3 - Lovely Day

I reached over and attacked the alarm clock. My fingers crashed into multiple items in the dark before colliding with the alarm and silencing it violently.

Groaning, I rolled over, pulling the covers higher. I most emphatically did not want to get up. That warm, cloudy feeling of being pleasantly asleep still enveloped me. The windows were slowly getting lighter as I closed my eyes… just for a few more minutes…

“Don’t do it.” Sheila’s voice wandered up from the other bed. I grunted. It was all I did in the morning.

“Get up. You know you’ll be the laughing stock of that entire fishery if you don’t get there on time. Even a little early would be good.”

Moan. I opened my eyes again and threw off the covers, then paused, adjusting again to the life of the living.

Sheila goaded me on from the bed.

“Easy for you to say. You don’t have to get up for another two hours.” I growled, sitting up and sliding my legs over the side of the bed.

“You volunteered for it. Why I don’t know. But you did. So you’d better make sure you make a good exhibition of yourself.” And with that, she rolled over and turned her back to me.

Grumbling to myself, I pulled my trousers on, and some sturdy boots after that. I sulked into the kitchen and grabbed a muffin for breakfast, and then scurried out onto the street.

Reaching the bayside, I realized just how busy it was when the rest of the city was still sleeping. The fishermen were everywhere. They were loading and mending nets, yelling, throwing things, and really doing anything else common to whatever fishermen did… which, as yet, I did not know.

That awkwardness of the pier consumed me as I made my way to Sol. I felt like I was walking a gangplank. Would that feeling ever leave?

It would have given me much more satisfaction to see Sol show some sort of emotion at the sight of me on that dock. Sadly, such was not my luck. Instead, I felt terribly in the way as everything happened around me. The feeling of inconvenience had always depressed me, and now, in the middle of this stream of action it was reaching a climax. Well, I couldn’t do this for the rest of my job. It was make a place for myself or die trying, as I saw it. So, with this stubborn thought in the front of my mind, I took a place next to Sol.

He ignored me. No. Nooooosirreebob. I was not going to be ignored. However painful it was to get noticed, it was more painful to be ignored.

However, just as I was about to find my tongue, Sol looked down at me and growled “Well, why are you just standing there? Joel! Alec!”

 Sol punched a thumb in my general direction. “Show the kid the ropes, you two.”

The two exchanged a grin.

That grin made me feel uneasy, at best. The cousins I had back home gave me a sixth sense about mischief. And that sixth sense was tingling.

Oh well. Maybe a few pranks would loosen everyone up to me.

“Well?” I said, pushing my sleeves up to my elbows, “Where do we start?”

Joel spoke with a slight accent " one that I couldn’t place. “First we mend tha nets. Yer a girl, you must be handy with mendin.”

His face remained half motionless, but the glimmer in his squinted eyes said it all.

Well fine. Two could play that game.                     

I didn’t twitch and eyelash. “Point me to them and show me how, Shorty.”

Here it might behoove me to add that Joel, on the contrary, was built like a Clydesdale horse. Tall. Big. Square. Shorty was the most demeaning yet slightly friendly thing I could come up with on short notice.

The glimmer in his eyes didn’t die. In fact, I think it lit up a little more. “Sure thing, Shrimp.”

Pulling out a net, Alec laughed. “Careful there… this shrimp might bite.”

Joel looked at me. “Naw, shrimp don’t have big enough mouths. Wouldn’t put it past her to poison me, though.”

There was a roar. “Get to work, you loafers! Stop flirtin’ with the girl!”

Sol Magnus made me smile. A quick, secretive flash of a smile. But a smile. Flirting? What could be further from the truth? But the consternation it brought to their faces… oh it was priceless.

It was too much. As Alec and Joel started showing me the process of checking the nets for tears, the smirk on my face just grew until I was sitting on my haunches and chuckling at both of them. They wore testy looks, but the way they turned their backs to me told me they found at least some humor in the situation.

At any rate, in a very short time, I was swept up into chaos as the nets were loaded, and five different boats were sailing out into the harbor.

There was a deep mumble rising as we sailed out that beat rhythmically with the lapping of the water against the boat sides. I was in the midst of feeling rather isolated again when a red-head beside me reached over and stuck out his hand.

“Egan.”

I shook his hand and flashed what I hoped was a good-natured grin. “Bess.”  

I was awful at this. Really and truly awful. I felt like a doll with a smile just painted to my face.

Egan nodded out to the bay. “Ever been out before?”

I looked around me. The sky seemed huge, the water deep. “No. I actually just got here a couple days ago.”

“Where from?”

“Upstate New York.”

“Been out in the bay there?”

I grinned, this time for real. “Sometimes. I always ride the ferry when I can. My dad was a fisherman, actually. But he died before he could teach me anything. Since then I haven’t been out on a boat.”

The red head grinned back. “Well, you get to learn now.” He winked at me. “Just make yourself invaluable and you’ll be able to tie Sol around your little finger.”

Unlike me, this guy knew how to chat. As we did so, I observed him more closely. His hair was definitely red. And hadn’t seen a pair of scissors in well-nigh a month, I had to imagine. His shirt sleeves were rolled far enough up to expose a pair of taut, browned triceps - and the shoulders he owned were broad enough to bring in the best days catch all by his lonesome.

Not the first guy I’d like to meet in a dark alley. But then, he didn’t seem the type to frequent alleys, at least not as an aggressor. I could see him living on a doorstep in tough times, and maybe beating up the occasional thug. He had that hardened but honest look to him.

And, I decided as I answered his questions about my twelve cousins, three aunts and four uncles… He was my first friend here on the docks. Thank heaven.

In the meantime, as he was questioning me on my massive Italian family, the red-head carefully showed me the mechanics of the boat we were on. The details of sailing, the way the nets were laid out in preparation for the throw in. He managed to show it all to me while making small talk. The man was beginning to amaze me.

Alec, steering the boat, soon stopped us after we passed the mouth of the bay. Letting the nets out quickly made me feel as inept and as clumsy as humanly possible. I was continually kicking myself. It wouldn’t have been as bad if they at least laughed at me or something. But no. I just got these looks telling me to go and jump in the ocean.

By the time the boat was running back to the pier, my whole body ached. I was sweaty. And hungry. And my whole body radiated heat. I knew I was red - my forearms looked about three shades darker than they had been this morning - but I didn’t realize the full extent of the damage until I realized Joel was chuckling at me with a one-sided twitch in his lips. He ribbed Alec.

“I think our shrimp is having an identity crisis. She looks more like a lobster now.”

Alec didn’t hide his grin, but motioned me to come into the shade where he was steering, anyway.

“And how was your first day out?”

“Lovely.” I didn’t really take the time to consider whether I was lying or not… Oh well. I could find something lovely about it later.

Alec’s head went back and he laughed, long and hard. Oddly enough, it put me at ease. At least I knew he thought I looked like a fool.

Egan looked over and winked at me.

Alec finally stopped laughing and started to breathe again.

“Tell me, which part did you enjoy most… The sun frying that white skin of yours, the deathly fish smell, or the part when you tripped over the nets about twenty times?”

I did my best to keep my face a blank canvas. “All of the above. And the rope burns were a pleasant touch.”

Even Joel had to laugh with me.

Alec tossed me half a sandwich. “Have a lunch, Shrimp.”

Thank heaven I caught the fool sandwich. I could just see myself missing it and then landing in the middle of a deceased fish…

I had to give Alec credit. He could make a decent sandwich. And I was picky about sandwiches… something my aunt always complained about. Of course, I am pretty sure that anything I ate in this moment of ravenous hunger would taste good.

At that moment, a fresh breeze came up over the water, stroking my seared skin with a velvety touch. All that with the swaying of the boat, and the sunshine blaring over the water, seemed doomed to send my lids slowly over their eyes…

It was only the thought of 6 fisherman left to batter my sleeping body that gave me enough grit to keep my eyes away. Of all things. Sleepy. And before noon. I’d wake up tangled in a net hanging ten feet above the boat. I’d probably end up drying up and roasting before the cut me down…

And again I had to blink hard and jerk myself to keep from sliding into an exhausted stupor.

Thank goodness we were entering the bay again. I could even see the dock very way ahead. Unless I was also dehydrated and experiencing a mirage…

Before I knew it, probably because I had somehow fallen asleep standing on my feet, the boat collided with the pier. Everything came to chaos again.

Ropes were tied, ropes were untied. The docks were teaming with life after a few hours of dead stillness. All the boats hit the pier in perfect harmony, while the yelling gradually rose.

And of course, I was in the way. I looked desperately around for Egan, my one and only lifeline.

He came up from behind and unloaded me onto the dock.

“What now?” I asked, trying to hide my face from Magnus, who I could see further up the pier searching the disembarking members of the boats.

“We count da fish.”

I stopped and looked at him.

“All of them?”

“Yup.”

“And then what?”

“You record them so we can keep track of em and sell um.”

“Joy.”

And right on cue, Magnus roared from the end of the pier. “Hiram! Do you think you get a break before five? Get down here, this is part of your real job, not the pretend one!”

Hundreds, if not thousands, of fish. Big and small. Crates of them. And part of my job was to help count them.

Joy.

Egan winked. He seemed to have a thing for winking. 

Author's Note

I am struggling to keep the tone, plot, and action relevant to the historical period that this story is set in, so please do tell me if you think it is off-kilter. I'm about to just throw caution to the wind and write whatever I feel like....
Other than that, are the characters believable, does the action seem justified and real, and are the dialogue and responses both interesting and in-line with the characters so far?

Reviews

[R.G. Bennet]

Struggling? It doesn't show. I may not know a lot about the historical period, but I can tell you that your story is very engaging. I love your side characters and how they are depicted. Sol Magnus is my hero.

I'm not sure about the italics (where Bess is thinking to herself...). They read slightly off times, but this is not a big issue. Overall I'm very pleased with this chapter and eagerly await the fourth.

[AK]

Beautiful story! Getting better and better as the chapters pass. Great write!