Like Clockwork

Like Clockwork: An Old Face

​It had been two weeks since the Finnegan siblings boarded the airship, and two weeks since their lives changed forever. They never expected to be caught up in such a whirlwind of excitement and terror and never imagined that their father was still alive, but here they were, Jonah and Abigail sat across a table from a man they barely recognized. He was rugged, with a beard and long hair tied back and worn in clothing. He didn't look like he was a captain of anything. The two teenagers just stared at him for a while, the gentle humming of the ship as it sailed along the clouds was the only sound that kept there from being an eerie silence. Abigail sat there silently, twisting the small pendant that hung on a chain around her neck.
​Two weeks ago was the Airship Regatta and all of London was excited for it, especially Abigail. Her family was throwing an extravagant party where she would hopefully meet a man to marry. She was only seventeen but she was well into marrying age and her grandmother was constantly nagging her about finding a husband. Jonah was also supposed to find a woman although he was under less stress to do so. At nineteen he was more focused on his studies, wanting to be a Fleet Captain like his father had been before he died. As the day wound down and the streets grew dark with the setting sun the party was barely starting. Elaborate chandeliers hung from the ceiling and the candlelight flickered like distant stars. The large ballroom was cast in brilliant gold's as Jonah, Abigail, and their half-sister Charlotte made their way to the festivities. Both girls wore brand new dresses and Jonah wore a well-tailored suit.
​Many a guest had complimented them on their looks and there were plenty of young men and women for the two eldest to talk to. Jonah went one way and Abigail went another, leaving Charlotte to run around on her own and try to entertain herself amongst the older guests. Abigail made her way through the grand hall, the family mansion feeling more like a castle she thought as she took a sip from her glass. A man had approached her, handsome enough, and started some small talk with her to which she didn't pay much attention. Of course the only reason she was even thinking about marriage was because it was expected of her to be married to a well-off gentleman, hopefully a Lord or Baron, who could keep their family well-to-do.
​Good thing they came from a wealthy family, Abigail thought to herself as she nodded absentmindedly at the man, since Jonah should have no problem wooing a damsel. Thankfully she didn't have to pay much attention to the man speaking to her, as long as she laughed at his attempts at humor and pretended to be interested in his family's trade ties she was safe until someone actually interesting came along. Lucky for her it didn't take long.
​"Your story is quite interesting, but I do not think the lady is impressed." The voice was soothing and she turned her head to see who was speaking. Her breath caught in her throat as she gazed into his eyes, which were normally green but candlelight turned them hazel. His hair was black and slicked back with a black overcoat and dress shirt, and she was close enough to see the intricate red designs on his vest. She could feel her cheeks heating up and didn't pay much attention to the other man who let out an irritated huff as he departed from the two, leaving them seemingly alone together in the candlelight.
​She finally managed to compose herself and regain her usual nature before speaking again.
​"Oh he was so dreadfully boring. Thank you, Thomas." She smiled confidently at the man she had met months earlier; this man whom she had fallen head over heels for even though she refused to admit it.
​"Abigail." He responded and lifted the back of her hand up to meet his lips. "Still receiving suitors I see?"
​"What else is a woman good for?" she joked. "Certainly not worth an actual conversation." The two often made quips about how they were supposed to act; it was how they got along so well.
"Oh certainly not." He added with a chuckle, still holding her hand in his own. "Would you like to dance with me?"
"I'd love to."
They made their way to the dance floor and joined in on the festivities, his hand on her waist and hers on his shoulder and their free hands still suck together as they moved across the dance floor as the band played, stringed instruments singing softly as they went.
The airship lurched and she was brought back to reality, to where they were now. The pain of that memory came flooding back. Not long after the two had shared the dance had Thomas given her the loveliest necklace with a small pendant engraved with an intricate design. However, a different sound had broken through the peaceful ambiance, which was followed closely by a scream that made Abigail's blood run cold. She had run towards the sound to see what had happened and left Thomas behind her but was jerked back before she could get close. When she looked back at the person holding onto her arms she was faced with her brother, his skin pale even in the golden candlelight.
"We have to get out of here." He said in a panicked tone. Charlotte was behind him holding onto one of the tails of his coat and trembling with the commotion although she was just as confused as Abigail.
​Jonah swept Charlotte up in one arm and held onto Abigail's wrist with the other as he ran towards the nearest exit with them. Gunshots rang out over the screams and guests scrambled to escape as fast as they could. She looked around frantically for Thomas but he was nowhere to be found. Surely he had gotten out on his own.
​"What about mum and grandmother?" She shouted over the screams, but Jonah just kept running. Abigail's mouth hung open in shock, fearing the worst. Her legs began to feel like lead and she wanted nothing more than to stop running and return to the lovely night, but that didn't seem like an option now so she forced herself to keep running, picking up the front of her dress to not trip over it.
​"You two have grown up so much. I fear you've been through a lot as of late."
​James Finnegan broke Abigail's thoughts and once again she was brought back to this seemingly terrible reality.
​"How dare you." Her brother responded with a menacing tone, which was very unlike him. "Don't speak as though you understand how we feel. You left us, you don't get to pretend like you care!"
​"Jonah I didn't leave you, I-"
​"You what? You just decided to play dead and not tell us you were alive? We found out from some greasy man in a pub that you still existed!"
​Her brother spoke the truth, after the massacre at the mansion the children were on the run. Some men who recognized them as Lady Emily's children and were after what they were worth had chased them. They wandered the streets for what seemed like eternity but only turned out to be a week before in a musty pub someone told Jonah he looked like a Pirate the man knew. He went by Finnegan and plundered merchant ships and killed members of the Royal Air Fleet. At first they assumed there had to be more Finnegan's out there than just them, but a wanted poster proved them wrong. Aside from a fuller beard the James Finnegan in the poster was definitely their father.
​And so the three set out to find him, and a week later here they are staring the man in the face. Jonah getting upset and Abigail too amazed to think straight.
​"You don't understand I couldn't come back. It would have put you all in danger!"
​"Danger." Abigail scoffed. "More danger than what we've just been through thanks to you? Our only family is dead now, and what do we have? Some dead beat father who ran off to play pirate!" She stood up, flustered and enraged. "You should have come back for us! Mother had to remarry, Grandmother controlled us, and we were little dolls for them to dress up. We no longer had your loving and free spirit! We had order and rules! We needed you!"
​James was silent for some time, unsure of what he could even say to them when he noticed the pendant on her neck.
​"Where did you get that?"
​"Why does it matter?"
​James rose from his chair and strode towards the doorway in one swift motion, leaning out of the frame to peer around his deck. The wind poured in and if the papers on the mans desk weren't being held down by their heavy objects they would have danced around the room.
​"Nathan! Come down here!" He shouted up into the air. Abigail and Jonah looked at each other curiously, their anger slowly calming down. When their father returned into the chamber a young man in a warm overcoat followed him and a mask covering his face, which had tubes, attached to an oxygen tank on his back. He took the mask off and let in hang around his neck and pulled the goggles onto his forehead.
​"What's the matter Captain?"
​Abigail nearly choked when she saw him, brilliant green eyes starring down at her through a dirty face and dark circles.
​"Thomas?"
​"Abigail!" He exclaimed. His excitement soon turned to terror when he realized what was happening.
​"Abigail, you know him?" James asked.
​"For a little over a month...He gave me my necklace."
​"So I thought. Nathaniel how dare you put my daughter in danger!"
​"Y-your daughter?" Nathan stammered, "I didn't know you were related, I just needed a safe place to put it for a while and I trusted her.
​"Wait, your name is Nathaniel?" Abigail asked, still confused.
​"Oh, yes um...Nathan Charity, at your service." He said with a nervous tone as he bowed to her. His charming demeanor had disappeared, as he was now a man facing some sort of punishment.
​"Don't you act like a gentleman after you lied to me! I can't take this...we shouldn't have come here Jonah! We were better off on our own!" She shouted and tore off the pendant from her neck, tossing it onto the desk before rushing out the door. They were flying through the air high above the Earth. Abigail was greeted by strong gusts of air and sensations she had never felt before. She lost her footing several times as she scrambled across the deck looking for a place to take shelter, her dress billowing around her and strands of her braids had loosened and were giving her trouble. She stumbled to the edge of the deck and wrapped her fingers around the rail, her knuckles turning white. The countryside was drenched in golden rays from the sun, and the clouds they skated on shimmered like waves. She had never been this high up and the view was breathtaking. She held her hand out into the air, grasping at something she couldn't touch. She brought her hand back into her chest, fist clenched tightly. A warm streak slid down her cheek and she brought her hand up to meet it.
​"Abigail! Abigail! I made a friend!" She turned to see her younger sister Charlotte running towards her un-phased by the wind which seemed to toss them about. A woman was following her.
​"Oh, hello. I'm Abigail, but call me Abby." She said with a smile, offering her a curtsey.
​"Ruth. It's nice to meet you. Little Charlie here has told me about you."
​"Oh has she?" Abigail laughed. "What do you do here on the ship?"
​"I'm the Doctor. Someone has to keep these people from killing themselves." Ruth said with some humor in her voice. "So this is your first time in the air is it? Why don't you come into my office and you can tell what you think about it here." Ruth offered, and Abigail obliged following the woman down some steps that led deeper into the ship.
​"The view is breathtaking, but I find it hard to stand up on deck." Abigail admitted when they finally made it to the office. She sat down on one of the few chairs and Charlotte jumped into her lap.
​"You get used to it." Ruth said, pausing between her thoughts. "If you don't mind me asking, what did the Captain want with you?"
​Abigail took a while to respond, not wanting to admit to a total stranger that this woman's Captain was her father. However, she had to talk to someone that wasn't her brother and something about this woman's calm tone soothed her nerves.
​"He's my Father. Recently my siblings and I are without home. We found out he was still alive and somehow managed to find him." When she thought about it, locating the infamous pirate wasn't all that hard. Stops at two different port towns had led them straight to him, they became stowaways and once in the air were discovered and brought to the Captain.
​Ruth seemed a little awestruck by Abigail's words, unsure of what to say. Finding a long lost family member is a difficult task to handle.
​"Your Father? That's incredible." Ruth said under her breath. "Why did he leave you in the first place? Do you know?"
​"No...what ever reason he gives me won't be good enough. He left his family behind for nine years with us thinking he had died in a crash. It's almost as if I can't call him my Father anymore."
​"Then why are you here? If you don't want to here him out, then why bother staying?"
​"Because we have no where else to go." She admitted, "and I want a somewhat stable place for Charlie. As soon as we found out we could find him it seemed like the most suitable option."
​"Well if you plan on staying here you should at least let him explain why he didn't come back for you."
​Perhaps Ruth was right, Abigail thought. Maybe he had a good reason. If he didn't have a story they liked they could always pick up and move off on their own again.
​The day seemed to drag on but Ruth seemed to make it all bearable. Her sense of humor and wise nature made her a pleasure to talk with. It wasn't long before the dinner bell rang and Abigail, not feeling hungry, opted to stay in the office for a while longer. Once she assumed everyone was in their mess area, wherever that was, she made her way back onto the deck and back to the railing. The sun had been going down as they flew away from it and the sky was filled with vivid oranges and pinks. She watched as the clouds blew by when footsteps approached her from behind.
​"Beautiful, isn't it? I'll never get tired of this view." Her father leaned against the railing beside her, watching the clouds as well.
​"Shouldn't you be at dinner?"
​"When I didn't see you there I decided to look for you. Aren't you hungry?"
​"No. Not anymore."
​"What's wrong? Tell me please, maybe I can help?"
​"I want to know why you left us all those years ago."
​James paused, taken back by the question still no matter how much he had prepared himself for it. He took a deep breath and began speaking.
​"When I was sent away to serve as Captain, I knew I would be transporting merchant goods from London to Georgia in the United States. What I didn't know was that I was transporting people. It clashed with my morals but I couldn't disobey my orders. However, most of my crew seemed to feel the same as me since they suggested a mutiny against the crown. But by doing that it would make us criminals who could be sentenced to death and unable to see our families ever again. We had two options, give up our morals to keep our lives, or give up our lives for our morals. We chose the latter and were soon hunted by the crown and shot out of the sky..." He paused, memories flashing across his eyes. "We lost some good lives that day, but once it happened we had to make them think we were dead. Most of us changed our names and we were forced to become Pirates. We took down those who had wronged us and those humans we were sent to trade off."
​"So you really are pirates..."
​"No, not anymore! It's been nine years, Abigail. After five years of pirating, we've become privateers. Working for clean money for museum owners who want artifacts. We sort of act as treasure hunters."
​Abigail didn't speak for quite some time thinking everything over. She wanted so badly to believe him, and a part of her did, but after all this time it would be hard to trust him again. But with nowhere else to go, what other choice did they have?
​"It's all right if we stay here for a while, right? On the ship?"
​"Of course, Abby. You're my children, you're always welcome on my ship."
​"Thank you." She trailed off, no longer looking at him.
​"Here, I almost forgot. Can you hang onto this for me?" He asked, handing a small object to her. She opened her palm and inside was the pendant she had given up earlier. "When we dock at the next port we'll be trading that to the buyer, but can I trust you to keep an eye on it?"
​"Yeah...I can do that." She said, holding it tightly in her hands. He nodded slightly and began to walk away from her.
​"The kitchen is open all night if you get hungry." Was the last thing he said before heading back to his quarters.
​For the longest time Abigail stood here, overlooking everything and tracing the circular object with her thumb. It would be hard to adjust to life in the sky, but she did love the view.