Just as the sun began to quicken its descent in the sky, junior-Captain Raven called for attention from the quarter deck.
"Listen up swabbies!" We all turned. "My swabs, the orphans," Raven corrected himself. The older swabbies got back to work, still keeping an attentive ear perked.
"You are each invited to have dinner in the officer's dining hall!"
The orphans began whispering energetically.
"See you all there by the time the sun hits the ocean." He then jogged around, down the stairs, and into the crew quarters.
The rest of us stole a glance at the orange ball of light around five minutes from the horizon and quickly shuffled to put away our cleaning supplies.
Fay and I maintained the civility to wash our hands with soap and, sea-, water. The effectiveness was questionable but it gave us some peace of mind so I didn't complain.
When we made it to the mess hall, everyone else seemed to be there and the food was just coming out. There were only a handful of spots left at the table, luckily there were only two of us. Fay and I squeezed on either side of Jasper.
My mouth watered at the delectable pig parts left from last night, the rainbow of fruits, and fancy-looking (to orphan eyes) cheeses.
As soon as the cook's fingers left the tray, hands were jutting out like greedy babies to their favorite toy as the pirates yanked the pig apart. I quickly collected a bunch of grapes and as neat of a slice as I could carve out of the quickly disintegrating pig.
I noted the almost comically untouched biscuits in the middle of the table and decidedly grabbed one for myself along with a spread of cheese.
I looked around as I stuffed my face. The food was so tasty and filling I could cry and it was simple to see the other orphans shared my sentiments. Strangely enough, the old pirates around me, including the spoiled monkey, were scarfing down the food just as gratefully if not even more so. I would think pirates who ate like that every night wouldn't look so desperate with their everyday food. I thought it was sweet and kept my eyes on my own plate before their obnoxious open-mouthed chewing ruined my appetite.
As the vigour at which the food was devoured waned, the chatter increased. At one point in the night, one of our boys asked Captain Gryphon why he became a pirate.
"I was a spoiled and lazy boy until my rich, noble father fell poor through gambling with pirates. I witnessed as a pirate stabbed my dad straight through the gut then searched the dying man for extra cash." Everyone went quiet. It must have been the first time even most of the pirates heard the story. Howler remained unsurprised as he chomped on a watermelon slice.
Captain Gryphon continued to tell us the story of how he avenged his father: running out in rage, stealing one of their swords, and slicing all three of the grown pirates up. He then found out one of the pirates he killed was the Captain of an old rickety ship named Mermaid's Revenge. He considered turning them in for piracy but instead found himself going to the boat and declaring himself Captain, becoming one of the youngest Captains in history at eighteen years old.
"Mermaid's Revenge? But this is Dragon Nest?" A young orphan squeaked.
"You are absolutely right my boy." The cheerfully wrinkly man smiled at the little one. "I had mighty fun sailing the world in the ancient wooden thing until I met Howler here who screwed with my plans." Gryphon whipped an arm around his First Mate and pulled him close. Howler did not look thrilled.
"What'd he do?" The same little boy inquired.
"Well I met him at a bar and he helped me get the most beautiful girl I had and have ever laid eyes on." I noticed his eyes shift to Raven momentarily.
"Anyway, we spent the night together, for those of you who're old enough to understand." I only took a moment to guess they did something nasty together. Most of the orphans giggled and snickered. I cringed.
"And Howler here, or- what was your old name? Kwamie! Kwamie here spent it with my girl's best friend. But when we woke up, my ship was in flames with most of my crew in it! You see Kwamie was a high officer in the royal navy at the time, and the soldiers who sunk my ship were some of his men working under their own devices. Kwamie still felt guilty though so he stole me this ship from the navy's jurisdiction, though it was much worse for wear at the time."
"Wait you were part of the royal navy?" I blurted out still hung up on that fact. Howler nodded.
"And you stole from them! Did you ever get caught?" Cliff called out leaning over the table.
"You bet he did," Gryphon whispered theatrically. The orphans, me included, gasped.
"When the navy found out one of their leading officers stole a whole ship from them to give to pirates, they were furious! They hunted our pal here down and sentenced him to be hung."
"No!" Shiloh gasped.
"Yes." Gryphon nodded sparkling with all the shimmering eyes just for him. "Ignorant, I was busy fixing up the final touches of my new ship, the Dragon Nest, with my remain crew. Then in comes my gorgeous lady friend swooping in with the news my best friend was sentenced to hang in a few hours. Of course I acted instantly and courageously. I found out where and gathered my crew for a rescue mission. We ambushed the gathering where they were getting ready to hang Howler and some other criminal forcing most of the troops off the cliff. Then we engaged in an amazingly bloody exchange of blades to which we won, then swung Howler onto our ship adopting him as a pirate of my crew and appointing him my First Mate."
Pirates and orphans alike oohed and awed.
"What about the lady?" I asked unable to contain my curiosity.
"Ah," the burly man wore a soft expression momentarily. "What about her?"
"Did you thank her?"
He chuckled.
"Trust me I thanked her thoroughly." The crew chuckled deeply. "I even offered her a spot on the crew to join us in our travels… But she turned me down." There was that silence again.
"Did you ever see her again?" I kept pushing disappointed.
"That's a story for another day," he smiled.
"Us pirates see hundreds of wenches and love them for a night then never see each other again. It's a normal happening," one of the larger, hairier pirates chuckled at me. I nodded slightly getting the sense that women for men were equivalent to bones for dogs; enjoyable to play with but once devoured they're quickly forgotten.
There was more chatter amongst the officers and children as the sky beyond the window became a deeper and deeper shade of blue. Finally, Fay approached me.
"Hey I'm gonna take a shower. Cover me?"
"Sure," I agree, sliding out of my seat.
We waved "later" to Jasper who waves back then got caught in a story by the carpenter when he had to perform a surgery.
"So how do you plan to do this?" I asked remembering there were no onboard bathrooms.
"I'll use a bucket for seawater and just repeatedly fill it up, scrubbing with soap and seawater. It's not great nor warm but it's better than smelling like the rest of the lot."
I agreed.
We returned to the poop deck, permanently scarred by the sight of it in use.
A scrawny, old swabbie didn't even flinch as we walked in with a clear view of his naked butt.
As Fay and I freaked out and clawed at our eyes, as politely as we could, the man casually pulled up his pants, tossed the contents of the bucket, put it down, and left passed us.
Fay and I looked at each other. He shivered comically. I laughed.
"That is why we must bathe, so our butts don't wind up like that!" Fay clicked his tongue and pointed to where the man disappeared.
"Hear, hear!" I laughed.
I unfolded the sheet to shield him from view and to become his towel as he pulled up seawater in a clean bucket.
"Be sure to keep that sheet up, now," he warned as he began to slip off his shirt. I followed his earlier starfish formation and kept the sheet taut.
I listened as his shoes kicked off and his pants slid down. I didn't think much of it having lived with boys for a year and I let my mind wander while I processed the dumping of water as background noise.
I found it odd that only yesterday I found Fay more annoying than friendly and yet now we were close enough to trust each other with our chastities. I used to think Fay was just a tag along, always following Jasper and turning down any interesting ideas, but now I was starting to see Fay was more lively than that, more colorful and pure and sensitive. He was like the older sister I would've liked.
"Fay, you're a lot more interesting than I made you out to be." I looked into the white cloth pretending I could see him as he momentarily stopped scrubbing.
"Yeah?"
"Yep."
"Well you're a lot cleaner than I made you out to be."
"Touché," I wiggled my eyebrows not that he could see them. He laughed anyway.
I decided to try something.
"You're a great person to talk to, I'm glad we became bathroom buddies." He laughed again.
"That's what friends are for," he said softly, his slight smile audible through the sheet.
I smiled back pleased to get the answer I was looking for. I had a friend in Fay. Though I lived in the orphanage for twelve months and befriended Cliff, Shiloh, and Jasper, I couldn't really talk to them the way I could talk to Fay. There was something about his air that allowed me to be myself, even if that me was a girl.
In that moment, I almost told Fay the truth. I opened my mouth.
"Fa-"
"God it's freezing!" he chattered as I lost my nerves for the big reveal. "Pass me the sheet?"
I stopped then folded the sheet down looking away and held it out in front of me. I felt him take it.
"Okay." I took that as my approval to look.
He had the mostly white sheet covering him head to toe like a cloak. I lead him inside and closed the doors of the forecastle. Glancing around in the dark, I could tell the room was originally made to be quarters' for crew but used instead as an extra storage unit as Dragon Nest had a small crew.
I grabbed another sheet and helped dry his hair vigorously towelling.
"You know I feel strangely at ease with you," Fay confessed.
"Honestly same." I nodded.
There was a moment of either awkward or understanding silence, I wasn't sure which.
"I'm going to get changed."
I shot up and turned around stiffly before I realized how suspicious the gesture was. Though he probably noticed he didn't comment.
I couldn't ignore the sliding of fabric against skin as he changed, but it didn't imprint on me as much knowing it came from Fay strangely enough. Not that he was unattractive, he was decent, stylish even but unusually glossy.
"You can shower now," he offered as he slid his shoes on.
I looked at him, wide-eyed in uncertainty then at the extra sheets piled next to the door and the bucket outside. Then weighed the likelihood he would realize I was a girl. I considered trying to tell him but couldn't muster the motivation in the dark room as he finished tying his shoes.
"I'm fine. It's too cold right now anyway," I lied.
He looked up at me slightly confused, slightly sympathetic.
"Are you sure?"
I nodded and swallowed.
"Well if you change your mind, you can wake me anytime." He smiled throwing extra pounds of guilt on my conscious.
I smiled back.
We then headed back into our quarters and climbed into bed. I decidedly laid on top of my sheets as I could feel the dirt particles drying on my skin.
Two hour later when I was certain everyone was asleep, I snuck back out. I never had any intention of lasting the whole night with lumps of moss growing on my ankles and decided I'd much rather smell like sea water and soap.
I was careful to climb out of bed the side opposite of Jasper's head then slipped on tennis shoes, grabbed my pajamas, and tiptoed to the door feeling a wave of guilt rushing through me as I passed a shut-eyed Fay.
I slipped through the door, flinching as it creaked shut.
Thinking to looking up, I tensed to have my correct suspicions of a night watch. Luckily, he was watching the ocean, not the ship. I jogged across into the forecastle with a sigh and safely slipped inside, grabbed the clean bucket, ran out, filled it with sea water, brought it up, and ran back inside. I found myself short of breathe, probably fault of the cold, my guilt, and the exhilaration.
I quickly slid off my clothes and my hat, even bothering to undo my braid. I breathed a sigh of freedom as I untied my bandages letting my chest free. Though I wasn't large, even a flat woman would've been slightly choked.
My naturally auburn locks fell into my face as I leaned to pick up the sheet. Spitting out bundles of unappetizing fiber, I remembered why I considered cutting it, but I could never bring myself to let them. Even though it was a hassle and more work than needed for something I generally hid in my hat, it was my last strand of femininity (besides my womanly parts obviously) and I couldn't bring myself to entirely part with it.
When I was younger, Mother always told me how jealous she was of my wavy red locks; I'm sure she exaggerated but I was still pretty proud of them.
I grabbed the soap in one hand and gripped the towel tightly with the other carefully sliding the wooden door open and closed. I glanced over the forecastle relieved to find myself in a blind spot of the eye in the sky.
I worked quickly on adrenaline and shivers as I dabbed my hair and arms wet, keeping the towel tied just below my collar bone and having just enough there to keep it from sliding. I scrubbed soap into my my hair and on my arms then, as though the gun shot off, I threw the towel onto the crate and dumped half the bucket over me and soaped the rest of me then dumped the rest till there was no soap just a salty smell. I then lunged for the sheet quickly wrapping it around myself and squeezing a baby's weight of ocean out of my hair.
I held my towel up with my right hand as I slid the forecastle backdoor open with my left.
I almost immediately slammed it back closed when I saw him, but my conscious didn't allow it.
"Cal?" his voice cracked in slight disappointment.
"Fay, I can explain." Fay stood in the sliver of moonlight allowed by the open door with a surprisingly unsurprised face.
Instead of demanding explanation, he instead turned away letting me come inside. He lit a lantern as I stepped inside, cautiously closing the door behind me.
"It's okay. I don't blame you for bathing without me." He stayed turned away from me as he spoke.
My cheeks flushed in embarrassment and guilt. His avoidance of my biggest betrayal to him, my lie, was what burned me the most. The shock must've been too great for my new friend.
"But you've now confirmed what I'd thought for a little while now." He was admitting to know.
My heart sank, he suspected me for a while. I should've come clean earlier. I mentally pinched myself.
"You know you could've told me," he wore a soft gaze.
"I knew I should've but it's just so weird and I didn't know how to bring it up and- and I didn't know if you could understand at first-"
He interrupted me with a laugh.
"Understand?" he laughed again. I stopped lost for words momentarily.
"Of course I understand. I'm in the same boat."
*Author's Note*
GASP! What did he/she say?! ... No gasp? Not impressed, that's cool... it doesn't hurt no...
ANYWHO! Next chapter, fun stuff. Await it- mañana!