The Explorer's Apprentice

36:Abby's Argument

Abby Bronte

Abby finds herself wandering around the boat, hoping to run into Eli.  She hasn’t the slightest idea where the boy usually is, or if he’s even awake at this time.  However she does know that she can’t get him off her mind.  Ever since last night, he’s haunted her every thought.  Dancing around her dreams, and manifesting around every corner.  Whenever she hears a harsh voice, she runs toward it, secretly hoping that it will be him and his mother bickering.  Then, at least, she could be with him.  She needs to talk to him, verify that he really smells so must like cinnamon, that his eyes are really such a beautiful blue, and that those hands of his are as soft as rose petals.

                        The sun is already high in the sky, illuminating every inch of the boat, although it’s only morning.  Only the white puffy clouds, the type Abby drew when she was a little girl, dot the sky.  Abby runs to the side, looking out over the rails.  The water shines, the dark blue somehow brighter than usual, and she can just barely make out porpoise swimming alongside the boat.  Part of her wants to get closer, but she’s not sure if she’d make it to the lower deck in time.  She’d rather watch them from afar than miss them completely.

                        A harsh sound, like colliding china, interrupts Abby’s thoughts.  It’s almost directly behind her, she thinks from the sunroom she passed a few moments ago.  For a moment, Abby hesitates.  Don’t intrude, Charlotte insists, it’s really none of your business.  Abby frowns at her alter ego, and lets curious side gets the best of her.  She abandons the dolphin watching to get a proper look.

                        It only takes her a moment to get to one of the windows, and by the time that she does the china is scattered on the floor and the table is overturned.  What’s even worse is the man who seems to have caused all this commotion.  He’s yelling at a girl, nearly shaking in freight, with flaming red hair, his arms on the side of her chair.  She can’t see her face, but she can only recall seeing hair like that once; at the dance last night.  Abby also remembers the boy the girl was with, the polar opposite of this terrible man.

                        Turn away and pretend you didn’t see a thing, Charlotte is more persistent now.  It’s as if she’s the puppeteer, tugging at the strings attached to Abby’s leg.  It’s physically hard for Abby to stay by the window.  She simply can’t leave; it would be so very wrong.  Not really, Charlotte persists, what’s really wrong is sticking your nose in other people’s business.

The fierce, dark haired man is pronouncing his words so violently that even if several of the windows hadn’t been open, Abby’s sure she would be able to make out what he’s saying.  “My wife in practice if not yet by law, so you will honour me ; you will honour me the way a wife is required to honour her husband.  Because I will not be made out as a fool, Rose,” the terrible man pauses, looking almost smug as he looks down at his unfortunate wife to be.  “Is this in any way unclear?”

                        Rose doesn’t make any sound Abby can detect, and shakes her head violently.  Abby has to hold herself from shouting something or running into the room.  If it weren’t for Charlotte, violently protesting in the back of her head the entire time, Abby’s sure she would’ve tackled this terrible man by now.  The scene that has just played in front of her is so hideously wrong, in absolutely every way.  Girls in this age, Abby thinks, clearly don’t know how to stand up for themselves.

                        Saying words that Abby can’t quite hear, the man walks out of the room.  To anybody who just walked into the scene, it would appear as if he’s walking out of a very important business meeting.  He doesn’t look shaken up in the slightest; as if this were an everyday ordeal.  Abby doesn’t think men like that have a soul.  In her opinion, anybody who can do something so absolutely vile, and then just walk away, doesn’t deserve to even live.