added last few night's changes, passed 54k words

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@@ -2024,7 +2024,193 @@ She wasn't sure. She could just... feel it somehow. She could see it in a vague
 
 Henry did not say anything, he just continued to lean against her. 
 
-Lulu watched the water in front of them shimmering black in the starlit night. Overhead the wispy cloud of stars her father called the great sail was glowing above them. Lulu felt herself relax. She felt the weight of her bother against her, warm and safe. She squeezed him tighter and said a prayer for them all.
+Lulu watched the water in front of them shimmering black in the starlit night. Overhead the wispy cloud of stars her father called the great sail was glowing above them. Lulu felt herself relax. She felt the weight of her brother against her, warm and safe. She squeezed him tighter and said a prayer for them all.
+
+### 
+
+The darkness felt like a black quilt wrapped around them, a cover beneath which they could disappear into safety. She still didn't know why they were running, but if that was what they were to do, then do it already, she thought. But she said nothing to Tambo and Kobayashi who had relieved her just as her eyelids were starting to drop. Henri had long since fallen asleep with his head in her lap. Kobayashi carried him back to the stern and placed him in his hammock. Lulu wanted to stay up but her eyelids were so heavy it hurt to keep them up. She didn't remember giving in, but she jolted awake again when she felt Delos move. She tried to gauge how long she had been a sleep, but she couldn't see the moon for teh trees and wasn't sure where it had been when she fell asleep anyway.
+
+She rolled out of her hammock with a thud and saw Tambo was at the helm, Kobayashi in the bow, winching them forward with the lines, pulling Delos out of the trees. With a start she noticed a third figure on deck and ran over to her, "Aunt Māra, how did you get here?" 
+
+"I slipped out of camp after everyone was asleep. I brought the pirogue."
+
+"Did you use the back door?" Lulu had always wanted to slip out of their hut using that door, but her father would never let them play with it. Now she understood why.
+
+Her aunt smiled, "I did. And you know what?" She knelt down by Lulu. "It was fun. It was scary, but it was fun too. I felt a little like I was a little girl again."
+
+Lulu smiled. Somehow she could not picture her aunt as a little girl. It was impossible to see grown ups as anything other than, well, grown ups. "When did you get here?"
+
+"Just a bit ago. Tambo and Kobayashi are pulling us out of the trees. You father wants us to cut south through the marsh, take the tk southern river and head out sea. Try to find Jack. If not him, then go to ocracoke and get Teach."
+
+Lulu's heart skipped a beat. She liked Edward. He always had good stories. And his eyes were kind, though she knew he could be rather frightening. Or at least some people were frightened of him. Her father wasn't. She wasn't. No one in her family was. Anne wasn't. Jack wasn't. And that was all that really mattered she reasoned. And if anyone could help her father, it was Edward. He always had a plan.
+
+"How is Birdie?"
+
+"She sends her love." Aunt Māra smiled and smoothed a piece of hair out of Lulu's face, tucking it behind her ear. "She is scared I think. I'm sure you are too. But I don't think anything will happen to her or your father. So long as they are together the British won't harm them."
+
+Lulu shivered. "I miss her."
+
+"I know you do." She stood up again. "We'll get them back. Don't worry. You head up in the bow and help Kobayashi. It's going to be hard going in this darkness, we need all the eyes we have up there on the water. I'll go check on Henri."
+
+Lulu went up to the bow and helped Kobayashi pull in the last of the lines. Delos was free of the trees and began to drift into the current. She kept an eye out and Kobayashi went up to raise their main sheet. It would make them easier to see, but they wouldn't get far without it. There wasn't much wind, but between what wind there was and the current of the river and tide heading out they should be able to make their way along the backside of tk island, into the tk river and use its current to get themselves out to sea. If it didn't work there were always the oars. 
+
+Henri woke up when they moved out of the river current and into the slower water of the marsh. It felt like Delos was running aground as she moved into the slow mushy waters. Henri came and sat beside her in the bow, staring into the black water, looking for anything that might cause problems, dead trees, reeds indicating shallow water. It was all but impossible to see though. They moved through without hitting anything by Tambo's skill as a pilot and the grace of the gods who must have wanted them at sea, not stuck in a marsh. 
+
+When the hit the current of the tk river on the far side of the marsh Delos's bow swung toward the sea like a horse when you drop the reins. The ship knew where she belonged, knew where she wanted to be. Tambo gave her her head and she took them rushing out the mouth of the river and into the sea. 
+
+Far to the north, somewhere up in the darkness of the shore, which didn't glitter and shimmer in the night like the sea did, was where her father and sister slept, prisoners. At least she hoped the slept. Birdie was probably asleep. Her father might be. Sometimes he would stay up for days, sailing them through a storm. Other times he would sleep soundly through a squall seemingly without even being away it had come and gone. He always seemed to know which times it was worth staying awake for and which times he could sleep though. Lulu wondered what sort of time this was.
+
+Aunt Māra came up to the bow and stood beside Lulu. "How are you doing?"
+
+"Fine." Lulu did not feel like talking. But then she had a thought, "was Papa asleep when you left?"
+
+"Asleep? Hmm. You know. I think he may have been. Why do you ask?
+
+Lulu smiled. "No reason."
+
+### Birdie 
+
+Birdie woke up to the sound of men snoring. She lay in the dark trying to decided which one of them was her father when she heard a whisper in the darkness. "Birdie, are you awake yet?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Listen, things are going to happen rather fast I think, so I want you to know, there is a plan here, the less you know of it the better, but don't worry." Birdie heard the wood creak as he sat up and swung his feet to the floor. "Well, I know you're going to worry, but try not to let it eat at you too much." He same over and sat beside her for a bit with his arm around her. She leaned against his side, still half asleep. 
+
+"In a few minutes they'll see her and they'll chase her."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Delos."
+
+"Delos? I thought..."
+
+"We needed her hidden so she could slip out at night. If all went well, and I think it did, Tambo and Ko slipped through the marsh and out the mouth of the Combahee in the dark. But there's little in the way of wind, she's likely not out of sight. If they didn't see her earlier, they will a minute." He squeezed her tight again and then went back over to his bed and lay down. "It's going to be a long couple of days Birdie, best get some rest while you can."
+
+Birdie lay back down in bed wondering what Lulu and Henri were doing on Delos. She tried to decide which was scarier, being here with all the soldiers or sailing without her Papa on board. She couldn't make up her mind, but she was glad she was the one staying behind. 
+
+She was just beginning to doze off again when a loud agry voice barked through the door. "Get out here."
+
+She sat up. It was light outside and she could see clearly in the hut now. She was surprised to realize it was just her and her father. Whomever had been snoring had been doing it from further away than she realized. She hopped down and pulled on her sailcloth pants, spreading her dress down over them. Her father motioned her back to bed and he went outside.
+
+"That your ship I presume?" The angry voice said.
+
+"How could that be my ship if I'm sitting here and it's way out there?"
+
+"You're not nearly as clever as you think you know. My ship is pulling up anchor now, she'll have your bark by midday. You lost your easy way to Charlestown though. You get to go by road now, with me."
+
+"Sounds like a find trip. Do you mind if I make some coffee before we go?"
+
+McPhail grunted. "You have coffee? Make me some. All they have on that ship is tea, not even good tea. Dried moldy tea. Brew a pot of coffee, I miss coffee."
+
+"I traded a bag last year from a ship up on the cape. They're crazy for it in boston apparently. I had never had it..."
+
+Birdie watched from the doorway as her father clattered the coppers and made a big show of getting water. If McPhail had been angry before, he didn't seem it now. She came slowly out carrying the wooden coffee grinding box her father had also got in the trade. She sat down beside the fire and began to grind the beans. McPhail nodded to her, but said nothing.
+
+When the box was full of grounds she gave it to her father and he dumped it in the pot and set it on the coals. 
+
+"What's the road like?"
+
+"Sorry?" 
+
+"The road to Charlestown, what's it like from here?"
+
+"Bit rough getting off the island, but once you're clear of the marshes it's not too bad. Two day trip. Barring anything unforeseen."
+
+"How often does something unforeseen happen?"
+
+Her father smiled. "Every time I drive it something I wasn't expecting happens. Last time a Carolina Panther tried to hitch a ride on one of our horses." Papa glanced at Birdie. "I shot it before I even realized what I was doing. That was a fun trip wasn't it Birdie?"
+
+Birdie nodded. The truth was she'd never heard that story. She'd only been to Charlestown by road once, two years ago, and she couldn't remember anything about it, except that by the time she got there she felt like her bones had been rattled right out of her body and that she'd collapse as soon as she stood up again. She had spent most of their time in Charlestown dreading the return trip, but then her father had run into some sailors he knew in town and they brought them and all their goods back down to Edisto in a very clearly Spanish bark only a little bigger than Delos.
+
+"Panther eh? had not heard of those." McPhail rubbed the stubble on his jaw. "There a lot of those?"
+
+Her father glanced up from the fire where he was stirring the boiling coffee. "I'm not sure, I've never tried counting them. But I've seen a few. One is more than enough."
+
+McPhail said nothing. Her father handed him a cup of coffee and he sat down to sip it. "God that's good," he said. "I haven't had a decent cup of coffee since I left tk road in London three months ago."
+
+"I always preferred (west end coffeehouse)"
+
+"Been to London have you?"
+
+"For a spell."
+
+"Like it?"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"What?"
+
+"I prefer..." His voice trailed off and he took a sip of coffee. "less people."
+
+McPhail laughed. "You prefer somewhere you can take what you want without paying for it."
+
+Her father smiled. "No. I just don't like cities."
+
+"Well I do. Cities are civilization. Cities are the whole point of everything we do. You're out here poaching my trees, for what? For tar, to put on ships, that are bringing things to cities. No cities, no poached profits for you."
+
+Her father grunted. "I'm not making tar for the money Mr McPhail."
+
+"then what are you making it for?"
+
+"I make it for the ships."
+
+McPhail glanced at Birdie. "Did you? Your father is a real piece of work young lady, did you know that? I make it for the ships." He stood and tossed the dreg of the coffee in the fire. "Do you make the coffee for the cup?"
+
+"No, I made the cup for the coffee." Her father smiled at her.
+
+
+
+### following your path campfire talk
+
+It was a quiet night. Her father usually played the fiddle and Aunt Māra and her husband and Kadiatu and Tambo would dance, but tonight he never reached for the instrument. They sat talking, or quietly watching the flames flicker.
+
+She loved the way everyone's face glowed ruddy orange around the fire. Faces were more animated, expressions sharper and clearer, everything looked better by firelight she decided. She wondered briefly what she would do if they lived in a house somewhere, with no fire to sit around but hearth or an iron stove. She glanced up at the stars. It was good to live outdoors, she wasn't sure why anyone would want to cut themselves off from the world by spending all their time in a house.
+
+"Papa? Why do people live in houses?"
+
+Her father laughed. He glanced around the fire at everyone and sighed. "I do believe it's because they don't know any better." He smiled at her.
+
+"We should tell them."
+
+"No we should not," said her sister. "Then they would all come out here and there would be nowhere for us to have our camp and make tar and careen ships."
+
+Tambo was nodding. "You don't want everyone rushing out here."
+
+"They would not come, my darling." Her father stared at the fire. "You could tell them and tell them til you turn blue in the face and they would not believe you. Even if they came out here and saw why we love it, saw that they to could live this way they would not. It is not an easy thing to do you know. The comforts that house offers, the ease of living in the city, these are not things that are so easy to let go of. We don't think of them because we have never had them, or not for long, but for people accustomed to them it is difficult to leave them behind. They do not believe that they can leave them behind."
+
+Everyone was quiet. Kobayashi smiled. "Shipwreck like me, then you learn."
+
+Her father laughed. "I prefer the way I came to it, by birth, but I suppose a shipwreck would do it. It takes something, something to jar you out of the habits and patterns that shape your life so that you see life, instead of your life. And once you see life, that never leaves you and it'll make you change your own in a hurry.
+
+"What if you saw life and realized it was supposed to be in a house."
+
+"The devil's best advocate this one." Her father smiled at her. "Then you had damn well better get you a house. How you live isn't that important my girl, what's important is that you live how you are supposed to. Not everyone need live the same way. Some people need a house to do what they are to do, others of us need the sea and a way upon it do what we're supposed to do."
+
+"What are we supposed to do?"
+
+"I don't know what you're supposed to do Birdie, I know what I am supposed to do, but it took me a very long time to discover it, so don't feel rushed." He laughed. "Some people spend most of their lives trying to figure out what they're doing with the their lives, I was nearly one of them."
+
+"What are you supposed to do?"
+
+"Well now, why does that matter to you my girl? Everyone has a path, there's no need to know everyone else's path though. It's enough work just to keep track of your own."
+
+"How do I discover what I am supposed to do?"
+
+"Well. That's hard to say. I have known people who seem to have just been born knowing. They have been getting after it since the day they were born it seems like. Then on the other side there are those who never seem to even think that there might be something they should be doing. And in between those two extremes are most of the rest of us, stumbling our way along, groping the dark it seems like many times. I have had many false starts, blind alleys, paths that turned out to not lead where I thought they led. At your age Birdie, I hadn't even had the thought "what am I supposed to do" so if it makes you feel any better you're far ahead of me."
+
+Birdie smiled. "Well I do know I want a ship, not some silly house."
+
+She expected her father to smile, but he did not. "Houses aren't silly Birdie. Everyone has their own path remember. Our path is not better than any other. It is different, that is all. Don't look down on others who are on a different path, if anything, we help them."
+
+"But you said not to tell them how much better it is to live outdoors because they will all come out here and take our island."
+
+He smiled at her. "Helping them isn't telling them to be just like you. Helping them is trying to see what they need, and if you can help them with that need. If they ask for help. The secret to helping is to wait, wait until it's asked for. If someone doesn't want your help, that's okay, they might not need it. They might need to keep on struggling with whatever they're struggling with or succeeding with whatever they're succeeding at."
+
+"So I just worry about me and what I am supposed to be doing?"
+
+"That's a good place to start. Once you've parsed that out and got yourself on the path, then you're in a better position to help other people find their way. If you just jump in to help when you yourself haven't plotted a course yet, well then you're liable to run a whole fleet of ships onto the rocks rather than just your own. Make sure you have your course, then you can signal the fleet how to set the sails."
+
+
 
 
 # Spring