Pirate By Blood

Chapter 20: Sarah

CHAPTER 20

Sarah

They reached the dock in no time at all.

            Jozan had managed to keep the conversation going all the while and Maleen realised that she was the stronger minded of the two of them. She was the one who was more adventurous and more confident – Jozan, on the other hand, preferred not to live life on such an edge.

            The dark streets were now much quieter than they had been before. The taverns seemed to be closing down for the night, – or was it early morning? – and the crowds were beginning to stagger off in different directions back to their homes. The stars were still visible in the dark sky, but Maleen had a feeling that morning was only a couple of hours away.

            “My mother died when I was fairly young due to illness,” Jozan had said as they made their way to the dock, “leaving my father to raise me and teach me how to live. He was a blacksmith, you see, and he’s been teaching me the trade for as long as I can remember – even though, before hand, I was a little too young to do anything more than observe.”

            “Has he taught it to you now?” Maleen asked; picturing a smaller, more fragile version of Jozan sitting in a workshop and watching his father heat and hammer various pieces of metal.

            “Not really, no,” Jozan answered, “Recently he’s met another woman – Amy – and he hasn’t been paying much attention to me. If I’m really honest, I’ve not been spending much time with him either; I prefer to stay out the house when she’s around; and recently, that’s been all the time.”

            “Hasn’t he been worried about you?” Maleen asked, “Don’t you think you’d better go back and tell him that you’re okay?”

            “If he cared, don’t you think he would have already come out looking for me?” He questioned, “Because, before he met Amy, he would have done. He used to spend all of his spare time in the workshop – with me. But now that Amy’s arrived on the scene it seems I’ve been pushed to the bottom of the pile.”

            “So, you don’t want to tell your father that you’re coming with me?” She asked him; trying to give him the opportunity as indirectly as she could.

            “He wouldn’t listen...” Jozan answered in a mutter, whilst looking down at the cobbled street below him. There was a short moment of silence that seemed to stretch on for longer than the three seconds that it actually was.

            “What makes you so sure?” Maleen asked.

            There was a small snigger that came from Jozan. It seemed dark and mysterious – like he didn’t really find it funny; he found it saddening and couldn’t think of any other way to express his emotions.

            “Because that’s what Amy’s been doing,” He said, scuffing his black boots across the ground, “She’s been making everything about her – all about her. No one else matters, apparently. She always complains that dad can’t afford to buy her anything nice – making a big deal out of nothing. So now she goes and watches him in the workshop; pushes me out the door because I’ll ‘break something’.”

            He sighed deeply and looked ahead again, rather than at his dusty boots. Maleen felt that she should do something – comfort him in some way – but couldn’t think of anything to say or do. If it had been Simon she would have told him that it was alright and that he had better things to look forward to; but, then again, she knew Simon better than she did Jozan. He and Maleen had met...two hours before? She didn’t know how long it had been, but what was for certain was that she knew little about the stranger that was stood next to her.