***
As Capitain and the rest of the crew went into active mode, Isa silently slipped into the kitchen, to finish up the rest of the work waiting for her.
Upon entering, the girl suddenly halted her steps and looked around with widening eyes.
"Heavens..."Isas' lips just formed the word silently.
~ The Capitain was here...~Her mind went numb for a moment, before her body started acting on autopilot, gathering dishes and speeding up the cleaning inside, before Kole saw this.
The kitchen looked basically as it was before - however, for watchful eyes - like Koles, or, after some months working on the ship, Isa's as well, there was the feeling that a small tornado had just passed.
Some of the shelves were barely holding the things inside in, feeling as if a slight gust of wind would burst them apart. One tricky cupboard door - that had needed a bit of fixing before - was now hanging a little out of place.
Just as Isas eyes fell upon the weakened door, it creaked open before her eyes. The deaf girl could not hear, but in her head she basically
saw the wooden door making a
- creeeeeeeeaaaaak - noise as it slowly opened, as if a ghost moved it.
Blinking her eyes twice, she halted, sucked a small breath in, and then hastily began to continue to fix the kitchen.
Kole never was
angry if his kitchen was messy... or at least he said so.. the food
quality would never suffer. That was his standard. The
quantity however...
Who would dare to ask for seconds or thirds, if watched by a pair of sad and a little desolate eyes that seemed to size up and ask each passing person
'who messed up my world kitchen' ?
Isa frantically worked on the kitchen, for her to be able to enjoy seconds and thirds for the rest of the week as well.
Luckily her bag had the right tools to fix some loosening door screws here and there.
Moreover, her memory was good enough, to sort all the tools for cooking where she knew Kole put them in.
Sweating, she remembered her first month, when one of the capitains "kitchen explorations" had led to Kole strictly not giving out more than one portion per person. Being spoiled by the quantity of food before, Isas greedy tummy had suffered. Once more she sped up her pace.
~ For the food! For seconds! For thirds! ~ she encouraged herself.
Opening one of the cabinets, Isa barely managed to catch some pans, before they hit the floor or her head.
"Phew.."Just as she relaxed, another frying pan barely scratched her nose and hit the floor. Panicked, Isa glanced outside, but the kitchen and the dining room was now empty. Hastily, the girl picked everything up and safely stored it inside, before fixing some of the loose shelves and cabinet doors.
Counting herself lucky that Kole went on a relaxing walk or for a bath, and the kitchen almost as good as before, the tool-mechanic sighed relievedly, and rubbed her still full tummy.
Cleaning the dining tables speedily with a wet cloth and speedily leaving the kitchen to fetch some cleaning sandscrub for Fiske, Isa did not realize, that behind her back, another cupboard door, very slowly opened with another small but nasty -
creaaaaaak - sound.
***
Passing on the way to her tools room, Isa saw a glance of Ber, disappearing in the engine room. The girl didnt think much of it, since it was usual to see Ber or Alfhild checking up on the engine.
Grabbing a small, self made tube, Isa mixed some soap with a little water and sand into it, and shook the closed container. Content with the self made product, she sped up her pace on the way to the Doctors office.
***
Fiske was still there, and Isa saw his noteworthy efforts to make his office cleaner. Scrunching her nose slightly, she scrutinized the room and estimated the time she needed to clean it up.
Without sorting the papers - it would take not too much time. She would do as always, and give the Doctor his research to sort for himself.
Isa knew how to read, however she did not practise enough.
Having thrown away papers, that had the outward appearance of inky toilet paper, but seemed to be classified as 'important research' she was careful with any paper in Fiskes office by now, placing it on his table or inside some shelves.
Disturbing the sitting Doctor in his thoughts and placing the sandscrub tube in his hands, she ushered him to the next washroom, while she had some time alone to clean and sort the rest of his office, and disinfect some of the important places, like the patient rooms and the bed.
To be honest, the smell of desinfectant made Isa nauseous, even though she never would admit it. The same with all kinds of smelly salves. Scrunching her nose she breathed the pure alcoholic contents of it in, in the now clean office, and unconsciously rubbed her shoulder and neck slightly.
It was now covered by the Valoons' Overall, but the burn scars from the acid rain were one of the things that bothered her a lot.
Isa always tried to catch the time where she was alone in the baths, to hide her hideous skin. But of course she knew that probably Alfhild - and maybe Fiske as well - had noticed it.
Luckily, the treatment was over before she joined the ship crew. Months of salves, fevers, pain, nightmares had subsided a little. But the girl paid attention to have them always covered up.
Pains, and fever still sometimes joined together and her skin hurt a lot from water temperature changes and weather changes.
Sighing, she noticed her hand on her shoulder and put it down. She did not know if it was just phantom pains or some of the poisonous residue from those plants, but she did not die from it.
Isa paced around a little, checking if everything was orderly and clean, then she turned around to leave the Doctors office.
Obviously, the girl was oblivious to Alfhilds training notice.