WHEN DEATH COMES FOR LUNCH_FRIDAY'S ROMANTIC CHALLENGE

“I haven't trusted polls since I read

that 62% of women had affairs during their lunch hour.

I've never met a woman in my life who would give up lunch for sex.”

- Erma Bombeck.

“The scientific name for an animal that doesn't either run from or fight its enemies is lunch.”

- Samuel McCord

On this day in 1522 Captain Sebastian del Cano returned to Spain, completing Magellan's first circumnavigation of the earth.

Of the five ships and approximately 270 men who set out, only one ship and seventeen men returned.

Captain Sebastian del Cano is the captain of the DEMETER in 1853 when McCord boards her in my historical fantasy, ADRIFT IN THE TIME STREAM.

Denise and Francine has set us the prompt, LUNCH DATE, for the FRIDAY ROMANTIC CHALLENGE.

And so I give you the deck-side lunch on the day of the BALL OF LOVE AND MADNESS whose almost-ending you read in last week's entry. This entry is 400 words exactly :



The only good thing about lunch was the orange juice --

and the way Meilori’s sorcery let it stay untainted in my mouth for as long as I wanted. Missy was taking a nap under the watchful eye of her mother.

Ralph Waldo Emerson couldn’t have made the day better by following Missy’s example. He showed up at the table. But the presence of Margaret Fuller at his side made up for his dour addition to the company.

Daniel Webster sat across from me, wearing his gloom like a shroud. Horace Greeley sat next to him, fidgeting worse than if ants had decided to take up residence in his pants.

Lady Lovelace, Ada Byron, looking like a happy cat with a mouthful of canary, told the new additions to our company what was suspected of the coming evening.

Horace looked even more fit to itch himself to shreds. Ada warned everyone that Maija might have thrown in with Nyx. And when Lady Inari showed up, arm in arm with Maija, the atmosphere of the table felt like a storm about to boil over.

Meilori seemed too reserved. She barely spoke to either sister.

I leaned in towards her and whispered, “What’s going on between you two?”

Lady Inari, showing her ears were as sharp as her teeth, smiled, “You are, Captain. I told her she had to choose between us this morning. She chose you.”

“I’m not your rival, Inari.”

“So you foolishly believe.”

Maija smiled. It was an insane thing, devoid of warmth or anything resembling reason. It gave me shivers.

“The good captain is full of so many deceiving illusions.”

To everyone’s horror, Maija plucked a wiggling worm from her noodles and popped it into her mouth, lustily chewing then swallowing. “Like free will, for example.”

Ada looked troubled. “Sea Sprite, you are only as free as you assume your will to be.”

Maija snorted, “You know the cliche about assume, do you not? I choose not to be an ass.”

Meilori reached over, gently squeezing my hand. “The heart asks of life more than it can give. But that does not stop me from asking.”

I winked at her. “Smart. If you don’t ask, how would you ever get?”

And as Inari watched with feral eyes, Meilori kissed me soft and long. And I was wrong earlier. The orange juice wasn’t the only good thing about lunch.
***