*continued from Part 2*
Circus Pirates - Part 3
As Angie came on deck into the full sunlight, the voice called again, angrily, “Where did those two lazy, weaseling midgets run off to?!”
“Henry!” Angie said sharply. “You’d better be glad the girl was awake before you started shouting around the ship!” she took my arm again and pulled me out from behind her.
He froze, his mouth open, his speech stopped.
“Henry, this is Iza. Iza, this is our Captain. Just call him Henry. He doesn’t hurt anyone. He simply likes to shout.” Henry looked at Angie as if he was hurt with her giving away all his secrets like that. “He’s the one who picked you out of the water this morning!”
“Oh! Thank you,” I said slightly embarrassed of the situation. That meant he was the one who had cut my skirts off, and he was the one whose knife I had accidentally taken in my delirium this morning. It was funny to think this had all happened only a few hours ago in the first light of dawn.
After our long moment of awkwardness, he reached out his hand. I shook it. “It’s nice to formally meet you,” he said averting his eyes.
“Yes’sir,” I said, shaking his hand dutifully.
“Uh, Angie, you should show her around the ship,” he said.
Angie looked between us. “Did you want me for something?” she asked him. “You sure were putting up a fuss earlier,” she pointed out.
“Um, no,” he said. “Just some navigational issues. I can handle it,” he said uncertainly.
“No, no. If you navigated this ship, we’d end up right back where we started; I’ll go plot the maps. Why don’t you show Iza around the ship? You’re the Captain anyhow,” Angie said grinning. And before Henry could move, Angie was already crossing the length of the ship with her long strides to the Captain’s quarters. The Twins had since disappeared back underneath the ship’s deck. Henry and I were left standing awkwardly together.
I cleared my throat. “Well, um, thanks for saving my life, again,” I said.
“Uh, yeah! Sure. It was no problem,” he said as if he had returned a lost handkerchief to me.
“So, uhh, this is the deck?” I started.
“Yes!” he said. “The deck.” He turned around and went up a small ladder. I followed. “Here is the helm,” he said.
I thought this was somewhat obvious, but when he gracefully touched the wheel, he looked as if he belonged there. I smiled.
He shifted and looked out across the deck. He walked over to the railing and leaned on it. I joined him and looked at him.
“Did Angie tell you about us?” he asked.
“You’re pirates,” I said hoping he wouldn’t laugh at me too.
“Not quite,” he replied. He paused, as if in thought. “We were Hanson’s Circus act.”
I stared at him with a confused look. “What?” I asked.
“You met Cookie,” he grinned. “He’s our fat man.”
I though about this, then said quietly, “I should say.”
“Angie was our, um, ugly woman. She doesn’t like to talk about it,” he said with a sadder look on his face.
“She’s the sweetest lady, though,” I added.
“Yes,” he said. There was some silence between us. Then he continued, “The Twins whom you met, they were our human cannonballs and juggling team.”
“Yes, Angie told me about them.”
“They really are quite impressive to watch,” he said getting somewhat more excited. “Then, if you’ll look up in the roping, you’ll see our team of acrobats.” I looked up. Not noticing them before, I saw about six tan, slender, and agile acrobats jumping from line to line and sitting on topsail yards. “They were imported from Asia as children,” he sneered at the word ‘imported.’ “They have been with us in the circus since they were all eight. They’re sextuplets.”
I gaped at him and watched them seemingly play above as if the eighty-foot drop to the decks, or worse, water was nothing. They seemed to be in their late teens, early twenties now. Close to my age.
“I grew up with them,” Henry added, smiling. Henry didn’t look that young.
“How old are you?” I asked him.
“Oh, I’m thirty-two,” he said. “I meant that they’re like my siblings. I’m ten years older than them, but we all grew up under Hanson’s circus tents, so we have that in common.”
“Oh,” I said a little surprised. He didn’t look or act thirty-two.
At this time, an older man with graying silvery hair came up to the Quarterdeck. “Ah! Kross!” Henry said. Henry put a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Kross, this is the girl, Iza. Iza, this is my quartermaster, Kross.” I shook the man’s hand. He was dressed in a sharp blue uniform with double-breasted gold buttons down the front.
“Aye!” Kross exclaimed. “Good to meet you Miss!” he said with a jovial smile, and he actually bowed for me! I curtseyed in response.
“Kross was our muscleman,” Henry explained.
“I had been retired from performing for a few years,” Kross said. “But I stuck around to help train our new muscleman. These are all my family and I couldn’t leave them just because I was too old.” Kross’s face wrinkled with a happy kindness.
I couldn’t help but smile at that.
*Part 4 on its way*
Hehe.
