Read Online Chain Locker by Bob Chaulk - Free Book Online Page A

the world, and his mother would just have to accept that. Tomorrow morning he was going to sea and to freedom and no amount of pressure was going to stop him.
    As he sat staring at the tobacco can and the long trail of smoke drifting from the ship’s stack back over the water, he noticed that the room had gone quiet. He looked up to discover that all eyes were on him.
    â€œWell?” his mother asked.
    â€œWell, what?”
    â€œWhat have you got to say?”
    â€œAbout what?”
    â€œMother of God, you’re not even listening to me! I said Molly Kelloway told me that you and Hubert was planning to stow away on one of the sealing boats. Is that true?”
    â€œWhere did she get that idea from?”
    â€œHubert told Barb and she told her mother,” Alice interrupted. “Barb can’t keep a secret for five minutes.”
    Apparently it runs in the family, Jackie thought. I’ll teach him to keep his trap shut and stop talking to Barb.
    â€œIs it true?” his mother insisted.
    â€œWhat if it is?”
    â€œWell, you’re quite the article now, aren’t you? I got a mind to give you a good lickin’ for talking to me like that.”
    â€œSorry.”
    â€œLet me tell you something, mister. If you go running away on one of those boats I’ll soon take you down a buttonhole or two.”
    â€œWha’s wrong wit ya? I never said I was goin’ on any sealing boat,” he replied, long-faced, eyes downcast, lips pouting, wishing the conversation would end.
    â€œNo, you didn’t say you was, but you didn’t say you wasn’t, either.” A moment passed. “Well, are you going to answer my question?”
    â€œNo, I’m not goin’ on no sealin’ boat,” he replied slowly, looking defiantly into her face and deliberately enunciating every word.
    â€œWell, just make sure you don’t.”
    She was not completely satisfied with the answer. As she lay in bed that evening she prepared herself for the worst. “It’s just a matter of time, Tom; if not this spring then next year for sure.”
    â€œHe’s just a young gaffer who wants to have some fun,” said Tom, as he lay with his back to her. “Big talk, that’s all. I used to be the same way.”
    â€œWell, there’s more sensible ways for him to have fun than running off and drowning himself. I’m going to end up just like Mom, at home worried to death.”
    â€œDid your father or your brothers drown?”
    â€œWell, no, but—”
    â€œThere you go, then. She worried for nothing. Go to sleep.”
    â€œDon’t you talk to me like that! I’m not going to sleep. Why don’t you take some interest in raising him? I’ve tried to convince him to stay in school but all he talks about is becoming a sailor. He’s not old enough to make those kinds of decisions for himself. A good trimmin’ is what he needs, to knock some sense into him. Did you hear the way he talked to me at the supper table this evening?”
    â€œHe’s getting bigger now,” said Tom. “He just wants to speak his mind.”
    â€œWell, he can speak his mind without being saucy. You’re gonna have to deal with him; I can’t handle him anymore.”
    â€œRight. Good night.”
    Across the hall, Jackie could make out snippets of the muffled conversation. By this time tomorrow, he would have listened to her nagging voice for the last time. He couldn’t wait.
    He sprang out of bed in the morning and glanced out the window to check the weather for his big day. It was dreary and gray—pretty normal—but nothing that would delay the departure of the fleet. Finding it hard to hide his excitement, he went through the Monday morning routine—breakfast, chores, preparing for school—in his normal, uncommunicative way, trying not to attract attention.
    He packed on all the warm clothes he could find, most