Salvage

“Geeze, dad, what is all this stuff from the nineteen forties?” Caspian sighed as he keyed through the call settings on his father’s cell phone, having found it lying on the coffee table, instead of on his father’s person, as was usual.

“Good decade for your dad and mom,” said Jack, his arm around Quinsy as they sat with her brothers, catching up with Brendan, and just in general enjoying that neither Hector or Elizabeth had appeared all morning. “Can’t say it was a bad decade for the two of us either.” He smiled, turning to Quinn, who smiled back at him, and then kissed him.

“I think that’s when we started going out, you might say.” She smiled, and then kissed Jack again.

“Okay, you two need stop that, seriously,” groaned Brendan, wrinkling his nose each time his sister and Jack’s lips met. “Happy for you and all, but really, keep a lid on it…she’s still my sister.”

Jack smiled and stroked his hand over Quinsy’s hair and tried to pull her down to his chest, but she resisted and shot Brendan a look. “And you’ve room to complain, Brendan?” She and Jack had told Cass and Brendan of their engagement months before mentioning anything to her parents, for they knew her brothers would be much more accepting of it, and they were. “It was thanks to your announcement last night that daddy’s going to be back to his blackhearted self today.”

Brendan sighed. “He’s back to that the moment I come home!”

“He’s got you there, Quinn.” Laughed Cass, still fidgeting with his father’s cell phone.

Brendan nodded. “But I am sorry I put you and Jack in this position, I really didn’t mean to. I never should have brought it up, it was stupid.”

Quinsy and Jack looked to one another and both sort of smiled. “Was an accident, mate.” Jack replied, shrugging his shoulders, he had enough to deal with and didn’t want to be starting any wars with Brendan, and besides, it was just as he said, an accident. “We’ll get it settled, one way or another.”

Quinsy sighed, having no other choice to but just accept it now. “I suppose you’ve kind of done us a favor, just putting it out there like that and hopefully letting daddy get all his fussing and fuming over with before we told him and had to get hit with it full force.”

“Well, if there’s one thing that Brendan is good at,” said Cass, now scrolling through ring tone options on his father’s phone. “It’s making dad fuss and fume.” He laughed.

Brendan rolled his eyes and nodded. “So is that all I’ve been missing around here? The Pearl’s delay in salvage and dad’s shark attack?”

“Got dad a new camera for Christmas,” said Cass, not looking up from the phone. “So, get ready for that!” He laughed.

Jack, Quinsy and Brendan all laughed as well. “Yeah,” snorted Brendan. “It’s not Christmas in this family until a camera hits the wall!”

“How many cameras has he demolished on Christmas morning?” Asked Quinsy, trying to count now on her fingers. “It seems that the same scene always unfolds; dad trying to take some candid shot of all of us opening gifts, but never having the camera properly prepared…and all of sudden we hear ‘Damn it to hell!’ and look up just in time to see photographic equipment smash against the hull!” She laughed.

“My favorite was the Polaroid Instamatic in the early 1980’s,” snickered Jack. “Hector was never able to find the right button to take a picture, kept turning it around to face him mumbling, ‘What’s wrong with this damned thing?’”

“Yeah!” Chuckled Brendan. “And then he’d hit the right button while it was facing him!”

Caspian shook his head, also laughing. “We had so many pictures of up dad’s nose that year!”

Brendan nodded, the room guffawing now. “I just tell people it’s the Grand Canyon if they ask when we get out the photo albums!”

“What made us save those pictures to begin with?” Quinsy laughed, then turned to Jack. “That’ll be us next, you know, with our children…our family albums dotted with portraits of your nostrils.” She smiled at him, tracing his mustache.

“That’s what I was saving to do for our wedding photos, luv.” Jack smiled facetiously back. “You and I, just four holes at sunset on the beach.”

Again they were all laughing vigorously. “Hey!” Brendan gasped. “Dad can take the picture!” And they all laughed doubly as hard, until all had to settle down to take a breath.

“Yeah, so that’s about it for new stuff, Bren,” said Caspian, going back to updating his father’s ring tone. “Everything else is still about the same. Quinn’s getting straight A’s, Jack’s getting married, I summit-ed Everest for a third time, and mom and dad are still all over each other.”

Quinsy shook her head though, a mysterious look in her eye as she turned towards Brendan. “Something is different, though, as I noticed a few weeks ago, Brendan.” She was looking suspiciously at her brother. “But not here.”

“Then where?”

“I called your cell right before you headed out after cod, and I was so surprised when Lonna answered it!”

“Hmm…” Brendan inhaled deeply, he wasn’t aware that it was his sister calling when he’d asked Lonna if she could grab his phone…he was in the shower at Lonna’s apartment when it rang, and there hadn’t seemed any harm in asking her to answer it, it was likely just one of his crew anyway, right? He was heading back to Alaska to fish cod the next day; it could have been one of his men! But, apparently not. Brendan nervously ran his hand through his light brown hair and scratched at his short, scraggly beard; he hadn’t meant to be clandestine, it just didn’t seem that it was time yet to say anything to Quinn about he and Lonna. Why hadn’t she said it was Quinn calling? Hmm…because not only were Quinsy and Lonna best friends, but also because they were women, and women loved to keep secrets! “Yeah…”

“Wait,” Caspian looked over at his brother. “Lonna, Lonna? As in ‘maid of honna’ Lonna?” The muscles in Brendan’s arms flinched, his face reddened and a vein started to throb in his neck. Caspian laughed. “She answered your phone? Why couldn’t you get your phone? What were you doing? Or, did you make her like your crab boat secretary or something?”

Brendan sighed again and just rolled his eyes. The Bering Sea kept his body in better than sturdy condition, his shoulders were broad and arms solid with muscle, his mother had often said he took after his father when it came to physique; if he’d been a lesser man, he could have just decked his older brother, but then, Caspian had played professional football.

“Yes, that would be her.” Confirmed Quinsy for Cass, but her gaze was pinned to Brendan. “What are you doing with my friend, Brendan?”

Was that not yet obvious? “Hey,” he pointed to the man seated beside his sister with his arm lovingly around her shoulders. “Jack introduced us at your engagement party in Manhattan!”

“What?” Jack nearly squeaked, and before Quinn could even turn her glare his way, he looked to her and began to explain. “All I said, luv, was ‘Lonna this is Brendan, Brendan, Lonna.’ I didn’t tell anyone to commence with leaving their phone lying about to be conspicuously answered, or to get to know one another in any sort of immoral fashion which might make the answering of said phone a comfortable and ordinary occurrence.”

“Aw, c’mon, Uncle Jack, you had to say immoral?” Whined Brendan and then slumped against the couch, knowing he’d never get out of this now, his sister was bent on lecturing him.

“Jack, I’m not upset with you,” Quinsy smiled at him, and then kissed him again, the two of them taking a moment to lean their heads together and then kiss again, this one beyond a mere peck, then just before it went too deep, both of them pulled away from it, Jack’s fingertips gently stroking her cheek; Quinn smiled again, but turned to her brother with a stern look once more. “But Brendan, I’m telling you right now; don’t you dare just have your fun with my friend, string her along, use her up and then haul away and leave her, never to call again, do you get me?”

At that Brendan and Caspian exchanged glances with furrowed brows and amused smirks. “I, uh,” began Caspian grinning. “Think you have Brendan and me confused, Quinn.”

True, Caspian was more the Casanova type; something she understood had been so of her father prior to his meeting their mother, but to admit so would only lessen the impact Quinsy wished to make upon Brendan where her friend was concerned. “Doesn’t matter one bit, I mean what I said!”

“Fine,” Brendan sighed and threw his hands up, then dug in his pocket and took out his cell phone, punching up his contact list and handing it to Quinsy. “Look, she’s in my phonebook, would I have put her in there if I was planning on loving her and leaving her?”

“What are you planning on doing?” Quinn asked, her eyes sweeping over the phone, and while she was pleased to see Lonna’s name there, she wouldn’t let up, not yet.

“I don’t know,” Brendan cried in annoyance. “Gimme a break, we’re just kinda getting to know one another still, okay? She’s a great girl, I like her, we have fun together, but don’t ask me to promise to marry her or whatever, because we’re not there yet…maybe it’ll get there, maybe it won’t…just don’t go all Hector on me, please?”

Quinsy smiled slyly. “Okay, I believe you, Brendan.” She said, and then sighed, laying her head back upon Jack’s shoulder. “Because when I grilled Lonna, that’s exactly what she told me too.”

“No wonder dad loves you so damn much, Quinn.” Laughed Caspian, returning to his father’s cell phone again.

“Yeah, no kidding.” Sighed Brendan, but his sister was busy kissing Jack again. “And if you don’t like me dating your friend, then don’t marry our uncle,” he smirked, then forced himself to shiver. “My sister is marrying my Uncle…I feel like I should be playing a banjo!”

Quinsy’s head lifted to roll her eyes at her brother, but footsteps down the corridor sobered them all, Jack and Quinsy moving away from one another in a flash.

“I could hear you laughing all the way back there! So, what are you all doing this morning?” Elizabeth smiled. Her children and Jack had all squirmed and repositioned themselves upon her entrance into the living room. Quinsy and Jack, she should let them off the hook, part of her looking forward to seeing how they were with one another as a couple.

Caspian remained calm, still pressing buttons on his father’s phone. “Getting some new ring tones on dad’s cell.”

Elizabeth frowned and groaned. “Oh don’t do that, Cass!” She implored. “It took me two years to get him trained to just say ‘hello’ when he heard ‘Moonlight Serenade.’ If you put something new on there, when I call him, all he’ll do is stand around, hearing music in his pants and grumbling ‘what the hell is that?’”

Everyone laughed heartily again, for not only was the image easy to conjure, but also because they hadn’t expected the mood to be so lighthearted when Elizabeth discovered them all.

“Well, start reprogramming him to answer to ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper,’” suggested Caspian. “Because that’s what it plays now. I thought it was appropriate.” He smiled.

“Speaking of appropriate,” Quinsy interjected, a bit sheepishly and Jack was immediately shaking his head frantically, trying to get her to stop from asking anything more, beseeching her with his eyes not to tempt fate, but Quinsy pressed on, unable to sit and wonder. “You seem to be in a good mood…what’s that mean, considering…”

Elizabeth sighed, but she still smiled at her daughter, extending her glance to Jack now, and giving a little laugh when Jack cocked his head and squinted suspiciously. “Your father and I thought the four of us would go out to dinner tonight, to talk about a few things.”

“Dinner?” Quinsy asked.

“In a public place?” Seconded Jack. “With lots and lots of witnesses?”

“Yes, Jack,” Elizabeth laughed as she made her way to the galley. “Lots of witnesses, don’t worry so much.”

Elizabeth disappeared around the corner, leaving Jack and Quinsy to look at one another, and Caspian and Brendan as well. “What do you suppose we’re walking into?” Jack asked, his voice hushed.

“I don’t know,” admitted Quinsy then looked up at her brothers. “One of you, go talk to mom! See if you can ascertain what’s going on with her, dad and this dinner!”

“Busy!” Sang Caspian and held up the cell phone.

Brendan looked at him and heaved a sigh. “Alright fine, I’ll go be a mole…but you owe me, Quinn!”

“No, you owe me, for blurting out mine and Jack’s news to daddy last night, and for dating Lonna and not telling me about it!” She smiled back at him. “Do this, and consider that all your debts are settled!”

Brendan got to his feet shaking his head. “You’d have made an excellent Dutchman’s Captain, you know that, Quinn?” He said, but walked into the galley.

* * * * * * * *

“So, where are you and dad taking Quinsy and Jack for dinner tonight?” His mother was now slicing whole cored apples into rings that she was dipping into pancake batter and frying on a griddle, his father’s favorite breakfast. They’d talked for about fifteen minutes about nothing, the weather, about the wrecksite, about the sharks at the wrecksite, all of it meant to warm her up and then dupe her into spilling her take on Jack and Quinsy.

His mother turned her head and looked over her shoulder at him from the stove, her expression a bit smug and telling. “So you didn’t mean to keep me company while I made breakfast after all?” She laughed, for Caspian, Brendan and Quinsy had always been very adept at forming their little spy-networks when it served them to do so; not that her children were treacherous beasts, and Elizabeth was in fact quite touched at how they would so often go to bat for one another. “What a relief, you’re only acting as one of Quinsy’s minions! I thought my children were going soft.”

His mother’s smile meant that she hadn’t been deceived, not once during their conversation. “Mom,” Brendan couldn’t help grin a bit. “It’s not that, of course I wanted to talk to you!” He paused a moment, drawing serious, but knowing he’d likely regret it. “You’re the only parental unit that ever actually talks to me, and you know I love you for that!”

Elizabeth sighed as she threw the dishtowel over her shoulder and picked up the cinnamon and sugar shaker to sprinkle the apple pancakes with. “If only that weren’t so.”

“Yeah,” Brendan sighed back and looked down at the table top, feeling himself sinking into a hole he’d hoped to avoid, but no…he’d instead dug it himself. Now to just get out before it got deeper. “So dinner with Quinsy and Jack—“

“I’ll be the first to agree that your father treats you rather harshly and unfairly when compared to how he gets on with Caspian and especially Quinsy, but” Elizabeth turned towards her son now, hands on her hips. “You do bring a certain amount of it down upon yourself, you know.”

Oh not this, when was ‘enough’ enough? Not only had his father started in on him the night before, but then his sister had clipped him over the Lonna situation, and now his mother added to it. He should have stayed up in Dutch Harbor for Christmas and scraped barnacles off the boat…maybe Lonna would have liked to see the boat? Not the barnacles so much maybe, though. “Mom, Quinsy and your future son-in-law are more than anxious about—“

“Oh hush, I’m not nearly as concerned about Quinsy and Jack’s nuptials as I am you and your father.” Elizabeth huffed, turning around again to remove more pancakes from the griddle. “And you may tell your sister I said so.”

“Really?” Brendan was somewhat astounded. “You’re letting them off? Just like that?”

“No one said anything about having anyone ‘off’ or putting them ‘on’ to even begin with.” She replied, and glanced at her son again over her shoulder. “And don’t go anywhere, because we’re not finished here, you and I. I’ve been meaning to bring this up to you for some time, and this Christmas it’s finally going to happen, because quite frankly, I can’t take it anymore.”

“Mom,” Brendan whined, why didn’t he just rip the damned cell phone out of Caspian’s hands and send him into the galley to face their mother for Quinsy? There was no escaping this now, he might as well just grit his teeth and get through it. Besides, no matter how painful it might be he knew his mother meant well, and that he could trust her. “Alright, I’m listening.”

Elizabeth smiled. “Tell me, Brendan, before you go about doing something, is the first thought you have about the actual performance of that thing, or how much doing that thing will only upset your father?”

Brendan squirmed a bit in his chair, not expecting his mother to get to the point so quickly. “Are you saying you think I live my life to piss dad off?”

“No,” said Elizabeth, her voice a bit gentler now. “But I do think that there’s an unconscious effort on your part to be drawn to activities and things that most certainly do piss your father off, because that’s the only relationship you and he have ever had.” She turned towards him again. “That’s not entirely your fault; don’t think I’m saying it is. In a way, your father has taught you to go out and do things that will make him angry, because you’ve come to anticipate that he’s going to be angry with you for one thing if not another anyway, so you might as well do something he hates and just get it over with.”

Brendan felt some floundering in his heart, and didn’t like it, let some anger rise to overtake it, but of course, he’d never let that anger show in his voice…yell at his mother? Yeah, not when Captain Hector Barbossa was her husband! Instead Brendan drew a deep breath and let his emotions settle levelly again. “Are you saying I’m passive aggressive, mom?” His mother gave him a look, but knew better than to answer, and Brendan rolled his eyes. “Okay, I admit, the first time I jumped onto a red crab boat back in 1950 whatever, I did kinda laugh to myself about what dad would say if he coulda seen me. But it’s not like that anymore, I fish crab because I like to fish crab, and I’m good at it. I like the weather on the Bering Sea, the cold and the winds and the waves and the ice; every week there’s a storm to navigate through and that rush makes me feel alive and energized!”

Elizabeth smiled warmly; had Brendan blue eyes, he’d all but be his father. “I’ve heard that before.” She said softly. “And I don’t think you fish crab still only because it annoys your father, you’re happy, it agrees with you, I can see that.”

“Thank you,” Brendan sighed, hoped that was the end, but his mother spoke again.

“But you did begin work in that industry because of this rift between your father and you,” she pointed out. “And you keep doing those types of things, showing up here as late you did is another example.”

“What?” Brendan grimaced. “I told you last night, my guys needed the money from cod this year!”

“Yes, I do recall that it was a noble venture,” answered Elizabeth, unmoved. “And I also remember you saying that you’ve got such a fine crew, and that you couldn’t ask for better men.” She pointed out, and pointed her finger, but once she realized she was, tucked it against her chest. “Are you telling me that none of those fine men of yours among your world’s greatest crew are capable enough to sit in the wheelhouse and fish cod in moderate weather so that you could join your family in a timely manner?”

Well, that had done it; he’d now reached the very bottom of the hole he hoped to avoid. “Alright, fine,” he sighed, for he had to admit that during the crabbing season, after sixteen hours at the helm, he was never happier to hand over control of the boat to his Deckboss and go grab something to eat and a few hours of sleep. There were at least three men on his crew he’d have trusted to captain the boat during cod season, but that would have meant having to go to Nassau and trust his father. “I was avoiding being here.”

Elizabeth sighed, a bit surprised that Brendan admitting such and saying it out loud didn’t spark some bit of happiness within her like she’d thought it might. “Well, at least you see what I see now, then.”

“So?” He half muttered, hanging his head down and not wanting to show his mother his face. “What do you want me to do?”

Elizabeth smiled sadly and slid into a chair across from her son, knowing that there was guilt in his eyes, even though he hid them from her. Hector would have done the same. “Take control of the situation. Veer off the path your father keeps beating for you and he to follow. One of you has to put an end to this, and I keep working on your father to be the one, but he’s not going to be, Brendan.” Elizabeth covered his hands with hers and ducked her head down a little to catch Brendan’s eyes. She did, and he raised his head a bit. “But you,” she squeezed his hands. “You’ve grown into a brave, strong, intelligent fellow, a leader of men, much like your father. You’ve got what it takes to make this stand, and change how things are if you wish to. So, you lead, and your father will follow.”

That floundering in his heart that he’d pushed back before returned, only now it was more like a fluttering. He wanted to believe his mother, wanted to think he could do as she said he could, because it would be nice for once to look forward to returning home and not feel that his father had his sights trained on him the entire time he was there. There were things he could change and stop doing himself, but…“What if dad doesn’t follow?”

Elizabeth smiled, patted Brendan’s hand. “He will.” She promised, and Hector would after she spoke to him. “Just talk to him, start there.”

Brendan sat back in his chair and stretched as if his body was worn from some type of physical labor, and he did feel curiously tired. “You know,” he began, still shaking off the emotional heft of the conversation. “When I was little, I always thought I’d grow up to be a pirate captain, just like dad. But by the time I grew up, there weren’t anymore pirate captains. I’ve kinda been lost ever since then, like I only had once chance to be something that would make dad proud, and I missed it.” He sighed and stretched again. “I just haven’t known where to go or what to do since then.”

“Oh Brendan,” Elizabeth smiled again, but her eyes were welling with tears. “I doubt piracy is what he would have wanted for you,” she said, squeezing her son’s hand again, this time for her own comfort. “But you tell him that when you speak to him, because he needs to hear it.”