Not Exactly Helping

Writers: AL, Jane
Date Posted: 22nd June 2008

Characters: Mehan, Menore
Description: Mehan prises Menore away from the Moonflower for a day.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 10, day 19 of Turn 4

"Watch it with that thing!" Menore snapped as a worker lugging a rather large piece of lumber came quite close to smashing one of the windows.
"I don't want to have to have something else to be fixed."
She crossed her arms as the worker stared at her, then sullenly continued on his way. Menore almost growled.

Mehan cleared his throat. "You're not exactly ... helping."

Menore whirled around. When had he come aboard? She hadn't seen or heard him arrive. "He almost broke a window!" Menore indicated said window that had come so close to its demise. "It's bad enough we're stuck aground for four months, I don't want to have to repair things that the workers have broken too."

"Four months they said - and they do riverboats all the time - so four months it will be, regardless of what they have to replace," Mehan said, trying to reason with the young woman. Perhaps if he was the owner -?
No, they had chosen this most experienced of ship building teams and he would trust them to do their jobs.

Menore threw her hands into the air. "I hate just sitting around. I don't know why we can't help. Surely there is _some_thing we can do."

"There will be decisions we have to make and they'll want to run thing by us from time to time, so we can't disappear for sevendays or months, but we can leave them alone to do their job until they need out input."

"Bah." Menore waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. "Nothing to do and no questions to be asked, no decisions to be made. Maybe in a few sevendays, but for now...now we're stuck here with nothing to do while others work on our boat."

"Let's ... Let's look around the seaport," he suggested, wishing the words unsaid as soon as he uttered them. A day spent with Menore? Why was he volunteering for that?

Menore's mouth opened and then shut a couple of times, as if she were trying to form words but they refused to leave her lips. Finally she nodded. "Fine. At least it'd be something to do. They'd better not mess up anything while we're gone, though."

"I'm sure they'll make good any damage they cause,' Mehan said soothingly. "Now, do you need a jacket?"

"No." Menore turned on her heel and headed out. She was frustrated, mainly because she felt useless. She hated feeling useless.

Fair enough. The seaport was the warmest spot on the riverboat's route and even in winter nobody was ever really cold.

In a couple of paces he caught up with the Moonflower's young owner.
"Come on. It won't be that bad. How often do you get time to just wander around? We're always so busy when we're here."

Mehan was right, of course, but Menore found it hard to relax. She always felt as if she had something to prove, and she felt that if she slowed down or stop, something would go wrong and she would be blamed.
She was never supposed to be the owner of the riverboat. That should have been her sister. But life didn't always work the way people planned, and Menore was the last of the family and the only left. The riverboat was her home and a tribute to her father. Perhaps that made her more protective than it should have.

The young woman took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm just not used to it." Her voice took on a soft tone not usually heard by her.
She gave a half glance over at Mehan, but let it wander away, expression unreadable. There were other issues that plagued her as well, but she wasn't about to reveal them to her Captain.

"Well you need to get used to it. We're here for four months. Plenty long enough to get to know the seaport well _and_ to supervise the overhaul on the Moonflower."

"Yeah, I guess so." Menore still wish she could be of more use. She was an owner and a headwoman, and she knew some things about the riverboat, enough to fix minor things. An overhaul, however, was far more than she could handle as far that went. To be honest, it was mostly that she was going to be grounded so long. The river was her life, and not being on it unsettled her.

"So -" He indicated the wharf beside them. "Let's go and see what there is to see."

Menore turned to look in the direction he indicated. Without another word, she headed off, glancing back only briefly to see if he was following.

The Moonflower's captain sighed silently as he followed his late wife's sister. Somehow he didn't think this was going to rate as the best idea he had ever had.

Last updated on the June 28th 2008

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Not Exactly Helping