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CHAPTER 4
     
    Jester and Professor
     
     
     
    That night at dinner, the St. James sisters met all of their new neighbors, the sixteen sailors aboard Violet.
    Mary sat at one end of the table, since she was the oldest female present, with Emy and Gail nearby. Mary, who had always been a little coquette and didn't change her ways despite the fact that she was to be married, talked gaily with all the earnest men surrounding her, although they'd been warned against pursuing anything.
    Brothers Cary and Noah McAdams sat on either side of her. Both were rather large men. Not pudgy or obese, but enormously tall with muscles covering every inch of their well-formed bodies.
    Emy sat somewhere in the middle of the table, trying to hold her own in conversation with a bearded man named Billy Shaw. Beneath the table her foot was involuntarily tapping against the floor; it was a nervous habit she had. She'd never been a very talkative girl and hated when she was forced to speak with someone like Mr. Shaw who she didn't know and had nothing in common with. She would have preferred to sit beside her sisters, but they'd insisted that they all split up so that they could get to know the men better.
    Gail, who sat across from poor Emy, was talking with two young men by the names of Michael Schmidt and Jacob Crawford. She listened eagerly as they told her tall tales of pirates that roamed the high seas and enormous whales tipping over small ships such as theirs. They thought they might scare her, since they knew she was the youngest sister, but were surprised when she sounded so amused and interested in their stories.
    At the other end of the table, Sara spoke with Charlie about the ship.
    "I was just wondering," she said between spoonfuls of hot soup, "Why did you name the ship Violet? Is she your wife?"
    Charlie shook his head with a smile, "No, no, I don't have a wife. I've never been married. I actually bought the ship just after I graduated. My parents weren't too happy about the idea though, I must say. I'd just received my diploma and they were hoping I'd follow my father's footsteps and head into the business world. Instead, I announced that I'd bought an old ship from an even older man."
    Sara grinned, "I'll bet your mother just about killed you when she heard that."
    "She did, she did," Charlie laughed, "In school I'd always been one of the more studious boys, at the top of my class, and my mother was always so proud. She despised the idea of me becoming a sailor and going out on the dangerous seas in Ol' Vi when I could have done so well out in the business world."
    "So do you even know who Violet was?"
    Charlie nodded, "I believe she was the daughter of the old man who owned this ship before I did. I thought about changing the name when I first bought it, since I didn't know any Violets and it wouldn't have any meaning for me, but I couldn't do it. No other names seemed to fit, so Violet just stuck."
    "Can I ask you something else?" Sara questioned.
    "Of course."
    "It's about my father."
    "Shoot."
    "What were you two like in school? I've tried to imagine, but it seems strange that you and my father would become such good friends when you're so very different."
    Charlie laughed, "That's a good question. I don't really know how it happened. If any one of my fellow students had tried to describe me, they probably all would've said the same thing: smart, focused, follows the rules, and rather quiet. What's strange is that your father wasn't like me at all, not in the slightest, and somehow we became the best of friends. He was athletic, outgoing, and didn't care about adhering to the rules as long as he was having fun. Roy was always trying to get me to stop studying all the time and come out and have some fun with him. I usually gave in."
    Sara smiled, imagining what her father and Charlie looked like as sixteen-year-old boys.
    "I was always afraid that if I didn't give in, he'd just find someone