Makarovia! Yes, I Know Where That is! Sophomore Year - 56. Chapter 56

Malta Bound

We left Antikythera with no regrets. It had been a respite for the day and night. No one came and bothered us.

I couldn’t know what shifts they had on the Duchess. It were rules for what I assumed were guidelines to understand; how employees were treated was one. There were trade unions I theorized. They were everywhere, right? Only if you hire a man belonging to one. I didn’t know.

There was a time of great upheaval that shook the world when the Soviet’s called it quits. Felt the most in East Europe. Right after the USSR collapsed Russia lost control of things and like a whimpering animal licking its wounds. What could they say? So sorry. It’s our fault. Our bad. Our fault. Well, it was their fault! Almost half a century the USSR had control. Places like Romania, the Ukraine and other countries were severed from the body and had to cope on their own. Poor Makarovia was the last thing on anybody’s mind. You take them one would say shoving us forward like an unwanted player on a team. No, you take them. Shoving us back. We had them last time. We were unwanted red-headed step-children??

Isn’t that the source of warm feelings inside you? Of course it isn’t! The king then simply said those willing to give support were opportunists, conmen and just plain thieves. Nothing insulting or offense intended. A man with hands clasped together unseen by long sleeves bows, “ancient proverb say: if it seems too good to be true. It is.” The man bows again as a deep, ringing “bong” of a gong is heard.

Olek’s Dad and his father and grandfather dealt with Nazis and Soviets. Criminals weren’t difficult to deal with. For me, I didn’t see a difference in any of them. Peter pointed it out to me. Where would crooks go? They would be trapped like others who are unprepared and it could cost them their lives. That pressure shouldn’t just go away.

My original point was, no, I didn’t forget it. I was expecting Western laws and ethics about labor and treatment to apply. To make a sudden change could be harmful instead of being helpful.

Peter and I walked back to our quarters.

“You had a good talk with Alec.” Peter said. He sounded genuine, with just a little suspicion.

“We did!” I smiled, ignoring the extra for the moment. “He’s like a man thirsting for water, or starving. He can’t get enough.”

Peter nodded. “And what happens when love enters the relationship?”

I stopped Peter. “You know there’s no one but you.”

Peter grinned shaking his head and rolled his eyes. “Not you,” he went to English, “Numbnuts!”

I know my eyes had surprise clearly seen on my face as I tried to remember. “Have I said that to you? Or is this the result of that hour on Mondays and Wednesdays with Ted?”

He stopped a few seconds and said. “I don’t remember and who cares? I’m saying he could fall in love with you.”

I had considered it. “Isn’t that a little of what we want? Don’t we want that love?”

Peter nodded. “It’s not us, but you I worry about. He shared his reason for how he acts.” It wasn’t a question.

“Not in much detail…”

“But he told you in less than a day!” Peter reasoned. “I am going be worried as the friendship grows. It’s growing now in a few hours.” He shrugged a nod. “I trust you, but Alec has a heart. Don’t break his.”

I smiled as I nodded. “I understand. He is amazing.”

Peter shrugged. “Sure, he is. He’s Makarovian.” He said lightly.

“Seriously,” I said firmly. “He is.”

Peter smiled with compassion. “Was it that bad?”

I grudging nodded. “I’m not comfortable talking about Alec. I will say,” I nodded. “It’s one of the worst I read or heard about. It’s amazing he’s sane.”

Peter nodded. “Mikell said it was.” Peter put his finger in my face again, “All the more reason to be very cautious. Be his friend.” He patted my chest. “This heart is mine.”

It was morning when I heard the engines come on quietly. It was still dark out from the early hour of the morning.

The Duchess could go twenty to thirty knots. Depending on how much she weighed. Knots and speed were determined by the number of knots we pass, the knot being 1,852 kilometers an hour or one nautical mile divided by thirty… (Ow. All this left brained stuff just hurts my head. I use my right half of my brain a Hell of a lot more to appreciate paintings, colors, music and the arts in general.)

The Duchess was sleek and the deck lay out was to minimize space used and needed. I found out she was built for efficiency. We had enough fuel to get there and back. I might get by convincing people I was a therapist. No one would believe I was a sailor. I know there are vendors to get what we need, but where do you get a gallon or two of boat gas? Where does it go in? How do you put it in?

It wasn’t long before we were moving. The engines didn’t strain once.

We woke again and the sun was up and shining. Peter and I showered and dressed. It was just past ten in the morning and we found Henri in his comfort zone. The galley was where he felt the best.

He looked up and smiled. “Good morning. Coffee, right?”

“Please?” I answered.

Henri went to task on the coffee. “That was a nice cookout.”

Peter nodded. “Where without you wouldn’t have happen at all.”

“When you visit us,” I looked at him, “and you better. We’ll have you served. Not serving.”

Henri nodded and looked away a little. “It might be a problem if I ever became sick of cooking. Dreading coming to work, but,” he threw his hands out helplessly, “I love it. I have an excuse to come in here and create something wonderful. No two dishes are the same, be it less thyme or more oregano…”

“Or truffles in a burger.” Peter nodded understanding.

“I can’t take credit for that, but you’re right.” Henri nodded handing us our coffee. “It’s with the unexplored where we have discoveries. I’ve made a few. I hope to find more.” He looked at the clock. “I need fifteen minutes to finish this and then thirty to make breakfast.” He grinned. “It seems the chef yesterday must have been distracted. Somethings didn’t get done.” He even sounded embarrassed.

Peter nodded and hugged Henri. “You leave him alone.”

“Be nice when talking about our friend!” I added. “We love him!”

Henri smiled bigger. “Thank you. He feels the same with you. Forty-five minutes.”

I set my watch.

Only Mercea and Cosmo were in the common room. Mercea grinned seeing us. “Do you want to play cards?” He asked shuffling the deck.

“We’d love to!” I said sitting down and remembered. “Is this the only deck?”

Mercea looked puzzled. “There are two more in the drawer over there.”

I nodded going over and looked. The two I put in my pocket. “Just in case someone comes to play cards, they can’t without these. They’ll have to come upstairs.”

Peter nodded patting Cosmo on the shoulder. “He gets so determined about some things.”

“So,” I said, “let’s go.”

The Living Area upstairs had a table and chairs deck and Peter asked. “What’s the game?”

“Poker.” Cosmo replied holding up some blue and red chips in the round container.

Peter nodded. “Fine. Seven Card Stud? Razz? Texas Hold’em or even Chinese? Just name the game.” And he stood there and shuffled the cards in his right hand only! Then he sat where I watched him do the riffle and cascading shuffle. I could almost hear the slow rhythmical beat of music grow more rapid right before the shark will attack. Even Cosmo’s and Mercea’s eyes grew seeing that.

I walked up to Peter sticking my hand out. “We’ve never met. I’m Eric. What’s your name?”

Peter chuckled shaking my hand. “Someone that spent a great deal of time in their room in the past.” He dealt and we started playing. Fortunately, Peter’s skill with cards was limited to shuffling and a few tricks. Bluffing? He couldn’t bluff very well. Not to me anyway. I couldn’t brag either. I couldn’t fool him. I didn’t have a poker face. We were in our third hand when my watch went off. They had their breakfast already.

Alec and Mikell came up and I jumped up handing my cards to Alec. “You be me.”

Peter nodded handing his cards to Mikell. “That means you’re me.”

I nodded. “We were slightly late once.”

“This time,” Peter said, “Henri might…hurt us.”

“We’re not taking the risk.” I taking Peter’s hand and walked in the dining area.

Henri came out, pushing the cart again. He did his voila and revealed there were good sized steaming disks on each plate. “These are a shrimp, crab and scallop pancakes…” he faltered a little, “sort of.” He pointed at “pancakes.” “There are bell peppers, scallions, kimchi and Sriracha in them.”

Peter nodded. “I know all them but kimchi.”

I switched to Makarovian. “It’s salted and fermented vegetables.”

“Oh.” Peter said.

I switched to English again. “That’s Asian, isn’t it?”

Henri gave a reluctant, squirming shrug his hand giving a more or less signal. “EEeem. It came from Korea.”

“And you made some discovery.” I nodded.

Henri nodded with a smile. “Precisely.”

Then we heard an agonized groan and someone being called a son of a bitch in Makarovian, followed by men laughing. The Duchess was big, yes, but not that big.

“What was that?” Henri asked a little alarmed.

Peter smiled at me. “Music to our ears.”

“The men came from below and now feel free to be men.” I nodded. “And what was always wanted.”

Raised voices were just going to happen. The laughing and sudden declarations about another’s legitimacy of birth status or dark personality came more than any of it. It was louder. It was music to my ears. Comradery was so important. They had to know and trust each other, too. They watch Peter and me, but they also watched out for each other. They had to. Their lives could depend on it. Like back in Boston when attacked with Olek and Mom there after Penny’s betrayal. Never mind it was my birthday. Or in London when we were attacked. I wasn’t just being dramatic. It could be very dangerous.

The “pancakes” were orbit sending. We savored every bite.

We walked in the living area and saw Rolph had joined them. He sat out of the game. I asked him why and he told me if I wanted win, bet the opposite of what he did. He didn’t have good luck with gambling.

“Isn’t love a gamble?” I asked.

Rolph nodded. “Oh yes. Here’s another idiom. Lucky in cards, unlucky in love.” He grinned. “I’ll stick with the love part.”

Depth!! All these men had depth to me now. Except Cosmo. He had some, but I’d work on each of them.

I slumped by Peter on a couch. “We’ll be picking up Yuri and Boris in a couple of days.” I turned to Peter. “Do you think Yuri will be upset?”

Peter frowned. “I don’t know if he’ll feel anything.” He sighed. “We’re telling him what he is to do.” He threw his arm around me hugging me. “Here’s a lesson.” His head moved back an inch. “Don’t give me that surprised expression.” That’s right, I have no poker face. “You’ve hardly needed one until now.” He pulled me closer. “You are a prince now. You might not feel different, but you are. There is only Olek and Mom that outranks us.” He grinned. “At times she outranks him and Olek knows it. That you worry about hurting him is fine. However, this is what you want. Making it work is up to Yuri.” Peter nodded a little. “He will do it. I know he will. The only problem will be if we ask him to do something Olek said not to. He can take it. He’s a big boy.”

Everything in my life had taught me to be kind and think of others. I didn’t know the absolute best way for anything. Grandpa told me this little nugget of wisdom. Find a way to do something well, but you can bet somewhere in the world, someone will do it better. Be proud of what you can do, but be a gracious loser when someone does it better.

Was my way better than Yuri’s way? I researched and saw the different styles. I was no authority…oh, yes. I was. Peter just reminded me I was.

I hate confrontations. If it came to that, I could argue my side. I didn’t want to, but would.

I was amazed at how that made me feel. I could face down a grizzly bear.

Peter chuckled beside me shaking his head in quiet delight. “Don’t ever change.” He leaned in kissing me gently.

We were at sea! Don’t ask how fast, I don’t want a headache. We were going at a good speed, I think. On the deck above the main deck had the media center and a lounge. Above that was the bridge and office. Most of the ship was on one level and below the main deck. I saw Gretchen! I almost took it as a victory until I was told she probably let me see her to make me feel better. Yeah, it figured.

There was a library! Not the group of books in print. There was a library of books, music, TV shows and movies that numbered in the thousands! Many languages of books, television and movies. The television and movies could be seen on any screen. There were these rectangular tablets to read and if you use the earbuds, watch the movie or show.

This was so incredibly dangerous! I prayed Aunt Maria liked us and would let us use the Duchess again.

“It’s almost a shame we’ll be in Malta tomorrow.” Peter confessed.

“Why?”

“We could have spent our entire honeymoon here.” Peter said as he sifted through some movie titles.

I grinned at him moving over him. We were the only ones in the media center. “It’s a given that married people require less verbal communication to talk to each other. Now you can read my mind? Not a second ago, I thought the same thing!” I lowered myself over him almost kissing him.

Peter chuckled with a shrug. “Great minds think alike.”

Then we heard, “They’re in here!” Mercea shouted to someone. He grinned at us. “Mikell wanted to know if you fell overboard or something.” He waved at us. “Carry on.” He said and was about to leave.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

Mercea looked uncertain. “You…” I swear, that boy/man’s face was so damned cute as he blushed, “were busy.”

“With the door open, knowing others onboard that could come in?” Peter looked at me. “Though you did marry Mercea. Would it be cheating? Because technically…”

I saw Mercea’s eyes grow at the implications with what Peter said and I reached down, grabbed Peter’s left nipple through his shirt and twisted lightly giving him the beginnings of a purple-nurple. He yelped in the midst of his laughter. “That was just phase one.” I growled at Peter and looked at Mercea. “He’s just teasing you. You don’t have to give us privacy. We have our quarters for any more and enough good manners when not to do that.” I looked at Peter who was still laughing. “Don’t we?” I challenged holding my hand up to do it again.

“Absolutely.” Peter agreed quickly, but laughing again.

I was about to apologize for the college frat house behavior and then I realized, that’s exactly what we were! Peter and I were college students away for the summer. We were older than some, but it was age appropriate! It could have been worse. We had time and the means to get drunk every night! So far, only one “hangover” from the ouzo. Getting drunk might be fun, but it costs too much, Maybe it was because I had lost Tony. He had a lot to do with it. Maybe it just made more sense to enjoy it sparingly. The hour or so recovering from a hangover was worse to me than the few hours of drunk I had or even clearly remember. There’s nothing wrong with Jesus’ first miracle in the Bible. Even I know that. Never mind about the needed sanitation and other reasons people give. Bring me a glass of God Made Wine and we’ll discuss it. Until then, it’s my decision and my opinion. There was an opinion recorded in the Bible. A guest at the wedding even commented on them serving the best wine last instead of first! It was an important enough statement to be recorded with the all the “Thou shalt nots.” Why else was it written there? It was good wine!

Okay. We were seen by others in the world. Peter and I knew how to behave ourselves. We also knew when we didn’t have to. Today, we didn’t have to.

Things were settling into place.