Page 29 of Commander’s Mate

Harper had just shown me the harder lesson.

A person could be free and still expect the next door to lock.

Chapter Seven

Harper

The first night nobody locked the conference-room door, half the women asked me to close it.

The other half wanted it open.

That was the first thing I wrote down.

Not because I knew what I was doing.

Because if I did not write things down, they became arguments.

Scarlet stood beside the door with her arms folded.

“Open,” she said.

A silver-skinned woman near the wall shook her head hard enough that her borrowed blanket slipped from one shoulder.

“No.”

Scarlet looked at me.

I looked at the woman.

“Closed?”

She nodded.

A second woman immediately said, “No closed.”

Great.

We had been free for less than a day and already democracy was exhausting.

Nora sat cross-legged on the floor with a cup of water in both hands.

“Can we split the room?”

“With what?” Zoe asked.

“Blankets?”

Scarlet stared at her.

“Excellent. We’ll build a blanket wall on a warship.”

“You have a better idea?”

“Yes. Actual walls.”

“We don’t have those.”

Scarlet looked around the conference room as if one might appear out of guilt.