Angel At Sea

Captain (II)

Chapter Twenty Nine: Captain (II)

It was a quiet moment between he and I, the Captain, I mean; but I stood, after he fell into a light slumber, and tip toed as much as I could out of the room, closing the door quietly behind me, which, I shouldn't have worried of, the sounds of the waves smashing over the deck and grinding against the hull as we passed them would've kept away the noise of a measly door closing. Nevertheless, silent I was, that is, until I took to the wheel of the boat and the capacity of having the entire boat and everyone in it at my mercy, seeped into my blood and rushed rapidly through my veins-contorting the muscles around my lips to wind my mouth into a gluttonous smile. At this, I let out a laugh, that, to the First Mate, seemed completely inhuman; he reported that it sounded almost spectral in being-like I was possessed-possessed by my recently bequeathed dominance.

I held the wheel firmly in my hands, smiling as I felt the boat heel and groan with each turn against the strings of waves gathering together like silken fabrics being woven against the grain by an unsteady hand. However, the sky hardly changed in demeanor, with the exception of a few spotty rain-showers, the weather remained almost perfect. The sun was full and bright against the canvas of a light blue sky, and the meandering clouds of white and light charcoal only gathered as the day would draw more to a close.

However, that part of the day was far from near the present. I let out a sigh in which part of the contentness I felt broke away and was thrown into the world, carried along with the quiet breath. I glanced down from such a picturesque world to find the deckhands moping along the deck, dragging their feet behind them, it seemed. And, in all honesty, this angered me; my Captain was not paying them to mope around for nothing! My cool tranquility left me in an instant, if you hadn't guessed.

"Down there!" I barked, gaining the attention of most of the deckhands. "The hell are you all doing? Lollygagging! You aren't paid for this! Now get your asses to work!" I cried, forgetting that my wounded Captain slept in the room below us. There were murmured words among the crew, which only fueled my infuriation; to this, I yelled some words I would dare not repeat and was met with hostility, unsurprisingly.

"The hell d' ya' think ya' are?!" One of the crewman called up to me, the rest of the crewmen stood around him, nodding and yelling their approval of the question, their grimy and dingy faces upturned to me, their eyes turned to squinting in the sunlight, which I did no help to ease.

"I am the Captain of this ship whilst the other Captain is out of commission! You will do as I say, or you will die." I growled, though, my, what I thought was faint, heart waned at the thought of killing someone with no justification. However, something burned in my chest which kept my lips sealed together, and kept my weak demeanor from showing; for, surely had one crewman stood against my word, I would break and be shown as a weak Captain-as they thought I would be. So, I puffed out my chest and held a mean-ish expression, and, happily enough, the crew abided and continued their tasks-only faster this time.

I grinned to myself when I watched the crewman work, they looked like little ants running about to do their daily chores-capable of being squashed by the boot of life and dispensable enough to replace without a moment's mourning. It was almost pitiful. Then again, a Captain is of a higher rank, but he/she is still completely dispensable-however, a good captain, is not. Apparently, my train of thought was so distracting, that we began to veer off course, and when the First Mate reached for the wheel, to set us back to course, I whipped towards him staring daggers into him and snarled: "The hell do you think you're doing, boy?"

He was rendered speechless for a moment, his vocal chords stuck shivering in his throat from my miniature explosion of rage. "T-The boat" he squeaked out, pointing a trembling finger towards the wheel. "W-We're v-veering off c-c-course, ma'am.." He whimpered, visibly slinking away from me, shrinking back in fear.