Chapter 6

For the next three days, you scrubbed that deck, with no help from whoever had mysteriously done it the first night.

For those three nights, the Captain offered to let you sleep in the barracks with the sailors but you didn't feel comfortable with it, so you slept on the cold deck with two blankets and a coat borrowed from the Captain.

You didn't miss the looks the Captain gave you. They were too far away to read, and too often to ignore. Jealousy? Suspicion? Pity? How were you supposed to know?

And also for those three days, you were a bit wary to ask questions, though the Captain seemed to encourage it. One the first of those three days, the Captain gave you a break with a tour of the ship, and then gave you free reign of it.

On the second of the days, the Captain let you have a good, two-hour-long break during lunch to take a break, and do whatever you wanted. You ended up eating a big lunch and taking a nap while it was still warm out. In the end, you think you slept for more than two hours, but the Captain didn't seem to have the heart to wake you up while you were sleeping so hard. And when you finally did get back to work, he gave you his gloves to use. On the third day, you were done by lunch.

Yeah, three days of work to finish it, plus that mysterious night-scrubber. That seems so long ago now... But anyways, it was a really big deck. Or at least, to you it was.

The Captain was at the bow, standing in the spray of the sea in the breeze. You walked up behind him tentatively. "Um...Captain, sir, I think I'm finished with the deck now" you said quietly, almost afraid of his reply. If he was in a bad mood, he may as well say, 'Finished? Wonderful. Now scrub it again.'

He walked over, past you, looking into you as he passed, and went to see the deck you'd just scrubbed.

"Well, you did a great job," he said admirably. "Glad to see you're doing such great work."

So far so good... "Thank you Captain." But...why did your face feel hot, your heart flutter, you strive to impress him?

"But finished? I don't know about that."

You held your breath. Would you have to do it all over again?

"There are still the raised levels at the bow and stern, plus every floor level that this ship has. So you're maybe...a tenth of the way done with the deck?"

Your eyes widened. It had never occurred to you that you had to scrub more than the main deck, nor that a pirate could do math. But then again this Captain seemed pretty smart. He still didn't talk like the others.

"But that's alright. You've had enough deck-scrubbing to last you a good while."

You sighed with relief. No more scrubbing decks.

"I've got a new job for you. Meet me in my cabin," he said, spun on his heel, and walked off towards his cabin, simply expecting you to follow. Again.

I think I'll take the deck instead.