Chapter 1
Current date 12/01/1875.
‘Water?’ She thought.
“Boy, I’m talking to you!” The same voice yelled.
“Jesus Christ. Do you have to scream?” She exclaimed looking back from the window to the now red-faced man.
“You have a lot of nerves to speak to me like that, boy. Now I am going to ask you again. What are you doing on my ship?” He asked through gritted teeth.
Ignoring his question she started asking her own. “Why aren’t we docked at the centre anymore?” He just gave her a blank yet confused looked.
“Did Mike or Luke put you up to this?” She questioned knowing it was the kind of stupid prank her brothers would pull.
“I don’t know what you are speaking about, boy, and I don’t know any Mike or Luke. This is my ship and you are a stowaway. Now explain why you are here and why I shouldn’t throw you overboard?” His voice and expression were not changing.
At that point she started to panic slightly, thinking of many of crazy reason why the boat was in the middle of nowhere.
‘Maybe pirates have taken it?’ But quickly dismissed that idea.
‘Pirates stealing a wreck of a fishing boat. Yeah, right.’
Maybe not a wreck, but not worth stealing.
Many other ideas had gone through her mind before she noticed the man still standing staring at her as if waiting for her to answer.
She went to open her mouth, but nothing came out.
Turning away the man, she tried to clear her head.
‘Come on, Jo. You are acting like a little girl. Grow some balls!’ She yelled internally.
Looking again to the window, she went to speak but quickly stopped when she noticed something.
The deck just outside the window and beneath her feet both were no longer dark brown with age and use.
The window no longer had a small crack she had noticed when placing her camera on the side.
In general everything was cleaner and newer looking.
“What happened? Why is it so clean?” Again not answering his question.
He grumbled in annoyance before answering her. “This is a new ship, boy. Of course its clean.” She turned back to him.
“New?” She thought out loud.
“Yes.”
Confused and not sure what to think, she started to feel overwhelmed. “So this is some kind of replicate of The Sherry Belle?”
“Replicate? I do not copy. This is my ship, the original, named after my wife, Sherry Belle,” He growled.
“I am growing tired of these stupid questions!” He yelled angrier than before, “You will tell me now or else,” The large older man towered over her small frame.
Joanne was never a wimp and one to be yelled at normally, but this man and this situation wasn’t normal.
“I don’t know what happened,” Her voice broke a couple of times as she spoke. “I was in the old one and now I’m here,” She started to ramble before doing something she hadn’t done in years, she began to cry. Not just a little cry either. She fell to her knees and cupped her face sobbing into her hands.
The man cursed under his breath before calling for someone.
“Come on, boy. I didn’t mean to make you cry,” His voice much softer, “I wouldn’t have really throw you overboard,” He added as another man entered the cabin.
“Dad, you didn’t really tell the little lad you would throw him overboard, did you?” She heard another voice almost scold the older man.
She didn’t hear the older man answer, but she felt a hand lay on her back.
“He didn’t mean to scare you, but we need to know what you are doing here?” The much softer spoken man asked.
“I don’t know,” She said between sobs, “I was somewhere else and now I’m here.”
Her words made no sense to either man, “Maybe we should let him have a lay down and try speaking to him again when he has calmed down,” The son suggested.
“I agree. Take him to the share bunk in our quarters. I don’t think it’s a good idea to have such a young lad left around the others,” The older of the two said.
“Stand up, lad,” The son who still had his hand on her back told her.
She did as she was told. Quickly wiping away the tears, she tried to keep her head down and hide her face.
“Good. Now follow me,” The same man said removing his hand.
Following the man who was now in front of her she pulled on her unisex hat, which hid most of her hair, to make sure it was on properly.
She had thought it was cold before, but now she was walking passed an open door she couldn’t help, but shiver and wrapped her arms around herself.
Reaching a familiar room they stopped.
“You can sleep on that bunk and when you wake up we’ll speak again,” He told her his voice always kind, unlike his father’s.
“Alright,” She mumbled sitting on the bunk but still not looking up.
Not even bothering to remove her backpack or hat she laid down and soon fell asleep.
**
Andrew had been shocked at first when he heard his father yelling at a young boy in the helm.
He had only been on a few trips with him in the past, but his father had told him enough to know that he has never had a stowaway or at least until now.
Andrew watched the small boy laydown and fall asleep on the bunk below his.
He was so small and his clothes too big.
The boy looked uncomfortable with his bag still on his back. Leaning down he sighed and began to carefully remove the bag and place it on the floor beside the bed, doing the same with his shoes he then covered him over with a blanket.
Standing back up he couldn’t help but feel like an older brother taking care of his sibling, which he thought was strange having only just met him.
Leaving the room, he carefully and quietly closed the door behind him and walked further into the room beside his which belong to his father the captain.
“How is he?” He heard his father’s voice and only then noticed his presents.
Walking over to the table in the centre of the room where his father sat, Andrew took the free chair opposite him.
“He is sleeping,” He answered and paused, “I don’t think he is much older than Edward,” He said remembering his younger thirteen-year-old brother at home.
“He is so small, he can’t be much older than him… I wonder what he is doing here?” He thought out loud.
The captain sighed, “I was thinking the same. I don’t understand how we haven’t seen him before now. After all, we haven’t been at port for more than twenty-four hours and there are little to no place to hide in a ship this busy.” He son nodded in agreement.
“I will try and find out when he wakes. But if you want to speak to him too I suggest a calmer approach,” He half smirked at his father. “If anyone else said that to me…” The captain trailed off, “But you are right. I was just so angry finding him like that,” He shook the thoughts from his head.
“I think he will probably be with us for a while. I hope you don’t mind sharing until then. I don’t really want him in with the other. They are nice enough men, but the boy is soft and they would not be good for him.”
“I agree fully. I don’t mind, I have missed having a little brother around,” Andrew smiled at the memory.
“I have missed him and your mother too. Maybe next time they can join us.” The two looked at each other and laughed. “With all serious, we both knew mother as most women would not spend one day on a fishing boat full of men. Let alone for a month or more at a time.”
The captain sighed, “You’re right. But it would be nice.”
**
Joanne woke up thinking earlier was a dream.
“Why is this bed so hard?” She mumbled in her sleep filled voice.
Rubbing her eyes and stretching she finally opened her eyes.
“What the…?” She sat up and looked at her surroundings.
“Toto we are not at home anymore Kansas anymore.”
