The Captain

twelve

Bonnie led me up to the main deck. Dalt and Charlie approached us, looking mildly uncomfortable. 

"Uh, hi," I said, feeling awkward. 

"Listen, Miss Harlow-"

"Florence," I cut him off. 

"Okay, well we just wanted to say sorry for the comments we made at dinner a while ago. Seeing as you're gonna be part of the crew for a while now, I didn't want us to start off on the wrong foot. We're good people, I promise," Charlie said, awkwardly holding out his hand.

After a second of hesitation, I shook it. 

"Thank you."

Dalt sighed reluctantly.

"Yeah yeah, sorry we were creeps, I'll leave you alone from now on."

He didn't offer to shake my hand, walking away as soon as possible.

"Don't pay much mind to him. Nell told us if we didn't apologize she'd cut our ears off. I really didn't mean what I said, too. Just joking around."

Charlie seemed genuine enough, so I offered him a small smile. 

"I appreciate it, Charlie. We're good."

He smiled, relieved, and left to go do whatever it was they all did on this ship.

"Okay. So if you're gonna be a pirate, you're gonna have to learn some stuff, see what you're good at."

"Like what?"

"We'll have to get you a sword and teach you how to use it, some knot tying and cannon skills wouldn't hurt either."

Nervous but actually excited, I followed her over to the base of the sails, where Ernie was preparing to set sail. 

"Ernie! Florence needs some knot-tying lessons and you're the expert."

The older man smiled at me, and I was reminded instantly of Carson and Tristan from the Alexandria. I wonder what happened to them. What happened to Amelie. 

"Sure thing! So this one is called a clove hitch, the one on the anchor over there is an anchor hitch, and this loopy one is a bowline."

I nodded, trying to memorize the right shapes. 

"Okay, got it."

"This here's a reef knot. Those are the most important ones for you to know, just in case you ever need to secure the sails or something."

Bonnie wandered away as Ernie gave me some demonstrations on how to tie each knot and what they were used for. It took some practice, but after half an hour or so I was practically a pro. 

"Good job Florence! You're quite the natural."

I actually blushed at the praise. I was happy to see that I didn't seem or feel too out of place. 

"Thank you!"

Bonnie reappeared, and with almost childlike excitement, I showed her all the knots I'd learned and how to use them.

"Wow! Someone's comin' for your job, Ernie," she teased. 

Ernie chuckled at us. 

"Don't you two have someone else to harass?"

Laughing, we made our way over to the main mast. 

"Okay. So how comfortable are you with heights?"

I glanced up. 

"Pretty comfortable, I guess. Amelie and I used to climb trees in the summer."

"This isn't some little tree. You gotta be confident and safe so you don't die and neither do the rest of us."