Rot

I am a skeleton swinging in a cage. Well, not yet, but I will be soon.

They don't give me food anymore. So my stomach has nothing to consume but the muscles I no longer seem to need.

That's alright. I can't feel it anymore; my head's dizzy. I can't look down; seeing the bones jut from my skin makes me nauseous, and nausea makes the pain worse.

So no, I can't do that. I look up instead.

I imagine I'm already dead, and wonder if I'm in heaven.

The clouds are white, and the wind carries the smell of the sea. I have not seen the ocean in years.

My only view is the tree from which I dangle. The Tree of Death. The Iron Tree. The Admiral's Tree. One of those, maybe all of them?

I don't know.

In my day a noose or a gunshot were standard. How times change.

I can whistle, every time the wind spins my cage, that's what I do. It's quiet, and dry, but it keeps my head straight.

It helped me avoid seasickness. Before. 

I wonder if there are boats in heaven. Asked my son once; he's real smart–smarter than me anyway. He said there weren't, but there would be gold. Riches.

Can't say I have much use for those anymore. I hope he's wrong.

My son...

Yes, my son.

Roger–no.

Roderick? Robert? No, that wasn't...It starts with an R...

We named him after someone; it was important.

Richard. His name is Richard.

Little Rich, that's what he would be one day. That's what we told him.

He would make lots of money, the right way. Meet a nice lass, with a big, ah yes. His face would go red when we teased him like that.

Smart boy, clever as a whip. Not so much when it comes to women.

Don't know where he got it from; I was all over the girls at his age.

No wait... that wasn't it.

Something happened to him. To my son.

He left, but where did he go?

School? No. He outgrew it.

How old is he?

12? Is that when school ends?

I got him something for his birthday. It was a–

I can't remember. We were out on the dock. It was a surprise.

I met someone else on the dock too, my captain for the first time. I was just a scrap, though I suppose I'm even less now.

I sold things, stole things too. Helped boats come to port, little jobs.

He brought me along; I wanted to go, begged. He let me, needed the hands.

A joke because he only had one.

I was young, but he was willing to give me the trial run. Said not to waste his time. He wouldn't bother turning the ship around if I did that.

No room on the ship for dead weight, but the ocean is vast, and they wouldn't bother pulling out the plank.

I was smaller than them, could climb higher. Could see better. When they needed a lookout, I climbed the crow's nest. When they didn't, I caught rats. I earned my keep.