Bloody Mary

Chapter Three~Proposals

Chapter Three~Proposals

Night after night after night, Marianna dressed herself up as a boy and snuck out through her window. It helped that most nights she was confined to her room without so much as a second glance at her mother or father. She would get herself into as much trouble as she could manage in hopes her parents would leave her to herself, and when they did, she was out on the streets. People had begun to take notice of the orphan boy that roamed the streets, going by the name of Percy Ashworth. He was only seen during the night though, and even then he was only seen by the harbor, urging stories out of the sailors there.

     In fact, over the months, as word spread among the sailors of the ambitious Percy, they began waking up at night just to see the boy for themselves. They told him stories of pirates, stories of sailing, and they took him on the ships after awhile. They had watched as his face lit up at the thrill as he placed his first step on the deck of the ship. Each of them had grown attached to the boy, and answered each question he had. They shared with him the many features of each ship, telling him what the masts were, the sails, the hull, the upper deck, below deck, and the multiple rolls that had to be executed during sailing.

     He was eager to put his knowledge to work, and they did their best to show him how things worked. No one really knew why, perhaps their years at sea had left them void of the enjoyment of innocent youth. Perhaps it was the energy the boy emitted with each look he cast upon one of the ships, as if he was going to sail each of them into the sunset.   

     Even three years after Percy’s first appearance at the harbor, he still showed. Every night he could, every night where he didn’t have to fill the role of Marianna Bennett, daughter of the Governor.

“Oy, Perce!” A familiar sailor called. To everyone he was known as Black-tooth Bill, due to the rotted  tooth in the front of his mouth.

Marianna turned from where she stood to answer the call. She had a hefty crate of cargo in her arms and was loading it aboard one of the Schooners. “Aye?” She called back to him.

“Got yerself another crate over here. Good luck.” The older man said, and dropped a crate below deck to a man waiting below. Marianna followed suit and followed Bill to one of the heftier crates.

“You’re joking.” She scoffed at the size of it. It was about an arm’s width and also quite tall. Nonetheless, she wrapped her arms around it in an effort to lift. She just barely managed to lift it half a foot from the ground with a grunt. “What’s in this thing?”

“Rum,” three of the helping sailors replied at once. This caused every helping hand, including Marianna to burst out in goodhearted laugh. When it died down she gestured for one of the men to help her with the crate, and they both carried it to the hatch that led below deck.

Eventually Marianna had begun helping the sailors load and unload their ships every night, and due to that she had gained certain strength in her arms and legs. Sneaking out at night was no longer a struggle.

“Alright, that’s the last of them Bill.” She reported, clapping her hands together to clean them of the dust and dirt. Sweat trickled down her temples in beads, and she could feel it soaking through her shirt. By now though, she found no problem with it.

“Gonna take a look before you get on your way?” A sailor, they called him Wilson, said, jerking his chin toward the ship. A wistful smile pulled Marianna’s lips back, and she bounded forward. It had taken many, many, many months in order for her to do what she was currently set out to do. Her hands grasped the main mast of the ship and wherever she found notches in the wood for a suitable grip, she placed her hands, then her feet, and gradually began pulling herself upwards until she reached the crow’s nest.