Secrets From The Med

Chapter 15

Tabitha closed her eyes for a few seconds and took in a breath of salty air. It was 0345 on Thursday and she was on the second deck fantail fulfilling her duties as aft lookout. The ship had gotten underway yesterday afternoon and was scheduled to pull into Toulon on Monday morning.

She briefly scanned her sector with her binoculars. Several hundred feet across the dark sea was a cargo ship and further away out on the horizon she could see a fishing boat. She sighed heavily as she put her binoculars down. The soreness in the back of her neck served as a reminder of how badly her last duty day had gone. She, O'Connor, and Thornton had worked on needle gunning the overhead of the third deck fantail while Garwood and Fletcher stood against the guardrails drinking sodas and eating chips and candy bars. They had whispered and laughed as the girls worked and again told them they couldn't go eat chow. They had worked well past dark and it was 2200 when they were finally let go and Tabitha had gone to her rack with her stomach grumbling. Anger coursed through her body as she thought of something else. Both Garwood and Fletcher had accused her of skating when she'd returned from fire party muster after twenty minutes. The thought of it made her want to punch something. Hadn't they ever been on a fire party during their years in the Navy? Did they really think she had control over how long it lasted?

She swallowed hard, fighting back the tears that threatened to break loose. How much better would her life be right now if she and Penny were at the University of Kentucky, with her studying drama and Penny studying library science? They would be sharing each other's clothes, attending home basketball games at Rupp arena, and taking turns driving home on the weekends. If only her mother and Penny hadn't been taken away, she wouldn't be here facing this mistreatment from Garwood and Fletcher.

Tabitha heard footsteps behind her. She turned her head and she could see just well enough to tell who it was. It was Jason.

"Hey, I hope I didn't startle you," Jason said apologetically. "I took a look at the watch bill and thought you'd be back here right about now. I just wanted to see you, even if only for a few minutes."

His words touched Tabitha's heart. He sounded as though he had really been missing her.

"I'm glad you came back here," she confessed. "I'm not feeling very good right now."

"What's going on?"

She told him all about her last two duty days and how they'd been made to work late and hadn't been allowed to go eat chow while Garwood and Fletcher stood there munching on candy and chips. Then she told him about how she'd been falsely accused of skating when she'd simply been at fire party muster like she was supposed to be.

"I think that's the hardest part," Tabitha realized she was raising her voice. "Jason, I have to go to fire party muster at 1400 every day that I have duty; I don't have a choice. As soon as it's over, I always go right back to work. Sometimes it lasts longer than others. I don't have any control over that. I promise you I never go off and skate somewhere."

"Tabitha, I know that," Jason's voice was reassuring. "Those silly accusations and not letting you guys go to chow is wrong. I had no idea that was going on. I'll tell you what, I'll see what I can do without being too obvious. I'm sorry you've been dealing with all that."

"I can't help but think about how if my mom and Penny were still alive, Penny and I would be at UK and I wouldn't be here getting bullied by them. I guess that sounds like I've got a bad attitude, but it's the way I feel."

"Tabitha, I think you're justified in feeling that way. I've told you before, I can't imagine going through what you've gone through. Besides, what Garwood and Fletcher are doing is wrong," Jason was a lot like Williams, always giving her permission to let out her emotions when she needed to.