The View

The View: Part 1 - On the Dock

Gabe saw her on the dock one day, but it wasn't the first time he had seen her around. That day he had seen her when he walked up the dock, she was sitting in the morning sunshine. He immediately noticed how her light brown hair shined in the sun. He wished to himself that he was confident like his brothers. That he could just walk up and start talking to her and not feel like a goof. He never could find the right thing to say when he walked up to a girl. He thought he didn't make a good first impression, so many times he just didn't even try.

She had noticed him as he approached. His strut was something that she just couldn't look away from. She had smiled at him and greeted him with a "morning," but he just nodded and walked past. She turned to watch him strut away, liking what she saw.

He was walking back to The Integrity when he saw her still sitting, feet hanging over the edge. His hands were full of supplies that he had picked up before the family was the head out on another hauling job. He wanted to say something but couldn't find the courage.

She had heard him walking towards her. She wasn't going to sit and let life, or him, walk by. She wanted to meet him. So she would make that happen.

"You need some help?" She asked jumping up before he even had time to answer and grabbed some of the bags that he was carrying.

"Thanks," he smiled a bit surprised.

"No problem. I'm Ruby," she introduced herself with a sweet smile.

"I'm Gabe, well Gabriel, but you can call me Gabe." He said shyly. He was still not quite sure what was going on. Who was she? Why did she just offer to help him?

"Nice to meet you Gabe. So where are we taking this stuff?" She asked.

"That boat there, The Integrity. That's my family's boat."

"This is your family's boat?"

"Yep."

"At what point does a boat become a ship, because I think this one is there."

"Well I guess technically it could be called a ship, they carry things or people."

"Is it one of those a ship is a boat, but a boat isn't a ship type things." She looked at him puzzled.

"Yeah a guess you could say that, we don't worry too much about it, we just call her The Integrity." He turns and yells up to the boat, "Hey Bear."

"Yeah man?" Bear yelled from on the upper deck.

"Can you give me a hand with these supplies?" Gabe hollered up.

"No problem man." He leaned over and grabbed the side of the upper deck, flipped around landing on the main deck of the boat. "Hey, who's this?"

"Hi, I'm Ruby," she announced.

"Yes this stranger was nice enough to help me haul the supplies back to the boat. She's a lot nicer than you," Gabe joked. Bear was busy when Gabe had left for supplies, so he hadn't asked for his help. He turned to Ruby, "this is one of my brothers, Bear."

"Do you like to climb trees?" Bear asked as Gabe took the bags that Ruby was holding and handed them to Bear over the railing. Gabe shot Bear a little annoyed look. Gabe was shy when it came to girls, the opposite of Bear who would just jump right in and start talking about climbing trees.

"Not really," she said and then looked back to Gabe and smiled a little confused by the question.

"He asks all pretty girls that." His eyes suddenly got big when he realized that he had just called her pretty.