Just about done, cleaned up ending and added bit about Thatch getting

paper for the girls

1 files changed, 53 insertions, 74 deletions

diff --git a/lbh.txt b/lbh.txt
index 0ceb695..e3c4862 100644
--- a/lbh.txt
+++ b/lbh.txt
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ Tamba was about her fathers age Birdie guessed, perhaps a few years older
 
 , the hair at his temples was whiter than her father's anyway. Tamba had no beard so it was hard to say what color it might have been, though Birdie figured it would be black like her father's.
 
-This English was stiff around the edges, acquired from many sources, including her father, who had acquired his from many different people. Birdie liked hearing Tamba tell stories though because his voice and the way he pronounced word made English sound more beautiful, more thoughtful, more important than when other people talked. 
+His English was stiff around the edges, acquired from many sources, including her father, who had acquired his from many different people. Birdie liked hearing Tamba tell stories though because his voice and the way he pronounced word made English sound more beautiful, more thoughtful, more important than when other people talked. 
 
 Her father nodded when she told him this once. "Tamba is like us. He is the Alban of his place. Highlanders always speak less. We put more thought into what we are going to say." 
 
@@ -22,11 +22,9 @@ And Birdie knew that it was harder for Tamba to navigate the world than it was f
 
 Her father and Tamba had turned to look at her and her face grew red under their gaze, but then Tamba had grunted and glanced at her father. "That's one we haven't tried." 
 
-Her father smiled at her. "A wonderful idea my darling freewoman, but... but, we've other business here this go round. Besides," his eyes twinkled impishly, "they'll get theirs. Satisfying as it would be for us to be the ones to hand it to them." He glanced at Tamba and said more softly, "and gods it *would* be satisfying, but that is not our path on this turn." 
+Her father smiled at her. "A wonderful idea my darling, but... but, we've other business here this go round. Besides," his eyes twinkled impishly, "they'll get theirs. Satisfying as it would be for us to be the ones to hand it to them." He glanced at Tamba and said more softly, "and gods it *would* be satisfying, but that is not our path on this turn." 
 
 
-# Notes
-    - hunting and careening, winter solstice bonfire with the pirates
 # Prologue
 
 They were two. Blood covered the bed. Even the midwife was whimpering and pitiful by the end. "A night and day," she said. And they were born, one the night, one the day. 
@@ -48,13 +46,13 @@ By the time they arrived all the twins had left was a memory of trees. The deep
 # Main
 ## Chapter 1:  On The Sea
 
-The scent of the world crept into her hammock before she ever opened her eyes. The smell of wet cedar wood and salt. The soft sweetness of cedar too long at sea and then the bright briny salt smell of the sea itself. She opened her eyes and looked up. A sliver of purple twilight peaked through the canvas of the hammock, wrapped up around her. She craned her head back to look at the dark brown mast, crusted with salty white patterns that looked like the drawings of snowflakes in Papa's big book, which was wrapped carefully in walrus leather and stored somewhere in the hold beneath the deck. 
+The scent of the world crept into her hammock even before she opened her eyes. The smell of wet wood and salt. The soft sweetness of cedar too long at sea and then the bright briny salt smell of the sea itself. She opened her eyes and looked up. A sliver of purple twilight peaked through the canvas of the hammock, wrapped up around her. She craned her head back to look at the dark brown mast, crusted with salty white patterns that looked like the drawings of snowflakes in Papa's big book, which was wrapped carefully in walrus leather and stored somewhere in the hold beneath the deck. 
 
 The wood creaked. Some of the salt blew loose. The water slapping the hull told her the waves were small. Her hammock, strung between mizzen mast and taffrail, swayed hardly at all. She lay without moving, trying to feel the boat as her father had taught her. She closed her eyes again. The boat was lifting and rolling slightly. They were moving with the current, but not as fast as the light swell rolling past them. At this latitude, this time of year, this close to shore, that would be south, as it had been for days now, although a swell moving south was called a northerly swell, which always mixed her up. 
 
-The sail snapped like a whipped wet towel. That meant the wind was light. She listened again to the sound of the water. It pulsed, rushing by the boat in surges, quiet, then loud. The boat was moving fast enough that the wind probably wasn't light she reasoned. That meant they were running before the wind, otherwise the sail wouldn't have snapped. 
+The sail snapped like a whipped wet towel. That meant the wind was light. If the wind were heavier the sail would be stretched tight and silent. She listened again to the sound of the water. It pulsed, rushing by the boat in surges, quiet, then loud. The boat was moving fast enough that the wind probably wasn't light she reasoned. That meant they were running before the wind, otherwise the sail wouldn't have snapped. 
 
-"We're running south, riding a northerly swell, the wind is 6 knots" She announced from the hammock. She heard her sister groan, "show off". Her father chuckled. "You're close Birdie. I'd say dead on with speed and swell. More of a broad reach though. I fell off to snap the sheet so you two'd wake up. Sun will be up soon"
+"We're running south, riding a northerly swell, the wind is 15 knots" She announced from the hammock. She heard her sister groan, "show off". Her father chuckled. "You're close Birdie. I'd say dead on with speed and swell. More of a broad reach though. I fell off to snap the sheet so you two'd wake up. Sun will be up soon"
 
 Birdie smiled in her hammock. She stretched, lifting her arm out to feel the air. It was still cool, though wet and heavy. The sodden heat would come even earlier today, as it had every day for the last week. They would make camp the next day, maybe the day after, Birdie reasoned. She pulled her head up out of the hammock to scan the deck.
 
@@ -76,7 +74,7 @@ She heard her father chuckle. Tamba laughed in a way her father never did, deepl
 
 He shook his head. A sleep voice from a hammock on the other side of mast piped up, "I do." 
 
-She could see her brother's unruly mop of hair sticking out the side of the hammock because slept very high up the hammock, almost as if he were standing up it seemed to her.
+She could see her brother's unruly mop of hair sticking out the side of the hammock because he slept very high up the hammock, almost as if he were standing up it seemed to her.
 
 "What about you Lulu?" She swung her sisters hammock gently.
 
@@ -86,7 +84,7 @@ She could see her brother's unruly mop of hair sticking out the side of the hamm
 
 He nodded to her and then turned back around to watch the sun rise. Birdie ran aft, ducking under booms, and hopping over the coiled lines and small barrels stacked along the gunwales, a name she did not understand since there were no cannon on Delos. Well, none on the gunwale anyway. Below deck in the stern were two small cannon loaded with forks and knives designed to shred an enemy's sails. "Delos is small," Tamba once told her. "We would be blown to bits by a cannon, but we're fast, we can outrun them all. We have just enough fire power to convince any other small, fast ships not to chase us. That's all we need." 
 
-She ducked into the small doorway that led below decks. Keeping her hands on the rails -- always keep one hand on the boat was her father's mantra -- she flung herself down with a single leap, bypassing the wooden ladder completely. It was much darker below, it took her eyes a moment to adjust. She could see the glow of the stove and Kobayashi's form bent over, stirring a pot. He never looked up at her thud. He kicked a clay pot by his feet so that it slid slightly toward her. She grabbed a basket hanging from the rafters and scooped rice out of the pot and into it. 
+She ducked into the small doorway that covered the ladder leading below decks. Keeping her hands on the rails -- always keep one hand on the boat was her father's mantra -- she flung herself down with a single leap, bypassing the wooden ladder completely. It was much darker below, it took her eyes a moment to adjust. She could see the glow of the stove and Kobayashi's form bent over, stirring a pot. He never looked up at her thud. He kicked a clay pot by his feet so that it slid slightly toward her. She grabbed a basket hanging from the rafters and scooped rice out of the pot and into it. 
 
 He handed her several strips of dried fish, which she balanced on top of the pile of rice. "Aiiie. You eat everything." Kobayashi smiled. 
 
@@ -3205,15 +3203,15 @@ The long boat did not take them to Revenge. It took them to the HMS Victory, whi
 
 They were brought on board and led to the aft stateroom, which Thatch had decided would be the captain's chart and plotting room. It was a large room, twenty feet square with a row of glass windows along the back that looked out at the sea, though currently the view was marred by the feet of the two sailors at work outside. In the middle of the room was a huge table and across it were spread charts and maps and a scattering of papers as Thatch and his quartermaster Dobbs sorted through what they'd captured. 
 
-"Tk father's name! Looking not to bad for a night in jail. How is the Charlestown jail? I haven't been yet."
+"Nicolas! Looking not too bad for a night in jail. How is the Charlestown jail? I haven't been yet."
 
-Her father shrugged and smiled. He and Edward hugged breifly before Edward stooped down to Birdie. Even crouched he was taller than her. "Birdie. You have had quite a time from what I here. Capturing ships, taking prize money, winding up in jail. Why, you'd fit right in with this crew. If you ever want to sail with us." Thatch glanced over at Dobbs. "Mr Dobbs do we have any place on the crew for Birdie."
+Her father shrugged and smiled. He and Edward hugged briefly before Edward stooped down to Birdie. Even crouched he was taller than her. "Birdie. You have had quite a time from what I hear. Capturing ships, taking prize money, winding up in jail. Why, you'd fit right in with this crew. If you ever want to sail with us." Thatch glanced over at Dobbs. "Mr Dobbs do we have any place on the crew for Birdie."
 
 "Aye, we always have a place for the brave and strong."
 
 Birdie smiled and nodded to Mr Dobbs. "Thank you sirs, but I am already part of a crew."
 
-Edward made a pouting face. "Well, if you ever change your mind..." He stood up and gestured at two heavy wooden chairs. Birdie and her father sat down. Edward had to duck under the chandelier as he came around the table. "I thank you for pointing me to this ship, she's a fine prize and I've been wanting a bigger ship. Sixty guns gives me the largest vessel I'm aware of sailing the black at the moment."
+Edward made a pouting face. "Well, if you ever change your mind..." He stood up and gestured at two heavy wooden chairs. Birdie and her father sat down. Edward had to duck under the chandelier as he came around the table. "I thank you for pointing me to this ship, she's a fine prize and I've been wanting a bigger ship. One hundred twelve guns gives me the largest vessel I'm aware of sailing the black at the moment."
 
 Birdie glanced at her father, but he only smiled and waited for Edward to continue. 
 
@@ -3253,13 +3251,41 @@ Thatch waved his hand. Her father pulled down a book and kept reading the spines
 
 "Ah Dampier. Makes we want to sail the south seas."
 
-"He does make to sound appealing."
+"He does make it sound appealing."
 
 "Not for you though? Not for me anyway."
 
-Her father shrugged. "When do we get out of here?"
+Her father shrugged.
 
-"I have to send to doctor back tonight. The crew doesn't like him. Then we sail tomorrow. No sense sitting here like ducks."
+"I almost forgot, I have something for you Birdie. Well, it was something your sister requested of Charlestown, but I believe some of it is for you." He walked over to large chest that had accompanied them to the ship and open it. In side where bottles of medicine and bandages and other medical supplies. Edward lifted out a board, careful not to spill the bottles on it. Birdie leaned over to see into the check and noticed a thick stack of paper. Edward drew it out. "As requested, paper."
+
+Birdie smiled. "Thank you sir."
+
+Her father looked at Edward. "Lulu asked for that?"
+
+Indeed I asked your whole crew if there was anything you needed from the city and Lulu was only one who answered me." 
+
+Birdie saw her father's face darken. 
+
+Edward shrugged. "You'd have told her not too I supposed." He sneered slightly. "Stealing?"
+
+Her father did not answer. 
+
+"It's no different than showing up to steal land with with a piece of paper."
+
+Her father very quietly and slowly said, "that's true Edward, but I would like to conduct myself and my family better than them, not as they do."
+
+Edward shrugged. "Suit yourself. But the kid wanted paper so I put it on the list. Don't be too hard on her." He winked at Birdie.
+
+"I am sorry Edward, that wasn't very grateful of me. I do thank you for looking after my children while I was..."
+
+"While you were in jail?"
+
+"Yes, while I was in jail."
+
+There was an awkward silence. Birdie looked over at the books again waiting for one of the men to say something. It was her father who finally spoke. "So what's the plan? When do we get out of here?"
+
+"I have to send the doctor back tonight. The crew doesn't like him. Then we sail tomorrow. No sense sitting here like ducks."
 
 "Indeed. And that's what you get for trying to press a man."
 
@@ -3359,78 +3385,31 @@ Lulu nodded. "Yeah, it could be nice to be in a town for a while. Do you think t
 
 "True."
 
-## Ending scene
-
-The crews of Revenge and Queen Anne's Revenge helped them drag the remains of the hut, along with a few more logs for good measure, down to the beach. The fire they built would have been too hot in the sheltered area of the dunes, but on the beach it was perfect. Next to it they built a smaller cooking fire, which, when it had burned down to coals, was laid with an entire boar and a deer, which the hunting party had brought back. Tamba had killed a boar as well, which he was busy butchering. Tomorrow at sea they would dry it on the racks and give them a nice break from fish on their long sail to... Lulu wasn't sure. They had voted earlier and unamimously decided to head... south. Beyond that, they did not know. *Exploring we will go, exploring we will go,* her father had been walking around singing this song he had made up all evening. 
-
-:TODO: Let's end this sucker.
-
-She gathers up her thing, they load the baot, the find Kadiatu they have the full moon party on the solstice. They burn the hut and the kilns, then cut the Lulu watching Revenge sail away. She and her sister talk of what they want to do, finis.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Lulu leaned against the gunwale watching Queen Anne's Revenge silhouetted against the rising sun. The ship looked black, even the sails. A booming came across the water, one then another, the usual salute. Edward's crew had decided to head north in search of shipping traffic bound out of Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay, Boston. Lulu knew how Edward hated Boston ships. Soon everyone else would know too. Lulu watched the ship come clearer into focus as the sun swung higher into the sky.
-
-
-
-
-## 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 Tamba 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."
-
-Tamba 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."
+## End
 
-"How do I discover what I am supposed to do?"
+Lulu stood on a sand dune, watching men from Revenge and Queen Anne's Revenge drag the remains of their hut, along with a few more logs for good measure, down to the beach. Lulu followed the last of them down to the beach where keroseen soaked rags were already being lit. The fire would have been too hot in the sheltered area of the dunes, but on the beach it was perfect. Next to the bonfire they built a smaller cooking fire, which, when it had burned down to coals, was laid with an entire boar and a deer, spoils of the hunting party that had spent the morning scouring the north end of the island. Tamba had killed a boar as well, which he was busy butchering. Tomorrow at sea they would dry it on racks. It would give them a nice break from fish on their long sail to... Lulu wasn't sure where. They had voted earlier and unanimously decided to head... south. 
 
-"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."
+Beyond that, they did not know. *Exploring we will go, exploring we will go,* her father had been walking around singing this song he had made up all evening. He always got strangely whimsical and light when they were setting out for somewhere. He'd been that way ever since he'd finished loading Delos and anchored her just inside the Revenges. Maggie was on the beach, just above the high tide line. They were leaving. That much was indisputable. Where they would go, and how Lulu felt about it all remains more mysterious to her. 
 
-Birdie smiled. "Well I do know I want a ship, not some silly house."
+Lulu, Birdie, and Henry watched as the flames devoured their former home. The crew of the Revenges sang shanties, and fiddlers played while everyone else ate and drank. But for Lulu, and she sensed for Birdie and Henri as well, the celebration felt strange. She was glad her father and Birdie were safe, she was glad they had escaped from the British, but she wasn't all that glad to be leaving the island. She did not feel the lightness her father did. Or, she did, but she felt other things too. Deeper things that she could not place, could not see the full shape of, just dim outlines, like shadows dancing in her mind, black weights clouding her lightness of being. 
 
-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."
+As the night darkened she found herself alone, sitting with her back to fire, watching the sea. The waves kept coming. Big, small, in between. It didn't matter. They never stopped. Did they get tired? Did they want to stop? Where they relieved to make it shore? Disappointed to be at their journey's end? What was it like to be a wave? Was it so different than to be a human? We're all echos of something she decided.
 
-"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."
+Lulu wrapped her arms around her legs and glanced down the beach. Bodies littered the sand, most sailors content to sleep where they fell down. She'd never seen so much drinking. She finally understood why her father avoided rum. It certainly did not seem to make adults smarter. 
 
-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?"
+:TODO: need something to connect here
 
-"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."
 
+Most of the next day was spent loading the ships. Her father and Tamba helped the crews take the tar on board, while Kobayashi and the children readied Delos to sail. None of them got underway until the sun the was nearly gone behind the great oaks of Edisto. 
 
+Lulu leaned against the gunwale watching Queen Anne's Revenge slowly sailing into the darkening eastern sky. The ship looked black, even the sails. A booming came across the water, one then another, the usual salute. Edward's crew had decided to head north in search of shipping traffic bound out of Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay, Boston. Lulu knew how Edward hated Boston ships. Soon everyone else would know too. Lulu watched the ships disappear into the darkness of night and water as Delos moved south. 
 
+There were favorable winds, and a following swell. It was shaping up to be a nice night. Lulu still couldn't convince her father to let her take a night watch, but he hadn't told her to go to bed either. She got the paper Edward had stolen her, and went below. She lit a candle and went to the back of the hold, and opened the rear canon hatch. She looked down at Delos's wake as it cut through the sea. There was no phosphorescence, but the moonlight made the wake of bubbles that they left behind glow like a pathway through the night.
 
+She turned back to paper and slowly, carefully began to write. *The scent of the world crept into her hammock*... Lulu began to write faster as she went on, the words seem to tumble out of her and until she found herself telling a story to herself, about herself, but somehow also not herself. A record of the kind she would like to read. She wrote until her hand began to hurt, stopping only to glance out the hatch and study the path of where she'd been. When she couldn't write anymore she gathered up the sheets of paper and tucked them carefully, along with the quill and bottle of ink, into her sea chest and latched it tightly. She blew out the candle and when topside.
 
+The moon overwhelmed the milky way, but she could still see Polaris and the great hunter Orion. Her brother and sister were already asleep. Lulu climbed into her hammock and stared up at stars for a moment. The she pulled the hammock closed above her, shutting out the brightness of the moon, and drifted off to sleep, feeling herself again at home.
 
 
 # Glossary