As Winter Came and Went - Extract 5

And it's time for another, this time rather short, extract of my novel!

This one directly follows extract 1, which was the incipit of the novel.

Please note that this is not necessarily the final version since I am still in the process of revising my manuscript.

Extract of chapter 1

They watch him as he falls, they watch him as he lies, unconscious on the deck, his face pale against the weathered planks, his hair tousled like that of a boy deep in sleep, and they gather round him, full of curiosity. 

“You, go and fetch the surgeon, quick!” a small, portly man tells the cabin-boy. 

“What happened, General?” the captain asks. 

“He fainted, I guess,” the portly man replies. “Give him some air.” He waves away the members of the crew who are bending over the young man.

“Do you think it’s sunstroke? Looks like it.”

The captain shakes his head. “All I hope is that it isn’t serious and that he reaches England alive. He has been too much trouble already. Not that I blame him but… As I was telling you, General, his is a strange story. It is all very tragic. And we do not know half of what happened. I tried to ask him but… He’s got a sharp temper. Ah, here you are.” The cabin-boy is back, accompanied by the surgeon. “What do you make of that?”

“He caught a fever in Africa, didn’t he? Such an unhealthy climate, Africa… He doesn’t look too well. You, get me some water.”

The cabin boy goes away, grumbling that he isn’t a slave and that he is fed up with doing everyone’s errands.

“What’s all this about?” a young midshipman asks him.

“It’s O’Connor. He fainted on the deck.”

“Is it serious?”

The cabin boy shrugs. “He’s doing it to get all the attention. Fainting’s for women, not men. It’s not me that’d be caught fainting because of a bit of sun.”

“You should be more charitable.”

“Why? I tell you, he’s craving for attention. And there’s nothing extraordinary about him.”

“Except that he crossed the Sahara alone.”

“He got lost in the desert, that’s what the captain said. And he wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place, he was supposed to have died from a fever a year ago.”

“You’ve been eavesdropping again…”

“What’s the harm? There’s nothing to do on this boat. Sometimes I think I should have stayed home.” He left his mother one night, without a word, without a backward glance, for the sake of adventure, to become a man. 

“What were you expecting? Pirates? Storms? A wreck? I’m sorry you’re disappointed. At least we’ve got a ghost.”