ch 1 ships and capes: episode 2

"You got a B on your physics test?" she asks "why that is terrific! What do you say we celebrate?"
"What did you have in mind?" I ask with pleasant premonitions rolling through my mind.
"Put your coat on, I’ll take you to the diner and I’ll let you pick out anything you want to eat" she says with a smile. I don't understand why this test was more important than other tests that received better scores in the past. Whatever the reason I'm glad. I put on my coat and we head out the door. Mom takes a few more moments. On the way to the diner my head is fills with visions of dancing hamburgers and malted milk shakes. My visions evaporate and I turn my attention to the houses that we pass by.
"So what else did you do today?"
As often as I was asked questions like this it would have made more sense to take notes during the day and write out a report. It’s not that I didn't remember, I just couldn't help but draw a blank when I was asked. My first response was more of a vain hope that I wouldn't have to rehearse the day’s events as if I had lined up my thoughts beforehand. I seem to have problems focusing. I wrack my brain until something falls out
"Um today we played basket ball in P.E."
"You must have enjoyed that. Isn't basketball one of your favorite sports?"
"Yeah I like playing it but I only enjoyed it for so long because I was hit in the jaw."
"What happened?" she asked with a small share of concern in her tone
"I was going for the ball and Ammon popped me in the jaw with his elbow"
"Was it on purpose?"
"I don't know but I doubt it. My jaw is stiff and it hurts when I open it to wide"
"Well I'm sure it’s just inflammation, you'll be alright." she says
I'm not sure if she is trying to be comforting or if she doesn't think it matters though I'm content with either. I rub my jaw and open it to stretch the sore muscles and joints that hinged it to the rest of my head. I felt like the creaky door of a haunted house only the groaning was from injured hinges not un-oiled ones. I close my mouth, sit thoughtfully for a moment, then end the solitude of the un-intrusive serenade of the background road noise.
"So how was your day?" I asked
"It was fantastic actually! Tonight is to celebrate good news for both of us" she says excitedly though clearly trying to hide exactly how excited she was
"I know I got a B on my physics test and that no big deal, but what is your big news?"
"I think it would be best if I gave you my news at the diner." she smiles.
"Suit yourself, I guess. We’re almost there anyway"
My response wasn't as eager as it should have been though mom's face doesn't fall an inch from its happy, excited expression. I really am eager I don't know why I responded so blandly. It isn't every day we eat at the diner. For anyone else it would seem ordinary maybe for some routine, for us it was a special occasion. Mom was a single parent and worked two jobs, we always had enough but not much more. We eat out rarely because it costs so much. I am secretly tortured with curiosity and impatience to know what my mom is bringing me to the diner to tell me. The car finally turns into the parking lot of the diner. We walk in and sit down at a table. I waste no time and immediately seek to end my miserable curiosity
"What is the big news?" I said doing as badly at covering up the full extent of my curiosity as my mom did her excitement when she told me she had news.
"I thought I'd wait to tell you until after we've gotten our food."
"Mom, your killing me!"
"Just be patience, now order anything on the menu sky is the limit!"
I raise a suspicious eyebrow but don't say anymore about it. I look at the menu and I feel a greediness fill my eyes until it overflows and lands in my stomach like a brick. If I wasn't hungry before, smelling the food in the air and looking at the pictures and reading descriptions of the entrees in the menu made it definitively so. I decide to test the waters. Mom said 'the sky is the limit' so I choose something a little more pricey and just mention it
"I was thinking about getting a steak, a large shake, and some onion rings." I say with a wry smile and a wink as if it were a joke.
"Sure honey, get whatever you want." she replies simply without looking up from her menu. I'm caught off guard and stare blankly for a second.
"What would you fine folks like to drink?" says a girl with an oddly familiar voice. Despite the familiarity I jump a little in my seat having been entirely oblivious to her approach.
"You know what you want William, why don't you order first" mom says with an I know something that you don't look on her face.
"I'll have a small chocolate malt shake and a small order of fries" I say in a small voice. I notice as I turn and look at the waitress I had given my order to again jump in my seat a little. It was Suzy Thompson from school! Suzy is a very pretty girl, a very pretty girl I had never talked to before. I realize quickly that I didn't know she worked there because I rarely came to the diner.
"Okay a small shake and..." she manages to say before my mom corrects her
"No, he will have a medium rare stake, a large chocolate malt shake, and an order of onion rings" she says as if she were reading something note worthy in the news paper rather then what it was to me, which was... embarrassing... I breathe in and hold my breath for a moment. Maybe if I hold it long enough it will change the fact that she is looking straight at me looking for confirmation that my new order is the correct one. I exhale, and nod my head sheepishly. She smiles a little out of the corner of her mouth, nods in acknowledgment, and then turns to mom.
"And what would you like ma'am?"
"I'll have a salad and an order of onion rings"
"What about to drink?"
"Water"
"Coming right up"
Suzy hops off to deliver the orders and I put my head in my hands.
"What’s wrong?" mom asks turning her head sideways. It’s clear that she doesn't have the faintest inkling of the embarrassment I felt. I sigh and let it go. It was of small consequence and not worth a second thought let alone and explanation.
"Nothing, but how long are you going to make me wait to hear your news?"
"I told you I'll tell you when we get are food, trust me"
We continue on talking about our days. I mention things like the stairs on the east side of campus still not being finished but how it should be soon. I learn from her that she was thinking about joining a book club with some of the other mothers in our apartment complex but isn't sure she can. When I ask why she only says it has to do with her big news. After a few minutes Suzy comes by with a tray with two plates and two cups.
"Enjoy!" she says cheerfully and steps off to help some people that had just arrived
"So can you tell me now?"
"Take a bite first"
"Mom!"
"Okay fine, how would you like to eat like this a few nights a week?"
"That would be nice, I suppose"
"Well here is the great news, I’ve been hired here as a waitress and I have a substantial discount so you can! Good news huh?"
My eyes widen. I look down at the steak and then back up at mom.
"Did you get fired from one of your other jobs?"
"No I have three jobs now."
I sit for a moment. "When do you work here?"
"Six days a week. Five o'clock until 10."
I take a bite of my stake and my mouth swims in the juices and my brain melts.
"Of course that means that we will see a lot less of each other for a while." she continued "you'll have to come here after school to have dinner and we'll talk before my shift starts." I begin to put food into my mouth with greater enthusiasm. Mom makes it clear from her face that she is glad I enjoy the food but concerned about how not seeing each other enough will affect me. I get half way through my stake, my sore jaw complaining against every bite, and then stop.
"I guess this means I'll have to remember my key from now on" I say. Mom chuckles a little.
"Mom, we can make this work but why do you need a third job? I thought we were doing fine"
"I'm tired of living pay check to pay check. I took the job here at the diner so that we can have some savings, something for a rainy day not to mention money for when you go to college."
"I could get a job, it would be better then you having three and us not seeing each other"
"Let’s wait to the end of the year and see how your grades are and then get you a job this summer. I don't want to take time away from your studies. You got a B on your physics test but you've been walking a tight rope in English and algebra"
I nod and then finish my food as enthusiastically as I started it and then lean back my stomach with a pleasant ache and my jaw still protesting the steak. I close my eyes for a moment and enjoy the feeling and then have a thought
"So when is your first day?" I ask
A look of panic wipes across her face like a tidal wave
"Ten minutes ago!" she half shouts. She runs off and returns nearly twenty minutes later wearing waitress's uniform just like the one Suzy was wearing earlier when she took our order.
"I'm sorry honey but you’re going to have to walk home. I lost track of time and was late on my first day so I don't think it’s a good Idea for me to ask for me duck out to give you a ride. It’s about as far from here to our apartment as your school is so you should be fine. I'll see you when I get home honey" she says before quickly shuffling off to a girl much younger then here who seemed to be teaching her about the job.
I do as I was instructed and start the long walk home.

ch 1 ships and capes: episode 1

I walk along the path I always have leading from school to home balancing on the curb between the sidewalk and the gutter. I never miss a step more out of practice then anything else. The path winds until I take a shortcut and break from the road down a hill into a dirty patch where no grass grows. Except for a stranded overturned grocery cart and a stream running under a  bridge covered in graffiti, there isn’t much to look at. I watch my feet leave foot prints in the soft dirt, occasionally looking up to see if anyone is around I don't want to run in to. Clouds sail across the sky like pirates looking for treasure. I wonder what it would be like to be a pirate on a cloud and I run through my mind and as I always did a day dream to help me pass the time on the walk home from school. This was a habit I have had for as long as I can remember.


"Captain!" one of the crew yells "It’s coming quick. It’s almost on top of us!"
I decide that he is my first mate and that I trust him
"Bring her around quick as you can," I say calmly as though the situation is simple and routine "load the guns!"
My trusted first mate nods and starts shouting orders, and the men start heaving ropes and rushing about
the boat swings quickly and I find myself face to face with a gigantic fire breathing squid
"arg!" is all I manage to say
my trusted first mate sees my shock and springs into action
"fire the cannons!" he shouts
he grabs me by the collar of my shirt and jacket and shakes me a little
and then says very clearly but quietly enough that only I can hear
"captain I will follow you from this world into the next, but you need to pull yourself together and prove to the rest of the crew you are who I know you are"
I nod and he lets go.
I run and grab the largest harpoon that is in sight. I lash a rope around it as tightly and as quickly as I can

I lash the other end of the long rope to the mast of the ship. I take a deep breath and close my eyes. I open them only so see a wall of flames rushing towards me I duck behind the mast. The mast is badly damaged and the sails are severely singed, almost entirely dissolved. Defying all reason the rope that I had tied is still in one piece. I don't know if I can trust it in fact I’m pretty sure I can’t but I have no time. My first mate was right I need to show them I’m a captain worth following into battle. I turn to face the beast his monstrous tentacles stretching and wrapping around the burnt but hardy hull of the ship.

I run from one side of the deck to the other leaping and pushing off from the edge of the ship. I fly through the air, but not over water. I see below me a light blue that plummets down forever. Clouds make it clear beyond any self deception that we are impossibly high in the air. I land on the head of the beast but my footing is uneven and the skin of the beast is too smooth. I slip and begin to descend. I frantically try to halt my progress I know wouldn't end with a splash and a quick swim to the surface. I know if I fall off, it’s for keeps. Just before I give up hope the rope running from the mast to the harpoon in my hands becomes taught and I come to an abrupt stop. I dangle above the clouds and the light blue nothingness. I climb the rope until I reach the top of the ugly bulbous head of the squid. The rope snaps. I reach for the nearest thing to grip. My fingers latch around the beast's eyelid and I feel its whole body wince under my tiny grip. I pull myself up, give a fatal push to the harpoon straight down and then…

And then I knock on the front door because I forgot my key. My daydream fades away. I start to think about the homework I need to complete before I’m allowed to play video games. no answer, I look down from the stairs in front of our second story apartment at our parking space I hadn't even glanced at on my way up on account of the fire breathing squid I had almost fallen off of. No car.

I set my book bag next to the door and climb down the stairs and walk over to the playground area where I usually waited when my mom had to stay later at work. Sure I’m a little old for a play ground but is there such a thing as to old? I didn't know and it never occurred to me to ask myself. I sit down on the far left swing and drag my feet as I come forward; each time I swing making twin ditches with each foot. I go over the assignments I need to complete. There is the grammar assignment that I frankly do not look forward to, not that I mind grammar assignments they are just hard to focus on especially with a mind full of pirates. I have math and history. I sit there swinging digging in with the tops of my feet to make the trails under them deeper.

The thought comes to me I never gave my trusted first mate a name. After all that he did for me the least I could do was give him a name. I mull over a few names and finally settle on William shanks. I go further and develop his character a little bit more. He was from a small sky island which of course would appear to someone beneath it to be a cloud. William shanks was born on a small island and was dropped into a storm cloud when he was young. A terrible accident when his mother was thrown by a gust of wind nearly falling from their small island. It was unsure if the cloud would hold the weight of the small child. He slowly sank into its dark and troubled vapors. A world of chaos and lightning swirled around him. It is uncertain how exactly he returned to the island but his hair was white and his eyes crackled with static from then on.

He grew and felt a longing to fly to float on the skies as he had always dreamed of. He saw the first pirate ship that came by as an opportunity and has been my first mate ever since. I decided that instead of Captain Jake, instead I would be Captain Andre the second. Most would address me as Captain occasionally my full title but William shanks my right hand man would always call me Andre.

I hear the rolling tires of the 97 ford torus my mom drives pull through the parking lot. I pick up my now filthy feet and march in the direction of my apartment. I come around the corner. I see my mom and resign myself to the agony of home work.
"How was your day?"
"Good" I respond
"Mr. you know that 'good' is never the answer I’m looking for"
"what did you do today"
The first thing that comes into my mind is a fire breathing squid but somehow I say
"I got a B on my physics test."