Missing in Venice

One

 Henry

 "Git' over ere', Henny!", hollered Captain Marshall in his typical gruff, beefy voice.

"My name is not 'Henny'! It's Henry!", I replied in a slightly restless, defensive demeanor.

"Then go-on head' and prove it......Honey.", said Captain with a taunting manner.

"Why, I ought 'a-"; I quickly caught myself, for I did not want to be tossed overboard by the big guy himself. Most of my fellow sailors ignored me, and some of them even treated me like the seagull waste and fish bones that I picked up after. Basically you could say that I was the ship maid and didn't have any friends except for the beautiful woman I was gazing at to this second; Linda Linden. She was new to this vessel, but had way more experience than anybody else, so somehow either that or Captain was bias and lenient to pretty maidens and crowned them first mate and second in command; most likely the second one and maybe a little of the first one. I always felt nervous and sweaty when she was around, and whenever she smiled at me, I blushed as red as the freshest blood from the daily catch. Alas, all of the other men on board, including Captain, was intrigued as well to her smile and would act flirty as oppose to me. By the way, if you haven't already guessed, Linda was the only girl aboard the ever so ironic name of the ship, Mary Lou.

"Ya' know what? Today might be your lucky day to live up to your name, Honey-boy! Thomas was out seasick for days, and it don't look like he's goin' to be coming back for a while, so you're gonna fill in for him. Is that clear?", said Captain in a more or less firm, assertive tone.

"Yes sir! I'll prove that I can live up to my real name.", I said saluting and lightly duffing my sailor cap; Captain just grunted, nodded and left; leaving me awkward with a happy-go-lucky, faintly delirious, smile stretched across my dumb-struck face. This was my big break! I might make a good impression on both Captain and Linda and make it one step closer to the ranks. Or, I might totally screw this up and end up being resented even more and never have my chances with Linda. The ratio of probability would probably be 1:3, but it would be worth a shot.

An alarming din made me fall out of top bunk; it was 3:30 AM and I was still catching Z's! Then, I remembered; fishermen had to wake up thirty minutes earlier than us pooper-scoopers to get the best catch at the crack of dawn (despite the fact that it was still the dead of night; pitch black). I don't know why Captain would do that to higher ranks, but I didn't question it.

"What's wrong Stone, still sleeping like a little baby on your first day on the job? I'm not surprised whatsoever at all! In fact, I would've even put up money!", I grunted; it was Lincoln jeering to the others about me as they snickered, obnoxiously high-fived each other and left the bunks. Link was one of the sailors who did more than pretend I wasn't there. What made him even more disconcerting towards me, is that he was so extremely good-looking and muscular, that I couldn't comprehend why he was still here on an odorful vessel, doing all the hard work. Again, I didn't waste my breath or fragile limbs bringing it up.

As the day progressed, it got worse; working this year as just an underpaid janitor, I didn't have the muscle that everyone else had, so reeling in the tall rod caused splinters and blisters forming on my fingers and tender if not already callused palms, while I was almost thrown overboard by a combination of the violent, crashing waves against the hull and up the Mary Lou while hopelessly attempting to pull the net full of a hundred pounds of shrimp onto the deck, in fact I felt like one of those shrimp actually being called names by people like Lincoln. Panting heavily after a painstaking day at sea, I wolfed down my small lunch; one red delicious apple, turkey sandwich, bottle of Gatorade, bag of chips and a cookie. While lost in the moment of devouring my lunch, I didn't notice that Linda had taken a seat next to me.

She had started giggling. "You must be starving! My first day fishing was just like yours, so don't feel so self-conscious and embarrassed of the sudden hardship!" I couldn't help it! I started blushing but tried to act cool.

"Yeah, I look pretty pathetic, don't I?", I say trying to be myself in a sarcastic, faintly humorous way. I think the 'being myself' part worked.

"No, not at all! I actually think that you look kind of cute!" she replies, blushing slightly.

"Linda, come here, I need to talk to you about er....something!" I heard Captain Marshall sputter.

"Can't it wait Captain?", Linda shot back in an annoyed tone. "Sorry Henry, catch you later. By the way, you can call me Lyn." she said with an apologetic smile.

Nothing could've ruined that feeling of being liked back. It would only get better in perspective after that little slice of heaven, or so I thought.