brush in Jim's general direction from over her shoulder.
Jim gasped and tossed the large cast iron pot into the air from surprise. The beech wood brush hit the bottom of the pot with a loud CLANG! The rebellious teenager watched the pot attentively as he positioned himself to catch the large container. With a muffled grunt the pot landed into Jim's arms. He tensed as his arms absorbed the strain of the pot's heavy weight.
The weary teenager lugged the pot over to another counter. He turned to the female sailor across the room, preparing to protest when suddenly a soggy towel hit his face.
"Is this your favour?" Jim mumbled; his face was masked over by the wet towel. Morph giggled at Jim while floating by Ariah's shoulder.
"I'm simply…" Ariah placed a dried dish on a slowly forming stack. "Testing your reflexes, Mister Hawkins." She smirked.
Jim removed the towel from his face and polished a nearby fork. "Oh, well in that case, Miss Clarke…" Jim tossed the fork at Ariah with a comedic TWANG.
With a swift dodge, Ariah caught the fork with between two fingers and tossed a pair of flying spoons at Jim. Morph transformed into a baseball glove, prepared to follow Ariah's orders. The brunette cabin boy clutched the soaring spoons and flung a variety of plates at the black haired girl. Ariah caught each one, cleaning and stacking them while tossing drinking kegs at Jim. Jim caught the kegs one-by-one and he polished them.
The cabin boy then reached over the counter and tossed a large bucket, full of serrated knives, at Ariah. Morph squealed in panic at this, changing from a baseball glove into his normal blobby form. Ariah seized an oak cutting board and she shielded herself from the knives' edges and quickly snatched the bucket by its handle to halt its aim at her head.
She smoothly pulled out her wet towel from her belt loop and polished each of the knives' blades, they were still wedged deeply into the thick cutting board.
With two large smirks, the duo of working teenagers kept tossing the soiled tableware at each other changing the monotonous task into an amusing competition.
After many hours of tossing tableware at each other and washing, polishing, drying and stacking them they had finished. All of the tableware was sparkling in the dank room.
Jim sighed hugging a large silver bowl to his side like a pillow as he curled up against a counter. Ariah sunk down the galley's wall and leaned against it.
"You…" Ariah panted. "Have great reflexes, Mister Hawkins."
Jim smiled faintly. "You can call me Jim, you know…" He laughed and began to yawn from fatigue. "But thanks… you're not… so bad… yourself." Slowly Jim dozed off, still clinging to the large bowl.
Ariah chuckled and prepared to leave the galley, but found that the hard galley wall was oddly comfortable and she quickly drifted off to sleep as well.
Silver had woken up just before dawn when he walked down to the galley. He was quite surprised to see both Jim and Ariah sleeping against opposite walls of the galley's wooden paneling. The galley glimmered with a mountain of cleaned dishes.
He smiled warmly, slipping his large leather coat over Jim's shoulders and friendlily ruffling Ariah's pitch-black tresses.
Morph opened his bulging eyes, rubbing them with his tiny handless arms. He spotted Silver, zoomed over to him and snuggled the cyborg's portly cheek affectionately.
The two companions left the sleeping teenagers in the galley for the time being, watching nearby stars lighten the galaxy they were currently traveling through, as morning approached…
Jim's ocean-blue eyes flickered open as he noticed the change in weight on his shoulders.
He located the bowl he had instinctively dropped while sleeping and placed it back onto the counter. Jim nervously shrugged off a long jacket from his shoulders. He gripped it and looked at it from end to end.
Jim dug into his own coat's outer pocket and located a fountain pen and a small piece of scrap parchment. In his unique scrawled writing he wrote one word, for that was all of the room he had available, 'Thanks'.
Ariah stirred slightly from her sleep, leaving Jim little time to conceal his acts. The brunette cabin boy quickly stuffed the small piece of parchment into the depths of John Silver's jacket –without noticing that the nib of his fountain pen had popped off, hiding with his note- and then hung it up onto a nearby peg at the entrance of the galley.
The young sailor girl yawned, stretching her arms out in front of her. She blinked the sleep out of her copper-brown eyes and glanced at Jim.
"Morning…" Ariah smiled faintly, she stood from the galley's floor and stretched her arms in front of her.
"Uh." Jim rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Morning…"
"Well." Ariah brushed some of the dust from her baggy tawny pants. "I presume that there will be no interesting events on deck so." She paused and smiled at Jim. "I guess I'll, see you around... Jim." Ariah had nothing else to add so she exited the galley.
"Yeah… see you around, Ariah." Jim mumbled half-heartedly.
Author's Note:
Yes, this chapter is considerably shorter than the last, but anyway… let's have a round of applause for:
-The awesome reviews
-And my remarkable editor Whisperwings
(HURRAY! Thunderous applause…)
MG#6