Living on Writer's Block

It was many long, tense minutes before, finally, she relented, and smiled down at the child. “Alright, Jim. You win.” Before she could say anything more, he began whooping and yelling and running in circles.

“Yay! Yay! Yayyayyayyay–Yaaaaay!” He began running all over the ship, yelling that Miss Ramona was going to stay. As each sailor heard it, he looked over at her happily, and a few waved their hats and cheered. Those cheers began to spread all across the ship, and soon even the rowers, given leave to go above decks by Merlin to investigate, and Pierre and Merlin himself all began to clap and shout heartily. 

Ramona was overwhelmed, and looked around at them all, amazed at such a reception. A movement near the steering wheel caught the tail of her eye, and she looked to see Wilhelm clapping genteelly but very enthusiastically, and next to him, one hand on the rail and the other on his hip, was Samuel, cooly watching the proceedings, who met her eye and gave her a welcoming nod. The faint suggestion of a smile curled his mouth. She smiled back, a little teary-eyed, and watched as he stood up away from the rail and came down the steps toward her. As he drew near, the crew quieted, watching with eager eyes the man who was their captain. He stopped beside her and turned to face them. He cleared his throat and spoke in a very official tone.

“I know you all wanted her to join very much, and this is truly the warmest welcome I’ve ever seen from you all. Let us now recognize that Ramona Redhawk is a crew-member of the Osprey, and shall be treated with the respect you all owe to one such crew-member. And let’s hope,” he said in a slightly quieter voice, “that she might decide to stay on, permanently.” As the crew erupted in ‘hip-hip—hoorays’ and cheering, he turned to her. “I don’t trust you’ll do anything of the sort, but the crew needs you. You help them to stay under control; they need that, as good-hearted as they are, at least for a little while. At least give them the hope, for now.”

She looked up at him, her face a mask, except that her eyes were glittering with gold and her red streak was a beautiful rose color. “I might stay, you never know. I already feel the pull of the sea in my bones… it’s something… new to me. I like it.”

His mouth curved slightly. “In that case, then, shall we cast off?”

She smiled, then suddenly swept into a graceful curtsey. “As you say, Captain!” 

All the crew standing near enough to hear her immediately began to call orders over the ship, shouting out “Cast off!” and “Haul anchors!”  and many other things that Ramona could really only guess at the meanings of. As the crew began climbing the ropes, she straightened up from the curtsey very slowly, her eyes on the ship’s sails as they fell down and began to catch the wind. Samuel watched her awe in faint amusement. Her eyes trained on the sailors leaping from rope to mast to sail to yardarm like dancers; on the anchors being hauled up from the sea; on Wilhelm as he began shouting  directions and latitudes and longitudes; on Jiminy as he bounced up and down beside her, clapping excitedly; on the ship’s black pennant as it climbed the mast and unfurled in the wind at the top to reveal an osprey stitched in silver, its beak and claws edged with dripping red. 

“Welcome to the Osprey, Redhawk,” Samuel said, his gaze following hers up to the heights before he glanced back down at her, nodded briefly, then swiftly crossed to the nearest rope ladder and began climbing it with lightning speed. He disappeared into the rigging, and Ramona ran to the bow to watch the open sea before her as the ship went underway. The wind filled the sails and the ship creaked as it moved forward, picking up speed slowly. 

Gorrill ran to the rail beside her, carrying a coil of knotted rope over one shoulder; he threw the end of it in the sea and waited till it had straightened out, then Ramona saw his lips move as he began counting. After about thirty seconds he called up to Wilhelm, “Speed 15 knots, sir!” 

“Very good, Gorrill, be ready to ascertain our velocity again at a later interval!”

“Ready t’ what, sir?”

Wilhelm sighed resignedly. “Be ready to check our speed again later, Odd.”

“Ah, yessir!” 

Ramona’s hand was suddenly taken by small, soft fingers. She looked down to find Jiminy there. “Miss Ramona, the cap’n wants you to see this,” he said cheerfully. 

Ramona’s heartbeat slowed for a moment. “See what, Jiminy?”

The child led her over to amidships again, then pointed up. “Up there, see him?” Ramona looked up, and indeed, far above her she could see a dark figure waving to them from the crow’s nest.

“Oh goodness,” she gasped as the figure suddenly leapt over the edge and hooked his cutlass over a rope, sliding down at terrifying speed. As he neared the rope’s limit he suddenly grabbed hold of another and released the first, hooking the sword over the new and continuing his descent. His path now carried him toward the mast. He suddenly slowed down, and his feet touched the yard arm supporting the main sail, and Ramona saw him turn back towards her, sheathing his sword and bowing elegantly before straightening back up and leaning against the mast. Her jaw clattered to the deck. Jiminy looked up and giggled at her expression.

“He does that all the time, Miss Ramona. He’s real good, too. No one else even comes close to the tricks Cap’n can do!”

“I-I’m sure,” she said breathlessly, then gave a slight cry of alarm as Samuel suddenly stepped off the yard arm into empty air and plunged downward. Before he hit the deck he caught a rope and slid down, coming to a stop when the rope wrapped around a hook at the bottom of the mast, and from that point he leapt down to land with perfect ease on the deck. He strolled toward them nonchalantly, one hand resting on the hilt of the sword. His other hand swung by his side, the blue sleeve fluttering in the wind; his dark blue vest was as immaculate as ever, the ten silver buttons gleaming in the sun.

“That was quite the display, sir,” Ramona said as he came up to them.

He gave a quick grin, breathing a little harder than normal. “I wasn’t showing off, you know. I just genuinely enjoy it.”

She scoffed. “Oh, of course, you weren’t showing off. Except you told Jiminy to tell me to look up.” She raised an eyebrow at him, and crossed her arms, one side of her mouth quirking into a little half-smile. “Not showing off… Aye. That’s exactly what I didn’t just see you doing.”

He grinned widely for the first time, and then he chuckled. “Right…”

She chewed her lip nervously for a moment, still staring at him in wonder. “How on earth did you do that?” she suddenly burst out.

He smiled again. “Why, do you want to learn?”

“Wha— learn? How could I ever learn that? Why  would I ever learn that?”

He shrugged and went to the rail, where he leaned against it and folded his arms across his chest, regarding her coolly. “Why not?” he asked simply. 

She stared at him, then glanced down at Jiminy. She looked at the child for a moment thoughtfully, and Jiminy returned the look curiously. Then his eyes lit up as his captain’s words sank in.

“It’d be so amazing if you could do it too, Miss Ramona!” he said quickly, a huge smile on his face.

She looked back at Samuel. “Do you… really think I could?”

After a moment, he said, “You know, I do.” He nodded thoughtfully, leaning his jaw against a fist as he reflected. “Appears to me you have the training for it, and you’re not nearly as heavy-set as most of the rest of the crew. You could learn, and pretty quickly, too.”

She thought on it for a moment, then smiled a little and shook her head gently. “Why would I? I’m no pirate.”

“Quite frankly, we’re not generally considered pirates either, Redhawk,” Samuel said suddenly, after looking at her in silence for a moment or two.

“You’re not?”

He gave a slight grin. “According to the more… orthodox of our profession, we’re a little too nice,” he said sardonically, eyes flicking away. “Which, according to them, is a problem.”

“Too nice? What kind of a problem is that?” 

He grinned slightly, his eyes distant. “Huh,” he chuckled shortly, “I’d ask you the same question. I sure don’t have an answer.” He glanced back at her suddenly. “Do you?” 

She scoffed. “No, I have no idea why that would be an issue. I’m barely even a crewmember, Samuel — sir,” she corrected quickly, “So I don’t even know how you might be too nice.”

He gave her another slight grin. “You’ll see, eventually. Meanwhile, let’s get you educated, shall we?”