GRIFTER’S TALES
ABOARD THE AQUA SERVICE
By Colin Lee MacLeod
There is always one more job. And dinner still needs making.
No ghost required
The curse is ordinary enough: laundry, preparation, tools to fetch, deck work to help with, and another meal approaching. As deckhand-cook, I can finish one task and still have a very respectable list waiting for me.
A recent morning included breakfast, errands, equipment for the crew, and cable preparation. None of it needed a supernatural explanation. The work was quite capable of multiplying on its own.
Keep the humour with the work
The title gives me a way to tell these stories without pretending every working day is a maritime epic. Sometimes the epic is simply fitting the jobs around three meals and keeping moving.
There is satisfaction in being useful, and there is comedy in the moment you remember the thing you still have not done. Both belong here. These are the opening notes for the deckhand tales: real work, ordinary complications, and room to laugh.
Grifter’s Takeaway
Keep a sense of humour beside the task list. The next job is probably already waiting.
