A Pirate's Life for Mei

There are No Heroes Here

Silence stretched for a long minute or three as the others thought about what she'd said. The Caribs, of course, were mostly confused and more than a little uneasy at seeing the violence break out between those who were supposed to be allies, with whom they were sharing this boat.

They probably couldn't wait to reach Barbados, divest themselves of these strange people, and return to their simple and relatively peaceful lives.

Jie intently studied the men, not moving from Mei's side in the slightest. Her eyes didn't seem to blink, and the others undoubtedly found the stare unnerving. It said quite clearly that she did not trust them. Be warned.

When no one else seemed inclined to talk, Mei continued. She'd changed tact and now tried to turn their fight into a conversation. They hadn't thrown her overboard yet. Maybe there was still a way that she could turn things around. "Why are you so angry at me?" she asked.

"Beyond the fact that you killed the marines sent for us and got us in a huge pile of trouble?" Lance asked in a snarky tone.

"Yes!" She half-tossed one hand in exasperation, the other still on Jie. "Everything was fine, and then I told you I hadn't committed a crime to get here, and then you shut me out."

"Maybe it's because you think you're better than us."

She studied the resentment and defensiveness on his face and saw it in the others, too. "I've seen how the guards treat prisoners, and I can imagine you've experienced that," she allowed. "They treat us as lesser beings. Think they can do whatever they want to us because we aren't worth their respect. They proved that with their actions. I can imagine that friends and family who you thought cared about you might have turned their backs on you once you got arrested, and it looked like you were guilty enough to end up in prison." She leaned forward slightly and gave them a challenging stare. "But did I do any of that to you? Have I ever treated you like you're inferior? Did I speak down to you? Did I act snobbish? Belittle you? Did I try to make you feel bad about who you are?"

"You didn't have to!" Lance slammed back, anger emerging once more like an open wound had been prodded with hot metal.

She kept her voice even, feeling more controlled this time around and not instinctively reacting to his emotions with her own. "Why? I haven't done anything to wrong you. Am I really the bad guy here? Or is the real problem with how you see yourself?"

Juan looked up from the deck and met her gaze unflinchingly. "You don't see yourself as a criminal, but you sure see us as criminals, don't you?"

Her brows rose. "Did you do something that hurt other people? That was bad enough that society sought to punish you for it?"

"You're in here, same as us. So you're just as much a criminal as we are," the Spaniard insisted.

She shook her head. "You're twisting the issue."

"I am not. You're in here, so you're a criminal too!"

"I wasn't put here for doing anything immoral. I haven't hurt anyone. How about you?"

Lance broke in, voice harsh. "Stop trying to evade the issue! Just admit you're a criminal!"

She spoke calmly. "I'm not, though."

Yet he acted like she'd condemned herself. "You see? You think you're better than us."

She sat back and composed her thoughts. "I think there's more than one thing going on here. You seem to want to label me the same way that society has labelled you. And maybe that's how you've labelled yourselves. But at the root of it, I don't think it's a matter of labels. It's a matter of who we are and what we've done. Regardless of my being in prison right now, I have never made a habit of going around hurting people. I don't steal; I don't lie; I don't murder. I treat people well, and I hope for the same in return. I make mistakes now and then, the same as anyone. But I'm pretty confident in who I am: a good person."