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Bright High Brush
12b116
"Why haven't we just started rowing?" you ask.
Booksey sets the book down, looking at you over his glasses.
"This isn't exactly a galley, Bee. My supposition is the captain intends to weather this storm and hope for the best."
"You seem a bit distracted," you say, smiling. "Finally realize how sexy I am after all?" You strike a pose, one hand behind your head, slender hip against the side of the table.
Booksey raises an eyebrow. "A bit young for an old man like me," he says, smiling with one corner of his mouth.
You both laugh.
There's something more serious on your mind, though. "I'm worried," you say. "I don't know much about the captain. I feel like this weather isn't anybody's fault, so there's no risk of mutiny, but still."
When you say the weather isn't anybody's fault, a strange expression crosses Booksey's face like a cloud, but then it's gone.
"I've been with this ship for five years now," he says. "If there's one thing the captain is capable of, it's holding the loyalty and attention of the crew, but I can't pretend that bad decisions have never been made."
You nod solemnly, although you feel like he barely told you anything.
"I want to make sure I'm useful, in any case. I want to do something important. I'm thinking repairing might be useful. Like, if something happens when a fight's going on, what should I do if I spot a leak?"
"Start baling water," he says. "If you want to learn, your best bet is to watch me work and help me. I'd appreciate it."
You let the silence hang in the warm, still air before you look at the book and ask what it's about.
"IT's called "The Gods of Pegana," he says. "A bunch of poems about a made-up pantheon-"
Everything is cast in sharp contrast by a flash of lightning. A peal of thunder rolling across the empty sea shortly after.
Another follows shortly after.
"It seems the storm is finally coming," he says.
Stay here and keep talking?
Help battening down the ship?
Look for the Captain?
Something else?
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