By: Lisa Anne Hetu
Topher couldn't sleep. The sea hadn't been particularily calm over the last few days, and Zeus -- Topher's grand ship -- was creeking its disapproval. Every inch of the hold was crackling and creeking with every wave that lapped up against the side of the ship. Topher got up, put on his purple robe, and made his way up on deck. Perhaps the early morning sea air would do him some good.
Shortly after Captain Topher had left his quarters, Mikey the genius parrot woke up, and noticed he was alone. Realizing that Topher had forgotten him again, Mikey hopped down off his perch at the foot of Topher's bed and waddled across the room. Then, with a sigh, he glanced up the stairs to see that, once again, the hatch was shut.
On deck, Topher walked past his two pirate thugs, who were swabbing the deck. Topher looked up and saw that one of the sails wasn't secured properly, so he told them to fix it. Then, he made his way to the helm, where he had always been happiest. Steering the ship always made Topher feel in control of his destiny, pointing Zeus in the direction he wanted, at the speed he wanted, whenever he wanted to do it.
Meanwhile, Mike had abandonned swabbing the deck for securing the rigging. "Here, hold this rope" Mike told Steve, who was still swabbing.
So, Steve wrapped the rope tight around one hand and pulled it as taught as he could make it, while continuing to swab the deck with the other hand. Mike climbed the mast and crawled out to grab the end of the sail, which he found hopelessly out of his reach. Stretch though he might, Mike was getting nowhere with his task. Then, he lost his balance and fell . Luckily he managed to grab hold of a hanging rope and was able to swing across the sails, grab the loose end and regain his balance on another part of the mast. There he tied the sail securely and swung back down on deck. "Thanks" he told Steve, taking hold of the rope he had handed his fellow thug.
Soon, Topher got hungry, so he told his thugs to bring in the lobster traps and to cook his lunch. So, Steve trudged to the back of the ship and proceeded to tug on multiple ropes that were wet and slippery from being in the water. Mike, on the other hand, made his way down to the hold to prepare the kitchen. Upon opening the doors, Mike found a disgruntled little parrot, molting on the top step, having been unable to open the doors himself, or even to get someone's attention to do it for him. Little Mikey glared at Mike momentarily, then quickly flew to the helm, where he perched on Topher's peg arm and started poking at the end of it, searching for a mint.
As Steve pulled in the last lobster trap, to find the only baby lobster that any of the 47 traps had caught, the ship creeked and jolted to a halt, sendning Steve flying off the back end of the ship into the water. He surfaced just in time to hear Mikey scream "Land ho!"
Mike came up on deck covered in flour. "What the hell just happened?" he said, then sneezed.
"Guess..." Steve grumbled, pulling his dripping self back onto the ship.
"Never mind that" Topher said, "Just fix the ship."
"Yeah, fix the ship." Mikey repeated, proudly crunching on a mint.
Hours went by, and the pirate thugs found themselves in a bit of a pickle. There was a hole in the ship the size of Atlantis, and the crash had ruptured the interior supports. The skeleton of the ship was rotting on the bottom from water damage, and there was a leek in the hull. The pirate thugs assessed the situation, and reported the damage to the captain. Topher decided to take Steve along with him into town, and leave Mike with the genius parrot to watch the ship and to do whatever he could with the supplies they had on board. Steve follwed his captain to the nearest town to purchase wood and supplies to fix the ship. However, Captain Topher was a bit of a spend-thrift and it turned out that Steve was unable to carry it all ... though he did try.
It just so happened that an unemployed pirate thug from the area came walking out of the town tavern to see Captain Topher scolding his helper. The man walked over to them and offered help, though he didn't say a word to them. After a bit of quessing as to what the stranger wanted, Topher accepted the help and managed to get all the supplies back to the ship. When Captain Topher asked his name, the pirate thug bend down to write 'Frank' in the sand. After a few more moments, Captain Topher realized that Frank couldn't speak. As it turned out, Frank's tongue had been chopped off as punishment for sleeping with his previous employer's daughter, which was also the reason he had been fired.
Frank helped to fix the ship quickly, and Captain Topher was impressed with his talents so much that he offered Frank a job under his employ. Frank nodded eagerly, greatful to have the oppertunity to sail on a ship again after all these years. And so, as Zeus sailed off into the sunset (a mere two days after the ship had crashed), a new pirate thug had made a home for himself on Captain Topher's ship.
The End.
