the traveller.
It was a hot day that day and A was standing underneath the shade of a large freighter. The air was dry which made the heat just slightly bearable but that didn't mean that A still wasn't wiping perspiration off her forehead. She stood there as her mother boarded the ship, to talk with the captain. At the same time, passengers started to descend from the ladder as her mother got pulled up on a small boat. A munched on an ice cube that was rapidly melting in her mouth, a bucket of ice hanging from the crook of her arm.
She didn't look twice at any of the men who disembarked from the ship, many of the faces looking familiar to her. It wasn't that they were men who she had seen before, but they all wore the same kind of expression: the weariness of sailing for months on end, and the hardiness of trying not to show that they were too bothered by it. They all tried to look tough, even though their bodies were weak from the salt of the sea.
"Are you alright?" a voice asked from afar, not addressing A but someone else on the ship. A's ears perked up. The sailors rarely ever talked amongst themselves, being too exhausted to say a single word. They were usually too shocked by the feel of land on their feet. One of the men, scrawny, dressed up in a suit was standing on the dock, looking up. He was dressed too nicely to be a sailor, his suit suspiciously clean and free of wrinkles. A tourist? Those weren't typical for
A popped another half melted ice cube into her mouth as she observed the woman make it to the end of the ladder.
"Do I just jump?" the woman asked nervously. She left one heeled foot dangling in the air, searching desperately for ground.
"Yes, my dear," the man on the dock said, clearly already fed up with whatever was occurring. He had his hands on his hips, immovable.
With a little yelp, the woman jumped, landing on the dock with a thud of her heels. The jump wasn't that far, just barely over a foot. A watched the woman look at the last rung of the ladder and turn to the man, hot red.
"Well. Shall we get going?" the woman chirped. A squinted her eyes. She looked rather young, not quite as young as herself but not old enough to be wed and certainly not old enough for the wrinkling man beside her.
The pair turned around and started to walk to shore. A kept her eyes glued to the woman and started to run through scenarios through her head. What kind of woman would voluntarily get on a boat?
As they got closer to A, the man caught sight of her stare and stopped. "You there, girl!"
A grimaced and popped another ice cube into her mouth, clamping her molars down on it so it made a nice crunch. "Yes?" she responded. A smile that felt foreign stretched across her face. Hospitality was one of her people's strong points, she could hear her mother berating her in her head.
"Where is the nearest lodging?" the man asked. A took a good look at the two now that they were nearer. The woman's face was sunburnt, her eyes wide, taking in everything that was taking place around her. Her hair was a beautiful shade of light brown, pulled into a tight bob. Not a single strand of hair was out of place.
A pondered the question. There was only one place in town and it was where all the sea men went. She felt bad redirecting these nice, clean, tourists to such a place. "There's no bed and breakfasts if that's what you're asking." She grimaced as soon as the words left her mouth. There was no reason for her to act like this but she couldn't help it.
"A!" a voice shouted from above. The two tourists looked up while A went back to grazing on ice cubes. The voice was unmistakeably her mother's. There was no doubt that she was somehow listening in, with her razor sharp hearing. It would be yet another thing A would have to hear about once they were back home.
Her mind went blank, mindlessly scooping out the half-melted cubes out of the bucket as the two parties shouted back at each other. Her eyes scanned the mountains that loomed over the town's buildings, taking in the scene. Anything was better than hearing agonizing pleasantries being exchanged back and forth.
"Well, A," the woman suddenly said. The mention of her name yanked A back into reality and she blankly stared at the all too happy woman staring down at her. "Thank ya for the directions!"
Before A could open her mouth to reply the pair spun around and made their way to the pile of baggage at the end of the pier. A's hand went back into the ice bucket, only to scrape against the wet metal. She had found them odd but she held out some hope that she would see them again.