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Norrington nodded. “That is correct.” He pulled the door open to his cabin and walked inside. “Foolish man,” He shook his head before he noticed the state of his cabin. Books and maps were everywhere. They were no longer on the shelves and instead were stacked on the floor. The maps were rolled up but cast in a disorderly array on his desk. “Miss Tam!”
“Many of these books are wrong,” River stood up. She had selected another book from the bottom shelf. “Some of these are supposed to be not true, fiction. They are stories and poems. Entertainment purposes only.”
“Miss Tam, I am glad to see you have taken interest in my bookcase, may I ask why you have taken all the books out?”
“The books of facts are not always right,” she flipped through the pages and stared back at the maps. “They are like the maps. They are wrong, they are right now, but they will be wrong.”
“Perhaps we can discuss this while we clean everything up.” He still couldn’t figure her out. After he had served himself whenever they ate she would use the same level of class and manners a woman of Elizabeth’s status would have. There was the possibility the Tam family was a family of money and high stature and it would explain the education River and her brother received.
“I did not fix things this time,” River said as she walked back to his desk. “Just this.” she placed her finger on an open book, Norrington’s travel journal.
“Miss Tam, what have you done,” he spoke sharply, expressing his anger. “I should force you out of my cabin right now. Why did the idea of writing in my journal enter your head?”
“You were trying to draw, but it was wrong.” She stepped away from him as he approached her, but continued to point at the open journal.
Norrington stared down at the open book. It was the page where his thoughts had wandered and he drew the symbol in his dream over and over again. He noticed a new one at the bottom corner of the page. The writing on the symbol was more accurate to the one in his dream than the others.
“You were having trouble and I helped.”
“You have seen this before?” He had lowered his voice; anger was replaced by curiosity.
“Serenity.”
“Your ship,” He nodded. “I am sorry but we have no word on your stolen ship.”
“That is what it says, what is painted on her.”
“You understand the writing?” He waited for her to nod. “You are quite the enigma, Miss Tam.” Why would the woman in his dream give him the symbol of Serenity?
He stared at her face, studying her features. Could she be the woman in his dream? He could easily see her as the woman running through the jungle and asking for his help. “Enigma or not, you are going to help me clean up this mess
you made.”
River returned the last book she selected to the bottom shelf. “There needs to be a pattern, a theme a method to put them back. I was thinking alphabetical, but that
is too easy.”
“Let us just put them back.” James said as he grabbed a couple of books. “Have you read all of these? I haven’t been gone that long.”
“You have been out of the cabin for four hours, forty two minutes and eighteen seconds.”
Again with the mathematical accuracy. “I am still impressed you were able to read all of these.”
“I only read some,” River said as she placed a few more books back. “Completely. I have read at least ten pages from all of them.”
“I would have only been able to read one or two.” The woman was a genius, a prodigy of the brain, someone like her could be real useful if the could find the right job for her. She could even benefit the Navy in some fashion, possibly even plot out strategy that would be more useful than Jones and his heart.
“No,” River gasped. The book she held had slipped out of her hands. “Not you. You are a good man, don’t listen to the bad voice.” Tears were welling up at the corners of her eyes. “They wanted to use me because of my brain. They lied and took me to where they hurt me, hurt us. They made me into something more, something I never wanted to be.” She slowly backed away from him. “Not you too, James Norrington. You are not like them. You are not like the small man, please don’t think that.”
“River,” He rose to his feet. “Miss Tam. I’m sorry.” How did she know what he was thinking? She knew about other things that she couldn’t have possibly known. ”I would never force you to do anything you were not comfortable with.”
“You say that,” She shook her head slowly as the tears rolled down her
cheeks. “Please don’t be like the small man, don’t be the ones who made me like this. They hurt you. You have been hurt. They took your mother and made you join them. The man with no nose stomped on you. ‘Little Jimmy, put your back into it, mate’. They took you all and hurt you with heat and you hurt yourself, trying to make the symbol go away. You don’t want to think of that pain.”
James widened his eyes. She knew he was forced into piracy at a young age and was branded. She knew what No Nose Paul said to him when he stepped on his back. She even knew about his brand and how he tried to remove it years later.
“My god, you can read my thoughts.”
She nodded briefly before she continued crying. “I read all and I don’t want to. I don’t want their memories. They turned the key and I can’t take it back.”
“Who turned the key?” James slowly approached her.
“The ones who made Miranda, made the Reavers. They turned the key when they stripped a piece of me away.”
“What did they strip from you?”
“Amygdala.” She touched the top of her head. “They poked me in here many times, made me hear everything, feel everything, made me into a weapon, please don’t be like them.” She slid down against the wall, still crying.
“Dear lord,” He kneeled by her side. “I never wanted to use you or make you something you are not. I thought you would be a great teacher, or an historian, even be the only woman doctor in the Caribbean.” He reached out to brush away her tears. She knew he was lying. “I’m sorry I thought like that. It would have never been against your will.” That part was the truth.
“Now,” she coughed. “You know and you know what they are like. Don’t be them.”
“I won’t.” He pulled her close and allowed her to sob against his chest. “River Tam, what has the world done to you?”
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 Spacebabie76 · Wed Nov 08, 2006 @ 03:43am · 0 Comments |
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