The Pirate and the Soldier Boy

Chapter 23

Oddly enough, the thing that woke Carmen was the lack of rocking. She was so used to the rocking of a ship, the ground that she was laying on felt unnatural. She slowly noticed her arm, pressing into the sand as she lay on her side.

As she opened her eyes Carmen felt something was wrong. Slowly coming to her senses, she felt the strain for oxygen. As she opened her mouth to breath in, no air would enter her lungs. She coughed pitifully and felt her lungs empty, water spilling onto the ground. Finally she took a gulping breath of air. And another.

She rolled into her back. A hand rested on her shoulder, and gently lifted her so she was seated, held tightly, still taking great gulps of air and shivering violently.

Her breathing gradually slowed. A warm, heavy blanket was draped over her and she hugged it closer around her shoulders as she sat. Finally Carmen came enough to her senses to look up into the face of her rescuer. Dark brown hair, clean shaven, with eyes as blue as the sky above her and a smile as bright as the sun.

She choked slightly, this time not from the sea water, but from joy. She wrapped her arms around him. Making sure the heavy blanket, now discernible as a blue and white jacket, didn't fall off her back, Sam pushed her hair back from her face. "We keep ending up like this, Carma. I'm starting to think something's wrong with one of us. Probably your irrepressible sense of adventure and careless abandon of personal safety."

He placed a light kiss on her forehead, and stood, bringing Carmen to her feet beside him. Her knees collapsed beneath her as she tried to stand alone and she ended up leaning on Sam heavily for support. "Or maybe it's meant to be this way."

Diverting his inevitable question, she asked one of herself. Voice weak, it cracked as she spoke. "Sam, did you find a woman with long blonde hair, by any chance, near me, with whip lashes cover-"

Here her voice cracked a second time and she covered her mouth with her free hand to keep a cry from escaping. Sam pulled her close again as they walked away from the water toward the road and the forest. "Yes."

His answer was simple, and they stopped on the edge of the forest. Here lay a mound of fresh earth with a stone placed over the top. As Carmen stared she realized that the hand she held was dusted with brown dirt, and had several newly formed blisters. Carmen buried her face into his shoulder and cried. "Sammy, why can't I do anything right? You've been discharged from the military again, I've sunk two ships, one full of innocent people, and now I've killed one of the best people I know. My mother."

Sam didn't speak for several minutes, just let her cry. "Jenna died at the hand of another, not you."

"But she had the key to my shackles. That's why they killed her."

Sam pulled away and placed his hands on her shoulders, "Tell me you wouldn't have done the same if given the chance. That's why you went away in the first place."

He pulled three worn pieces of paper from his pocket, still wet. She took them with a shaking hand and unfolded them to read the birth certificate, and the two notes written by Jenna to her, followed by her note to Sam from her jail cell. She placed them in her jacket pocket.

She nodded and sniffed. Sam sat on a log and patted the space next to him. Carmen walked over unsteadily and sat next to him. She leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed. "I didn't get discharged."

Carmen jumped slightly at his sudden pronouncement. "What?"

He looked at her. "I didn't get discharged. From the army. I turned in a letter of resignation. After I found you."

He looked sideways at her shyly. She smiled sadly and kissed his cheek. "Then I think I had better make the decision worth it for you."

He turned her face and lightly kissed her lips as she intertwined their fingers. "I'd count on it."