The Dream Buyer

They worked that job the whole day. They were provided a nice place to sleep, and then, early the next morning, brought up to do it again. If they had the energy, they’d see some of the onboard rides before bed, but they usually didn’t.

It never got any more enjoyable as it went, but it did become easier. Eventually they figured out what not to do and what worked best for their clientele. It turned out that so long as you did your job in the way they expected you to, you wouldn’t stand out to them. They wouldn’t even notice you.

Serving rich people wasn’t all so bad. They got generous tips quite often once they knew what they were doing, and the people they served were usually more interested in themselves than whatever mistakes they were making. With a little practice, they were easy to serve.

Serve…

None of this is to say either sister wouldn’t rather have jumped off the side of the boat and swam to shore rather than work on this boat for the untold amount of time they’d be stuck on it. Katie had to talk Frankie down from the idea at least once a day. It wasn’t until a few nights later when anything even remotely interesting happened… good or bad.

That Tuesday afternoon- the 5th of January, Katie growing more and more anxious about how this week was slipping away in but one small park- the seafarers were doing their duties as usual, this time cleaning the dishes. A far cry from some of their past exploits, to be sure. They seldom spoke to each other. The jobs they did required just enough focus as to disallow small talk, without ever feeling all that engaging. Behind the sink was one of the few places they ever conversed outside of their time off.

“I keep forgetting we’re on the sea.” Frankie hollowly accepted, scrubbing away at plates.

“Yeah. It felt different when it was just us.”

“Phew… Everfair is gonna be like heaven after this.”

“I’m excited to. I’ve never been to a renaissance fair before.”

“Are you supposed to dress up?”

“I think you-“

“I-I’m sorry! Christ, I- no, really, I’m sorry. I- I’ll make it up to you. It won’t be happening again, I can promise ye that.”

Both girls froze as the first strong emotion they’d heard in days came through to their ears just beyond the nearest wall- the voice of their captain on the phone.

“We’ll it’s just- why, we’ve been here for years, you can’t be expectin’ people not to complain now and then.”

They couldn’t hear the voice on the other end, so they weren’t sure what they were listening in on.

“I said no. Don’t bring them up. It was my fault, not the staff’s. Say why- why do you even need me anymore, you’ve got your brand- the ship’s fine on its own! Christ almighty- I wasn’t trained to be a bleedin’ mascot!”

They flinched as loud staticy cursing came through the wall, somehow audible, garbled as it was.

“No, I- I’m sorry. I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

They heard her hang up.

As Hannigan came through the door, they almost forgot to resume their work, hurrying to put towels back to dishes as she came out and looked at them with reddened eyes. They nervously tried to look busy.

“Ye… heard that, didn’t ye?”

The sisters put down their dishes.

“Uh… sorry about that, Captain.” Frankie tried to apologize. Their boss only looked angry at herself.

“What was that about?” Somewhat insensitively, Katie was so starved for stimuli that she craved anything out of the ordinary. Hannigan’s eyes twitched. It seemed like she couldn’t hold it in anymore if she wanted to.

“You’ve got your boss… I’ve got mine.”

“Doesn’t seem like a very nice boss.” Katie was still the only one of the two of them with the courage to be speaking up the Captain like this. Frankie wasn’t sure how her sister was still onboard.

Hannigan pulled up a chair and dropped into it like a rock.

“I was in the Naval Service, once.”

Katie looked at her sister in a way that said it’s okay.

“That… makes sense.” Frankie gulped.

“Where at?”

“Ireland.”

“I didn’t know… Ireland had a navy.”

“They don’t.”

The sisters both looked at each other.

“This ship… it used to be armed to the teeth with machine guns. Now it’s covered in trust fund babies and bumper cars. It was my ship… and it was a good one, I tell you what.” She reminisced.

“What happened?” Frankie’s interest had overridden her fear entirely by now.

“He bought it. The navy.”

A jolt of confused shock lit through the young women.

“Someone bought… the entire navy?”

“An’ incorporated it into a park brand. Aye, he be a real sonuvabitch.”

“It wasn’t Kidney, was it…?” Katie asked, confused. She hasn’t seen his band anywhere on board.

“Nay, nay… at least Kidney’s got showmanship. This’n be far worse.”

“Who is he?”

“An entrepreneur from Germany with wealth said to be incalculable. Most call him the Traumkäufer- buyer of dreams. I know him as Morgen Wolf. Dirty little sap.” She grit her teeth. “You’re lucky to be from the other side of the pond. Over here, you can’t not hear about the prick- seems like every other day he buys out someone’s park and makes it into his own- always for the worse, mind ye.”

“But… still, an entire branch of the military…?” Frankie was having trouble wrapping her head around it. “Why?”

“Surely you’re joking. An unlimited amount of top-quality ships to make seafaring parks out of? It’s a wet dream for a man like him. This big blue puddle is one of the last frontiers on our Earth… I picture in a couple decades, he’ll have blanketed every centimeter of it with attractions.”

Frankie had never heard something that sounded more awful to her in her entire life.

“Why… why does he need you?”

“I ask myself that question… every day.” Hannigan squeezed her work hands together. “I don’t have much of a job to do here. I think I'm just marketing. Makes buying out a vital branch of a country’s defence look a tiny bit better when you’ve got its former members smiling on your advertisements. He’s got the right to my likeness, obviously.”

“Why stay?” Frankie was enraged by the whole situation. “Why not just leave? Do anything else with your life! You clearly aren’t happy…” 

Hannigan bit her lip, quivering.

“…Nay. This’ll do, lass. This’ll do.”

She started to walk away again, quickly this time. 

Frankie ran up to stop her.