Side Quest: The Portal

Bessie sailed us out of the channel and into the wider Atlantic. Three days on a laden ship with patchy winds and my back was screaming again. Bessie was receiving a crash course on solo sailing as I tried not to scare her by screaming with my every breath. She still looked scared. I kept assuring her that I was not going to die…but if I did die, to please not bury me and to just have patience till I was no longer dead. This did little to reassure her.

We were sailing to the portal and Bessie made conversation between my groans. She showed me souvenirs she purchased for John Henry and Catherine. She’d even gotten Izzy a trinket of some kind. It looked like a kitchen tool but I was in such pain I couldn’t grasp the concept she was describing with the pestle and strainer device. 

The question on my mind was what the hell I was going to do about my back and about the portal and about Greenland. Izzy was not who I went to when I needed physical rest and recovery. Graham was the one who would take me in after these sorts of attacks. That was gone now. 

My mind continued to default to Zheng. Her bedside manner was nonexistent. She wouldn’t be packing my back with soothing salves or fresh snow but I had quarters within her compounds where I could rest till I was strong enough to sail. Bessie would need to agree to another month or two away from her family. 

Zheng’s compounds were a sight to see but fraught with danger. My old temple sister had spent a good portion of her life as a vicious warlord. Now her compounds served as a halfway house for her. She conducted a lucrative mercenary/merchant/pirate armada where she reigned supreme as Her Excellency. All who served her (voluntarily or no) vowed their unwavering loyalty to her or were killed. Zheng made no pretense to her followers of being a normal, mortal human. She demonstrated her ability to heal and live, and vowed to each of her people that should they betray her she would haunt and plague their descendants till the earth blackened and cracked. 

She also had a soft spot for all things modern. She missed TV and movies and electronics with a grief that rivaled anything I felt for Andrews.

I wrestled over the choice to bring Bessie there. It flirted with my new Tavern Rock Law. Where was my recourse though? No Bermuda. No Izzy. I was running out of safe havens faster than I was running out of clothing.

We were a day's sail from the portal when I had Bessie heave to and sat her down. “Bessie, we cannot go back to Greenland yet. I have to heal completely. Isabelle would…not be pleased if I came back in bad shape. I don’t like her to worry about me.”

“Why not? She could take care of you.”

“Izzy doesn’t need to take care of me. She has enough to do.” The look on her face as she witnessed my scars for the first time was enough for a lifetime. She didn’t need to see fresh wounds. “So I’d like to go somewhere to recover before heading back to her and Catherine.”

“Because we can always go back to Greenland where they are waiting for us?” She opened her book to the page I’d drawn on. That book was always within her grasp. 

“Exactly.”

“So where to, Captain?” She held out the bookmark with the depiction of us on a ship. I tried to reach for the slip of paper but pulled back as my back threw a fit. 

“I have a friend in China – well, no, she’s in Indonesia now – then – where we’d be going to her. But we would be flipping back much farther than a year. I last left her in the 1300s. What do you think? It would mean a little longer away than we planned. Possibly another month or two before we go back to them.”

“What do you mean, what do I think?” She toyed with the bookmark a little, placing it by the three stick figures on the page.

“Do you want to go?” If she said no I'd need to figure out another plan. My resolve to stay away from modern times with hospitals and anesthesia was weakening. Filling out insurance forms and trying to explain how and why I got whipped and that it wasn’t from a BDSM scenario would be tricky. 

“As in…if I didn’t want to go you wouldn’t go? I could say no?” She kept the bookmark in place.

“I’d like to take my first mate’s preferences into consideration, yes. It’s a different place than Calais. Different languages and customs. It’s dangerous.” She looked up at my pronouncement of her new rank, beaming. I hadn’t committed to her permanent status on my ship like this before. 

“More dangerous than Calais?” She eyed my back. Fair point. I laughed –then immediately regretted laughing as my back protested.

“It’s a rough place.” I wanted to get that across loud and clear. It was not a place for fancy dinner parties, hand addressed invitations, and spa days. “So what do you think?” I watched Bessie toy with the bookmark near the drawn figures. I didn’t rush her. 

“Yes, let’s go. I’d like to see…more.” She flipped to the front of the book and closed the cover on our hand drawn figures. 

“Excellent. We’ll hit the portal tomorrow and I’ll take over sailing us back to the 1300s. Which reminds me, I have another course of vaccines for you. There’s a slight plague going around.” 

She frowned at that. She had hated the vaccines Izzy made her get before we hit Greenland the first time. I’d gotten this vaccine on the very small chance that Izzy took well to the time travel lifestyle and wanted to explore a few different eras while we were out, like an impulse candy bar in the check out lane.

After her fit about the needles and alcohol swabs and the ensuing cold (but vaccinated) shoulder, Bessie continued to sail on her own through the evening and into the next day. I couldn’t raise or lower the sails. I couldn’t man the helm or physically perform course corrections. I also couldn’t run to the galley and back for food and coffee. What I could do was navigate and teach. For the moment it was working well enough. The girl was tired but could rest once we were in the portal. However, when it was time to enter the portal I was going to have to sail. Whether I felt good or bad, I would be at the helm for that. I mourned for the newly knitted wounds I was sure to break open again with those efforts. Zheng was on the other side of those efforts, I reminded myself. The woman would bitch about it but she’d help.   

At the advent of the portal I took over the helm. Bessie was nervous as a cat as I pulled my gloves on and placed my hands on the wheel. At her side were fresh wraps, clean water, Fountain, and a cup of laudanum. I was nervous too. I was on my feet for the first time in days and I was not feeling confident about my ability to stay that way. I shouted orders to Bessie and brought us up to speed. I pictured Zheng in my mind and saw the course before me. Bracing myself, I eased us into the current. 

The waters were rough. I’d sailed through the past forty years enough to create acres of wakes and waves that I was now crossing. I held the wheel steady and tacked and ordered Bessie to adjust the sails. The portal was not as happy to see me as it was last time. There was little sun and the wind whipped about from unanticipated directions. However, when it became clear that I was headed back far on a decent length of a journey, the portal stopped being petty and calmed as the centuries dropped away. I dropped into my chair but got back up when I realized It wasn’t sweat – it wasn’t just sweat -- that made my shirt cling to my back. Bessie helped pull the bloody shirt off and wrapped me in more bandages. She even insisted I take a small sip of medicine. I complied but it was more for her anxiety than my need. Nothing short of a medically induced coma was going to help me. However, I stayed on my feet. Victory.

Bessie watched the water lap against the hull and relaxed as it was clear I was not in danger of dropping away from blood loss or exertion. I sent her down to sleep for a few hours.  The girl compiled more for my sake than her needs. She and I had begun to trust the other enough to believe it when we insisted we could handle a task. Yes, I was hurting. Yes, I could sail us through the portal. She went below.

I sought our exit. We had a ways to travel. Not only did I need to traverse time but I would also be crossing oceans. I didn’t have a notebook full of notes illuminating my last time with Zheng. It was early in my career and I hadn’t kept as detailed a lifestyle as I did now. She’d sent me off on an errand and I’d never come back from it. Zheng knew how I traveled; it wouldn’t be like it was with Izzy. She wouldn’t get upset and check me for concussion symptoms or ask about my alcohol consumption if I couldn’t remember the name of her horses. Zheng would just call me an idiot and give me a ledger of cargo that needed transportation. 

I gingerly sat myself back into my chair and breathed through the spasms of pain. I really felt like shit. I shivered in the breeze and watched the current for signs that we were making progress through time. We were. Not fast progress but the course was steady. I groaned and leaned against the wheel trying to find a comfortable position. I hated everything. I was beginning to burn with fever and pulled a blanket around my shoulders. By the time we made it out of the portal I’d be little help to my first mate. The air warmed considerably, a front of tropical air wrapped around me and eased my shivering. I sent a silent thanks to the portal for its kindness. The air continued to heat until I relaxed.

Even before the temple I’d been sailing the portal. From my first entrance, I’d felt a rapport with the enigmatic entity. I understood it. And, though I couldn’t explain it, it understood me. When I was upset or in pain, like now, it would give me my favorite time of day, sunrise. The sunrises in the portal would last for hours as I sailed through the ages. I knew what the portal liked too, that was an easy one: time. It loved it when I made long journeys like this. We both had our tempers and temperamental moments, like any good friends can experience, but always made up eventually. Though my back hurt and I couldn’t get comfortable, I was here in all my happy places; in my chair at the helm, on my ship, in the portal. I was happy. 

Bessie arrived on deck a few hours later looking rested and carrying two bowls of steaming stew and bread. I thanked her. It was humbling to attempt to sit and eat the stew when I  needed breaks between raising the spoon to my mouth and back to the bowl.

“Captain, is the sun never to rise here? It was just over the horizon when I went to sleep…how long was I below?” 

I chuckled and braced myself for another spoonful of stew. “Time is a different sort of thing here. The portal knows I like sunrise.”

“The portal…knows?” Bessie looked around, shoulders tight, as if she was being watched. 

I shrugged and attempted another bite. It was too soon. I put the spoon down and waited for my back to release. I should save my strength for the exit anyway. I pushed the bowl farther from my fingers to remove temptation. My stomach protested but my back relaxed.

“Just taking my time,” I assured her. No need for Bessie to go back to Izzy and tell her about my uneaten stew. Definitely no need for Izzy to strap me to a chair and force feed me toast while elaborating on just how skilled her husband was at going down on her. I steeled myself and took another bite for insurance purposes.

“Captain? I have a question,” she asked after showing off how quickly she could finish her own bowl of stew.   

“What’s up?” I tried another bite but I couldn’t do it. She didn’t seem bothered. In fact, she was relaxed so I stayed relaxed too.

“Everyone seems to have a different name for you. Little Jean called you ‘Nini,’ I call you ‘Captain,’ Isabelle calls you ‘Anne,’ Graham Andrews called you ‘Nanette.” The name slammed into my chest like a bullet. Bessie didn’t notice. “Why are you so many different people?”

“I am who they need me to be.” There were plenty of other names I was known by that she hadn’t heard yet…and likely never would. 

“But then, who are you?”

“I’m who I want to be. And that’s enough most of the time. Between you and me, my favorite name is 'Captain'. Means you’re my crew. And that means everything to me.” I smiled at the girl and she returned it.  

“What if…” Bessie gathered her courage. “What if I wanted to be…not Bessie.”

“Oh? Who do you have in mind?” I teased her.

“My full name is Elizabeth. I think I’d like to start being Elizabeth.” Elizabeth seemed unsure of herself now but clearly she wanted to be otherwise.

“I think that’s a wonderful name, Elizabeth.” I stayed focused on the waves but spared a glance in her direction. The girl smiled shyly and kept her eyes on the water, her smile growing.         

“Want to play a game of cards, Captain? I think we should wager some boat chores. I’d like to see you cook for once.”

“Set it up.” I challenged her and she sped away to grab a pack of cards and a notepad to tally all my losses and IOUs. Our exit was coming up. I could feel Zheng on the other side.  

It would take at least a week once we exited to get to her compound. Once I was there I could rest and heal for at least another week before my darling old friend put me to work. I didn’t relish the idea of my ship stinking to high heaven with peppercorns again but I was looking forward to seeing my sister, Zheng. In my time, I hadn’t seen her in about 80 years. In her time I had left merely a month ago. She’d be pissed I didn’t have the quarry I’d set out to find but she’d get over it.  

Bessie – Elizabeth helped me find my feet when I caught sight of the exit vector. She arranged all her implements of torture around her again: rolls of bandages, pain relievers, astringent, and what looked like a vat of medicine. She set all of this up next to the padded bench that now served as my bed. I hadn’t been able to make it up or down the stairs yet. As soon as we were out of the portal she would take over and I would lie down. I wanted to cry, it sounded so blissful.

I tacked us over to the correct exit lane and strained and pulled at the rudder to get us out at the exact right time. Elizabeth released the spinnaker when I ordered and brought us the speed we needed to stay on course. The rudder fought to follow the easy tides and I fought back. I wanted Zheng in the year I wanted her and I was going to get it. The strain killed my back and I grunted with the effort to maintain the proper speed and direction. Elizabeth watched me exert the effort needed to steer the boat and fretted. Then she gasped as we formally left the portal and entered into the 14th century in the dead of a cool cloudless night.

Stars littered the sky across the grand eastern hemisphere waters. They were so numerous and bright the ocean itself reflected them back. I lit a lantern. The night was too beautiful to sully with electric light. This was a sacred kind of moment.  

“Welcome to the Indian Ocean, Elizabeth,” I breathed. My shirt clung to my back with the blood of my reopened wounds. Izzy felt so very far away…I was both anxious and relieved about the separation. I didn’t care to look too closely at why.