Internet was out when I woke up and it just came back on. So while I wrote these first thing, I am just now getting to post them. No clue why the internet was out, but I hope the issue is fixed.
So it is more of a mid morning prompt…
Wednesday, December 6th: She hauled the crab pot into the boat.
She hauled the crab pot into the boat. After far too many hours on the water, her muscles were aching and she was delighted to have only this last crab pot to check. It was, to her delight as full as possible. She spread the contents into the sorting tray and quickly threw back all those she was not allowed to take. Knowing she already had a good haul, Wanda was liberal with her decisions and even tossed back some that she could have argued a case for keeping.
At the moment she could afford to be generous.
The crabs worth keeping went into the holding tank with all of the others that she was taking back to shore. She rebaited her crab pot and sent it back into the water. Satisfied that she simply had to make it back to shore at the moment, she locked everything into place and gave the signal to Sherry who was behind the wheel today. Her sister generally took the wheel, preferring steering while seated in the boats small cabin to being out in the spray and hauling in the crab pots.
At the moment her place was justified.
Sherry’s left leg was injured and still healing. Putting her in a standing position would lengthen the time to heal and ultimately cost them as she couldn’t spend the entire time out on the boat. And so Wanda took care of the pots while Sherry drove.
Wanda also knew that when they reached port, she would be the one dealing with the unloading and sale of the crabs. Sherry would wait in the boat until the work was done and the boat was secured. That had been habit before Sherry was injured and not likely to change soon.
Wanda kept her dark thoughts to herself as she leaned against the central sorting bin and let Sherry pilot them home. Sherry’s minimum efforts had always been a point of contention. Now however Wanda was rapidly approaching a decision. This enterprise was started in their family several generations back and was passed from father to son through the years. Their father had no sons, only daughters.
They were both trained to work by their father as though they were boys. When Wanda married, her father had high hopes that Carl would take over the business and be the son he didn’t have. Carl wanted nothing to do with the crab pots. He refused to even set foot on the boat. After a few years of marriage, he wanted less to do with Wanda and more to do with several young waitresses from the diner in town. When he got one of them pregnant, he announced the fact, divorced Wanda and married Kerry. While he was still married to Kerry, Wanda knew he had four other children conceived and born after his second marriage, each with different mothers.
Wanda was pleased that it was no longer her concern.
Sherry married and while her husband was faithful, he didn’t want anything to do with the boat either, preferring his own work to the boat. While Wanda thought she would always be here, lately things had changed.
Ten til Midnight 