Wish All We Like

Writers: Jane, Kaysea
Date Posted: 11th May 2007

Characters: Jesten, Neke
Description: Neke and Jesten talk about the passengers - and the crew.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 4, day 7 of Turn 4

Jesten heard the footfalls on the deck above him and nodding in that direction. "How are they?" he asked the woman at the table with him.
"All settled?"

"I haven't had any complaints tonight, does that count for anything?"
Neke asked, relaxing back in her seat again. This was so different from the previous trip downriver, when sickness caught two of the passengers and she was running back and forth most nights. This trip had been very easy in comparison.

"It counts for a lot in my book. And that last trip - wasn't your fault. They were sick when they got onboard. They should be grateful.
They were likely better nursed aboard here than they would have been in their home Hold."

"Well I don't know about that, but I'm glad this run's easier, I don't think I could have taken another one like it." She gave a sigh of relief, and slouched back in the chair. "Do we have any more at the next stop?"

"Lose a three, gain one. Mostly cargo off, though, which should speed us up a bit." Cargo wasn't an area that Neke had to worry about but sometimes she had to make explanations to passengers who thought they'd stayed too long in one place - never mind that the real work of the riverboat was cargo. "Any whiners and complainers in this lot?"

"No, actually they've all been really good. Though you'll notice Kartax is on with us again. He was visiting his daughter, a new grandchild.
I'm surprised that he hasn't moved up there with them since Hariana's death." She spoke of one of the passengers who was becoming a regular since his wife's death the turn before of a wasting disease. "He's lonely, I think. But he won't admit it. And Jezz has been keeping him company on this trip."

"Perhaps he comes more for the trip with us than for the stay with his daughter," the old man suggested. "He certainly seems to take to being aboard as well as if he was born to it."

"You could be right," Neke nodded, "I sometimes think he was the type, who, when younger, wanted to run from his family's cot and just travel the waterways."

"Huh. Well, tell him he can't just move in, but he can marry in." The captain glanced around, already grinning as he checked that the woman concerned wasn't within earshot. "Your aunt Vaheri's been widowed a long time."

"Hmm," she considered, "I could always suggest it." she grinned, "What's worth more? Having your sister married off, or his fare each way, every few months?"

"Ahh, now that's a point. Marks or gaining a new - but older -
crewmember?" Getting crew wasn't a problem - keeping the numbers living onboard down was usually more of an issue. "Keeping Vaheri cheerful, though ..." She was a wonderful woman, his brother's widow, but she certainly had her own opinions.

"You just want to palm off her nagging onto someone else, admit it."
Neke teased.

"She only nags for everybody's own good." He hated to admit it, but it was true. It didn't always make the woman's brand of common sense any more acceptable. "Anyway, she's probably far to settled here to look at marrying again." He felt that way himself; had done for the thirty-five or six Turns since his wife died.

"Well she's had time to get to know him. Though I can't place them talking together. He spends more time looking out at the river and chatting with Jezz."

"I suppose that wouldn't be a bad life in itself. Jezz is always an entertaining companion."

"Yes, but sometimes I worry that between Jezz and Linli, he's getting a little too much entertainment. You know what they can be like. Though I am a little concerned about Linli.."

Fog's daughter. "Something wrong with her? Or misbehaving?"

"She's been quiet this last sevenday, I think she may be concerned about the visit from her mother. I noticed last time Marilea was here she started to retreat into herself, and she's becoming more dependent on Tahna again," Neke said referring to Linli's older sister.

I'd rather Marilea didn't visit at all," Jesten grumbled. "But the girls should know her, I suppose." His own two had lost their mother through death and never had the opportunity to know the woman who had borne them.

"I'd rather she didn't come either, but Tahna left a message for her last time we were here, asking her to come." she shook her head, "I have no idea why, and no, before you start worrying, I don't think she wants to leave us, I think there's a need to find out why, finally. Why Marilea left, and abandoned them all." Neke shook her head.

"If she can explain that to Tahna's satisfaction then it's more than she could do for me." In general the population of the riverboat changed slowly, a few youngsters growing up and leaving, some of the womenfolk marrying onto other boats. Old people dying or retiring to shore. A wife walking out on her husband and daughters was a shocking thing, regardless, but on the small family community of a riverboat it affected everybody.

"Well hopefully you'll be busy enough with Lineal and his family, and you won't even have to see her. I just wish I could guarantee Fog wouldn't either."

Jesten sighed. "We can wish all we like on that one, but we've done all we can to help there. They just have to sort the rest out for themselves, I'm afraid."

"Well, I think I had best try and get some rest, it'll be morning before we know it." She pushed herself up from the chair, "Just remember though, if Fog seems a little distant from Lineal and his family when they arrive, he may have run into Marilea, she's due to meet with Tahna that day." She turned and walked towards the door, "Goodnight Jesten."

Last updated on the May 14th 2007

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