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Chapter3

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Standing on the deck by the railing of The Venture, Mr. Hayes breathed out tiredly as he looked out over the ocean. It had been with a bit of reluctance that the captain had agreed to welcome Jimmy to stay on the ship. Englehorn had promised Hayes keeping the boy in check and looking after him wouldn't be easy, and that promise was fulfilling itself now. Jimmy definitely wasn't an easy aspect of Hayes's life right now.

As soon as the boy had finally wriggled out of the first mate's hands, he'd run off. Hayes didn't even attempt to go after him. Clearly the boy needed his space for a moment. It wasn't like he really had many places to hide on the ship. Hayes would find him when he'd given the boy time to calm down. As soon as he wanted to know where the kid was, he would surely find him easily.

Of course, the first mate didn't want to cause Jimmy any more distress, but he also wanted to make it clear that stealing wasn't something he was going to allow on The Venture. Maybe he had to steal to survive once... but he didn't have to here. Somehow he needed to make sure the boy understood that.

Hayes turned around and leaned his back against the ship's railing. Looking over the deck, he spotted one of the crew members. "Frank," Hayes called out to get the man's attention.

Frank looked up from the ropes he had been untangling and coiling.

Hayes waved him over. As the sailor approached the first mate, Hayes went ahead with his question. "Have you seen Jimmy around?" He asked. The boy had run up on deck only twenty or so minutes ago. Frank was right there and seemed to have been working on those ropes for quite a while. He'd probably seen Jimmy pass by.

"Ah, ya mean that boy? Yeah." Frank answered. "Think I saw him climbin' up tha crow's nest a little while ago. I wasn't payin' him much attention though. He could'a left since then."

Hayes nodded, narrowing his eyes at the other sailor. "You sure it was him?" The first mate wondered. "His arm is hurt... I wouldn't think he'd be able to climb the net..."

"It was him alright." Frank nodded in affirmation. "Couldn't have been anybody else. Definitely a kid. I haven't seen him much and ain't used to what he looks like, but he's the only kid around, far as I know."

"Alright." Hayes agreed. He supposed it wouldn't have been impossible for Jimmy to make his way up there. "Thanks, Frank."

The sailor nodded and shuffled back over to his work.

Hayes looked over at the crow's nest. As far as he could see, no one was up there. He couldn't see anyone standing, but if the boy were trying to hide, he could be lying down. Sighing again, Mr. Hayes made his way over to the net.

He considered yelling up to the boy and requesting that he come down, but he didn't want to make a huge spectacle of this. If the other sailors thought Hayes and the kid were in some sort of disagreement, it might draw in spectators, and that was not preferred. So instead, Hayes just began climbing up the rope.

The crow's nest wasn't a place Hayes was particularly fond of. In fact, he didn't know any of the sailors who enjoyed being assigned lookout duty. It made most of them sea sick, and some of them felt a little nervous being so high off the ground in such a small platform. Hayes wasn't afraid of heights, but all the ship's movements seemed exaggerated when one was up in the crow's nest. Getting sea sick there wasn't uncommon at all.

When Hayes reached the top of the net and prepared to pull himself up, he found that Jimmy was indeed where Frank had said he'd be. The boy looked like he'd been lying down, but he scurried into a sitting position as soon as he noticed Mr. Hayes.

As Jimmy backed against the railing of the platform as far as he possibly could, Hayes remained still. The boy was clearly terrified. In fact, his eyes resembled that of a wild animal who had just been cornered. They were wide, unblinking, and dark, filled with dread. The boy's chest rose and fell rapidly as he stayed backed up closely against the railing.

Instead of climbing up the netting the rest of the way so he would be on the platform too, Hayes stayed with only the upper portion of his body in the area where Jimmy had set up temporary camp. He didn't want to scare the boy any more than he already had.

"I just want to talk to you, Jimmy," Hayes promised, "and," he added, "if you'll let me, I'd like to bandage your hand."

Jimmy watched the first mate carefully as Hayes reached into his pocket and pulled out a clean, length of white gauze. The sailor placed it carefully on the wooden floor in between himself and Jimmy and then looked back into the boy's eyes.

The kid stared down at the gauze for just a few seconds and then stared back at Hayes with wide eyes. He still seemed hesitant to agree to what Mr. Hayes was saying, so Hayes resumed talking. "Listen, Jimmy." He started. "I want you to know I'm not angry with you. And I'm sorry if I scared you down below deck. I noticed you had something you weren't supposed to have. That tool belongs to Captain Englehorn. I was surprised to see you with it, and I knew the captain probably didn't hand it over to you willingly. If I seemed angry or threatening, I apologize. You just have to know it's not okay to take things that don't belong to you. Understand?"

The boy continued staring skeptically.

"There's no reason to steal anything on this ship." Hayes added. "Anything you need, you'll get it automatically. You don't need to fight for it. You don't have to sneak around and fend for yourself. I'll make sure you're okay. If you ever get the urge to take something, to look at it or see what it does, just ask. I'd be glad to teach you how to work different things on the ship, and I'm sure the rest of the crew would too."

Jimmy frowned and blinked. He opened his mouth as if to speak but then quickly closed it.

It seemed like the first mate's words were getting through to Jimmy. Though it was impossible to know for sure that Jimmy would take these words to heart and refrain from stealing again, it seemed like he was at least listening to what Hayes was saying to him. Hopefully this chat would be enough to show the boy that stealing wasn't necessary, but also that any of his misbehaviors wouldn't result in physical pain. He wanted the kid to respect the ship and its crew. He didn't want himself or any of the other sailors to be a source of fear.

"Can I see your hand?" Hayes asked again. He knew Jimmy had cut himself earlier, and he was certain that cut hadn't been tended to yet.

Jimmy licked his lips and furrowed his brow. His eyes looked like he might be considering doing as Hayes asked, but his body didn't move to comply.

Hayes was finding thus far that this boy was much more inclined to cooperate if he was ordered to do something versus if he was asked to do something. Hayes asking him if the first mate could bandage the cut on the boy's hand resulted in silent refusal. So instead of asking again, Hayes decided on a different approach. He climbed the rest of the way into the crow's nest and sat down a foot or so away from the boy.

Picking up the gauze he had placed on the floor earlier, Hayes reached out slowly, putting his hand between himself and the boy. "Let me see your hand." He ordered, in a firm but gentle voice. He needed Jimmy to know Hayes meant no harm, but also needed the boy to see the first mate was serious.

After a few moments of intense staring, Jimmy finally offered up his hand, slowly, and with a shaking arm.

Hayes frowned and took the boy's hand in his own as gently as he could manage. He hated that Jimmy seemed so afraid of him. The first mate had been trying so hard over the past few weeks to prove to the boy that he had no reason to be afraid of anyone on the ship. Wherever he'd come from, whatever he'd had to deal with before, that was over now. Things wouldn't be like that anymore. He wouldn't have to worry about anyone lashing out at him and hurting him.

The cut on Jimmy's hand was shallow and much of the blood had dried by now. Nevertheless, Hayes began to carefully wrap the gauze around it. As he did this, he continued speaking, trying to put Jimmy at ease. "Do you know what the tool you took is, Jimmy?" Hayes asked, glancing up at the boy's eyes for a moment.

Jimmy shook his head. Hayes could see in his eyes that he was watching the sailor's actions very carefully.

"It's called a sextant." Hayes explained. "We use it to keep track of where we are when there's no landmarks to be seen. It would be easy to get lost in the ocean when all the water looks the same, so if we ever aren't quite sure where we've gotten to, we can use the sextant to figure out where we are."

Hayes glanced at Jimmy's face again when he still heard no response. The boy looked very slightly confused. Finally, much to Mr. Hayes's relief, the kid spoke to him. "How?" he asked.

Mr. Hayes smiled. "Well, it's a little complicated at first... but basically, we look for certain stars, and then measure where they are in the sky to tell where we are on the earth. Depending on lots of factors, certain stars will be in different places compared to our location."

Jimmy frowned. "The stars move?" he wondered, looking quite skeptical.

"Well, they seem to." Hayes explained as he finished wrapping the gauze around Jimmy's palm. "To us, it looks like the stars move around, but it's really the earth that's moving. Navigating by the stars is complicated, but very accurate once you remember where certain stars are during certain times of the year and compared to specific locations."

Jimmy shook his head. "I always thought I was lookin' at the same stars every night. How do you tell 'em apart? None of 'em look different than the others. It's just a big mess of little dots."

"If you study the stars long enough, you can make out patterns and constellations. I can show you." Hayes offered. "The sun's going to be setting soon. When the stars come out tonight, I can point out a couple constellations."

Jimmy nodded in agreement. "Can I still stay on the ship?" He asked in a timid voice, keeping his eyes on Hayes.

The first mate nodded. "Of course you can." He answered. "And if you promise not to steal from anyone else, Englehorn never has to know the sextant left his room." He smiled.

Jimmy smiled too for a moment, but his smile faded too soon. He looked like he was hiding something still.

"What's wrong?" Hayes wondered.

... ... ...

Looking down, Jimmy hesitated. He focused on his right thigh. The lighter in his pocket didn't stand out like the sextant had. Hayes would probably never knew he took it as long as Jimmy shut up about it. It seemed like the room he'd been in was Englehorn's... If the captain noticed his lighter missing, he'd probably just figure he lost it himself. There was no need for Jimmy to bring that up. Hayes would probably only be patient for so long. Stealing one thing was forgivable... But Jimmy had also stolen a lighter and a cigarette. He'd even smoked that cigarette... How would Hayes deal with that information? The answer of course, was he wouldn't deal with it. Jimmy wouldn't mention it to the first mate. He figured it would be best to just keep that information to himself.

He glanced at his other pocket, the one he had torn on accident. Then he frowned again.

"I forgive you, Jimmy." Hayes's voice continued in front of him. "And Englehorn would too, even if we told him the truth. We know you don't mean any harm. You got no reason to feel bad."

Jimmy looked up. Mr. Hayes was looking right at him, and the man looked sort of worried. Jimmy wondered why he was being so nice. All Jimmy had done on the ship so far was sneak aboard without paying them for a ride, steal their things, use their resources... and he probably had said a few rude remarks to some of them in the beginning... He didn't really remember that first day all too well... He had just been too exhausted and scared. At any rate, he had been nothing but a hindrance and an annoyance. Considering this, Mr. Hayes was doing much more for Jimmy than he should have felt any obligation to.

"You okay now?" Hayes was still speaking, even though Jimmy continued failing to know what to say.

"Do you think Choy's gonna be mad at me?" Jimmy finally asked a question that had been nagging in the back of his mind.

Hayed narrowed his eyes. "Why would Choy be mad at you, Jimmy?" He wondered.

Jimmy gestured toward his pocket. "I borrowed these pants from him. Mine were all wet from the rain, remember?"

"Ah," Hayes nodded. "I remember. Choy won't mind." The first mate promised. "I guess you haven't spoken with him much. He's probably the friendliest guy on the entire ship. That blood will wash out easy, and he won't mind the little tear. It was just an accident after all."

Yet again, Jimmy didn't know what to say. He felt so relieved that Mr. Hayes hadn't responded violently or even with loud screaming or threats. The man had basically let him get away with it completely. Of course, he didn't know the whole story, and he took the item Jimmy stole back (the one he knew about anyway...) but he hadn't really seemed all that angry.

He watched as Mr. Hayes slowly brought his hand over and placed it lightly on Jimmy's arm. He could tell the man was moving carefully due to Jimmy's previous reaction to such gestures. Jimmy felt kind of dumb now, for flinching away before... He supposed he didn't really need to worry about Mr. Hayes smacking him. The first mate probably wouldn't do that.

"You wanna head back down now?" Hayes asked. "Being up here too long makes me sea sick..."

Jimmy looked down at Hayes's hand on his arm and then focused his attention back on the first mate's face. Hayes was smiling slightly, a sort of encouraging smile. If he was telling the truth and being up there really made him feel sea sick, he was probably hoping Jimmy would agree to climb back down with him.

"Okay." Jimmy agreed. "Wouldn't want you, an experienced sailor, to get sea sick." He smirked.

Hayes laughed. "Hey now. Lots of sailors get sea sick being up here. You might too if you stayed up here longer. Tends to feel like your swaying a lot more up here than down there."

"I feel fine." Jimmy shrugged.

"Well, maybe you can be the lookout once your arm heals." Mr. Hayes suggested. "No one else wants to do it."

Jimmy nodded and felt a wide smile spreading across his face. He liked that idea, the idea of being incorporated into the crew, being a part of the group and doing something useful for them. When Hayes had promised him he could stay, he had meant it... and he'd meant it as long term. He was even planning for Jimmy's future as a part of the crew.

Suddenly Jimmy felt a feeling he hadn't felt in a very long time, a feeling of security and belonging. The other sailors probably still saw him as a newcomer who didn't really fit in, but they wouldn't see him that way forever. He was going to become one of them. He was going to fit in here. He was going to actually be able to feel safe in this place, and it was all thanks to Mr. Hayes.

Without much thinking, and against everything he normally guarded himself against, Jimmy reached his uninjured arm out toward Mr. Hayes, offering him something no one had offered Jimmy in a very long time, a hug.

The first mate looked confused at first, but returned the gesture after a second of hesitation, wrapping his large arms around Jimmy's slender shoulders.

Mr. Hayes's grip was secure, but not too tight. Jimmy knew he should break the embrace sooner rather than later. He didn't want to be seen as a weak little child. Yet he felt so safe in the first mate's arms. While he couldn't ever be certain that things in his life would all work out, he truly felt they would this time.

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THE END

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Thanks for reading. :)