Repairs

Marco must’ve carried me to bed last night. I don’t remember walking there. He was alongside my pallet when I woke, his fingers still resting lightly in mine. My crutch lay just within my reach. He was not a morning person so I moved as silently as I could off the bed and out of the tent. It took me four and a half tries but I made it out the door. The initial measures of the Fountain worked slowly but they did work. If I could keep resting, I should be able to heal…a feat I’d yet to achieve from injuries this severe, but hope springs eternal.

The sweet aroma of food I didn’t have to cook myself met me just outside my tent. Izzy was over by her “kitchen” and already stirring and chopping as if we were back home at Heron’s Landing and she had a day of extra exciting volunteer work ahead of her, work with extra-orphany orphans or something. She’d be back there soon, I consoled myself. She wouldn’t have to make do without an electric spice grinder for long.

“Morning! How are you feeling?” She called out to me, her lute playing minstrel at her side. I shuffled my way over and tried to sniff out some coffee beans.

“I was looking for coffee,” I said as she shooed me away from her perfectly organized kitchen boards. “Is that here?” Where had she hidden the mortar and pestle? I was directed to a chair and coffee was delivered through another source, a girl. Zheng was right, Izzy was having a wonderful time here. Wondered if they’d been who Marco and I heard down the beach last night.

“Thanks.” I took a sip. Not bad. “You were at the party last night?” I wasn’t great with faces or names…or people, but she’d been there. I was sure of it.

“Yes, Captain. Did you enjoy the...cocktails?” The girl looked to Izzy for approval of her new vocabulary.

“I did. What’s your name? What are you here for?” I asked as I sipped. The warm drink and morning ritual relaxed me.

“Anne!” Izzy shouted, in shock for some reason. What? It’s not like anyone had nametags. Why was that a weird question? Why was it worthy of such a cultured look of exasperation?

“It is alright, my lady. I am Nyx, Captain. I was assigned to look after Lady Isabelle, as an attendant and guard.”

“Good lord. Two guards? Two attendants?” My sister was high maintenance but Zheng was laying it on thick. She was going to pick each penny out of every crack in my ship. As if I hadn’t done enough for Her Excellency through the ages. “I’m going to kill Zheng.” Take her out into the ocean and feed her to a giant squid or a hundred carnivorous sea sponges.

“Her Excellency said that Lady Isabelle was important and that it was important to make sure she was kept happy and unmolested. She does not know the ways of this place, yes?”

“Yes,” I agreed with the girl. Izzy needed guarding and if Zheng had assigned this girl, she was likely needed. I finally sat down and took a moment to recover from the effort. My chest released after a minute and I rubbed my knee where it throbbed. The girl guard did her best to blend into the scenery and I let her. She’d had to sit at a table with three of us last night and now she had me again as a surprise breakfast companion. Despite the girl’s presence I decided now was as good a time as any to bring up that I was going to have to change our itinerary. Izzy would understand.

In the back of my mind, the truth laughed his giant belly laugh at my naivete. She’d understand, I insisted. She’d sat becalmed in the blazing portal. She’d suffered the ensuing pirate attack. I sat before her sliced open and cracked like a walnut shell. She would understand. She would.

You really love to set yourself up to fall.

She’ll understand.

Whatever you say.

I shrugged off the feeling of looming disaster and decided to gamble on Izzy hearing the pure common sense in my words. “We haven’t had much of a chance to talk about what happened.” The girl guard moved farther away. Smart. She and that other one did their best to look like a part of the scenery.

“If by ‘what happened’, you mean you getting harpooned in the middle of a burning pirate ship, no, we haven’t. How are you feeling? You never answered.” She handed over a platter. I started on the rice. I needed something easy this morning.

“Even if I die again I’ll come back.” Zheng was betting on the secondary measures getting me in three days. The smart money was on two. Marco maintained that I could heal without the secondary measures if I rested and let him take care of me. He was an optimist. Since we had no Fountain, I was stuck waiting. “I cannot believe they used all the Fountain. Ridiculous. What if someone gets hurt? Such a waste.” What if Izzy got hurt? Just another reason to get her home.

“Okay, one, are you sure there’s not like a limit? Two...It still sounds awful.” She kept busying herself around her kitchen.

“Haven’t hit a limit yet.” I smiled briefly then shook my head. If I hadn’t hit a limit fighting with Maui in the Pacific, then there was no limit. I needed to stop dithering. I took a deep breath and dove in, “In light of the fact that we now have no Fountain – those idiots – we need to reconsider how much longer you can be here.” Still couldn’t believe they’d wasted all our Fountain on me. Ridiculous. I tried some of what looked like eggs then went back to the rice. The worse off I was, the more I took refuge in the easy and familiar…like rice and chocolate chip muffins and garlic bread.

Izzy hadn’t started shouting about “another broken promise of Anne St. Germaine” yet. That had to be a good sign. She had seen the danger now. It was evident. It was right in front of her —

“Marco and Zheng said there would be more Fountain soon,” she interrupted my thoughts. “Someone’s going to bring it? They also suggested sending you on an errand to get more but I vetoed that.”

Mo. There were three of us gathered…of course he’d come.

“Ah fuck. He is going to come, isn’t he? Shit. That moves up our timeline.” While I’d love to see my old friend, I did not want to see him like this: beat all to hell, impaled, and dragging my sister into my own personal hurricane.

“But you were just saying how much we needed Fountain as a backup,” she said.

“Fountain, yes. Lectures about my future, no.” Mo’s hobby for the last eon had been selling me on temple living. He wanted me back there in a bad way. “Hopefully I’ll get the ship fixed up and we can get the hell out of here before he arrives.”

Don’t be an ass.

I don’t need any lectures.

Even if you could limp your way out of here, Mo would track you down and have his say. He always gets his way.

“I’ll get more Fountain once you are safe,” I assured her.

“There’s also the small matter of you getting fixed up. Seriously, you need to take it easy.” Izzy went back to plating more breakfast as the compound began waking up and she spotted more friends.

“I’m sitting. I’m resting. Can’t sail the portal with a giant hole in my chest.” Even the thought of getting behind the wheel set me to shaking. My ship lilted in the distance. I needed to get to work. I clutched my chest, this was going to be a hard day.

I must look as terrible as I felt because Izzy was suddenly at my forehead taking my temperature with her hand. She tsked as Marco walked out of my tent and stretched. “I think you’d feel better if you have a nap after this. Or at least just sit and watch the waves or something.”

“You sound like Marco.” Said Marco flashed me a smile and headed over. He looked like he’d had a good night's sleep.

“Maybe that should tell you something.” Izzy kissed my cheek and redirected my attention to my mostly uneaten breakfast. “Eat up.”

“Morning, ladies.” Marco took a seat next to me and started picking off my plate. Izzy’s

new girlfriend magically appeared and refilled my coffee and handed Marco a cup. He ate one of my shrimp then headed for the eggs. I staked out my territory and ate a big bite of eggs just to spite him. Izzy offered him his own plate but he kept pilfering off mine.

“How did she take it?” he asked in Hurrian. We looked up at my sister who looked altogether too peaceful for hearing the news that we’d be leaving here soon and heading home.

“I’m sure we have another conversation in our future. But it’s a good first step. I told her we needed to reconsider how much longer she can be here and that we needed to move up the timeline. I told her that once the ship was repaired we would be on our way,” I recounted the highlights for him. Marco watched Izzy smiling as she learned the Cantonese words for kitchen utensils from her guards. He shrugged and went back to stealing all my shrimp.

Once my plate was empty we tackled his before heading over to the Try Your Luck. Marco matched my slow pace and didn’t seem to mind. It was a pleasant morning. The skies gave no hint of impending weather and therefore it was easy to take my time. Elizabeth was already on the ship, directing a crew of workers and overseeing the application of large batches of boiling tar. The wooden boards would be caulked with rope fiber and the boiled tar and pitch, applied layer upon layer to the outside, would serve to seal her up.

The ship was in worse shape than I wanted to admit. In normal circumstances I would have sailed my beloved ship straight home and let my talented mechanic and ship repairman, Edgar, get her up and out of the water and back into fighting form. Nothing much could be done about the damaged fiberglass portions of decking here in the 17th century. I needed to decide today whether or not to completely replace it with local materials. Last time I’d done that, Edgar had questioned my sanity. I could already hear his laughter. I tried to keep it together as I assessed the damage from the outside.

My girl was near fatally wounded; she needed Edgar. Neither my ship or I were healthy enough to sail anywhere right now. We just needed to be fixed up enough to limp back to the 21st. I’d deliver Izzy to Mom, the Try Your Luck to Edgar, and myself to the nearest hotel with room service.

The fact that Elizabeth got us to Zheng at all was a miracle. When I stopped being so sour about her miscount, I’d praise her skills. In the meantime, I rubbed my abdomen where the wound caught at my lungs with each breath. 14. Not 12. 14.

“Captain, good morning.” Elizabeth came up on deck as I hobbled up the gangplank.

“Nice to see you’re working.” 14, not 12. “And glad to see the ship is still floating. Tell me about her.” I crutched along the deck to inspect a gouge in the main mast.

“Yes, Captain.” Elizabeth followed. “It is not as extensive as I feared. There are plumbing and wire – electricity issues that need your attention,” she stumbled around the modern words. “The surface damage will be easy to repair –”

“How many people have you hired to work these repairs?” I watched the unknown laborers both on the dock and on the deck, working my ship over.

“Sixteen,” she answered.

“All men?” I could see the answer plainly enough myself.

“Most of them, yes.” She had the audacity to glance at Marco. “The ship is — excuse me, I’m going to check on the pitch.” Elizabeth went off down the gangplank but instead of checking the boiling pots, went straight towards the tents.

“That wasn’t very nice.” Marco watched my first mate continue to walk off into the compound.

“They don’t call me the Nice Captain of the Seven Seas,” I grumbled and limped over to a spot where musket fire had shredded a section of rail. I picked at the splinters as I considered how to descend the stairs and begin work on the plumbing and electrical systems. It required maneuvering my body into tight, awkward areas and I was having trouble enough with bending down to put my boots on.

“She’s a kid.” Marco followed, intent on obtaining absolution for Elizabeth.

“She is my first mate. I expect more from her.” I steeled myself to bend enough to get my toolbox. Just a short distance. I could do this. I used my crutch to knock the door of the storage space open. One deep breath and I bent down and lifted the box. It sucked.

“You can’t expect her to be you.” Marco took the box from me and put it on the bench.

“If you are going to be here you are going to work.” I opened the box and started sorting out what I needed. There was spare pipe in the bilge area, and wiring and meter gauges in the third cabin storage. I selected a wire stripper and tested it out. The salt had gotten to it and it was sticking. The tool sprang open and dropped from my grip. Without thinking I reached for it and my world shuddered as I seized up.

Marco shut the lid, narrowly avoiding my hands. “I’ll work if you sit. Let’s keep the secondary measures away.”

I was annoyed but, as I was about to fall over, I had little recourse. Marco helped me to my captain’s chair and let me order him about. He was familiar with the ship and was able to bring me decent assessments. He wasn’t able to do electrical work but he could spot leaks and tell me if appliances in the galley turned on. They didn’t. My list of repairs grew.

When Elizabeth returned, I ordered them both to the hull to start working on reinforcing the structural damage and applying the tar and pitch. Each time I got up, I was shouted down. Only when they were out of sight did I get to my feet and hobble about to see what projects I could tackle here on deck. Unfortunately the engine compartment was out of my reach.

Izzy came aboard and found me sitting against the starboard bench, using my spyglass to attempt to assess the blocks at the top of the masts.

“Wow, you look awful,” she announced. How nice. “Why are you being so mean to Elizabeth?”

She got in the way and wouldn’t move when I tried to wave her off. I couldn’t do much more than try to shoo her and apparently she wasn’t going to shoo. I tried to turn to inspect the other mast and got a stern lecture from my ribcage about the folly of twisting about right now. Anger towards the portal and those mean pirates flared up all over again.

“14. Not 12. 14. Now I have a hole through my middle.” I saw pirate number 14 standing over me with that harpoon. I saw him pull back and stab down. I flinched from the memory alone and my chest exploded in pain. That had been an awful death. “And hey, why do I have to look runway ready days after reanimating?” Freaking impossible beauty standards for women. There was never any winning.

“They hid their numbers just like we did!” Izzy snapped at me. I gave up on the spyglass and put it down. “You need to get the fuck over it already. Elizabeth already feels bad enough.”

I needed to get over being brutally attacked and killed? Mere days afterward? Because it was hurting someone else's feelings? No.

“She’ll be fine. What are you doing here? Are you here to help or just criticize my management style?” That’s when I saw she was holding a cup. The cup. My cup.

“Help. Through criticizing. And also,” she held up the overly fancy goblet she took from my lonely mountain, “it’s nap time. I’ve been told you are in serious danger of the secondary measures coming through if you don’t chill out.”

“Zheng is such a tattletale,” I growled. “I’m sitting. I’m resting. I don’t need that.” I refused to take the cup from her. There was too much to do and we were on a schedule. The Try Your Luck and I were neck and neck to see who would be seaworthy first. If Izzy knocked me out again for three days, who knew what would happen? Probably wake up to find Izzy had altered the entire timestream by feeding everyone uber organic food and now they were all zombies. Except these zombies ate cauliflower instead of brains. Organic non GMO cauliflower grown in artisanal gardens for artisanal zombies. I laughed…then regretted it. Everything hurt.

I swear, getting eaten by an organic artisanal zombie sounded like pure bliss right about now. If it was a contagious type of zombie bite, then my only care in the world would be getting brains. No worries about getting sisters back to the future or debating the motives of once-upon-a-time-husbands and why he was sticking around, tucking me into bed. Zombies wouldn’t be filled with anxiety that her old friend would sail all the way here just to sit her down and explain to her exactly why she should leave this world behind and retire to the temple with him. If I were a zombie, I wouldn’t even have to debate former warlords over the comparative values of pepper versus nail polish in the 17th century. Just brains. Only brains. Peaceful.

Marco must have heard her and come to investigate. I struggled to get to my feet to hide that I wasn’t in the chair where he’d ordered me to stay. He got there first and put his hand on my shoulder to keep me seated where I was on the deck.

“That’s a beautiful chalice. Where’d you get it?” He spoke to Izzy, not to me.

“Liar. I’ve been watching you, you know,” she said to me before turning to Marco. “It came from her treasure trove.”

“In Greenland? You got to go? I’ve never been but I’ve heard stories.” He reached for the fancy cup and sniffed the contents when Izzy handed it over. “What’s this? Smells good.” He started to take a sip. We’d shared plates and cups since the temple. This would serve him right. I couldn’t wait. He was going to fall on his ass and I was going to laugh and laugh.

Izzy put her hand over the cup and pushed it down and away from him. “It’s her medicine. She’s been cheating.”

“I’ve been dead. Puts a little wrinkle in your strict schedule.” I couldn’t be blamed for not staying on schedule while dead! Again with the impossible standards.

Izzy ignored me. She turned to Marco all smug-like. “Hey, guess what. Everytime you turn your back, she does work. I’m ordering nap time.” She tapped the cup in his hand.

I hated this little team building fun they were having. As if they were so perfect.

“I second that motion.” He sat down on the deck next to me and held up the cup for me to take. I glared at the cup. I glared at him.

“I am not happy with this collaboration the two of you have.” I didn’t take the cup.

“I am not happy with the death-colored pallor of your skin. So maybe that evens out. Drink,” she ordered. I did not drink.

Marco scootched next to me and leaned back against the bench. “Please?” he switched to Hurrian. “Everyone will keep working. I promise.” He held the cup up and started singing our favorite drinking song about a sheep. “I’ll stay with you.” He smiled and I couldn’t help it, I smiled back. I took the cup, baa-ed like the sheep in the song, and sipped.

The drink was strong. I sputtered on the heavily laced substance and spun in betrayal towards Izzy. I was going to say something to her and her…face. I was going to say…something. I was…where was I? I took another sip of the drink in my hand. Maybe that would clear my mind.

It did not.

Someone put an arm around me. It was a nice arm. I’d missed that arm. I closed my eyes and dreamed of an upstairs hallway and a big bed with big open windows.

****

The bonfire burned bright tonight. All the residents were out. All the stars were out. Helene was in a beautiful gown that set her skin glowing. She danced with Magnus as the music and drinks and food swirled all around. Everyone was there; everyone from the estate and everyone from St. George’s. The revelers seemed to stretch on for miles.

“Why aren’t you dancing?” I asked Graham. He was seated just next to me, an empty cup and a full plate in his lap.

“Why aren’t you?” he asked.

“You should dance. This is a happy occasion.” It was a grand occasion. Even Davies and Yvonne were taking a spin around the dance floor.

“I am happy.” He watched Helene cavort with their children. “Can’t I be happy and still miss you? Still wish…” he trailed off and touched the ring hanging off a thin leather thong around his neck.

“We did all we could with the time we had. I don’t regret a minute.”

“Neither do I.” We watched the party spin around us for a few minutes. “I miss you, Nan.”

“Please dance. Don’t just sit here. Dance with her.” I couldn’t stand the sight of him sitting there, alone, mourning a woman long gone.

“I will if you will.” He reached for me but there was nothing to hold onto any longer. It was time to let go. I led him over to his wife. The floor cleared for the newlyweds. He would be alright. They would all be alright.

****

I startled awake, disoriented. The sun was in the wrong place in the sky and there was no music and dancing.

“It’s okay. You’re on your ship. You’ve been asleep for hours. We brought a chaise up here for you. We thought it would be more comfortable than your splintered deck. On a scale where one is floating in that island pond, remember that place? And ten is when the guards burnt the Nekydalleon into you. How are you feeling?” Marco was in a chair next to me, sailcloth over his lap and an awl in his hand.

“Eight. I’m alright, though.” I answered. It felt like the truth.

“I’ll help you. We’ll get you better. Are you hungry?”

“A little, yeah.”

“Your sister brought over…everything.” He grinned and put a plate loaded with rice, meats, and vegetables on my lap. We took a few bites off the same plate. I rested back against the chaise and didn’t try to move.

“You’re looking better,” he said after the food was mostly gone.

“Yeah, it was a good idea to rest,” I agreed.

He poured us each a cup of tea and we watched Elizabeth, still hard at work, ordering the laborers around. The ship was going to be alright. I was going to be alright. It was time to stop punishing myself for what I’d done to Graham. He was alright and it was time to move on.