Spade Sail Kite Anodyne (pain-killer) Waif Percussive (shocked, appalling) Skein (tangle, flock) Flimsy Zero Magnify Powder Awry

Hello sailor!

I spun round quickly as the term was uttered with such a provocatively youthful voice I was sure it was directed at someone other than me.

I had just disembarked after a ten-month stint in the Pacific, all top secret you understand no details can be given, so zero information on that score.

The voice I soon realised was from a small waifish young girl standing some ten metres or so from me with a cheeky grin on her face, one hand on her hip the other helping her lean against the side of the discharge shed.

Normally I would ignore such jests as they are frequent when we return to port as the girls think of us a quick dollar after so long at sea.

Today though I had other things on my mind. The journey home, the long peaceful train ride into the country, the prospect of the farm at first light, the hope that Maisie Munroe was not married to that no hoper Clarrie Berger. This was to be my last chance I figured and even though I knew my chances were flimsy being a sailor. I hoped Maisie would see me as a greater catch than Clarrie the Claw as we’d dubbed him in the past.

As I walked towards the exit and the excitement of the three months leave I had due I became aware of the presence of the waif behind me.

‘Excuse me sailor man, gotta light?’

I ignored her as I felt that was a sure fire way to get her to leave me alone but she was persistent.

‘Gotta light mister?’

I turned back towards her determined to end this here and now. What confronted me, was the percussive state she was in. her hair and her clothes were all awry. She was the most disagreeable creature I could have laid eyes on.

But as I looked at her face it again broke into that cheeky and flirtatious grin I had first noticed about her. Here was a paradox I found hard to get my head around. Her disgraceful appearance was magnified by her audacity to want to communicate with me in the most familiar of ways.

I looked into her eyes to see if they showed evidence of anodyne a cheap painkiller the wharf urchins used liberally to take the edge off their miserable lives. But there was no suggestion this girl was under any sort of influence other than her own desire to get a light off me. Which was a fruitless task as I was one of the few sailors who didn’t smoke.

It was clear to me that she must have made some effort to clean herself up for the arrival of the ship as I could see the rough build up of face powder, applied without a mirror I suspected, as there were lines of the stuff across her forehead and cheeks giving her an even weirder appearance.

She was on my heels again asking for a light, even suggesting we could go somewhere quiet and have a coffee, in my head I couldn’t think of anything I’d less like to do than be seen with this waif of an urchin.

The more I hurried the more she kept up.

I decided to confront her and for once and all call a spade a spade and send her on her way. I was way too busy and preoccupied to be bothered with this tiresome girl.

‘Look I am not interested. I don’t have a light. I don’t want to have a coffee with you. Now go away I have to be getting on.’

‘But you are the last one off the ship. I need money to pay my rent, buy food, as you can see a bath wouldn’t go astray either. Do you ever consider that maybe I’m not really as bad as I look? That maybe I am an intelligent person just a little down on my luck? That maybe its not all my fault, that sometimes the fates conspire against us and this, is the result? Not very good I warrant but it’s my lot right now and you sailor man are my mark. I know I’m not very attractive to you and I can understand your abhorrence at my appearance but not all of us have it good as you do. Couldn’t you spare me at least the money for the bus back into town?’

I was taken aback that this unseemly young lady had the ability to weave together the skeins of an argument that had me reaching for my wallet, if for no other reason than to shut her up. It was true I thought as I selected notes from my wallet that she had well and truly flown her kite on this one and won me over.

‘Here,’ I said handing her a wad of notes. ‘ I’m sorry your situation is so destitute but I have a train to catch. This should tied you over until you can convince the next sap you come in contact with to part with his hard earned.’

She snatched the money out of my hand and proceeded to count it. I saw this as my chance to escape and headed for the exit.

As I stepped quickly away I heard her call out, ‘Thank you Michael.’

I stopped dead in my tracks. How did she know my name?

I turned to see that cheeky grin on her face once more.

She lifted the wig from her head and I knew then I’d been had well and truly.

‘You bugger,’ I percussed as round the corner of the shed came my mates and my family all laughing their heads off at my percussiveness.

My sister’s long blonde hair fell around her shoulders as she grinned back at me waving my dollars in the air.

Written for: http://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2014/08/25/wordle-23/