CHIEF PURSER (5-minute Freewrite)

a 5-minute Freewrite by A.E. Jackson

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If you'll permit me, I am going to challenge myself to stay in the same story for all the 5-minute Freewrite Prompts for the month of February! Let's see how this turns out...

"It is a conspiracy, don't you see it?" She walked away from the table, clenching her fists.

Standing behind the table was Chief Purser Jim Duncan. He had seen a lot of things in his seventeen years about cruise lines. Never had he seen a Captain dead set on setting sail in the midst of a Category 3 storm. Jim didn't believe it was even possible. There was no way the local authority would allow it. Safety standard prohibited it. And there were people still boarding the ship just an hour from launch. No way!

But, he had seen a lot in his time aboard ships. Jim started out as a bus boy one summer during college. He had nothing to return to at home, and nothing preventing him from taking a summer to explore who he was. So he set sail with Legacy Cruise Lines. They had him aboard to clean up after rowdy passengers, cart luggage to and fro, and attend to lonely widows.

It was the later most chore Jim found he enjoyed most. Not for the reasons obvious to most common individual. Mr. Duncan had his mind set on higher things. Necklaces, earrings, room safes, and watches. Jim kept the sad old ladies entertained, and gleaned his own tips while they slept.

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"Sir, I am afraid you will have to disembark, cast the seeds overboard, or leave them in my care. You can retrieve them when we make landfall in seven days." How long was Jim cut out for this work? Let's be honest.

"Pumpkins can grow everywhere. That is not what I want to discuss with you," the man holding the bag of seeds said. He was frustrated now. Jim was the third Purser to attend to this rain soaked guest, and he stuck to the book. Jim might have his own hobbies, but he followed each letter of the law when it came to running the ship.

"I can tell you are very passionate about helping indigenous people thrive, sir. However, international law is quite clear about what can and cannot be brought aboard a cruise ship destined for international ports," Jim said. This lecture got old quick. But it was the one he most often recited.

The man shook the bag of pumpkin seeds, which he had dried at home after seven hours of separating from pulp, in Jim's face. He huffed and set the bag down with frustration, before he walked off to his interior cabin.

---

The watch was broken. That was clear. It was smashed. The hands, each like a lightning bolt caught by the tail, stuck out from a clock face missing most of the numbers. Shards of glass hung to the metal frame, but just a few. Jim suspected the rest were at the bottom of a purse, or bag, or locker. The back of the watch was engraved with a makers mark, and year. 1845. Such a shame. Worthless.

Jim tossed the watch back into the pillow case and continued to rummage through his haul. They were underway at last, amid the torrential rain and ship rocking wind. Category 3, half his crew, and two-thirds of the passengers. This was going to be an interesting voyage. Jim had to keep it together. Keep his head in the game. Just a few more years and he could retire. With the pension offered by the cruise line he could live in comfort.

With the stash he had set aside from his extracurricular activities, he would head off into the sunset in luxury.

T O B E C O N T I N U E D . . .

© 2019, A.E. Jackson. All rights reserved.