crybaby ghost writer

As much as Nick enjoyed going over notes he and his parents had written until his eyes hurt, he could only tolerate so much time inside his cabin. For how bookish he was, he had always preferred being outdoors to being cooped up inside. So once the sun was up the next morning, he gathered up some of his supplies and made his way onto the deck and sat near the bow. He spread art pencils and parchment around himself and set to work. He was so focused that he didn’t realize how much time had passed until a shadow fell over him and he looked up to see Tara.

She smiled shyly and offered him a plate. “It’s lunchtime. You’ve been over here for a long time and I thought maybe you might be hungry.”

“Oh.” Nick blinked, setting aside his work. “I guess I lost track of time. I do that sometimes. Thank you, for the food. Would you like to join me?”

“Yes. I mean, sure, if you don’t mind.” She sat next to him and took a bite of an orange. “What are you working on?”

“A map. If we do find Kerelia, I want to have charted how we got there.”

He lifted the partially completed map to show her and her eyes widened.

“That’s incredible,” she said. “It’s so detailed.”

“I apprenticed with a master cartographer for a while,” Nick explained. “When I was a teenager. I knew I wanted to study and explore faraway places, just like my parents did. So I tried to learn any skill that might be useful. Luckily I had a little bit of artistic talent, so that helps with the map drawing. I’ve drawn up sketches of what the Kerelian temples may have looked like, and the topaz macaw.”

He rummaged through his sketchbooks and handed her one full of drawings dedicated to Kerelia. She flipped through it and laughed slightly.

“A little bit of artistic talent?” she said. “Nick, these are beautiful.”

His face turned red and he fidgeted with his glasses. “Oh. Well, thank you. They’re really just sketches I put together when I’m thinking.”

Tara was studying one of his drawings of the topaz macaw. “I feel like it’s going to fly right off the page.”

He cracked a small smile. “Well, if it really is a bad omen let’s hope it doesn’t.”

“Do you only draw Kerelia?”

“No, I draw a lot of things,” Nick admitted. He picked up his other sketchbooks and handed them to her, feeling suddenly nervous and a little shy. Tara flipped through them slowly. Nick picked up his map but couldn't really focus on it while someone was looking at his drawings. He sketched just about everything. There were academic sketches of old ruins he’d been to and various religious symbols; but he also sketched birds at the park and the library in Pinehaven and people sitting at cafes. Sometimes he drew up imaginary places; cities and temples and castles. Sometimes he drew his parents.

Tara studied each drawing before moving on to the next one. She paused on one of his family. It was replicated from an old family photo that sat on the mantle at home. He’d only been about six then, sporting one of his father’s hats that was too big for him. His mother was laughing because he’d snatched the hat from his father as the photographer was getting ready to take the shot. He’d offered to retake it but Nick’s parents had liked the goofy photo and said they didn’t need one that was stiff and formal anyway. Nick looked at that photo a lot, and he’d recreated it recently in his sketchbook.

“You all look really happy,” Tara noted, smiling.

“We were,” Nick said. “They disappeared when I was ten. They were looking for Kerelia, actually. They were supposed to be home in time for Christmas, when I’d be on break from school. I took the train home and got the news that their ship had been lost at sea. My aunt had been sent for, but she hadn’t arrived yet because she’d been out of the country. So I spent Christmas with the house staff.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said quietly. “It must have been hard.”

“It’s why I’m here,” Nick said, forcing lightness into his tone. The memory of that Christmas still made his chest a little tight. “They always wanted to find Kerelia and learn more about it. So I’m going to find it for them.”

“I’m sure they’d be very proud. What about your aunt?”

“Aunt Mildred doesn’t think exploration is a suitable career for a man of my station,” he smirked. “She thinks I should have become a bank manager or invested in a gold mine.”

Tara grimaced. “Oh. That’s a shame.” She looked down at the drawings again. “It seems that would be a waste of your talents, quite frankly.”

“I don’t know that I’m really all that talented, but traveling the world and looking for old things is all I could ever imagine myself doing.”

“You’re kind of humble,” Tara laughed.

“Look who’s talking,” Nick replied and her face turned pink. She ducked her head a little to keep looking through his sketches. She was smiling a bit as she studied them.

“I could draw something for you, if you’d like,” Nick found himself saying. “I could draw William’s head on a donkey.”

Tara laughed. “Tempting. You pick what to draw. Surprise me.”

Nick put aside his map for now and flipped to a blank page. He selected some pencils and began sketching. He hadn’t really had a plan when he started but after a little while he realized he was drawing Tara. He drew her standing amid the ruins of Kerelia with the thick jungle as the backdrop. William was nowhere to be seen, and he sketched a book in her hand. A Complete History of Kerelia, and he put her name on the cover. He drew her smiling, and made sure to include the few little curls that never seemed to want to stay pinned up.

When he was finished, he carefully tore the page from his notebook and handed it to her. Her mouth fell open slightly in surprise and her cheeks flushed.

“It’s lovely,” she said. “But why did you only put my name on the book? It’s your expedition.”

“Because the drawing is for you,” Nick chuckled. “I don’t think you want my name on your dream.”

“I wouldn’t mind,” she mumbled.

“What?”

“I mean, thank you,” Tara said quickly. “This was very thoughtful. It was nice of you to draw me in such a flattering way.”

“I wasn’t trying to be flattering.” Nick scrunched his brow. “I just draw what I see.”

She glanced over at him and for some reason his ears got warm again. He cleared his throat and busied himself with packing up his art supplies.

“Well, I’m glad you like the drawing,” he said. “Hopefully my mental image of Kerelia is close to the real thing.”

“We’ll find out soon enough I suppose.”

Nick glanced out over the expanse of sea around them, in the direction where he thought Kerelia might be. He hoped she was right.