…some work in progress from the Cazique of Poyais story…

After Noemi finally introduced herself to Emma, they got on like the proverbial house on fire. It brought a shimmer of joy into Jose’s life as he saw his sister in s mood other than pure depression and for Emma, well he just got to see more of her, which he liked very much. All was good in his world, or as good as it could be, with land nearly in sight and the channel up ahead. Some of the sailors had told him that it was then just a pilot up the Thames from the estuary and then into the London docklands.

For his sake, he had one property there where they could bunk up, Emma included, for a few nights to get there bearings and then head to Parsons Green, and hope the place would be as lovely as it sounded.

Standing on deck they looked out into the English Channel, all pondering the future, both near and far. It hung in front of them clearly in that moment when the necessities of life were not present. Emma looked distantly and then turned to Noemi and asked, “what will you do when you land. I heard Jose mentioned Parsons Green, but I don’t know much where that is.”

“Is it not a well known place?” Noemi asked, curling her lip.

“Not to me. That doesn’t mean it isn’t though.”

Jose decided to chime in, “the bit in Parsons Green is more land rather than a known place. The flat is near the docks which is where we’ll stay at first to get our bearings. We’ve been over all this.”

“Yes, brother, and I’m no further to understanding where we’ll go or what we’ll do.”

“We’ll have land and that’s all the opportunity we need in a city like London,” Jose said, dropping off his voice at the last few words, letting his thought drift off and hang in the air.

Emma waded in with a comforting thought, “that’s true. Even if it weren’t, you’d have somewhere to live which is better than for most.”

“Thank you Emma. We need to think about the positivity of the future.”

“Come off it brother. What we need is something solid to hold on to. It’s all just make believe at the moment. The word of a man who is most certainly not a native of London.”

“But didn’t that man talk of the Parson and that area? He was the one who was at odds with Lily,” offered Emma.

Thomas Clink had said something about the Parson in passing when he overheard that the Mercorda twins were heading that way. He hadn’t said much, just that he knew the Parson who looked over that part and that it was a lovely part of the country.

After a moment thinking this through, Jose snuggly looked at his sister and said, “There you go. We had solid proof, I just forgot about it. Thanks Emma,” he finished with a wink. There certainly were many things to admire about her.