Still groggy, Pack
splashed water on his face and rubbed it with his paws. Last morning
had been too close, he needed to be more careful. He looked at
himself in the mirror disdainfully, his whiskers were all drooped and
water was still dripping off his face. He dried himself off with a
towel and pulled out a small comb, and set to work on making himself
presentable.
After quite some time he
was finally satisfied, and he strode to the door of his cabin
confidently. “Boo!” a scraggly, brown-furred, upside-down face
said to him as he opened the door. The face bore wide, happy eyes,
one green and one blue, and an even wider grin. Pack's demeanor
remained unchanged, but the faintest trace of a smile appeared across
his lips.
“I didn't hear you
arrive”, he said to the face.
She dropped down from the
railing above his cabin and landed neatly on her feet. Despite her
shaggy appearance, he was always impressed by how graceful she was.
“Silly, I've come and gone and come again while you've been in
there.” She put her paws on his face and messed his fur around.
“There!” she said happily. “Now we match!”
He laughed and smoothed
down his fur with one paw, but he knew he must look awful. “We
could also match if you would let me groom that fur of yours.”
“You'd never win”,
she said, hopping about, “my fur has a mind of its own, no one can
tell it what to do.” She grabbed his arm and pulled at him. “The
fur wants to go, come on!” She giggled happily as she dragged him
along.
Pack had to step quickly
to keep up with her as she skipped up the steps to the bow. She let
go of his arm, hopped up on the railing, and nimbly turned around in
place. She craned her neck backwards: “All the stars are out
tonight.”
Pack looked up,
nonplussed. “They're out most nights.”
“Not like this”,
she said, shaking her head. “The moment I saw them, I wanted to
show you.” She looked down at him. “Look carefully, maybe
you'll see it.”
“See what?” he
asked, scanning the skies.
“There's a secret
message for you in the stars tonight”, she whispered, leaning
towards him. “They need to tell you something important.”
Pack sighed knowingly and
looked down at her. Her fur was a mess of tangles and knots, all the
way from the brown fur on her face to the nearly black fur on her
feet. Yet there was something striking about her, perched on the
ship's railing, blanketed by the light of the stars. He smiled warmly
at her: “I don't need the stars to tell me silly things, I have
you.”
“You can thank the
stars for that too, they tell me how to find you. I just tell the
stars that I want to be with you, and then I follow the dullest,
plainest one.” She giggled. “That one's my favourite. It might
not be bright and shiny, but it's warm, and it always listens to me.”
He noticed she was looking
right at him, but he couldn't think of anything to say, he just
looked right back into those odd-coloured eyes. She closed her eyes
and smiled. “Do you think the stars are lonely? All the way out
there on their own?.”
“Well, if they
have you to talk to them, I don't think they'll ever get bored.”
She smiled widely at him
and jumped down off the railing, straight towards him, he put his
arms out to catch her, but she was leaning too far forward, and they
toppled over. He landed flat on his back, his arms around her as she
lay on top of him.
Pack groaned and opened
his eyes. She was staring right at him, arms folded across his
chest, her nose almost pressed against his. “You look like a
Nathan”, she said, tilting her head. “or maybe a Walter.”
“A what?” Pack
asked her, more confused than usual.
“Strangers I've
met.” she replied, her odd-coloured eyes staring right into him.
“I've been trying to find someone like you over there.”
“Why would you do
that?”
“Because maybe
some day I'll find you over there and you'll say 'surprise, it's
me!', and then I can show you all sorts of great things...” She
put her paws at the side of his head and buried her face in his
chest.
He sighed. “We need to
get up.”
“Why?”, she
asked sweetly, plying him with her big, round eyes. “I like it
like this.”
“Oh, all right”,
he sighed, gently stroking her back with his paw. She purred softly
and wrapped her arms around his neck. She mumbled something into his
chest, but it was too muffled to hear. Pack's breathing slowed and
his eyes began to droop. He couldn't have said how long they laid
there together, but it felt like a long time.
“Excuse me, sir,”
said Quill, “but we need the day's schedule.”
She was on her feet
instantly, but it took Pack longer to pick himself up. “Today's
schedule is whatever you want it to be!” she said energetically.
Finally back on his feet,
Pack looked up, and was shocked to see that the sun was already
starting to come up. “I'll address the crew” he said, quickly,
and Quill hurried off.
Everyone had gathered on
the deck, in orderly fashion. Pack leaned over the railing Lapse had
been hanging from earlier to speak to them. “There's not much
time,” he said, “so we'll just focus on the essentials. Check
the supplies, patch up any cracks in the hull, and prepare yourself
for today's business as quickly as you can.”
“And they have to
hop on one foot!” said a poor imitation of Pack's voice.
There was a crash from
somewhere towards the back of the audience. Pack turned around to
face her, but she had already danced around him. She put her paws on
his shoulders and giggled, “Also, I will be busy”, said the same
artificially deep voice, “so everyone use their own judgment and
don't bother me.” She squeezed him really tight and nuzzled the
back of his neck.
“Lapse”, he
said, putting his paws on hers, “you have to go back. There isn't
any time left.”
She sulked behind him as
he lead her back to the plank to her own ship. The sun was high in
the sky now.
“It was good to
see you” he said, hugging her. “We'll be together again soon, I
promise.”
Lapse merely stared down
at her feet. “Come with me!” she blurted out suddenly, with a
strange look in her eyes. “There's so much I want to show you!”
She took his paws in hers,
but he gently pulled them away, “I can't come with you, it's too
dangerous. The mornings are work, not for play, we each have our own
jobs to do.”
“I just wanted to
show you... something special” she said, backing away. “Are
you... afraid to be with me?”
“Of course not.
It's just that-”
“I thought someone
liked me.” She drooped her head. Pack suddenly felt a terrible
pain in his throat. “I'm always all alone...”
“You know I do!”
he said, quickly, but she and her ship were gone. “Lapse!” he
yelled at the empty waters, but the sun was calling for him, too.
---
“Lapse...” Pack
opened his eyes, he was still sitting in the chair in his cabin. He
stood up, and walked to the window, it was already early out. He had
been away far too long, his crew would be lost without his guidance.
Without even bothering to adjust his whiskers, he bolted out of his
cabin and up the steps.
He stopped at the railing
to observe the deck, and was shocked at what he saw: the members of
his crew skirted to and fro, busying themselves with various tasks.
The ship looked in good working order, and no one even seemed to
notice him. “She was right”, he thought to himself. “They
really can manage without me.”
Just then, Snag came up on
deck, holding a bucket. It was dripping water behind him, but not
too much. He noticed Pack, and walked over to him. “Do you have
any new orders for me, sir?” he asked?
“I have business
to take care of in my cabin. Carry on, Snag.”
“Yes sir”, he
nodded, and walked off. Wordlessly, Pack watched him disappear below
deck, then he turned and walked back into his cabin.
His notebook was still
lying where he had tossed it the night before. He picked it up
gently and tried to smooth out some of the crinkled pages, but the
damage remained. He flipped to the last few pages of the book, and
pulled out a quill. “Hop on one foot”, he added, then put the
quill away. He sat down in his chair, turned back a few pages, and
wept openly as he read over his memories of the time they spent
together.
The sun was already out
when he finished reading the book. “I hope Corsair and Sister will
stay safe, and I hope Lapse is all right, and that I'll see her again
someday”, he said aloud, holding the book against his chest. “Most
of all”, he said under his breath, “wherever she is, I hope Lapse
knows that someone does care for her.”
---
He was shaken from his
reflection by a storm of footsteps, likely belonging to at least two
dozen people or so. Looking about, he found himself at the back of a
small group of smartly-attired men and women, all of whom were
walking in the same direction down a narrow hallway. Most of them
were carrying book bags or knapsacks, he noticed, and he found that
he had one as well around his arm. He stepped quickly to keep up
with them, but just as he did so, the group stopped abruptly and he
bumped into the woman standing in front of him. “Sorry”, he
muttered quietly, but he was interrupted by the man who appeared to
be leading the group.
“Just across from
me is the campus bookstore” said the man at the front, gesturing to
a door to his left. “You can find a list of required books for
each course in your course calendar, and you should try to do your
shopping well before classes start if you want to avoid long lines.
Moving on...”
He turned around and
continued walking down the hallway, and the pack shuffled after him.
“This is all very exciting, but I don't see how I'm ever going to
remember where everything is” said the woman Pack had bumped into
earlier.
“You'll get used
to it”, he told her. “It all becomes routine quickly enough.”
He was no stranger to college campuses, labyrinthine as they were the
strangers rarely got lost unless it was time to take a test.
“I'm Shelly, by
the way, you've already met my back”, she said, turning to him,
hand outstretched. He shook it. “I don't know anyone else here,
I'm the only one who came here from my school.” They continued
walking.
“You must be
looking forward to meeting new people” Pack offered, trying to be
supportive.
“Well...” she
paused, looking down at her feet. “I don't know. I don't want to
lose my old friends. I've known them for a long time; they're
precious to me. What about you?”
Pack took a deep breath.
“Actually, there is someone I know here, but he's not with the
group, I've been trying to find him. You haven't seen Steven, have
you?”
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