Chapter 52. What’s Happening in Laketown

  During the night the weather had really changed. The mildness of the last few days was replaced by unseasonal cold, even a little wet snow drifting down. In the middle of the night Will closed their porthole, just a bit too much fresh air. Then before he went back to bed, started the boiler to get the radiators warming. Minnie woke when he came back in, “What did you do, it’s sooo cold?”. She had dragged a spare blanket from the chest at the bottom of the bed and draped it over her head and shoulders. “Weathers changed sweetie.”, he checked his watch, “It’s pretty early still, let’s sleep a while longer.”. He tucked back in and doused his candle. As usual the Rose rocked him back to sleep and next time he opened his eyes there was full light coming in the curtains. There was, however, a snow buildup on the port , when Minnie saw it she ‘eeped’ and hid under the covers. “Not again, didn’t we leave that thousands of miles away?”. Will laughed evilly “The snow monsters are coming for you, and I’ll give you to them!”, leaping on the bed he tickled her until she got up screaming for help, “Naomi he’s gone mad again, help help!”. She managed to get to the door and began pelting Will with pillows until he fell back on the bed laughing.

  Naomi could be heard giggling outside “You’re on your own, dad I put the kettle on so hurry up and sacrifice Minnie to the winter spirits and come have tea.”. Minnie gasped and threw open the door “Traitor!”, throwing a pillow at Naomi’s feet she knocked the girl sprawling and made her escape in a mighty leap. “Morning, been up on deck yet?”, Will asked as if nothing had happened. She shook her head, “Not yet but it feels cold, I’m dressing warm today.”, she heard the kettle singing in the galley and left to start the morning meal. Will dressed quickly, he would be on deck most of the day so it was insulated pants and a long sleeve shirt to start. He could hear laughter coming down the corridor so it sounded like Minnie had forgiven Naomi for not coming to the rescue. Making the bed, gathering the laundry took a minute or two but it settled his mind, he hated an unmade bed. As he was leaving he caught sight of his new watch. An idea struck him, when he first boarded he had cleaned most of the clothes out of the cabins and stored them in barrels in a storeroom. But not all, he rooted through the large cupboard until he came upon it, a black leather vest, with a small pocket perfect for his watch. It slipped in snugly and the chain attached to the buttons. Carefully combing his moustache he waggled his eyebrows at his reflection, “Looking good old guy.”.

  Now he was searching for tea. His thick felt slippers made no sound as he slid down the corridor but missed the mess door and ended up flattened against the stairs. “That was fun.”. Minnies head popped out of the mess to see what the clatter had been, “What ya doing?”. This was a bit awkward but he answered truthfully “Slid down the corridor, pretty slippery in slippers.”. There was nothing to it but her giving it a try now. Starting from their cabin she shot down the hall like a bullet and ended up like he had, in a clatter on the doors to up top. Hmm, he thought, roller skates for next Christmas. Quickly written down. “Don’t be doing that when we have the kids aboard or it will be pure chaos down here, on deck too. We’ll be fishing them out of the lake every day.”, Naomi scolded from the galley. Minnie looked at Will, “How did she know what we were doing?”. He shrugged “Magic.”. Helping her up he walked this time to the mess and sat in his regular chair. Minnie noticed what he was wearing now and really liked where he had tucked his watch. “It’s like it was made for it, the pocket that is.”. “In our old world pockets like this were made for watches, here I don’t know what was planned but this works for me.”, he answered. “I hang mine around my neck, but sometimes it comes out of my clothes and bumps up against stuff.”, Naomi commented from the galley. She brought out Wills tea, one for her and warmed juice for Minnie.

  They decided on porridge today, with fried ham, and toast and jam. The galley was big enough for three though, Will fried the meat, Naomi stirred the oats and Minnie did the toast. “Raspberry or strawberry today?”, Will asked, reaching up to the shelf. “Do we have any blueberry left, or that blackberry from Sally’s place?”, Minnie asked as she carried in her toasted goodies. Naomi brought the porridge, nicely thickened along with a jug of cream and one of syrup as well. “There’s a couple of jars of blueberry on the top left shelf on the starboard side, just to the right of the special tea, and one of blackberry too.” she called back. Will searched it out and sure enough it was right there. “Good memory sweetie.”, he said as he exited the galley with his burden of jams and ham. “It just comes to me if I think about it in a certain way, I’m sure its part of my homemaker skill, or the management one.”, she explained. Minnie added “Like when I look at a drawing or a blueprint I can see what it will look like and what it does.”. Will nodded, “Those are pretty darn handy skills guys, I don’t have anything of the like.”. Naomi burst out laughing as did Minnie. “You’re kidding right? Dad, you know everything that happens on this boat, how everything works, how to fix it. It’s a part of you.” Minnie answered. Well, when she put it like that…. “You love this boat, and I’m sure she loves you back. The way your carpentry work got improved on still makes my head spin a bit, so magical.”, Naomi sighed.

  Will skipped the ham today, just not in the mood for some reason. He enjoyed the porridge and toast though. And of course two steaming cups of strong tea, heavily sweetened. Minnie made quick work of her food, she was drawing in her notebook, that made Will smile. She had come so far so fast. Naomi was reading one of the books she had brought from home, she saw him looking and held up the title for him to see. “Pirates from the South? Sounds good, have you read it before?”, he asked. She nodded, “Oh yes, one of my favourites, a wonderful love story.”. She went back to it. Will sat back in his chair, planning the next few days. He was really looking forward to seeing Laketown again. Not just for reconnecting with friends but he was also dying to find out if the quay building equipment was stored somewhere. A drop hammer to drive pilings was not a small thing, was it steam powered or manually controlled? On a separate barge, or connected to the Rose somehow. He supposed if they didn’t find it they could construct one, the pilings for a dock needed to go deep. And the pilings, who made them, were they iron beams or wood. He had never looked really. Now he had another project. To inspect the docks at Newton and Laketown for wear, if anything needed repairing. That work could only be done while the crew was near, and by younger folk. Ah, his to do list was getting longer by the day.

  Seeing everyone had finished Naomi gathered the dishes, shooed Will and Minnie away. It was time to get steaming on their way. Wearing jackets and boots for the first time in a couple of weeks the duo went on deck. The wind had picked up a fair bit and the waves as well. And to top it off a lovely wet snow was falling. “Well that’s just icky.”, Minnie griped. “You go ahead to the wheelhouse, get us ready to go, I’ll pull the anchors. No need for us both to get wet.” Will said as he looked over the wet deck and the nice dry walkway. “Oh yay, thanks dad.”, and off she popped.

  It really wasn’t all that bad, the good weather since they returned had spoiled the crew a bit was all. It only took a few minutes to crank up the anchors, no cleaning off this time, the bottom here was rocky not mud. He gave a thumbs up and Minnie started them on the way again. As the boats speed increased so did the waves on the bow until Will was forced to move or get several cold salt water showers. As it was his jacket was near soaked through. That got hung to dry over the radiator when he entered the wheelhouse. Boots on a drying rack too and a spare pair put back on in case he had to go back out. “Chilly out there?”, Minnie looked very warm and snug in her pilots chair, swathed in a thick quilt. “A little bit.”, he peered out the windows and looked ahead, “Might gonna get worse as the day goes too.”.

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  It sure did. An hour later a disheveled looking Naomi came up. “Can’t do much below, too rough.”, but she had brought a tin of biscuits and a few slices of Minnie’s favourite cake. Actually Minnies favourite cake was cake, any kind, especially when drizzled with honey. “Oh yum, I was just saying to dad that I sure hope my best sister brings up a snackie or two.”, she mumbled through a large bite. Naomi laughed “I’m your only sister dopey.”. Minnie went on though “Yeah but without cake offerings on cold days your just my sister, you lose the best title.”. Will thought that made sense, he felt the same way about tea and biscuits, but kept that to himself. Listening to the other two going on about this and that nearly put him to sleep, nearly, but a massive wave crashed over the bow and drenched the bow, the wheelhouse and nearly half the ship. “Woohoo, did ya see that one dad, having fun now.” Minnie yelled. They were definitely having fun. Naomi just shook her head, fun.

  Because of the snow the weather never really developed into anything worse, no full out storm like the northern ones. After the boat washing wave the water subsided a bit and for the next eight hours the Rose steamed towards Laketown. No deviation from the course, these were familiar waters. Having made this trip several times now a safe harbourage was just ahead, a nice curved part of the coast. Where they could anchor up in the lee of the land in calm waters for the night. The wind would still blow and the snow would fall but the waves were calmer, and by this point anything less than three footers were just business as usual. “We made good time, we had a good tailwind most of the day.”, Will shouted to Naomi as they dropped the anchors. “So we’ll be home tomorrow then? I mean Laketown, I’m already home, you know what I mean right?”, she answered. The anchors dropped, port first, down it went into the dark waters and finally hit . They were already just drifting a bit, engine off and it took a couple of seconds but then the anchor held. Naomi dropped the starboard and it took a little while but it held too eventually. Will looked at the rode markings, two hundred feet down. Close as they were to shore that was quite the drop off here. “Be good fishing here, nice and deep. Get something like a red snapper.”, he remarked. “I’ve never heard of those, are they tasty?”, she asked as they surveyed the shore. “Oh yeah, fried up or baked they’re really good.”. By this time Minnie had joined and they all stood out of the wind on the port side. When protected like this it wasn’t really that cold just a tad chilly. “Dads thinking of fishing for dinner, wanna give it a try?”, Naomi asked. “Aww no croquettes thingies tonight?”, Minnie complained. “I worry about getting sick, poultry can go off pretty quick and we’ve no ice to keep it cool enough.” Will explained. Naomi nodded “I’ve seen that when I was young. One of my aunts, on moms side, her youngest sister and her husbands cousins , a once removed one, she cooked a big chicken dinner and one of her neighbours, they invited them all, but one of the neighbours friends had some leftovers. They got very very sick, the physicians said it was very close.”. Minnie just looked blank “Got it, leftovers bad.”.

  So fish and chips it was. Will had hopes his fishing luck had changed but knew that Minnie and Naomi would pick up the slack. Snapper fishing was different than they were used to, not so much casting and reeling. But more dropping to the bottoms and jigging the hook, they were baited with leftover turkey, hopefully this won’t give the fish salmonella. Will’s first cast was good. And after a few minutes of jigging on the bottom, he felt a mighty tug, he started reeling in, and felt a heavy drag on the line. In the excitement of actually catching a fish, he didn’t notice that Minnie and Naomi stopped casting beside him, he reeled and reeled until the line had suddenly gone slack, sadly he pulled in a broken line, but was encouraged to keep trying. In the meantime, while he was rebaiting his rod, he saw that Minnie had pulled in a fine fat red snapper, which was currently expiring from being pulled in from the depths so quickly, Naomi still had nothing.

  They continued fishing for another half an hour, until Naomi hauled in a fish as big as Minnie’s. That and fried potatoes was a fine meal so they called it quits. Again Will had caught nothing but he knew that monster that broke his line was still down there. He was happy to clean the fish. That task only took about two minutes in his experienced hands. Saving the innards in the chum bucket at the stern. You never know when you might need a handful of well aged guts. Naomi and Minnie had stowed the rods and nets and gone below.

  As he turned back to the stairs to go below for the night a faint rumble made him stop a moment. The waters at the stern were bubbling and as he watched a monstrous log surfaced in an explosion of water and mud. As it spun in its own turbulence a rough end clipped their rudder and left it hanging in a mass of broken wood and metal. Just like that they were dead in the water. The Rose had rocked violently at the blow and Minnie and Naomi rushed on deck. Minnie took in the damage to the boat and the now docile log floating nearby. “Who did you tick off for that to happen?”, she growled. Naomi had gasped at the sight “That must have been what you caught earlier, it just took time to break loose.”. Will could see the rudder was slipping free and about to drop down into the depths, unrecoverable. “Minnie grab a line!”, and he threw his jacket off and dived off the stern into the cold water. When he surfaced he heard a second splash as Naomi also jumped in. “Gotta hold onto it and tie it off, don’t want to lose it.”. With Will on one side and Naomi on the other they held the rudder in place until Minnie dropped a rope down and they managed to tie it off. Minnie hauled it up easily and placed it to one side, then dropped into the water with the other two. “Aaaahhhhhh it’s cold!”, she screamed when she surfaced. “Why did you jump in for, of course it’s cold”, Naomi asked, teeth chattering. “I figured if you guys were wet I should be too, only fair.”, Min answered, stroking around the side to a rope ladder. Before Will followed her and Naomi he surveyed the damage. The hull was okay, the linkage too. But the fittings had been ripped out of the tough wood, they were gone. “I need some rags to seal the holes Naomi, Minnie can you go into steerage and pull those chains in?”, he asked, starting to feel the cold leeching in.

  In a few moment Naomi dropped a bucket of rags and then he could see the chains being drawn in. He stuffed rags in the openings as hard as he could until it was packed in like stone. Another check of the area showed no other damage so he joined the others on deck, after swimming over to the ladder. “That’s some bad news right there, good thing we’re close, have to steer with a hand tiller tomorrow.” Will sighed. “We’re only a day away right?” Naomi asked. “Early start, but yeah, we’ll be there around dinner.”, Minnie replied.

  And in Laketown

  “You know brother, they’re going to be here in a day or two and we’ll all be together again.”, the voice paused as if listening. “I know HE didn’t want to come, but now HE’S the only one there.”. As they talked and walked around the lair glistened as if brand new, all the tools on the wall had been cleaned or sharpened, in some cases both. The tool and storage cabinets had been inventoried and sorted, ready for work. It was still very dim but that didn’t seem to bother the two occupants who had worked tirelessly to make it home. At first the constant splashing of water had been terrifying, now they were lulled to sleep. Even if a storm raged over the waters it didn’t reach their cosy nest. The townsfolk were still leaving offerings even if they didn’t know who was the needy ones, and that was just fine with these two. If they were honest with themselves they had never eaten this well, even if the charity dried up the stockroom was full and could last many days. Hopefully it wouldn’t be needed but it gave the duo peace of mind.

  Sleeping early at night, sleeping in the next morning was their usual routine and today was no different. Lazing around all day, eating a bit here or there and soon it was afternoon nap time. It seemed only a few minutes until both were startled awake by a screaming sound, far off but coming steadily closer. “Are you awake, of course you are. They’re here, they’re here, what are we going to say, what are we going to do, how will mmmmph.”. A hand had been placed over the speakers mouth, “It will be fine.”, the voice was scratchy and rough, unused almost. “Brother, you spoke! Did it hurt, it’s been so long since I heard you. I know I talk enough for both, but still.”. The shriek was very close now along with a rhythmic chuffing that suddenly stopped.

  “Dad I tell you that log came at us like it was aimed, we’ve never encountered that before, someone’s got it out for us.”, a high pitched voice was chattering on outside the door. Then a much deeper voice answered, a familiar voice, “Dunno how Minnie, that was a big log. Now if sea serpents are throwing logs at us it might be time to retire.”, such a cheery voice. You could hear the smile. There were footsteps on the walkway and the door slid open.

  Gathering his courage the small figure stepped forward to greet the newcomers. “Hello father.”.