Sivulliq by Lily H Tuzroyluke

Author:Lily H Tuzroyluke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Epicenter Press Inc.
Published: 2023-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

13 | Dining In

Captain’s Quarters

Besides my regular duties, I must watch the girl at all times, even when she dines with the captain and first mate in the captain’s quarters. I don’t know why he insists I sit with them. I think it’s a meager show of authority by making my ass watch them eat.

The captain and first mate are crass and vulgar, ruffians in fine officers’ clothing. But they dine as gentlemen. Each night the two eat a similar meal with slight variations: clam or oyster broth, preserved olives or cucumbers, seasoned nuts, a main course topped in marmalade, and a dessert, all the while drinking the anti-fogmatics strong enough to scorch a man’s throat. After a few drinks, they’re all-fired. I don’t care a bean for whiskey, rum, or ale. Besides their spirits, they sometimes drink a tonic of cocaine, heroin, or hemp, a mixture for their nerves. They complain of life, their sorrows, the price of oil and kerosene, and paying taxes. Captain wants a Concord buggy. Emilio wants a Brett carriage.

I sit against the wall, away from their dining table, on a bench covered in a long, tattered cushion. His bed is barely visible, hidden behind a half wall of sorts. It is a backwards room, suffocating and cramped. He tries to father her. He tries to win her over in sweets. Tonight, he serves mackerel in a wine sauce, seasoned beans, and marbled jelly, a swirl of custard and jelly bouncing on her plate. She dents the jelly with her finger and wipes her finger against the table.

“Do not wipe your hands on the table. Use a napkin. My wife will teach you proper manners. Not these savage ways. Sit straight. Use your utensils. You’ll eat with the First Families of Virginia. Fork in the left hand.”

She sits, looking around the room with her big eyes.

The eskimo women, Dorothy and Susan, join the table. They sit with straight backs, napkins in one hand, hair tied back in buns which they must have seen in a magazine. They drink at the same pace as the men, no more. No doubt, they’ve tried drinking more than the men but were quickly punished. When Merihim or Emilio empty their cups, Dorothy or Susan rush to fill glasses.

Dorothy nurses a black eye. Every night usually ends with fighting between the officers and women.

“Too spoiled. Daughter of a rich man. I’m a hard worker. Like you. I give you little half breed girl,” Dorothy says.

He makes Dorothy stay in his room most of the time. He doesn’t want any other man looking at her. She cried about staying in the room all the time but then he made her stay outside all day with him while he sat in the crow’s nest. She didn’t complain again.

Last night, Dorothy laughed too hard, too long, too enthusiastically at a joke about captain’s lovesickness. All of them were drunk. His fist flew across the table, knocking her backwards against the wall. Plates shot outwards and drinks spilled across the floorboards.

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