Mari laid on the only bunk in the candle-lit Great Cabin, skimming through all the notes she had taken over the years. Something she did as often as she could and every time, she had something new to add. But there hasn’t been anything new for a long time.
Every account in her notes is different, but one thing is true for all, and so it is written in the front of book one only. All found themselves in this dimension when their jump took place just after their children were taken from them.
Each of the notebooks are the same- warn black leather binding with their corresponding number scratched into the cover and nothing more. She bought them from a merchant on the south boardwalk. The territory she prefers over all others.
Inside the notebooks, she keeps a record of every person on her crew and any others she has spoken with about their arrival here during the 12 years since she had arrived. Their names, and a detailed account of how each had come to find themselves on the island made of ships. Every account in her notes is different, but two things are true for all, and so they are written in the front of book one only. All found themselves in this dimension when their launch took place on the first quarter moon and immediately after their children were taken from them.
There are eight crew members now, but eleven entries total for the Sable Gale, in addition to 27 other entries of people from other territories on the isle.
*
The Isle of Rhodezmore was a large floating structure made mostly of old wooden ships connected only by rope and bridges made of planks between each territory. The last Mari counted there were 4 Major territories. The North End, East Edge, South End, and the West Edge- all with several sub territories within them. The massive island was made of 64 complete ships and hundreds of pieces of others. The large structure served no purpose to the naked eye other than being the only place of refuge in the entire dimension.
Through the tightly woven corridors between territories, past the more spirited part of the island, where all the noise feels like it''s coming from a distant place, the Sable Gale rests. The ship was built of cedar and resembled a caravel. In fact, it was once a caravel but now with necessary upgrades to withstand sailing the sea and through dimensions.
Mari inherited the ship from an uncle she never met and never wanted to. Her mother''s brother didn’t have the reputation of being a kind man or even a kind child growing up. But nevertheless, before he disappeared, he left the Sable Gale to Mari.
When the Sable Gale arrived at the Isle of Rhodezmore 12 years earlier, Mari was barely 20 years old and had found herself the captain of the Sable Gale only one year before that. She had been sailing with her Aitona since she was a child, off the Bay of Biscay, and is capable as a captain in that respect. But, until now, she has never had to command a ship out of the wrong dimension.
She loathed the gift at first but over time began to love the Gale and the crew that came with it. The ship was made of cedar planks stained with such a deep auburn, it was nearly black. Hanging from the side were ropes adorned in bangles from the South End of the island where the Torrid people crafted metal tools and trinkets.
The island of ships was alive all the time. People moving through territories to shops that were open at all hours, visiting neighbors, and sharing meals. And though it didn''t seem like it the people of Rhodezmore did sleep.
Each territory had their own sleep rotation and bells rang out throughout the isle at 8-hour intervals as the sun would never set or rise in this dimension.
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Mari''s bed is full of layers of blankets and a variety of down feather pillows, and it is her favorite place to be. The captain''s cabin was always too big in her opinion, so she filled it with oversized pieces of furniture- a large plush chair in one corner and an even larger vintage desk just by the door. She hung dark blue and rose printed fabric on the walls and added layered area rugs throughout the room. But still, it was just too big. It made her feel much smaller than she was, and she hated to feel small.
The oak-planked floors creaked as the wooden ship swayed. She hardly noticed the sounds around her anymore, so when the mystery within these journals becomes too overwhelming, she closes her eyes to listen.
Laying down the second of four notebooks Mari reached above her head and cracked the window open. Just enough to let the sound of the waves in. She has always loved the sound of the sea and still finds solace in it despite being surrounded by it day and night for what feels like an eternity.
On the same side table she laid the notebooks on was a first-edition copy of The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, and a decorative hair comb made of sapphire leaves and rice pearl accents. She bought the hair comb for a special occasion that seems to never come, but now and then she will take it out of the drawer, fasten her auburn hair in a low bun, and place the hair comb just above and to the right. But the woman she sees in the mirror reminds her of her past life, so she never looks for too long.
Mari blew her candle out and settled in under the heap of blankets, but just as she closes her eyes, she is startled to annoyance by two very loud, very determined bangs on her cabin door. “What is it!?” she snaps, sitting up from bed, placing her feet on the floor. She had a short temper, and always had. She also know whoever was knocking on her door could only be one of two people- Michael who knew her too well to be scared; or Andrew who was too eager to care.
“Could I have a minute, Mari?”
It was Andrew.
Her shoulders drop. she didn’t have the energy for this conversation but she had turned him away the last two nights, and can’t avoid him forever. She grabbed a sweater and pulled her boots on on her way to the cabin door.
“Let’s go for a walk,” she says, swinging the door open and rushing past him.
Eye contact was not a strong suite of hers. Making eye contact with someone who looked to her for answers meant she believed she had them all, and she had none. She was cowardly in this way. Mari couldn’t stand to see what she so often ran from feeling herself. A heartache so deep a piece of you is changed forever every time you let yourself feel it.
Catching up to her quick pace Andrew asks exactly what Mari hopes he won’t.
“Is tomorrow going to work?”
“Every launch is an experiment, Andrew, I couldn’t possibly know.”
“But does it feel different than last time? Do you have something new?”
“Listen, IF I’m right about tomorrow- it will work. But I have no real evidence that I am right. I am still just guessing,” she replied even though it wasn’t true, and Andrew knew it.
Every one of these experimental trips are calculated, Mari wouldn’t waste her time, and even if they do not work they always provide more information.
“I could help, let me take a look through the notebooks.” Andrew urged.
“I don’t share those with anyone and you already know that,” more annoyed now than before.
She doesn’t keep the notebooks under lock and key, but she has never willingly shared them with anyone. Not even Michael- her closest confidant.
“Sometimes it just takes an extra pair of eyes,” Andrew said, feeling defeated now. “I have a child back there too, you know, I can’t just do nothing!” He turned away from her but continued. “Every second it feels just in reach and then I do nothing to make it happen. I do nothing but wait!”
She knew almost everything about everyone on that ship. Of course, she knew about his daughter. They all had a son or daughter they missed.
Isabell was 8 when he left for what was supposed to be a weekend trip to collect the sail boat he had just purchased from a listing in Uncle Henry’s Digest. He didn’t have a trailer to haul it so he decided to catch a ride out to where the seller lived and sail back to the boat launch in his town where he would keep it through the summer, but after a nightmare phone call from his wife tell him Isabelle had disappeared, he found himself here. The need to find his daughter may be the only thing she understands about him.
Andrew stood to leave but paused before stepping away. He knew if he walked away he was wasting a rare moment to get answers from her, but he was exhausted too.
Two days ago Mari announced that they would be attempting another launch and he hasn’t slept since. Tomorrow is the seventh day after the Spring Tide and the first quarter moon of this phase. Tomorrow is the day they travel.
“I’m sorry, Andrew” she said looking up at him, but just as he turned to meet her glance she stood and walked away. She needed to rest before morning.