The World After

Chapter 4: A talk with Max

Chapter four- A talk with Max

After Delia left, Mieli was eager to go ask doc more about the strange 'innocent' sinner. She headed towards the stair down to the second floor of the boat, but a voice from above called out to her.

"Mil! Wait up!"

She looked up, red hair falling back over her shoulder, to see Max quickly climbing down the steep ladder from the crow's nest. He jumped the last three rungs, his tennis shoes landing squarely on the deck. He brushed his mop of copper hair from his eyes as he gave her a huge grin.

"Hi Mil! Listen, can we talk?" He asked, slightly hesitantly.

Mieli crossed her arms impatiently,

"No." She tried to walk past him, but he shifted so he was blocking her.

Mieli raised her eyebrows at his uncharacteristically bold behavior. At her quizzical expression, he pulled back in shoulders, attempting to appear defiant.

"About!..." He said loudly, then lowered his voice considerably, until it was barely above a whisper.

"It's about the...sinner." He said nervously. Mieli inspected his face, his brows were drawn together anxiously, lips pressed together tightly, he was jumpy. Max was a lot of things; overly friendly? Yes. Carefree? Yes. Stupid? Most of the time. But he was rarely nervous, he didn't have enough awareness to realize he should be nervous.

Then Mieli remembered an important note she'd scrawled in her notebook after eavesdropping on one of Delia's not so secret 'secret talks' with the captain. On Max's page was scrawled "son of sinner." In green ink.

She knew why he was scared. Not nervous. But full on frightened.

"Max... Your dad..." She started, not sure how to finish the sentence.

Max's eyes widen in shock, then narrowed.

"Yeah. That man was a sinner." he muttered, malice in his voice.

"He... Drank. A lot. And beat mom. Wouldn't even look at me, probably better that way. Mom lied for him a lot." The words toppled out of Max's mouth, as though he couldn't stop them.

Mieli's fingers itched to grab her notebook, to write it all down.. But that was rude. Even she knew that. The captain had taught her that if she wanted to record people, she had to engage them.

*****

Almost four years ago, it had been a cold day, most of the crew was inside the dining room, eating. There had been less of them then, the captain had the same crew he'd had before the disaster, he'd only ever taken in two strays.

One when he wasn't yet a captain, but a smart twenty year old with ideas and drive. He begged the captain to take in a wild animal-like runaway who eventually caused the mutiny that made him captain. He was ruthless in that way. He'd tried to dispose of the runaway, but the crew liked her, and so she stayed.

The second, four years ago, was Mieli. A frightened 12 year old, with a burden too big for her little shoulders, who begged him to hide her. In the dining room Mieli was too busy feverishly scratching out the story of how Delia met Patrick, the to be captain, to notice Delia had stopped telling the story. It was only when her journal was torn from her hands, leaving a jagged pen line down the page that she realized Delia's sadness. Angrily she turned to the notebook thief, to see Patrick holding her journal. He sighed.

"Mieli, people don't give you their secrets so you can write them down and walk away. It's a trade. Secrets for acceptance and love. The best way to fill this" he tapped her notebook with his index finger. "Is to listen, rather than write." He lectured.

Mieli turned back to Delia to apologize, but Delia held up her hands.

"It's okay mil. You have a big job, a big destiny. That's a lot for a little girl. I'll help however I can," she smiled at Mieli. Who put down the pen as Delia continued the story.

*********

Mieli snapped back to the present as Max clenched his fists, shaking with rage and sorrow.

"It wasn't until after the disaster. Until that lady came forward with her son. The son my dad got her pregnant with when he raped her. It broke my mom's heart to hear those words. She fought it. So hard. When he was convicted, and sentenced to the boat, my mom just...stopped." Max was crying a little now.

"She was never the same, mil." Max hugged her, sobbing now.

"That sinner is evil, Mil. I don't want him to hurt my new family. Don't go down there." He begged, clinging to her.

Mieli pryed the sniffling Max off of her. With a look she hoped didn't betray her shaken feelings she said,

"I don't have a choice, it's my duty."

Before slipping past Max and down towards where the sinner slept.