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“Ewww yeah, I’m not sure I have ‘bawdy’in me, you know?”
“Live a little,” Marie taunted, grinning now as her eyes sparkled. “I’m not exactly ‘bawdy’either as an ex-army nurse and divorcee in her mid-forties, but if you tuck thecorner of your skirt under your corset? It makes it easier to walk and shows a little leg… like this?”
Calista eyed her and realized that ‘bawdy’still covered her, and the material came to her knees. Nodding, she tucked one corner of the material under her corset, almost in the same fashion.
“Now… let’s have a little fun,” Marie invited, extending her arm towards her. “They are setting the tables now in the galley. Slip into your ‘role’ and relax. Who’s going to see you, but the rest of our crew for the week.”
After her sister’s message, realizing that she needed to try to grasp at happiness, having a life, and that it might help to have a friend… she linked arms with Marie.
“Thank you,” she said openly to the other woman, who beamed at her.
“Hey, us girls have to stick together sometimes… especially when the captain is a douche-bag.” Marie choked back a laugh as Calista looked at her in horror, closing her eyes in dismay.
“He told you.”
“I think he was just as amused as I was.”
“It’s going to be a long week, isn’t it?”
“Nahhh… relax. Let your worries go and let sea life do its magic. Now, take a deep breath, be confident, and have fun with this.”
The duo walked out into the hallway up towards the deck, and she was glad Marie was escorting her, because she wasn’t sure where the galley was. The moment they were in view, Marie slipped into her own role with relish.
“Avast ye mateys! Where be the grog?” she called out, slurring her words and waving the length of her skirt that wasn’t tucked neatly into her corset. Marie gave her a slight elbow and a look.
“Yarrr…” she croaked out nervously, looking at Marie, whose eyes were dancing with amusement as she remembered what the three men had said – and noticed several eyes on her as they began to enter an opening on the far side of the deck. A set of stairs descended into the underbelly of the deck, and she could smell something delicious hanging in the air.
“What’s a wench got to do to get some grog?” Calista hesitated, seeing several sets of eyes on her – who all began muttering to each other under their breath from where they sat at the table, waiting.
“Pathetic…”
“Well, someone was going to do this first. It might as well be her.”
“So long as it’s not me…”
“Or me…”
“I thought this started tomorrow…”
“I’m not sure that is period-accurate and…”
“SILENCE!” Marie yelled, putting a foot on the bench between two men boldly, bringing everyone to a stop as the captain walked in the room. “Dead men tell no tales and if you don’t shut your yaps? You’ll be begging for mercy as the wench makes you swing… or forces you to walk the plank!”
“First day and already we have volunteers for the brig, ‘Red Marie’?”
“You know why they call me ‘Red Marie’?” she snarled, looking at the other guests with an intensity that shocked Calista. “Because of the red trail I leave behind me wielding a cutlass…”
“You’ve got no cutlass now,” the surfer dude announced, smiling arrogantly at the others with that know-it-all look… only to hear a loud scraping sound across the room as the captain drew his cutlass.
“I know better than to be on the bad side of not one, but two, hot-tempered women,” the captain acknowledged, handing Marie his cutlass. “But poor Blue doesn’t know how to handle himself yet – so be kind Red Marie, and have a little mercy for the dullard.”
“Dullard?” the man dubbed ‘Blue’ and wearing his blue wristband laughed and looked around for support. “This is an act, a joke, and it’s pathetic to think that…”
Calista couldn’t help but jump as the captain and Jared both came out of nowhere – grabbing Blue and yanking him off the bench, putting him up against the wall.
“Enough,” the captain growled in the silence. “You’ll treat the crew politely and engage in niceties with your fellow teammates – or you’ll kindly remove yourself.”
“Where to?”
