The Dark Maiden

Chapter 6

Things were just like that for another week and a half. Carmen would wake up, drink the two smoothies Iz brought her, go to breakfast, and then spend the day with Iz. Joei was usually with his mother, and Sidi his father, or off pouring over a map or other schoolwork. Carmen found that they had a lot of school work, and that their lessons were quite intense. Sidian and Joei were there sometimes, but her days were primarily spent in the company of her sister.

Sister. That sounds weird. She would remark every time she thought of it that way. Yeah, she'd had a sister back home, but Mae was always off with her own friends, spending time with Carmen at night and the occasional weekend. Iz was always with Carmen. She grew to realise that even though Iz was happy spending her time with her brothers and father on their ship, she might've missed a little sisterly company. She would sit with her in her cabin while she did her school work and Carmen read through some of the books Iz brought her. She'd needed something to- although she spent the first couple of days sleeping, waking only for meals, if that. But she was grateful to Iz for spending time with her.

She kept the homesickness at bay, subconsciously keeping Carmen busy by showing her around the ship, asking her questions about her school work- though Carmen didn't know half of what she was learning. It was at night when Carmen missed home. There were no distractions when she laid in bed waiting for sleep to come, and that was when she missed her family. She wondered about her parents and about Mae and Max. How they were doing, if they were worried. She assumed they were. But she was thankful that it had never been so bad as that first night.

She thought about her girlfriend, Marigold. They'd been coming up on their one year anniversary only a few weeks before Carmen had left. Carmen missed her, missed her smile and her laugh, the way she made her heart beat faster whenever she walked into the room.

Even though she missed everyone back home terribly, she did her best to push it to the back of her mind. What's the use wallowing in my wish to be home? Where is the good in that? Would they want me to be in pain, if I could speak to them now, is that would they would tell me? 'Miss us'? She instead tried to focus on the enjoyable times with Iz, Joei and Sidian. She let herself miss home at night.

Luckily, after only a week and a half, Carmen began to feel better. She could stand without feeling terribly dizzy or nauseous, and she could even walk down the ship corridors- albeit leaning against the wall. She abandoned the wheelchair after eight days and by day ten, she felt completely back to normal. The green and pink smoothies seemed to be doing the trick. The bump on her head felt like a distant memory of a time long gone by.

She didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing.

"Dinner wasn't so bad, was it?" Iz remarked to Carmen after the evening meal of her eleventh day. Like every other meal, Carmen kept her head down, answered questions only when asked, and astutely avoided speaking to Lilli. And over the past eleven days, Lilli had let her do so. She hadn't said much to her, hadn't seen much of her except in passing when Carmen let Iz show her around the ship.

It almost felt like the calm of the storm.

Carmen shook her head. "Not bad at all. Why do you ask?"

"You got all tense before we started eating. Like you didn't want to be in the dining hall for some reason." She explained. "I've seen you do it a few times this week, and I'd wondered about it."

Iz, Carmen, Sidia and Joei were walking back to their cabins together. Lilli had looked like she wanted to talk to Carmen, but Carmen had asked Iz to take her to her cabin before she got the chance. Sidi, Iz and Joei all asked to be excused, and to Carmen's relief, Lilli had allowed them all to go without another word. Iz was holding her younger brother's hand, confidently leading the way back to their cabins.