Licorice Stix catches the wind and I put up the jib and we’re soon skimming away, thumping the swell. I tell Jag all about our adventures at sea with the pirate and the croc and the shark and how we’ll soon be home.
I wind the jib sail half down so we’re sailing using the onshore breeze to keep going through the night. I turn the wheel over to Jag and point out the pointers and the Southern Cross. Jag says he can’t sleep coz he don’t trust that the croc can’t climb up over the hull and slide onto the deck beside us.
I sleep top deck on one seat, and Saleesi says she’s going to sleep down in the hull.
‘How come you fallen in with a pirate girl?’ Jag asks, jus’ when my eyes get heavy.
‘She din’t want to be no pirate,’ I say. ‘She wants to leave that life behind and be a fishergirl like me.’
‘That’s what she tol’ you. How you know she’s not planning to steal Licorice Stix?’
‘Coz she coulda lost me and stole her ten times over already,’ I say. ‘She came back for us on the Valley of the Sun and she saved you, so yeah, I trust her. I been careful, Jag. You don’t have to trust her, but you can trust my feelings about her.’
I turn over. Jag being cautious is sometimes a pain.
