My Other Car is a Spaceship
Page 38
“I wish I could take you home with me, but I don’t really have a home. I spend most of my time aboard ship going from one place to another. Even if I could take you with me, that’s no life for a little girl. It’s dangerous. You need friends your own age, a school, a boyfriend in a few years. A normal life.”
“I don’t care! I want to stay with you.”
“I know you do, sweetheart. I want that, too. But it’s just not possible. You’re better off here.”
“But I don’t like it here! I don’t know anyone. I get scared and there’s no one to hug me.”
Kalen gave up trying to hold back the tears. “I-I’m sorry, Merry. Tell you what. I’ll visit you here as often as I can, and when you get adopted by a nice family I’ll make sure to visit you there, too. Okay?”
Merry merely pouted, eyes glistening.
“I have to go now, sweetheart. Okay? I have to go fight those mean ol’ pirates. But I’ll come back and see you soon. I promise.”
In a low voice, filled with anger and bitterness, Merry said, “I hate those pirates. I wish they were all dead! When I grow up, I’m gonna fight pirates, too. I’m gonna find my parents, and I’m gonna kill all the pirates. I promise!”
Shaken by the vehemence in her words, Kalen kissed Merry on the top of her head and left quietly, fighting back tears.
“So what should we call her?” Hal asked, an hour later.
Kalen frowned. “Call who? What are you talking about?”
The two men had just entered Unity HQ, where the security guard waved them through. Kalen wanted to bury the memory of the look in Merry’s eyes when he left her. Work was his shovel.
“Sorry,” Hal said after they stepped aboard the lift. “Queenie. Now that the Unity is refitting her as the flagship of the new fleet, we can’t keep calling her Queen Anne’s Revenge. Queen Anne’s Revenge was a pirate ship. Now she’s an anti-pirate ship. She needs a name to reflect that. Something like Defender or Protector. Anything but Adventurer II.”
The lift rocketed toward the top floor.
Kalen pursed his lips. “Good point. Nothing against the old girl, but I never thought Adventurer was a tough enough name for her.”
“I agree. So how about Phoenix or Firebird, in honor of the rebirth of the Merchants’ Unity from the ashes.”
“Not bad. Or maybe something flashier, like Phoenix Rising or Phoenix Unbound.”
“How about Flaming Phoenix, or is that redundant?”
“A bit. What about Phoenix on the Half-Shell or Phoenix di Milo?”
Hal smirked. “Or Phoenix Envy.”
Now joined in the Commissioner’s office by Spelvin Mynax, the three men went on like that quite a while, coming up with names that got progressively sillier and raunchier the longer they continued.
Then a single question brought the hilarity to a screaming halt.
“Whatever happened to that pocket battleship that beat us bloody in the big battle?”