#note: never use a scraper as a slashing weapon. ;P

[emilykat-artblog18]

The Other Port

(Chapter 5)

.:: Scraping It Off ::.

Ten cents slowly began to wake up, he began to contemplate the events that unfolded last night. It felt like such a weird dream and yet it felt so real, The Other Captain, Other O.J. and Top Hat, even Sunshine was there too. Was it even a dream?

Then Ten Cents began to realize something; It was morning, the barracks looked… normal. Gone was the lively, rich, bright, and colorful bedroom, now he was back to plain boring barracks he knew.

“Are we back in our world?...” Ten Cents whispers to himself not feeling sure if they’re really back.

Ten Cents gets off from his bunk bed and looks on the bunk above him to see if Sunshine was okay. He was relieved when he saw Sunshine still here and sleeping peacefully.

“Maybe this was a crazy dream after all,” Ten Cents thought to himself as he began to wake Sunshine up in a calm and gentle manner. “SUNSHINE! GET UP IT’S MORNING!!”

Sunshine jolted awake from the sudden loud voice from Ten Cents, “What?! What?! What’s going on?!” Sunshine shouted, looked around and noticed how everything was back to normal.

“Ten Cents, What was that for?!” Sunshine shouted,

“Hey, you know i’m just messing with ya” teased Ten Cents

“But not when I'm sleeping, man.” Sunshine remarked, sighing in frustration.

“Not while we’re sleeping too,” a voice suddenly spoke up accompanied by a head poking up from another bunk; It was Top Hat,

“We’re working in a difficult time, you two. We employees of Star Tug & Marine have a position to keep up, we need to get as much rest as we can so we have more energy to do work early in the morning.”

Before Ten Cents could reply, a pair of groans cut him off, “Come off it, Top Hat, at least they’re up early and bright, unlike you,” Big Mac scoffed, Warrior laughed at this.

Before Top Hat could retort, the PA speaker turned on, accompanied by small feedback from it.

“Good Morning Star Fleet, I see everyone is already up so we can skip the wake up call and get to the announcements. As of now we’re going to have to work even harder than before for this week following the accident that occurred yesterday. Big Mac and Warrior you’re going to be assisting Hercules with the docking and unloading of another tramper, Top Hat you're on garbage detail today after that you’re to transport the rail fairies across the port, and since O.J isn’t available, I’ll have to ask Captain Zero to lend one of his employees to do his duties in the meantime-”

“But Captain,” protested Top Hat, “can’t one of us do O.J’s jobs, we’re more than capable of handling his work as well as our own.”

“I would but I’m afraid O.J’s duties would be too much to handle on top of your already scheduled duties. And I can’t spare my youngest employees to do them because of what happened recently.”

“Can’t we just do O.J’s work as a punishment?” asked Sunshine.

I let out a sigh, “I would Sunshine, but I’m afraid that because of the companies you three kept waiting as well as making a fool out of the company in front of the tramper’s crew, no one at the moment is going to trust you with your duties.”

I couldn’t see the expressions of my young employees, but I could sense they felt worse after what I said.

“You three are just going to have to start from the bottom and work yourselves back to the top starting with scraping the barnacles off of pier 3, Scuttlebutt Pete will meet you there and supervise your work. That is all, best of luck to all of you.”

The P.A speaker let out a crack and a squeal as I turned it off. All of my employees set off to do their assigned jobs of the day, as they walked out the entrance Ten Cents and Sunshine couldn’t help but feel as though Top Hat was staring coldly at them.

Ten Cents and Sunshine were quiet to each other as they made their way to Pier 3. Some ways into their journey, Ten Cents decided to speak up, “I’m sorry for waking you up the way I did, Sunshine, but... do you remember what happened last night?”

Sunshine paused for a moment then asked “You mean with the Other Captain, the Other Top Hat, and the Other O.J, even the food he gave us?"

“Yeah all of that.” Ten Cents replied.

“How do you know all of that? I thought it was just a dream I had,” Sunshine asked perplexed.

“I was there with you and you were there with me. It was weird, the whole thing had to have been some dream of sorts right?” Ten Cents ventured.

“I suppose, but how do you know we’re not having a dream right now?” Sunshine asked.

“Only one way to find out,” Started Ten Cents before grabbing Sunshine’s left arm.

“Oi! not too hard, you’ll pull my whole arm off!” Sunshine yelped.

“It’s not there anymore…” Ten Cents remarked as he stared at Sunshine’s healed hand.

Sunshine retracted his arm back and slapped Ten Cents across his face with his other.

“Ow geez!” Ten Cents recoiled, “What was that for?”

“I just had to be sure you felt pain as well, just to be sure that we both aren’t dreaming.” Sunshine explained before looking back at his hand.

Ten Cents thought for a moment, “Maybe some rope burns can go away quickly,” he suggested.

“But how would that explain how we had the same dream last night?” Sunshine raised an eyebrow.

Their pondering was cut short when they heard someone running up to them, it was Tillie.

“Hello Ten Cents, Hey Sunshine! I see you two out pretty early this morning. Did Captain Starr already give out the announcement for the day?” Tillie asked.

“Yeah he did, but don’t worry you didn’t miss anything. We’re still scraping barnacles today.” Ten Cents reassures Tillie

“Oh right… Well I guess it’s lucky I have my own scrapper and gloves just in case, my sister got them for me after I told her about yesterday’s accident.” Tillie recounted

“How did she take the news?” Sunshine asked

“Well… she took it in stride, a bit better than I imagined but she understood the situation. Anyways we better get going to the Pier.” Tillie said, trying to liven up the mood.

“Yeah you’re right, we can’t keep Scuttlebutt Pete waiting for us any longer.” Ten Cents sighed.

Ten Cents led the way to Pier 3, Tillie walked in the middle humming a tune, and Sunshine followed behind looking at his now healed hand again thinking that maybe The Other Port was real, all while a black cat was following them from afar. The three found Scuttlebutt Pete waiting for them at the entrance of Pier 3.

“You three made it here in good time.” Greeted Scuttlebutt Pete.

“Thanks Scuttlebutt, we’re all here and eager to work.” Tillie exclaimed.

“Good, well here you go,” Scuttlebutt Pete started handing the scrapers, gloves, and buckets to the three, but Tillie declined her pair.

“I brought my own scraper and gloves, Scuttlebutt.” Tillie explained.

Scuttlebutt Pete was a little taken aback but smiled, “Didn’t think any of you would be eager to get to work on your punishment. At least that makes one of you.”

“Why’s that?” Tillie puzzled.

“You’ll find out why, but before we start, what end of the pier do you three want to start from?” Scuttlebutt queried

“The ne-” Ten Cents began

“The far end of the Pier!” Tillie cutted in

“The far end it shall be then,” Scuttlebutt Pete smiled.

Ten Cents and Sunshine winged at this. As they followed Scuttlebutt Pete to the far end of the Pier the boardwalk creaked and groaned as they walked along it. Tillie also noticed that the pilings were rotting and covered in colonies of barnacles. When they arrived at the far end of Pier 3, they found a strange contraption waiting for them.

“This is what you three will be standing in as you scrape the barnacles off the pilings. It’s a ‘floating platform’, once you finish scraping off the pilings I’ll come back and lift you three back up onto the boardwalk and move it to another spot.”

“Say uh Scuttlebutt, wouldn’t this be a lot easier if we were standing in a boat?” Sunshine queried.

Scuttlebutt Pete interjected, “A boat isn’t stable as the platform, if you stepped too close to the side, it would tip over and you three would end up in the ocean. Trust me, this is a safer alternative”

Sunshine still felt unsure about this. Ten Cents went in first before he helped Tillie and Sunshine get onto the platform and slowly, with the help of the pulleys holding platform, lowered the three down to one of the pilings and they got to work at once.

—

Meanwhile, Top Hat was refueling his railway tug at the coal yard when he heard a familiar whistle, it was one of the harbor tugs from Zero Marine hauling behind it a couple Star Line fuel barges, on board was Zorran. Top Hat ran over to his tug’s wheelhouse and radioed over to the passing tug,

“The refinery is in the other direction Zorran, why are you coming this way? If you’re here to gloat, I don’t want to hear it.” Top Hat huffed.

What Top Hat received as a reply however he couldn’t believe came from Zorran,

“I just wanted to come by and say that I’m sorry for what happened to OJ,” Zorran lamented, “the recklessness of your younger crewmates is unforgivable.”

Top Hat didn’t know what to say,

“What are you trying to accomplish here, Zorran? I don’t understand” Top Hat puzzled.

“I’m not trying to accomplish anything but the work your captain assigned to me. I’ve always had a deep respect for OJ. This may not mean a lot coming from me, with us working for rival companies, but I hope he recovers” Zorran consoled.

Zorran tipped his fedora to Top Hat who watched as the Zero Marine harbor tug turned around and headed across the bay to the refinery. Top Hat then walked to the stern of his tug and stared at the docked paddle steamer at the Star Pier, his eyes welling up with tears.

—

By mid-afternoon, Ten Cents, Tillie and Sunshine felt tired. Scraping off the barnacles was hard work especially to Ten Cents and Sunshine, their leather gloves were worn and the scrapers were rusty. True to his word, Scuttlebutt Pete finally decided it was time to give the three a break.

“Well lads, you’ve earned your hour long break, make use of your free time wisely because you all got a lot of scraping to get back to,” advised Scuttlebutt Pete.

“Finally, I was getting tired of scraping for this long,” exclaimed Sunshine wearily.

“Yeah, at least for now we can catch our breaths, my arms are killing me” Ten Cents sighed as he put his scrapper in his pocket.

“Well what can we do during our free time?” Tillie asked.

All three thought about it for a moment as Scuttlebutt Pete pulled the suspended platform up carefully to the pier’s surface. Once they got off the platform, Ten Cents had decided, “well we can just hang out here for the whole break and maybe have something to drink.”

“Say, Scuttlebutt Pete, are there any refreshments nearby?” Tillie queried.

“Fraid not. Sorry lads, I can go and bring some, especially to cool off from the heat of the day,” Scuttlebutt Pete apologized.

“Oh thank you Scuttlebutt Pete.” Sunshine sighed in relief

“But you three have to stay put here and try not to get into any trouble while I'm out, do you all understand?” Scuttlebutt Pete remarked.

“Yes Scuttlebutt Pete.” all three affirmed in unison.

“Good, I’ll be back as soon as possible,” and with that, Scuttlebutt left the three young harbor employees at the pier with each other’s company.

“I guess while we wait… what’s been going on with you two?” Tillie inquired.

“Well…” Ten Cents began,

“Last night something weird happened to both of us.”

Tillie perked up at the sound of this.

“Oh? What is it? Was it something interesting?” Tillie quizzed.

“Do you remember that small door we found in the employee lounge?” Ten Cents hesitated,

“Uh… yes? There was just a wall of bricks behind it, what about it?” puzzled Tillie.

“Well last night, me and Sunshine chased a mouse to the employee lounge where the small door is and-” Ten Cents was suddenly interrupted by a sudden yet faint sound coming towards them.

“Meow,” it was a cat; its fur was colored black and it looked tatty and frail, rather strangely it was missing an eye. Tillie and Sunshine turned their attention towards it.

“Oh look, a little cat!” Tillie said adoringly at the black cat.

Sunshine took one look at the cat and instantly recognized it from yesterday. “Hey I remember you,”

The cat walked slowly up to Sunshine. Sunshine was nervous until the cat started to rub itself against Sunshine’s leg affectionately, purring all the while.

“Aww it likes you, Sunshine!” Tillie exclaimed, getting closer to pet the cat.

Sunshine was hesitant about being near the black cat since it was the main catalyst of yesterday’s incident, but despite the look of the tattered one eyed cat he couldn’t resist its seemingly friendly nature as he got down to being eye to eye with the cat.

“Huh, you don’t seem bad, are you lost?” Sunshine asked the cat as he pet it.

“He must be a stray considering how thin it looks.” Tillie sighed at the feline.

“Yeah… Poor thing.” Sunshine added.

Ten Cents however wasn’t thrilled to see the black cat. He marched over to the cat

“Oi! Get lost!” Ten Cents hollored.

The black cat, frightened by Ten Cents’ sudden approach, scampered away to the entrance of the boardwalk. Sunshine and Tillie were surprised and a little offended.

“Why’d you go and scare it off, Ten Cents?” Sunshine puzzled,

“Have you forgotten it is the exact reason why we’ve gotten into this mess?” Ten Cents chastised,

“No, I haven't forgotten Ten Cents, but I don't think it warranted you scaring it off.” faltered Sunshine,

“It’s only a harmless animal, Ten Cents,” Tillie soothed, “It probably didn’t mean to cause what it did,”

Ten Cents took a deep breath, he knew Tillie was right. His thoughts were then suddenly interrupted by the sound of two pairs of boots making their way over to them.

“Well well well, looks like you three are in a spot of bother,”

It was Zip and Zug.

“Don’t you two have anything else better to do? We’re trying to enjoy our break” Sunshine hissed,

“Hey calm down Sunshine we’re only here cuz we heard what happened, and we thought we’d check up on our fellow deckhands,” Zip insisted.

“Yes,” added Zug, “after all if we had put OJ in a hospital room, we’d feel very upset ourselves”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ten Cents scowled.

“Oh nothing, it's just if we had hindered the old man we’d feel very remorseful.”

“Are you saying I don’t feel remorseful?”

“Well by the look on your face I’d say not,”

This infuriated Ten Cents, clutching his scraper in his pocket, his thoughts swirling through his head. How dare Zug accuse him of being remorseless about O.J.’s injuries.

Tillie soon saw this in Ten Cents' face, she could see how this was getting under his skin, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Ten Cents… please calm down. He’s just trying to get to you…” Tillie soothed.

“Tillie’s right Ten Cents, he’s just trying to mess with ya.” Sunshine added.

Zip and Zug turned to leave

“How pathetic,” Zug smirked, “Ten Cents can’t even stand up for himself, those smaller than him always get in his way,”

“What a disgrace to The Star Fleet” snickered Zip.

It was then Ten Cents snapped, he broke free from Tillie and Sunshine, drew his scraper from his pocket and charged at the two zeroes.

“Ten Cents, no!” “Stop!” cried Sunshine and Tillie as they chased him.

Ten Cents tackled Zug suddenly and began slashing Zug’s face with his scraper.

“DISGRACE TO MY COMPANY?! PATHETIC?!” Ten Cents shouted.

Zug squealed in agony as Zip tried pulling Ten Cents off Zug but Ten Cents shoved him off into one of the wooden railings of the pier. Tillie and Sunshine then ran up and yanked Ten Cents off of Zug, his face red with fury and tears welling in his eyes.

“I’M NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO OJ!” Ten Cents seethed.

“That’s enough!” boomed another voice, it was Scuttlebutt Pete who was holding a crate of bottles of soda.

Zip pulled Zug back onto his feet, Zug limped to the entrance of the pier,

“You’re in for it now,” he scowled at Ten Cents.

Zip turned to the three stars, “I’m sorry about this,” he apologized before following his colleague.

“Scuttlebutt I can explain, I-”

Scuttlebutt Pete held up his hand in front of Ten Cents,

“Save your explanation, you’re going to have to give it to Captain Starr. However, either way you’re going to be in a heap of trouble with him.” Scuttlebutt Pete said solemnly.

Ten Cents let out a sigh, somehow he knew deep down, Scuttlebutt Pete was right.

(To be Continued)

{End of chapter 5}

<- Previous chapter —•— Next chapter ->