I opened my suitcase today, As I opened the lid, for some reason, I heard my bosses voice in my head asking how my trip was. I began thinking about the words I had used to describe the event and my previous posting here and felt they had barely scratched the surface of the experience.
I wished to be more eloquently descriptive like Mission but before I could ponder the thought any further i was struck by the strong smell of the campfire and the echos of sincere robust laughter filled my head and as the parade of smiling familiar faces passed thru my mind i begun peeling back the layers of of garb and came to my shirt with the ruffled sleeves.
I had packed two changes of clothes but had an unexpected acquantance accompany me to the festival and as you all know i couldn't just let him walk in with street clothes so I decided dressing the accedental pirate to help spread our disease would be well worth living in a set of clothes for the weekend,
I rarely wear the ruffled sleeve shirt as it was one of my first attempts and the sleeves are a little long and the ruffles seem to only aggrivate the problem but I wanted to look my best as your auctioneer so I chose the clean ruffly shirt. I was amazed by the wide variety of colors and textures my shirt had collected in three short days and begun thinking about them in the order they appeared,
I dressed on the ferry shortly before it ariived at 12:45 giving me 45 mins to arrive by my target time the friday battle at 1:30, on the way to the fort I grabbed a couple of shrimp on a stick at BO's and walking with my suitcase as I ate them the wind blew my ruffle up and the shrimp spices left an orange oily stain.
Arriving shortly before the battle only to be told i couldent shoot due to my lack of attendance at the safety meeting. So i stood by the line just in case i could be of any assistance when Carribian Pearl asked me to hold her gun while she crewed the cannon and as I pulled it from my belt to return it to her I noticed it left a small grey mark but the kiss I got for holding it was worth the smudge and probably the origin of one of 2 colors of lipstick found on the right sleeve. Next I made my way to the Wolf and as I reached out and grabbed one of the newly rigged cables for support my ruffle beat my hand there leaving the cables grey twist imprint; next came a big kiss from Liberte' another lipstick candidate as is the Golden Goddess, future photos with determine the guilty parties.
After the cruise I headed back to the fort for dinner the onion soup left a color so pleasing to my eye that I wish i had dipped my whole shirt in it, there was actually a hardend globule of beef stew tucked in an inner ruffle so thick and rich it held fast for two full days of action. They were made with love and it shows, literally. The faint amberish outline of where the Wobble juice ran down the round bottle and onto my ruffle as Willie made me laugh while attempting to drink, a small tear in the sleeve caught on one of the corners of the ammo box as it was flung about during the auction, a very light grey smudge on the top of the left sleeve from displaying the blade of the sword that would become Youngblood's for all to see and although im sure several other stains were gathered that evening these are the only ones I can remember however the excellent german sausage provided by Klause that was served at breakfast the next morning was a little hotter than I expected and when i went to spit the burning ember into my hand the ruffle flopped forward and recieved the hot chunk of sausage and a light brown stain with a couple darker brown tones.
I crewed MY mortar on saturday and looking at my shirt I can see the grey flecs where the wet sponge flung tiny dropletts of dirty cannon water and a few black and grey spots that come with that territory, also clear is a grass stain that was most certainly attained during one of my valliant deaths. There is a spot the size of a dime on top of the right sleeve from a large drop of apple pie that jumped out of my glass when toasting, bits of cinnimon are still visible in the weave and you can see where I spilled rum and coke down the front while driving Sue's pirate ship golf cart blindly in the parade and prints where Master Wasabe hand fresh from the forge shook my wrist at the blacksmith shop as he presentied me with the gift of a flintlock tool he made for me.
I thought to myself, wow I hope these dont wash out. I was unable resist smelling it, and once I got past the smell of the campfire, the faint smell of a couple different perfumes and colognes came forth and I wondered which of the dozens of hugs had left them there, it made me feel very good, safe in a security blanket kinda way and I thought wow there was a lot of times this past year where I could have used this feeling as it was wrought with several less than pleasent experiences but this dirty shirt reminded me that I have a whole army of people that care about me, and I them. I remembered someone asking me where I was staying right when I got to the fort and i said "I dont know" although I cant recall who he was, but i do recall the look of disbelief that he gave me when he replied "I cant believe you came to a festival and dont know where your sleeping" to which I replied "this isnt just any festival and Fayma says I have a place to sleep and thats good enough for me".
I pulled the shirt away from my face tears welled up in my eyes as I recognized the last one, I wasent even wearing it at the time I had just changed into my people clothes in Faymas tent and stepped outside with my suitcase when Lily approached me, I think now about what her week must have been like, proper placements, performers parking passes, portable poopers, pirates pogs, procuring pecularities, persnickity privateers and plenty of paperwork, mixed heartily with about 20 hours of sleep and garnished with drama and here she stands before me and tears are streaming down her face because i have to leave early and am missing the pig roast. "They're happy tears, I'm just so glad you made it" she said, as i hugged her tightly and kissed her. Tears mixed with mascara left my whole cheek wet and as I turned to leave I noticed a ruffle hanging out of my suitcase, pausing and pulling a little bit of sleeve out I wiped my cheek before stuffing it back in zipping up the open corner and walking out of the fort.
Now I kneel in my spare bedroom in front of a pile of dirty pirate clothes tears streaming down my face thinking that I have blood relatives that I see less that once a year and they certainly dont cry when i leave,and how much i love my pirate family. When my wife approaches, her doe like eyes widened with concern as she asks me if i smell somthing burning, she notices my tears and asks me what is wrong and once again i find myself searching for words deep inside everything that is me and all that I could choke forth between sobs was, "I love them I love them all" she came forward and held me for a moment and said she knew what i meant, leaning down to kiss my head she noticed the shirt I was holding tightly and said "Eww gross give me that im doing whites".
