The next morning, Buck awoke with the sunlight streaming in through his window. He’d been so exhausted the night before that he’d just dragged himself up the ladder, into bed and fallen asleep on his face. Now though, as he wriggled around onto his back, he sighed, taking in glittering warmness that lay across his face. He felt calm. Calm. Not thinking about bursting out his treehouse and sprinting all the way to Pires’s office. Not at all.
He sat beside his bucket and took his sheaf of paper out. “Morning, Simone. How are things? I have a letter to write today.”
He balanced the paper on his lap, tapping the feather of his quill against his lips. Somehow though, once he put the tip to the paper, his hand started flying across the page. Maybe it was the sheer brightness of the light that flooded in, but everything was much clearer this morning. He knew exactly what to say to Myal. Or not knew exactly, but felt.
When he was done, he dressed in calm browns and happy golds and wandered across the city to Victane’s house, swinging his bucket as he went. He even whistled as he rang the doorbell.
“Morning, Buttane,” Dorrea said as she opened the door. Buck didn’t even question it at this point.
“Morning, Mum,” Buck said, following Dorrea into the dining room.
Dorrea was sat in front of a place with a few slices of thick-crusted bread, spreading some dark jam. She offered a platter to Buck, and a plate. Buck smiled and took some bread, a few grapes as well.
“Well this is simply delicious,” Buck said. “A wonderful spread.”
“Why thank you, Buttane,” Dorrea said. She held a knife in the air and stared at him. “You’re chipper… Did you make up with your friends?”
“Oh gods, maybe if I’m lucky I made the first step today. Actually –” He handed the letter to Dorrea. “I was going to ask Victane but could you maybe post this letter for me?”
“Ah, good, you managed to finish it! That’s a good step at least,” Dorrea said.
“Yes, yes,” Buck said. “Now, ah, er, speaking of steps. Well, I have something to tell you. I was going to come by your own house later but since I have you here… I’m on my way to see Pires about Dad maybe coming back.”
Dorrea swallowed her current mouthful and carefully set her knife down. “Dad?”
“My dad.”
“Your dad.”
Buck rubbed the back of his neck. “This uh… this is what all this has been about, but I’m not sure I ever quite expected it to really happen.”
“And it is happening?” Dorrea asked, her pitch rising at the end of her question. “I know you’ve been talking about it for a while.”
“Well, that’s why I said it’s a step,” Buck said. He explained what Pires had related in her letter, carefully studying his jam as he did so.
“I see,” Dorrea said. She looked towards the door, frowning.
“What?” Buck said, twisting around.
“Nothing,” Dorrea said. “I’m just wondering when Victane’s getting back from the shop.”
Buck nodded. Here it was, the reason for their sudden tension.
“You know, Mum,” Buck said, “Nobody’s expecting everything to go back to normal. It’s been fifteen years.”
“It’ll be good for you to see him, of course,” Dorrea said. “I know you’ve missed him. But I just… I’m on holiday here. My home is in the Royal Valley. Your father always belonged here, or at sea. And if I do start to belong here… well, it won’t be because of your father.”
“I understand,” Buck said.
“But I am thrilled for you though, Butty!” Dorrea looked up and touched him on the forearm. “Maybe you can show him how big Simone’s grown!”
“Uh-huh,” Buck said. But he only flicked his eyes up to meet hers, not really holding her gaze. “Yeah… that’ll be great. Okay, I have to go meet Pires to talk about, you know, strategy and stuff. But the letter, yeah? You’ll deliver it?”
“Of course,” Dorrea said. “I have some errands to do myself today. An old friend from when I lived here before says she might have a job for me. Something to do with book making.”
“Like gambling?”
“No, no. The making of books. There’s this big machine she’s been working on, but because she’s quite small she needs a second pair of hands. It’s that big.” Dorrea chuckled.
Buck smiled. “Sounds fun. Alright, I have to head off. I’ll talk to you later.”
“See you, Butty,” Dorrea said, giving his hand a quick squeeze.
Once Buck was out the house he found himself slightly less calm than before. Still not thinking about Pires – absolutely not. But there was something else bugging him. Did he want to show his father Simone? It had been so long… But he must show him something – a song maybe. Or they could share a meal, or oh gods he could sing ‘The Lay of a Lost Father’. Idea upon idea started to pile up inside his head, but he couldn’t even start to sift through them to find the one that was right. How had he not thought about what he would do when he got his father back?
He took a deep breath and tried to regain the calm that had flowed through him as he wrote the letter that morning, then he set off through the city to meet Pires.
---
Dear Myal,
You’re probably wondering what in the world is going on between Erson and myself. I am writing to you to explain.
The truth is that I’m an arse. I just am. I hurt your brother, lied to you both. In fact, I’m sure I hurt you. I am so, so sorry. This is not to excuse my actions or make them sound less callous, but I want you to know that I never considered your intelligence something to disrespect. Okay, that’s a lie. I did at first, but only because I was so hellbent on completing my quest so I could just get home. I know that using you and Erson in such a way was wrong, but the point is that I do not see either of you as some witless idiots who’ll believe anything you hear. If there is anything I can do to make it up to either of you, you need only ask.
I am the fool, not you.
End of chapter
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139,610 Literary Works • 672,619 Reviews
Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),
And the last review is upon us. It is the beginning of the end.
First Impression: And more problems for Buck. But it looks like he might just get something good coming his way for once.
Anyway let's get right to it,
I'm not sure if that is sarcasm or not. Both seem to fit there. But that's not a problem.
Well that will get interesting down the line.
Good to see how much Buck values the friendship with Myal and Erson. It shows in how happy he is to have finally written the letter.
Well it is going to get really interesting if Buck's dad actually does come with the envoy.
Well that was an awkward excuse.
Wouldn't she have asked Erson and found out by then? It's been like a week.
That's a pretty good letter. It does a good job of showing that he has realized the mistakes that he made. One thing is that he doesn't ask for forgiveness in it. Is that intentional?
And that's it for this story.
Overall: Nice introduction to what might end up being a fairly uncomfortable situation for Buck. And a great letter. Hopefully by the next chapter we know more of this welcome feast and how this goes.
As always take what you think was useful and forget the rest.
Stay Safe
Harry
Aww yay!! There's something comforting about seeing your mother during such a confusing time. I still can't help but be concerned about Buck, but I feel like after being with his friends and family, he's really kinda come to terms with what's happening. We especially see that with the letter he was finally able to write, which gives us a final and detailed glimpse into what's going on in his head.
I'm so pro-Victane that I'm worried what Buck's father will do to the Best Ship. 
I looove this moment between Buck and his mother. He didn't forget about her -- in fact, he thought about her right away. She was the first person he talked to about the issue! He loves his mum and knows she shouldn't be kept in the dark about this. This scenario potentially impacts them both. So we get some really great insight into both their heads.
I think you wrote Dorrea incredibly well here. She's his mother, but she's still her own person, so of course she's going to be confused now. This is undoubtedly a complicated situation for her life as they never formerly divorced iirc, but because it's been 15 years, she understandably moved on and learned to live her own life again. Now she's choosing it to live with Victane because that's just the way your heart works, and to throw an old flame back into the mix could really upset the life she's learned to love. I just feel bad for her.
Omg wait Victane has a daughter, doesn't he O: O: :O BUCK COULD HAVE A HALF-SISTER
Anyway, so the way Dorrea is fighting her feelings while also playing mother is a really delicate balance that you did well. Despite her feelings on the matter, she's still a supportive mother who is happy for him to finally see his father again -- something she knew was very important to him. Like how self-sacrificing and loving can you be?! What a wonderful mother!! <3 <3 <3 I really hope his father's return goes okay. It'll be an interesting scenario, assuming it happens!
And this complements Buck's feelings on the matter, where he's certainly excited this could be happening but isn't allowing himself to get overly-hyped about it since it's not 100% yet. I'm really happy that he has such a supportive mother during this time, and I think that's really giving him the final push to continue down the road he's on. He did finally mention to her that everything he's done the past couple weeks was because of the possibility of seeing his father again, and I'm pleasantly surprised Dorrea took that so well. It would be easy for people to be disappointed that Buck didn't visit his mother for his mother or anything like that, you know? It was all a business decision that worked out fairly well overall, but Dorrea was very pleasant and understanding about it. I wonder if her melancholy has a little bit of disappointment in it but she just refuses to show it because she's such a loving and supportive mother.
Omg I wonder how Victane's character will change if Buck's father appears again. I'M SO CONCERNED ABOUT A POSSIBLE LOVE TRIANGLE HERE AHHHHH
This letter is SO great. I just freaking LOVE that last line. What a beautifully phrased line. It's so jam-packed and perfect and just. freaking. good. And like I said before, this letter really shows us that Buck's accepted what's happened now. After being with friend sand family, Buck's able to reorganize his thoughts and priorities and doesn't want to lie to the people he cares about anymore. What's done is done, and how he can attempt to move forward with more honesty and hope. So here he is, admitting everything he's done to a new friend he had grown close to, and ending it with a final offer and plea to fix things however he can. He is absolutely willing to do whatever it takes to make things better. He just laid his freaking heart out in this letter. It's so beautiful. The chapter really builds up to this moment so well. I feel satisfied with this letter after having seen and understood where Buck's mindset is.
And I honsetly feel like Myal will handle this well. I can see her reaching out to Buck, but that's mainly because I've never seen her angry. She's always been hopeful and excited, and I think despite being hurt, she wants things patched up as much as Buck does, if not more. I can't help but be nervous though, like what is Buck going to walk into next chapter!? It's too calm!! Too calm!!
Hey, I'm here for a review(that is totally out of order and I'm all over the place.)
My thought is wow, that ending letter is so neat and kind of tragic in how it's worded. The regret shows through with strength, but it still remains a bit cold in ways. How it mentions that one thing is a lie makes it seem disingenuous, but still sincere. A voice in my head says 'if that was a lie, can't the sincerity be?' Yet, it's still very understandable.
Onto other things,
I'm pretty sure that there should be a comma after 'Dad' and before the maybe.
'out of the' sounds fancier than what originates there, but I guess that both can work in that sentence. My proofreading check site said it was wrong, so take it or leave it 'cause both sound fine.
The name Buttane sounds kind of like another word that is in the name. No hate, but it's kind of funny to read aloud.
Lastly,
That is awfully emotional and I love it. It's a strong way to end, but I can't argue as it makes sense and really makes you sit a minute to think.
Best Regards,
Haley