Chapter 21, part 2

At the thought that it might be the Captain, my heartbeat started racing, and I felt the temperature inside me rise dangerously. I was already starting to feel drops of sweat running down my body.

"Put the knife under the gills and cut the head sideways." Oh! My God, thank you! That was Brielle's voice, and she spoke in a low voice so that only I could hear her.

I followed her instruction and cut off the fish's head.

"Now the intestines in the belly. Start from the fin and slip your knife all over the way until the end."

I did as she said, and the belly of the fish opened.

"Now with the knife remove everything you see. It its guts."

I did what she told me. "Scratch the belly well. All this black must be removed and the membrane that exists as well. And that was it. Continue in the same way."

"Okay. You are my savior, Brielle," I whispered gratefully.

"You know I am always here for you. I will come back." Brielle whispered back and began to walk away.

Time was passing, and the cleaned fish were piling on my table. I was happy about it until Jimena came near to me.

"What are you doing, Serena?" She told me in a stern voice and continued:

" I have picked up the cleaned fish three times from the rest of the team's tables, and from yours none."

"Yes, I am used to clean fish with some other kind of knife and now I have a little difficulty. But it is until I get used to it in my hand."

"By the time you will get used to it, the fish will be done, Serena," she mocked me, and I felt ashamed. What I liked was that no one laughed, continuing their work.

But why did she treat me this way? So far, she has been very nice to me.

I continued to clean fish, and I had started to speed up. But the strong smell of fish and guts in the buckets had begun to make me feel sick. The bad thing was nauseous becoming more and more intense until at some point I got up abruptly from my seat and ran to the handrail for having access to the sea. I vomited hard for a long time; the contractions in my stomach were so forceful that I was in pain. Everything around me started spinning.

I held my head with my hand to stop what was happening to me, but to no avail. I heard footsteps coming towards me.

"Serena?" this was Lucas

"Lucas, my head," I shuttered, and my legs couldn't hold me any longer.

"Catch her, Lucas!" I heard someone shouting. That was the Captain? I wasn't sure.

Lucas' strong hands held me and lifted me in his arms.

"Take her to her room, Lucas, and someone call the doctor." the same voice shouted again, but now I heard it almost next to me. I felt a tender caress on my forehead and heard steps moving away.

I hadn't fainted, my legs couldn't hold me anymore, and I couldn't keep my eyes open.

"Serena? Talk to me, Serena." I felt a caress in my hair. That was my dear Brielle, who was always by my side.

"Brielle," I stuttered weakly while behind Jimena was shouting furiously.

"Why did you all of you stop working? Carry on!" she snapped. "The new one turned to be a very touch-me-not type of girl. I delegate her to clean two fish and she dropped dead. That means when the time of cloth washing comes we will have the same?" her voice reached my ears angrily.

"Jimena, hold your tongue! Whenever we have this kind of work, you transmute into a shrew." someone shouted at her, but I didn't recognize whose voice it was.

"We will clean the fish, men come close." The same voice said.

From there and on, I didn't know what happened because we entered the room, and Lucas laid me on the bed. He leaned over me, grabbing my forehead and cheeks.

"Fortunately you don't have a fever," he told me and smiled. Even if I could see vaguely, I could spot his smile.

"The fish," I only managed to chant, wanting to tell him that the fish was to blame; I wasn't ill.

"Come on, Lucas! Get out of the way."

"Yes, doctor, come." he said hurriedly and stepped aside.

"Lucas, go to continue cleaning fish. Let us no longer provoke Jimena. I will come later to inform you about her condition."

"Okay, my Lady. Thank you." said Lucas and left.

The doctor checked my heartbeat, touched my forehead as Lucas had done before to see if I had a fever.

"I felt terribly nauseous, doctor." I informed him.

He looked at me in astonishment. "Nauseous? But the ship it doesn't move."

"The smell of the fish caused it." I admitted.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Fine. Tell me something, and please don't misconstrue me. I only do my job. When was the last time you had your period?" he asked carefully.

"I am with my period since yesterday, doctor." I told him emphatically to dispel his suspicion that I might be pregnant.

"Now your sensitivity to smell is also explained. You are very pale, and you need to eat something very nutritious.

Also, I will make you medicine to drink, and you need to stay lying down."

"Doctor," I protested, "I have a lot of work to do."

"The work can wait. You have to stay lying down."

The door opened, and the Captain entered.

"What happened, doctor? How is Serena?"

"She says she was bothered by the strong smell of fish. But since the pulse is regular and doesn't have a fever, so are the fish we have to blame.

But she is very pale. I told her she had to eat something very nutritious and lie down. But she complains that she has many jobs that await her. What do you think, Captain?"

The Captain turned and looked at me. "I say to follow your instructions, doctor. And she will do it."

"I hope so. I will also prepare a medicine for her to drink."

"Very well, doctor. You can go and get it prepared," the Captain told him, and the doctor left.

The Captain gazed at me.

"Don't move from the bed. You will stay lying down as long as you need to and that is an order." He told me and left.

I looked at the closed door and smiled. "Yes, Captain."

Three days had passed since then.

In the previous days, they did a lot of work. They finished cleaning and salting the fish and cleaned the deck.

In the evening, Lucas and Brielle brought me food. Boiled meat soup with vegetables, which was light, and my stomach would hold it. It was delicious and made me feel much better.

The following day I felt entirely well and returned to my duties again.

Jimena apologized to me for her behavior toward me. She asked me not to take it personally, and she explained that that happened because she was under tremendous stress. I forgave her, and everything came back to normal.

In addition to the usual tasks, we washed clothes in the river with Jimena.

Today we would wash the last ones. Alma and Brielle came with us. We carried chairs to make them sit more comfortably. Alma was still with the splint, and Brielle was supposed to be Lady, and it was inappropriate to leave her standing or sitting on hard rock.

I rubbed the last pants with the soap on a flat stone while Jimena rinsed the last ones in the river.

When we finished, we spread them like previous times on the tall green grass to dry. Jimena had to prepare the food, and so she had to return to the boat. Alma went with her, so Brielle had to follow them, leaving me alone to wait for them to dry, put them into the big wicker basket, and brought them back to the boat.

I was sitting on one side when my eye fell on a forgotten bar of soap. I bent down and picked it up from the ground. Then a crazy idea stuck in my mind.

To find a safe place on the river nearby and take a bath.