In the 'Lon' run, It'll Get Better

Something He's not Telling Me

Later that evening, we finally got to have supper after the day's work was done. I never felt so hungry in my whole life. I looked up for a moment to see Thomas picking at his food. I knew right then that something was up. Thomas is always hungry, he always eats everything served to him. Tonight, though, he seemed like he'd lost his appetite all together. "What's wrong, laddie?" I asked, "Aren't you hungry?" Thomas looked at his plate miserably and slowly began eating it, "Not really, no." He continued to eat unwillingly.

Wait, a second. How long have I been calling Thomas 'laddie'? Probably since I actually got to know the boy. He was so shy, that's what I called him when I was trying to coax him over. I think I called him that since then. On the other side, he's the youngest, you naturally do that for the young ones. It suits him, too. He's a doll.  That's another story, though, should I tell it? Might as well, you might like it.

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It was a few days after we set sail and Thomas was feeling shy.

He was hiding in the corner and when I found him, he blushed and cowered. I glanced over at Ben from a distance and then turned back to Thomas, "Come on, laddie. You can come out." He didn't come out at first, but he stopped cowering and the blush seemed to leave his face a little. I beckoned to him, "It's alright, my boy." Finally, he took a deep breath and came out. As soon as he came out, I put an arm around him, "What were you doing back there? You bashful, laddie?" He grinned and blushed, "Mmmhmm."

"So, what's your name, young man?" He shuffled his feet for a moment, "T-Thomas." I raised an eyebrow, "'Thomas'? It suits you. Name's Lon." I decided to tease him a little and stroked him under the chin, "Now, don't you worry. We're all gonna be friends now. You shouldn't be so shy." Then (hang on, it's gonna be really cute) he smiled a little and (don't say I didn't warn you) he said, "I-I don't mean to be sappy, but I r-really do like you." I tried not to laugh, it was so cute. Of course he didn't mean it so affectionately, he just liked that I was so patient with him. It made him more comfortable.  In a short while, he was much more comfortable and, counting me, he made friends with everyone on board (not counting the governor, of course).

I was actually surprised some of the seamen took to the lad.  I was told many sailors think redheads are bad luck.  To avert the bad luck, you'd have to speak to them before they spoke to you.  A few of them did that, but especially Ben was glad to see that most of them had some good sense since he told them, "That's pure nonsense.  If that was true, I'd be the most unlucky person in all England." He was referring to me, of course.  We've been mates since we were young lads.

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Now, where were we?  Oh, yes, something was wrong with Thomas and I could feel it.

I was certain something wasn't right, but I decided not to show it, "Well, go ahead and eat anyway, Thomas. You need your strength." He nodded slowly and turned back to his gruel. I finished mine a bit moodily and began thinking about what could've happened. Was he just homesick again? It was understandable if he was, he'd never left home before and he was only eighteen and a farm boy.

After supper, I worked through my chores and finally made up my mind: I would go see what was bothering Thomas. If there was one thing the poor doll needed, it was someone he could talk to. Of course, he'd sealed his friendship with Smith, but he couldn't always be there having to scout the area for savages. When he wasn't there to talk, Ben and I were the ones he would turn to. Usually, he was quite open about his problems. But, since he didn't say anything, it clearly was more serious.

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How do I know that? Simple, I've only seen him that way one other time and that was on the first day we came to Virginia.

We'd just finished the ceremony where Ratcliffe was claiming the land for England and officially named it Jamestown.  Smith was about to go off to scout the forest and stopped to say goodbye to Thomas thinking it better than just vanishing.  I was busy helping put back up the flags when this was happening since I had to hold one for the ceremony.  

So Smith told Thomas goodbye and where he was going and, almost immediately, Thomas looked a bit stunned, "Can I come with you?"  It was that that drew my attention to the conversation, so I eavesdropped on it.  Smith almost laughed at the idea, but had the sense not to, "No, I better do this on my own.  It's too dangerous for you."  I could see Thomas slump with utter disappointment, "But-" he cut himself off, clearly sensing there was nothing he could come up with that could change Smith's mind, and sighed, "Okay."  Smith patted the boy's shoulder, "You're needed here, Thomas.  Once I get the lay of the forest, I'll take you with me another time."  Thomas nodded, "Alright, promise?"

"Promise."  With that, he gave Thomas' cheek a gentle pat and went off into the forest.  Thomas followed him with his eyes until Smith vanished into the trees.  I went up behind him and leaned against the tree so that, when he turned around, it would look like I'd been there the whole time and he hadn't noticed.  He turned, but jerked back when he saw me there, "Lon, were you listening the whole time."  I studied my fingernails, "Well, I overheard you asking, so I thought I'd listen."  I could see he still looked quite forlorn, so I tried to be as gentle as I could, "He is right, you know.  Taking you along would be suicide if there were to be anything dangerous or unexpected savages."  Thomas nodded, "I know."  I put my arm around him and guided him back to the others, "Now come on, boy.  There's no use feeling sorry for yourself.  I know, it took me a while to learn that.  But we have work to do, we can't stop life because of a moment of good-willed, but hard-to-take, rejection."  I looked at his face to see how he was taking it and it seemed like he understood, "You're right, Lon.  I can't waste the day for one moment and our first day in the New World for that matter."  I felt so proud, "There you are, laddie! That's the spirit!"

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Ugh, off track again.  Back to the main story.