Three Fortunes

I sat in warm summer sun, perched atop the main mast of Captain Lewis's ship, Miss Lucille, named for my late mother. It was a hot July afternoon, only a week after I'd celebrated my eighteenth birthday with a modest celebration aboard the ship as we made our way to our next stop. Now we were docked in the busy harbor of the capitol of Corsica, preparing to leave civilization behind for another three weeks as we made a voyage to Potomac to deliver the rest of our cargo.

I watched from above as the ship's crew rushed about the dock loading and unloading boxes. From such a distance they looked much like ants busy working. The harbor was a crowded chaos of ship's workers just arriving or preparing to leave, and passengers growing impatient as they prepared to board. I quickly grew tired of watching the harbor, for it looked just as all the other ones we'd ever docked in had, and I then turned my attention the rest of the city. It was a beautiful place, one of my favorite cities of the many we visited, a crowded village tucked beneath two mountains. Houses and farms crowded in the center of the valley and grew more spread out as they began to climb up the side of the hill, stopping near guards towers that stood at the highest point of each mountain. If I looked hard enough I could make out the towers of the royal palace that stood tall and proud on the far side of the city. Once, before Richard had been made the ship's first mate and become too busy to accompany me on my adventures, we had been exploring this very city and come close enough to see the palace. We'd come around the side and peered through the fence, watching the workers in the garden.

We'd been traveling the world on this small cargo ship since our mother had died, nearly seven years ago now. With her gone Captain Lewis's had grown all the more eager to return to his life at sea. Eventually he ended up bringing my brother and I along with him. Richard had grown to love the life of a sailor himself, and often grew restless staying on land for too long. Although they were not related by blood, the similarities between my brother and stepfather were easily seen. I, on the other hand, was beginning to grow tired of the constant travel. I did enjoy having a new city to explore at every stop, but the long weeks in between were beginning to grow tiresome, and were no longer worth the week of adventure I got when we came to shore.

I'd long since dismissed the idea of the strange woman's predictions ever coming true. Truthfully, I often wondered if that whole day had been nothing but a strange dream. However, I would not be against it, if I did meet a nice young man and settled down. A sailor aboard a cargo ship, she'd said. No doubt that was meant to be the very ship I sat upon now, but I found no interest in any of the ship's crew. They were good men at heart for the most part, but often disgustingly rude, and all cursed with the same inability to stay on land for any given amount of time.

I would not realize it for a very long time, but today would be the day that my first fortune would come true.

I heard my name down on deck and directed my attention towards the crew, they were preparing to leave. Captain Lewis crossed his arms and glanced around the ship, no doubt impatiently searching for me.

"I'm up here Papa!" I called down to him. His gaze slowly moved upward and landed upon me. I flashed him a cheerful smile.

"Well come on down girl, we're about to leave." he said.

"Alright, I'm coming." I slowly climbed down the rigging as I'd done so many times before, stopping halfway and checking to see that the area in front of me was clear, then grabbing the rope and swinging down to the deck. However, on this particular day, the deck was not clear, and I simply assumed it was without checking. I soon found myself reaching the deck and knocking over one of the crew members as I did.

I quickly got to my feet and went to help him, asking if he was alright and offering a hand to help him up. When he looked up to say he was indeed alright, I found I did not recognize him. He was much younger and, well, more attractive than the rest of the crew. He looked at me with a pair of emerald eyes and a confused smile as I helped him up. I looked him over as he stood up. He was a tall, broad shouldered young man with short brown hair and a face that seemed both kind while still slightly mischievous. In his presence I felt uncharacteristically shy.

"I…I don't believe we've met before." I said quietly. "I'm…" I glanced in the direction of Captain Lewis, who preferred for the men to refer to me as Ms. Summers, and decided he was close enough to overhear the conversation. "I'm Ms. Summers, Captain Lewis is my stepfather."

He seemed just as flustered as I was, and took a moment to think of what to say next. "I'm…Michael." he said finally. "Michael Pearson."

"Lovely to meet you." I said curtly, then I quickly found an excuse to leave, though I wished I could stay there and talk to him for the rest of the afternoon.

* * *

Later that evening, once we'd made our way out of the harbor and set sail for Potomac, I stood alone on the deck, looking out at the ocean and trying to decide if it was too windy to climb the rigging. Michael stood on the other side of the deck, also by himself. I assumed he had no work to do at the moment and had not yet befriended the rest of the crew. For many minutes I stayed where I was, trying to decide if I should go and talk to him or leave him be. More than once I caught him glancing in my direction, evidently trying to decide the same thing. Eventually I gathered my courage and went to speak to him.

"Good evening Mr. Pearson." I said kindly. It took him a moment to notice I was talking to him.

"Oh, good evening." he said. A long silence followed, before he broke it with a slight laugh.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"Oh nothing. It's just, hearing you call me Mr. Pearson seems so formal. I've never been one for polite formalities."

"Oh neither have I," I said, suddenly bring the conversation past awkward polite small talk. "Captain Lewis insists upon it, says I need to act like a lady. He makes everyone call me Miss Summers. I've never liked it though, I'd much rather them at least use my first name."

"And what is your first name?" Michael asked, with genuine curiosity.

I smiled at him. "Audrey."

"Would you prefer I call you Audrey then?" he asked.

"I would like that very much," I said gratefully. "Don't let Captain Lewis overhear you though, neither of us would ever hear the end of it."

Another brief silence passed, and then I thought of a question that seemed logical to ask next. "Shall I call you Michael then?"

For a moment he seemed uneasy, and I worried I had offended him. "Yes, that seems fair doesn't it?" he said.

After that our conversation went smoothly. We talked for at least an hour, perhaps two, I lost track of the time after a while. I told him about myself, and how I'd ended up on this ship after my mother died and my stepfather wished to return to his life as a sea captain. Then about my life as a little girl back in Corsica. He seemed to avoid questions about his own life, and I eventually gave up on asking them. I did learn that he grown up in Corsica himself, in the capitol actually, and that he'd come from a rather wealthy family. Although I wanted to, I did not ask how a person of his fortune had come to be working on a cargo ship.

Once we'd learned all we could about each other we talked about everything from the interesting build of the ship we were on, to the beautiful fall sunsets, and how they looked from the ocean compared to on land. It was the most I'd ever spoken to anyone on the ship, with the exception of Captain Lewis and Richard, and when we finally retired for the evening I found myself eager to talk to him some more. It wasn't long before we became good friends.