Daydreams II
Daydreams II
Words: 1245
Rating: G
Summary: a continuation of my old story
Jamie slammed his fist into the railing, watching Jamaica fade into the distance.Shellack was peeling off the pale pine railing he was leaning on. He dug at it with his thumb nail, flicking the old inferior shellack residue into the sea. He tssked aloud. If a railing on a ship in the Royal Navy looked like that, the midshipmen would spend the day sanding it down, painting it with new shellack-and going to bed without supper. What the old man wanted, the old man got after all. Even if that included forcing his only son onto The Wavemaker, a simple passenger ship headed for England and the Continent, first stop London.
He didn’t want to be a bloody lawyer. All that talk, all those big words, designed to trick and confuse people, locked up in hot stuffy rooms all day, arguing over even more words. He didn’t want to TALK, he hated to talk. All the talk in the world hadn’t made any difference for him. It certainly hadn’t brought his mother back.
He wanted to sail, he loved the water. He’d been swimming since he was toddler in the clear aqua water just outside his home. And he wanted to save people. He didn’t want his father to be the only James Norrington people could count on. The moment the skull and crossbones was glimpsed on the high seas, his father’s name became a prayer people whispered for deliverance. Rear Admiral Norrington will take care of it. It will be safe again soon.
“Bloody hell!” he fussed, happy to be able to cuss, but he still flinched as if the Almighty Admiral could hear him even from this distance.
Nothing was going right. Pearl was going to have a slapped-together coming out party right there in the tropics, since the Norringtons didn’t have enough interested family left to put Pearl up for the Season in London. She’d have the same inferior choices her mother had - dilettante sugar plantation owner’s sons or military men. Gentlemen were a rarity at such an exotic outpost of the British Empire. Burke's Peerage listed exactly one with a permanent residence in the colony of Jamaica, a Lord Standish,who had just passed his 90th birthday. Jamie knew because he’d looked. He’d been given the task of seeking out suitable candidates for his sister’s hand after the Admiral had abandoned all the ton directories in disgust.
His father was even less capable than he in society, even though the older James valued it far more. Very highly indeed, despite never being able to breach its gates, as a military man with no parents, raised by a merchant class uncle. While the Admiral may find society tedious, he still knew exactly what social acceptance could do for a person, could do for his children, and he would never let anyone forget his children’s grandfather had been a gentleman, the Governor of the colony, and a personal friend of the King. Jamie knew it was what Uncle Jack found most silly about his father - a reverence for such an outmoded institution he would never be part of anyway. Jamie was not stupid, he knew the Admiral simultaneously hated and was frightfully jealous of how free Uncle Jack had always been.
Uncle Jack. It was a small island. Whispers about he and Pearl’s real parentage had circulated for years. There seemed to have been three options: the Admiral, Uncle Jack, and someone else, whose name had been banned in his house. Jamie was the very image of his father, but blonde haired, brown eyed Pearl, a duplicate of her mother, could be anyone’s. He knew the rumors irritated his father. But though the Admiral was never sure of much where his wife was concerned, he sure his children were his. He hadn’t seen Uncle Jack since “the falling out”, or so it was termed between he and Pearl.
He and Pearl didn’t know their father all that well, and the fact that Rear Admiral Norrington was hard to know was only a fraction of the reason. He’d been gone. Gone for most of their childhoods. Sailing all over the world searching for their mother. She’d disappeared better than a decade ago-simply gone with no trace. Uncle Jack believed she was lost, still out there somewhere needing help. Jamie knew their father believed she’d simply left and made a different life for herself somewhere, just as he knew the Admiral would never ever talk about it. The shouting, the accusations….had nearly taken down the roof the last time Uncle Jack had visited, resulting in Uncle Jack swearing he’d never speak to the Admiral again, and the Admiral barring Uncle Jack from his house.
If Jamie were unkind, he could draw a few conclusions about the woman who had given birth to him. He and his sister’s parentage was somewhat in question. At least three different men had been in, or were rumored to have been in, her bed. His father readily believed his wife would abandon him. And when Uncle Jack insisted she would never abandon her children, his father had shouted back, “She did once! Why not again? Or do you choose to forget that episode since she had gone gallivanting off with you?!” After so many years of searching, the only way the Admiral could bring himself to stop was to believe his wife loved the sea more than she could ever love him, and loved her freedom more than she could ever love her children. Fighting Elizabeth leaving him had been fighting a losing battle since the first day of their marriage, and the Admiral was done fighting.
So let him be done, Jamie said to himself. HE would find his mother. He would find her and rescue her and bring her home. He would prove she hadn’t abandoned them by choice. He could do that if he were a sailor, he’d wind up all over the civilized world eventually. But no matter what he said, the Admiral refused to understand that salt water flowed in his son’s veins as much as it did in he and his wife’s. “You will be a man of letters like your grandfather. You will become a lawyer, and then who knows what you can accomplish with an education! You can be a governor somewhere-you can be rich, privileged, marry whomever you like, go wherever you choose. I didn’t work this hard all my life so my son could be a Navy drudge like me!” Jamie could recite the words at will at this point, and often had for Pearl’s amusement. His impressions of his father were so accurate, even Uncle Jack has been astonished, swearing time had begun to tick backwards and a young version of his father stood before him. Pearl’s thirteenth birthday when they had sat on the beach at midnight, lighting driftwood on fire to watch it turn brilliant colors, Uncle Jack had picked up a damp piece, and failing to light it declared, it was too wet, “So. It. Would. Seem”, Jamie offered in his father’s baritone, and Uncle Jack had rolled around on the sand he was laughing so hard. Jamie was smiling despite himself. He hadn’t had an unhappy childhood despite the absence of his parents, or his strict father. He knew he was loved. But he also knew he wouldn’t be happy spending the next 7 years in a stuffy classroom.
Jamie continued to fume as he moved steadily north.
Words: 1245
Rating: G
Summary: a continuation of my old story
Jamie slammed his fist into the railing, watching Jamaica fade into the distance.Shellack was peeling off the pale pine railing he was leaning on. He dug at it with his thumb nail, flicking the old inferior shellack residue into the sea. He tssked aloud. If a railing on a ship in the Royal Navy looked like that, the midshipmen would spend the day sanding it down, painting it with new shellack-and going to bed without supper. What the old man wanted, the old man got after all. Even if that included forcing his only son onto The Wavemaker, a simple passenger ship headed for England and the Continent, first stop London.
He didn’t want to be a bloody lawyer. All that talk, all those big words, designed to trick and confuse people, locked up in hot stuffy rooms all day, arguing over even more words. He didn’t want to TALK, he hated to talk. All the talk in the world hadn’t made any difference for him. It certainly hadn’t brought his mother back.
He wanted to sail, he loved the water. He’d been swimming since he was toddler in the clear aqua water just outside his home. And he wanted to save people. He didn’t want his father to be the only James Norrington people could count on. The moment the skull and crossbones was glimpsed on the high seas, his father’s name became a prayer people whispered for deliverance. Rear Admiral Norrington will take care of it. It will be safe again soon.
“Bloody hell!” he fussed, happy to be able to cuss, but he still flinched as if the Almighty Admiral could hear him even from this distance.
Nothing was going right. Pearl was going to have a slapped-together coming out party right there in the tropics, since the Norringtons didn’t have enough interested family left to put Pearl up for the Season in London. She’d have the same inferior choices her mother had - dilettante sugar plantation owner’s sons or military men. Gentlemen were a rarity at such an exotic outpost of the British Empire. Burke's Peerage listed exactly one with a permanent residence in the colony of Jamaica, a Lord Standish,who had just passed his 90th birthday. Jamie knew because he’d looked. He’d been given the task of seeking out suitable candidates for his sister’s hand after the Admiral had abandoned all the ton directories in disgust.
His father was even less capable than he in society, even though the older James valued it far more. Very highly indeed, despite never being able to breach its gates, as a military man with no parents, raised by a merchant class uncle. While the Admiral may find society tedious, he still knew exactly what social acceptance could do for a person, could do for his children, and he would never let anyone forget his children’s grandfather had been a gentleman, the Governor of the colony, and a personal friend of the King. Jamie knew it was what Uncle Jack found most silly about his father - a reverence for such an outmoded institution he would never be part of anyway. Jamie was not stupid, he knew the Admiral simultaneously hated and was frightfully jealous of how free Uncle Jack had always been.
Uncle Jack. It was a small island. Whispers about he and Pearl’s real parentage had circulated for years. There seemed to have been three options: the Admiral, Uncle Jack, and someone else, whose name had been banned in his house. Jamie was the very image of his father, but blonde haired, brown eyed Pearl, a duplicate of her mother, could be anyone’s. He knew the rumors irritated his father. But though the Admiral was never sure of much where his wife was concerned, he sure his children were his. He hadn’t seen Uncle Jack since “the falling out”, or so it was termed between he and Pearl.
He and Pearl didn’t know their father all that well, and the fact that Rear Admiral Norrington was hard to know was only a fraction of the reason. He’d been gone. Gone for most of their childhoods. Sailing all over the world searching for their mother. She’d disappeared better than a decade ago-simply gone with no trace. Uncle Jack believed she was lost, still out there somewhere needing help. Jamie knew their father believed she’d simply left and made a different life for herself somewhere, just as he knew the Admiral would never ever talk about it. The shouting, the accusations….had nearly taken down the roof the last time Uncle Jack had visited, resulting in Uncle Jack swearing he’d never speak to the Admiral again, and the Admiral barring Uncle Jack from his house.
If Jamie were unkind, he could draw a few conclusions about the woman who had given birth to him. He and his sister’s parentage was somewhat in question. At least three different men had been in, or were rumored to have been in, her bed. His father readily believed his wife would abandon him. And when Uncle Jack insisted she would never abandon her children, his father had shouted back, “She did once! Why not again? Or do you choose to forget that episode since she had gone gallivanting off with you?!” After so many years of searching, the only way the Admiral could bring himself to stop was to believe his wife loved the sea more than she could ever love him, and loved her freedom more than she could ever love her children. Fighting Elizabeth leaving him had been fighting a losing battle since the first day of their marriage, and the Admiral was done fighting.
So let him be done, Jamie said to himself. HE would find his mother. He would find her and rescue her and bring her home. He would prove she hadn’t abandoned them by choice. He could do that if he were a sailor, he’d wind up all over the civilized world eventually. But no matter what he said, the Admiral refused to understand that salt water flowed in his son’s veins as much as it did in he and his wife’s. “You will be a man of letters like your grandfather. You will become a lawyer, and then who knows what you can accomplish with an education! You can be a governor somewhere-you can be rich, privileged, marry whomever you like, go wherever you choose. I didn’t work this hard all my life so my son could be a Navy drudge like me!” Jamie could recite the words at will at this point, and often had for Pearl’s amusement. His impressions of his father were so accurate, even Uncle Jack has been astonished, swearing time had begun to tick backwards and a young version of his father stood before him. Pearl’s thirteenth birthday when they had sat on the beach at midnight, lighting driftwood on fire to watch it turn brilliant colors, Uncle Jack had picked up a damp piece, and failing to light it declared, it was too wet, “So. It. Would. Seem”, Jamie offered in his father’s baritone, and Uncle Jack had rolled around on the sand he was laughing so hard. Jamie was smiling despite himself. He hadn’t had an unhappy childhood despite the absence of his parents, or his strict father. He knew he was loved. But he also knew he wouldn’t be happy spending the next 7 years in a stuffy classroom.
Jamie continued to fume as he moved steadily north.