The Cartographer's Dilemma

"What do you mean you hate them?" the first mate asked.

The bar was well lit as well noisy. There was not a party to be held and yet the crew and the patron are having enjoying their moment. They were at that moment blissful. If only it would last for a few more hours or so, most of the drunkard thoughts. They were leaving tomorrow.

The first mate was talking to the cartographer of another ship. She was beautiful and dedicated but was unhappy. She loved her crew but felt no love from them. She sailed with her crew to further seas and yet she finds herself alone in their ship.

"I get that you don't get along too well with everyone, well since you like our own do get stuck mostly in his room trying to make maps. When they do go out it was just for a bit, to look at the sky for the weather as well the sea and further seas. None else. They scarcely interact with others. You're like that, right?"

"I'm not like that. I keep my work and myself in check. I do not go shutting myself from my peers. In fact I do like talking with others," the cartographer from another ship said. "It's just that, I feel unneeded. I feel like they don't like talking to me."

"Is that so?" the first mate asked. "I like talking to you right now."

The first mate smiled.

"I don't feel the same way as you do. We just met you know," the cartographer misunderstood.

"You seemed to have misunderstood me, miss cartographer," the first mate said. "Though I've fallen in love quite a few thousand times, I'd say I still have my own way of falling in. Just so you know, I'm well aware of our age, even if I find you attractive, I won't go so far as to have my feelings for you reciprocated."

The cartographer blushed. She drank her booze in one chug. She must've been drunk, the first mate said.

"I'm not interested, sorry to tell you, miss cartographer," the first mate said. "Though I do like talking. And talking with a stranger is quite a bit a refresher. It's all to new to me. I feel both at ease and nervous. I guess, this is the first time I've talked with someone over peaceful and silly chats with strangers. Other than prisoners and combatants from another sails."

"You don't look too old to me," the cartographer said.

"Well, you don't look too old to me to be drinking, miss cartographer," the first mate said. "But enough about that. I think I know why you hate your crew."

"I just told you that," the cartographer said. "They don't like me."

"Are you sure about that?" the first mate said. "Or rather, miss cartographer, they find themselves nervous talking to a beautiful lady among their crew, am I right?"

"That can't be, we have beautiful women in our ship," the cartographer said. "They're beautiful and more elegant compared to mine, so that can't possibly be true."

"Perhaps they think otherwise?"

The cartographer blushed. She was not too old and topics of conversation such as her beauty would turn her face red. She was nervous and embarrassed. Was I popular, she thought to herself.

"It seems you're popular among your crew," the first mate said. "Have a little bit of faith and confidence in yourself. Sometimes it help young people, you know?"

The cartographer suddenly got flustered. He was lecturing her and to her he was mocking her.

"You're not that old," the cartographer from another ship said.

The first mate laughed it off.

"My apologize if I sounded like an old geezer to you," the first mate said. "Though I am actually an old geezer."

"You don't look that old," the cartographer once said. "If I could, I'd take you with me in our ship."

The first mate once more laughed it off. The alcohol was making her lose her mind, the first mate thought. And so the first mate stayed silent. He knew nothing what to say from that point.

The bar continued with their noises and party spirit. Everyone was about joyous and happy. A total contradiction to the two sitting in the corner. The first mate silently drank his rum. The cartographer blushed as she sipped her own drink. From out outside perspective, it was a couple who just had a quarrel with each other.

"Hey!" the cartographer finally spoke. Her breath smelled of alcohol. She definitely was drunk at the point.

The first mate tried to call out on the bar master to assist the cartographer. He had no business with them. And them being acquaintance obliged him to the very least help her back to her group.

But the drunk cartographer suddenly stopped her.

"Don't ignore me!" the cartographer suddenly said. "Why are you giving me the silent treatment?"

The first mate glanced at her. His face was different from when they were talking. He wasn't drunk as she was. He wasn't the same as he was talking to her. He was mad at that moment.

"It's my mistake to unfaithfully understand you," the first mate said. His voice have changed. He was older, way older than he was a while ago. "I never thought I'd be making someone interested to me, I might have failed doing that. Or rather, I might have became too comfortable talking to others without realizing something. It was a mistake on my part.

"My apologize if I suddenly stayed quiet. I do not want to proceed the conversation we are having any further. You have already found your resolution and yet your continued queries were beyond my speculation."

"What?" the cartographer suddenly spoke. "You.. you sounded differently. Who are you?"

"We just met, and I made you feel comfortable with me," the first mate said. "Even now, you do not know of my name."

"No, seriously," the cartographer said. "What happened to the person I was talking to earlier?"

"You've been talking with me the whole time, miss cartographer," the first made said as he drank his rum in one gulped. "Would you like to carry one with our conversation earlier? I promise you I won't call the bar master nor your crew to end our little moment."

"You're scaring me," the cartographer tried to stand up but found herself unable to. She tried turning around but she couldn't. She tried waving her hand but it felt stiff. She was at the moment frozen in place. And only did she realized everyone wasn't moving. Time have suddenly stopped. "Who... who are you?"

"What would you do to me if I come with you to you ship, miss cartographer?"

"No... no.. I don't know."

The first mate stood up and went beside the cartographer.

"What.. what's going on? Please.. Please... no! Stop!! I.. I'm sorry, I don't know. I don't know. Please don't. Please don't hurt me."

The first mate backed away. Tears were falling off the cartographer's eye. She was crying. What has he been doing? He didn't mean to make her cry. He was just trying to make her realize her mistake of playing with him. Was she toying with him, in the first place? But either way, he was wrong.

The first mate flicked his finger.

"Hey! Don't ignore me," the cartographer said. He was back in his place, in front of her. "Hey! Hey!"

The first mate laughed and held his mug.

"Would you mind giving me a toast?" the first mate said.

"A toast? Why? What for?"

"To everyone you hate and to everyone that hates you," the first mate said. The cartographer laughed.

"Everyone," the first mate shouted. "cheers."

The bar heard his call and everyone went on. The bar was even more alive and noisy than it was before. The two couldn't keep their conversation as quiet as possible.

The cartographer shouted for attention from the first mate but he ignored it. The noise masked him. But the cartographer didn't gave up. She stood up and dragged the first mate outside. Everyone was laughing and drinking as hard at that point. The people in the bar paid no attention to the two.

The cartographer successfully took the first mate out of the bar.

"You're ignoring me!" the cartographer from another ship now drunk acted like a little child. "You hate me, don't you?"

The first mate smiled.

"My apologize, I don't know how to- " the cartographer suddenly kissed the first mate. It was for a moment but it felt an eternity for the cartographer.

The first mate pushed her back.

"Hey, what gives?" the first mate asked.

"You don't like it?" the cartographer said. "You hate me, don't you? You don't find me attractive, don't you? That's the reason why I hate all of them. They all don't like me."

The cartographer was about ready to cry when the first mate went and gave her a hug. He wanted to calm her.

"Why? You don't like me, right? No one does."

"Don't cry, little miss."

The cartographer suddenly woke up. What was she doing?

"If you can't change the way you feel about them, at least make them change the way the feel about you," the first mate said. "Make them grateful that they have met you."

"They aren't grateful about me," the cartographer said. "They hate me. They don't like me."

"Make them feel grateful towards you. Maybe that will change your mind about them."

"How?"

"That's for you to answer, miss cartographer," the first mate said. He kissed her forehead and soon after a blinding light enveloped them both.

The cartographer was once more back in the bar. The first mate stood up from his seat and started to leave.

"Just don't over do it," the first mate told the cartographer as soon as he joined the crowd.

Was it all just a dream, the cartographer thought.