Classless

Chapter 3- Meeting Martha

Chapter three: Meeting Martha

I followed Castle around watching him gather what he called supplies, we dragged a cart each, I was greatly disturbed by the quantity of food and toiletries he amassed, were we never coming back?, I needed to stop assuming, nothing I predicted had come to pass today, assumption does make a fool out of you. Castle had stopped again at another store for more things, he paused at a counter and coughed embarrassingly, I narrowed my eyes at him and followed his direction to what made him blush. There it was in blue packaging, tampons and pads, I chuckled internally and pretended not to understand what had him flustered. For a big guy, he blushed easily. "I don't understand."

He cleared his throat, "That... won't you... need?"

"What would I need?" I frowned at him playing dumb.

He growls annoyed, "You are not that funny."

I laughed out loud drawing attention, "It's just tampons. What is so difficult about saying it? How long would we be on sea that I would need one?" I said the last part calmer because this did not fit into my plans at all. I had plans with my miniature TV and a Spanish soap opera that I had to finish today.

It was Castle's turn to take pleasure in my misery, "You should buckle up kid, and we could be gone for months. You the only female stuck at sea with red blooded men. Whatever will you do now? Thinking about quitting yet?" He clicked his tongue mockingly and packed as many pads and tampons in one grab without looking like it would burn him, I swear Men are dramatic.

Blue, why do they always use either blue or pink for anything ascribed to women, it was probably the soft and comforting colors I thought then it dawned on me what Castle had just said, Months, did he say months? How could we be gone for months? I grasped my head at the sudden raging headache. "Why? No one said anything about going on sea, no one talked about being away for that long."

Castle seemed sorry that he had scared me, "It is not always that long, sometimes, under two weeks, and it depends on what we find out there. What do you have here anyway?"

I thought about it, and while he might be right; I don't have anyone waiting for me or worried about me, I was about to talk about undergarments when he pointed at a door that had the female sign and told me to go in by myself, I was surprised at how prepared Tokhe was, there were different sizes of pants, shorts, bras, singlets, shirts and many other clothing materials. The only disappointing part was that they were all in carton brown, not black or white. Carton brown, I don't even mind how unflattering they were, looking at the color was enough to depress just about anybody. Maybe this was because they wanted to discourage sexual activities among the crew members and staff but let's be honest, this would do nothing to discourage that. People who wanted to screw each other will not be deterred by carton brown pants, which led to my curiosity about the colors of the men's undergarments as well. Was it carton brown, I could not stop my mind from drifting towards what Captain Song would look like in carton brown pants, boxers or whatever he preferred? My lips widened into a grin when I imagined him naked. Half, Half-naked. I picked whatever I wanted and joined Castle, he still wouldn't look at me.

Maybe I was wrong about my assumption that he was a playboy, he blushed too easily to be that, oh well... First impressions are shit anyways. "Can we go now? Or do you want to look at the floor some more?"

Castle grumbled under his breath and led me through a section where people were hard at work. It was completely different from our work station, these people were creating something from an idea, and we stared at them through thick glass. They had more women working there than in other places I had passed through, their uniform was bright red, they had more machines than I had ever seen, some I recognized and others I had no idea what they were. Everyone seemed to be hard at work, Castle sighed beside me; "They are the face of Tokhe, the ones people remember. Sometimes, I envy them for their success and other times I pitied them. Look at them, like robots working so hard to fit parts together, no passion just focused determination. They probably sleep like three hours a day, I would run mad if I were to live that way."