Chapter 4
The captain smiled and looked at her. “I thought he was dead….”
Andrew Junior and Jo shared the same confused look.
“Who, dad?” He had an idea but wanted to confirm it.
“Mattie. Matthew Harris? My best friend for as long as I can remember until he disappeared in the middle of a trip more than twenty-five years ago.”
His father was always talking about the mischief they would get up to when they were younger and his mother told him how depressed his father got after Matthew was thought dead.
“We were on a trip like normal. The captain was my father back then and we were becoming regulars on his boat,” He smiled at the memory.
“This time though Mattie was on the wheel and I had gone down below to help with the haul. When the boat hit some turbulence, I was sent back up with a couple of others to help,” His eyes saddened.
“Mattie was nowhere to be found. We looked all on board. But still nothing. No trace. We even looked overboard… As best we could, but the sea was choppy and we were in the middle of nowhere. When we got back home, he was declared dead at sea.”
Jo thought for a moment it would make sense that her dad was this man he was speaking about. He had no family apart from her and her brothers. There was her mum’s family, but they were never close after her death.
Whenever she or her brother would ask about his friend, Andy or family, he would either change the subject or just say they lost touch.
“And you think he is Joanne’s father?” Junior’s speaking brought her back out of her thoughts.
“It would make sense. Plus the man in the picture she showed me looks like him. There is Harriet’s tattoo design,” Andrew senior showed his wrist. “The name, age, birthday… It would explain why he vanished without a trace and how Miss Joanne appeared today.”
“She does look a lot like Millie,” Junior thought out loud. “Who is Harriet and Millie?” She asked. “Harriet is your dad’s Sister who designed the tattoo and Millie is her eighteen-year-old daughter.”
“Ettie?” Jo said remember that’s what her dad would always call his sister.
He smiled and Jo noticed Junior’s lips twitching too.
“Yes.”
“Ettie and Tilla,” She thought out loud.
“Dad said Ettie and Tilla were always together like they were stuck together,” She remembered he dad telling her about his younger sister and her best friend Tilla or Matilda.
“And Tilla always followed Andy…” She looked at the captain, “… Which I guess is you and he would often hear his sister and her speak at night about Tilla marrying Andy. She said they would have children and the first born whether it be a boy or girl would be named after him. If it was a boy,” She looked at Junior and grinned.
“He would marry Harriet’s first born. So they could be real sisters,” She saw Junior frown at the mention of marrying someone.
“I guess she finally made you marry her, hey?” She asked his father.
Captain laughed. “Yes, a year after Mattie disappeared I realized I loved her too and we married that year. You must be Mattie’s daughter because no one other than me and him called them Ettie and Tilla. Everyone was forced to call them by their full first name,” He was smiling widely.
Junior was smiling again, “Is Millie Harriet’s oldest?” She asked.
The captain grinned already knowing where this was going. “Yes and an only child.”
“When’s the wedding?” She smiled in Junior’s direction.
“Never. Millie is a brat,” He spat her name.
“Sure it’s not an ‘I think I don’t like her but actually love her’ relationship like your dad and mum’s?”
“Definitely not,” He said certainly.
The captain laughed, “Millie is a nice looking girl, but she has been spoiled because she is an only child and led to believe she can do anything and have anything she wants. In short, she is a brat. Despite what the little girl and your aunt thinks there will never be a wedding between my son and her. Even Tilla doesn’t like her, but she is still good friends with Ettie. But Ettie seems to be blind to her daughter’s behavior.”
“Sounds like you should bring her on board and lock her below with a mountain of fish for a few days or maybe just push her overboard,” She said thoughtfully.
Both men laughed. “I like the second idea best,” Junior said.
After a few seconds of silence, Andrew senior had a thought, “Won’t your dad be worried?”
Joanne thought for a minute and then remembered her camera.
“Yes. But he knew where I was going. He will retrace my steps and find my camera which I left recording in the helm…” She saw their confused faces.
“A camera is something to record those moving images you saw,” They nodded their heads in understanding.
“When I was wandering around the boat I recorded what I saw so I would remember for my course work. Dad should find it and hopefully he will somehow be able to come here too and … God knows…” She trailed off. It wasn’t really much. But she had to have hope.
“I would love to see him again…” The captain wore a fond smile.
“I thought your wife’s name was Sherry Belle?” Jo said remembering.
He chuckled, “Yes. Matilda Sherry Belle. Her parents couldn’t settle on one name,” He explained and she nodded her head.
“If you don’t mind me asking…” His son began, “…What are you studying at college and do they know you are a girl?”
She laughed. “I am studying to become a historian who specializes in the history of fishing and their ports. And yes, they know I’m a girl. Females can do many things in my time. Work, vote, marry other girls and even have babies together if they wanted,” She added the last two only to see their expressions.
Their mouths hung open, “That can’t be true. For one, they need a man to make a baby and the other… it’s illegal,” Junior said in disbelief.
“Being homosexual isn’t illegal in my time. Men kiss other men openly. Same goes for women. A couple of years ago they even made it legal to marry each other. As for the baby thing… Women only need a man’s semen to make a baby. There are special labs which specialize in getting that from willing donors and the doctor inserts it into the egg. They don’t even have to have sex. If it’s a two man couple they either adopt or pay a woman to carry a baby for them. Even single woman who want babies do it sometimes,” She explained. “Medical science has come a long way,” She quickly added.
They still wore a shocked expression, so she decided to mess with them.
“I am going to the clinic with my girl, Jenny when I have finished my degree. We are going to leave marriage for a few years though.”
“You’re… You’re…” Junior mumbled with a frown. Joanne didn’t know why but she thought both men actually looked more disappointed than shocked.
She couldn’t take it anymore, she laughed. “I’m not really. I don’t like girls like that. I do not want a random man’s baby. Not to mention, I don’t even know anyone called Jenny. But the rest is all true. I just don’t want to do it… I think my dad would kill me if I did. He is very old fashioned, despite my brothers being man whores.” The men had never heard the term before but understood.
“That’s good,” Junior sighed in relief.
His father looked at him knowingly, but he ignored it.
“How old are you, Junior?” Jo asked.
“I don’t like that! Call me Andy,” The younger Andrew asked.
“Alright, little Andy…” He groaned but said nothing. “So how old are you? I know big Andy’s age because he it’s the same age as my dad.” The captain smiled at the pair’s exchange.
“I am twenty-three years old.”
“Shouldn’t you be married with kids by now?” She was half-joked.
“Like I said, I am waiting for the right woman. What about you? Aren’t you married or courting? I did not see a ring,” He asked her this time.
“Neither. Courting… No one really does that, sadly. Unless you count men coming up to you in a bar, offering to buy you a beer before trying to get you into bed as courting?”
Both men frowned.
“Then they are idiots,” Junior thought out loud. His father agreed. “The only real way to get a woman and show them you are serious is to court them,” He said looking at his son knowingly. He saw a flicker of something in his son’s eyes as her looked at Joanne, a look he knew as adoration. Something he had not seen in his eyes before.
“You like fishing then?” Junior asked changing the subject.
“As you are studying it…?”
“Yes. My dad always took us fishing… Me and my brothers. He even worked on the fishing boats up until my mum died. I was only a couple of weeks old and dad didn’t want anyone else to take care of us. So he gave up his job and got another closer to home. My Aunt Lottie… My mum’s sister would look after us a few hours a day while dad worked on the docks. But only helping unload things from the docking ships. That way he could still be close to the sea but could always come home to see us.
“Dad is fantastic. He always made time for us, if we ever needed him he would be there for us. I loved going fishing with him and he would always tell me tales of his trips and his childhood memories. That made me fall in love with fishing. I wanted to learn more, especially old fishing ships and that is why I choose to go to college to study what I did,” She explained. She smiled to herself at the memory, “He even told me about periods,” She laughed. “It was really comical.”
The captain laughed, “I can not imagine that. I would have loved to see that.”
His expression turned sadder for a moment, “If you do not mind me asking…” He paused, “How did your mother die?”
“She was killed in a car accident…” She paused to think of the words to make it understandable for them.
“She was driving a horseless carriage from my time… A drunkard was driving another. He wasn’t paying attention to where he was going and drove into my mum’s car. He hit it at such a speed that her car was flipped. She was killed on impact. The guy who did it when to prison and was sentenced to six years. My dad was beyond angry. But the man never got out because he got killed by another inmate he pissed off… Angered.” She had tears in her eyes but didn’t let them fall.
“Dad was at work and she left me and my brothers with her younger sister. It was only meant to be for ten minutes. She was only going to the shop to buy some milk, because she couldn’t produce enough herself,” She felt tears started to fall from her eyes, “If I wasn’t…”
She was cut off, “I know I wasn’t around. But I know enough to know it wasn’t your fault,” The captain told her.
“I don’t know why I am crying… I didn’t even know her… Not really,” She said through tears.
Andrew senior looked to his son for support only to see him stand up and take Joanne into his embrace.
He watched in surprise as Junior comforted her. His son had never been the sensitive type in the past. That is why he was so surprised at how he was now.
In fact, he was well known to laugh at females when they broke down.
On one occasion that comes to mind involving August, who was one of his friend’s sisters. She had fallen off her horse and broke her leg. He reluctantly helped carry her back to the house but wore a cold uncaring expression the whole time. Another time when Millie was trying to get his attention and tripped over her own dress, then began crying.
Junior did nothing at all to help her, only laughed. But on that occasion the captain had chuckled slightly too.
He was known for his cold front.
So seeing him now willingly volunteering to comfort a crying woman. Not only that but also the sadness he saw in his eyes and the way he was speaking to her.
He had only ever seen his son act anything like that with his younger brother, but still that was different.
“She was…” Junior paused and corrected himself, “Is your mother.” He hugged her closely against his chest.
“You love her, no matter how long you knew her,” He was sat next to her, she had her face buried in his jumper clad chest.
“She loved you too. She would not blame you. It wasn’t your fault,” He gently rocked her.
Neither even noticed his father slipped out of the room.
The pair sat in silence for a while. Joanne’s tears slowly stopping, she pulled back and drying her face on the back of her hands.
“I’m sorry. I guess I’m just a little emotional today after the magic time trip thing,” She rambled.
“I swear I don’t normally cry so much. I am just worried about my dad and brothers…”
Junior gave her a sad smile, “I know, princess. They will be fine. They will find your camera thing and know you are safe,” He said brushing a few loose strands of hair out of her face with his fingers. “He left here once. He will come back again.”
“You really think so?” She asked hopefully.
His smile turned more genuine, “I know so,” He playfully tapped her nose with his finger.
“And just so you know. I believe you when you say you don’t cry. You are without a doubt the most unique woman I have ever met. You are strong, intelligent, funny… The list goes on forever. But you are also the most beautiful woman I have ever seen and not just on the outside.”
