The Widow’s Saloon (Part 7 of 7)
In Part 6: The Opal Lance sprung a leak, Captain Marces struck a pose, and Captain Smarner asked an important question.
From the bow of the Delta Comet, Captain Marces could hear the frustrated cries of his former first mate echoing across the water. The Opal Lance was noticeably sinking, and it listed hard to starboard as its helmsman fought to maintain a forward heading.
At his ship’s current speed, Marces realized he could apply enough pressure on his erstwhile comrade to drive Smarner and his desperate crew right into the waiting arms of justice. The captain put one boot up on the rail and laid his forearm across his knee leaning into the sea-spray wind with a fierce, triumphant grin on his face.
Ahead of both vessels, the Navy had finalized their blockade. Their warships’ gunports were opened to reveal rows of polished bronze cannons that gleamed with a cold, metallic purpose, even beneath the milky moonlight.
To the disappointment of everyone except the Opal Lance’s crew and captain, the warships did not have to fire a single shot to encourage their surrender.
A few days after Luis Smarner and his pirate crew had been captured and taken into custody, most of Harbor Side’s residents had their stolen property returned to them.
The lives that were taken could not be replaced.
Chapter 11
Zed and her daughter Zareen lived in a rundown house with a single room. It was taller than it was wide and crooked; it stuck up out of a muddy field like a bent stovepipe, tilting precariously back toward the earth.
The dilapidated remains of several similar dwellings dotted the landscape, a failed attempt to develop land that rebuked cultivation. The rotting homes had been abandoned by owners who could not adapt their houses to the relentless local environment. Zed was intelligent —an engineer and builder— but even she was running out of ways to keep their home from sinking further into the mire. Already, a permanent, cloudy puddle had formed in the far corner of the house’s only room.
Not long after the pirates fled Harbor Side, someone knocked gently against Zed’s front door. It was Robert Elmsly, arriving —he said— to see how she and her daughter were doing. Zed hoped that a part of him stood at her threshold simply because he wanted to be around her.
“I saw the smoke signal,” she said, willing herself to say anything rather than let the next moment pass in silence. “Pirates?”
Elmsly nodded, eyes downcast. When Zed noticed his somber expression, she realized that this might not be the best time for romance, and stopped trying to make their encounter what she wanted it to be. Elmsly’s clothes were still wet and his feet entirely bare; he had walked all the way across town like that.
“Hey,” she said, catching his eye. “Do you want to come inside and tell me what happened?”
Elmsly smiled, surprised to find himself on the verge of tears. “I’d love that,” he said. “Thank you.”
Zed led him into her house, where her seven year old daughter was preoccupied, playing with a fleet of toy metal ships in the middle of the floor. The space was severely cramped and there appeared to be no place to sit except a thin mattress or upon the sagging floorboards themselves. Elmsly surveyed the home surreptitiously; it was small and Zed’s belongings showed the inevitable wear of extended poverty, but it was evident to him that she maintained what she had with diligent care.
Elmsly’s feet were covered in mud from his trek across Harbor Side. His clothes remained damp and heavy after his swim in the bay, and as he became more conscious of himself within the context of his surroundings, he grew concerned how badly he smelled of sweat, mud, and whatever else he may have stepped in along the way.
Dark clouds gathered above Zed threatening a hail of mortification as she tracked Elmsly’s gaze while he inspected her small living quarters. She wondered —with a gradually sinking heart— if the downright dire state of her home would drive the man away.
“I’m sorry about the—”
“I’m sorry about my—”
They spoke at the same time, and the sudden overlap of their voices caused the little girl on the floor to look up from the mock naval battle she was overseeing. Zed shook her head and let out a soft, weary laugh. If Elmsly could not understand her past challenges or handle her current reality, then it really was better for him to leave now anyway.
“This is my daughter,” she said, walking further into the home. “Her name’s Zareen.”
Elmsly followed, shutting the door behind him. “Isn’t that your name? Your real one, I mean.”
“It was,” Zed told him. “Now she’s Zareen, too.”
Elmsly lowered himself onto one knee in front of the girl. “Hello, Zareen Two. Did you know that that’s my name, too?”
The girl’s eyes widened in shock. “Really?”
Elmsly grinned. “No, I’m Robert, but it’s nice to meet you.” He extended his hand to the girl, who shook it perfunctorily, without returning the adult’s smile. “You can call me Bobby if you like.”
“Bobby?”
“That’s right.”
“Your clothes smell bad, Bobby!”
Elmsly was won over, instantly. Heart filled by a surge of sudden warmth, he threw his head back and laughed.
From right then, until the tragic moment years later when he disappeared from her life, Robert Elmsly was the best father Zareen could have had.
Chapter 12
Back at the Dotted Ox, things quickly returned to normal. It had been a busy saloon since the day it opened, and Vlorance was quite proficient at restoring the establishment after a riotous night. She—along with two of her employees—mopped the floors and wiped down the bar, rearranged the furniture, and swapped out a table stained with blood for one of the weathered, old round ones she kept in storage. Just two days after the pirate ship Opal Lance was boarded in Ocean Bay and its crew taken into custody, the Dotted Ox was open for business. Almost everyone in Harbor Side made sure to show up.
The homes and businesses destroyed in the attack on Harbor Side were rebuilt, with Vlorance Kallowary secretly donating enough funds to cover a majority of the costs.
By the time the wharves and piers were restored, the people of Harbor Side began to heal—each in their own way. Alistair, for example, started to pursue his passion for music with genuine conviction; he would go on to become the first music teacher at Harbor Side’s public school when it was finally established.
Vlorance remained occupied at the Ox, eventually saving enough money to pay for the remaining members of the Kallowary family to come from Catfish City over to Harbor Side. She—of course—booked their passage upon the now-famous Delta Comet, commanded by the equally well-known Captain Marces—the only captain on Ocean Bay who steadfastly refused to employ a first mate.
Elmsly spent increasing amounts of time at Zed’s home instead of his own. One day, when they were exhausted from an afternoon of berry picking, Elmsly and Zed flopped down onto the mattress in the middle of the room. Zareen was in the part of the house that counted as the kitchen, putting away the fruit they had collected. When she was done, the girl crawled onto the mattress—squeezing herself between the two adults—and promptly fell asleep. Elmsly and Zed smiled lovingly at each other over the top of the child’s head.
Harbor Side faced many challenges in the years that followed: hurricanes, forest fires, and floods. It even survived a stampede of a thousand deer. No matter what Triarion threw at the town, its inhabitants simply built it back up. They were a hardened group and for the most part, they protected one another. Together, they rebuilt the town and improved its waterfront defenses. Eventually, with its naval protection and increasingly combative population, Harbor Side developed a reputation as a less than attractive target.
It was decades before pirates tried to attack it again.
THE END
In Part 8: Oh, right, there isn’t one. How about some info instead? Henry Kallowary was a large, freckled man. Playfully, Vlorance sometimes called him her “dotted ox”.
