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@@ -2088,7 +2088,40 @@ She could change all that if she claimed the prize. She could make it so they no --- -She woke up before dawn and went down to the shoreline to swim. She stripped off her clothes and steeled herself for a moment before running headlong into the sea and diving under the first wave she could before she lost her nerve. The cold was a shock so sharp it felt like fire. Her skin tingled. She broke the surface and gasped involuntarily. She stood for a moment letting the shock wear off before she strode back in, gathered up her clothes and walked back to camp in the twilight. She was shaking involuntarily by the time she got the fire going and slowly, slowly she warmed and dried herself. She was dressed again and feeling refreshed by the time Kobayashi came out to stir up the fire. He smiled and nodded at her. +She woke up before dawn and went down to the shoreline to swim. She stripped off her clothes and steeled herself for a moment before running headlong into the sea and diving under the first wave she could before she lost her nerve. The cold was a shock so sharp it felt like fire. Her skin tingled. She broke the surface and gasped involuntarily. She stood for a moment letting the shock wear off before she strode back in, gathered up her clothes and walked back to camp in the twilight. She was shaking involuntarily by the time she got the fire going. It seemed ages before the warmth began to creep back into her, but it did finally. She was dressed again and feeling refreshed by the time Kobayashi came out to stir up the fire. He smiled and nodded at her. "Up early on your big day." + +She nodded and took the pot of water he passed over and set it on the coals. + +"So, are you going to claim your share then?" + +"Yes I am." + +A bright smile spread over Kobayashi's face. "Good for you," he said in a whisper. "I am glad for you then." + +"Have you ever had a share?" + +"Oh, yes. Many times. Not since we came to this land. But when we were in the south sea as you call it, especially before I sailed with your father, many times I crewed with ships that captured prizes and split them. It is the way of the sea." + +"You don't think it's wrong to steal what other boats have?" + +Kobayashi paused for a moment. His eyes held hers and then he looked away. "If you were dying, walking down the street dying of hunger, and you saw a loaf a bread in a window and you took it and you ate it and so you did not die, would that be wrong?" + +Birdie considered this, but before she had answer Kobayashi went on. "Who decided that some people get to have all the things and other people can have none? Are these people wrong?" He coughed as a wisp of blew in their faces. "There are many questions that are difficult to answer, I think that there is no way to answer them. My people have a word for this, actually we have several words, but I will teach you one, Karuma. Your people say Karma. Karuma is an account of the things you have done. We must all answer for our Karuma. But I do not think we will answer to anything that cares about what was on a ship or not on a ship. I think that we will answer for how we treated the people we met, the animals we encountered, the winds, and the seas. Are you mistreating the man who owned this boat you are dividing up? I ask myself this every time I join a crew in search of prizes and I have to answer yes. I am okay with this. I am willing to account for this action and take what may come." Kobayashi shrugged. "A man or woman must eat, I believe the laws of Karuma account for this." + +He ladled boiling water out of the pot into his cup, watching the tea leaves swirl. "I believe also that Karuma knows what is in your heart. If you act with love, without greed, without hatred, without fear... if you act as you know you should, I believe Karuma accounts for this when it comes the bear upon you." + +Birdie said nothing. She was thinking about what was in her heart, and again she knew that it was the right thing to do. She was not taking the money for greed, she was not taking the money because she hated the British merchant, she was not taking the money out of fear of the future. She was taking the money to ease the struggle of her family, of her tribe, her crew. She was responsible not just for her well being but for theirs as well. + +When her father came back from his swim she told him. To her surprise he did not object. He simply nodded and went to tell Jack who was still sprawled in the dunes, fully clothed, asleep in the sun. Ratham was excited. He insisted that Birdie accompany him out to the Whydah and undergo the ceremony of induction for new crew, which consisted of taking the oaths and then feasting and drinking with the crew. + +It was nearly lunch time when the men who'd spent the previous day and night hunting upriver came rowing back. Their launch with so full of boar and deer it road dangerously low in the water. Ratham, undeterred, climbed in and the crew headed back the Whydah to prepare for Birdie's induction. + +That evening, Birdie and the crew of Delos sailed Maggie out to Whydah and climbed up the rigging to the deck. The crew of Whydah, including the cabin boy, who was not much older than Birdie, was waiting. They lined both side of the deck. In the middle of the ship, near the wheel, stood Ratham and Bellamy. Bellamy had the ships log, where he'd recorded Birdie's name. She'd never seen her name before, but her father assured her it was correct. She put an X beside it and Bellamy blew on it to dry before ceremoniously slamming the book shut. "Welcome to the crew of Whydah!" he cried. A roar went up from the men around the ship and Bellamy bent down to speak softer in her ear. "However briefly you may serve with us Birdie, it is an honor to have you." + +"Thank you sir," she whispered back in his ear. Jack blew in a conk shell and the low groaning sound silenced the crew. Jack stepped forward and spun around to make sure he had everyone's attention. + + + |