Mayday! Mayday!

      I awoke to furious banging on my cabin door. I sat bolt upright in my bed and began dressing. "What is it?" I asked tensely.

      "Captain! Your presence is required on deck; I have come to waken you."

      It was my faithful first mate, Bellows. I knew that if he had thought it important enough to come and wake me in the middle of my three out of twenty-four hour break from duty, then something must be seriously wrong. "I'll be right up," I answered shortly.

      "Yes, Cap'n. I'll meet you there."

      As I gathered my wits and my weaponry, I observed our current plight. The blasted storm had been raging for over a week now, and half my men were so exhausted that they either dropped dead at their post, or were groaning in their hammocks on the deck below myself. I had a faithful crew, and for that I was grateful. My ship was being tossed about relentlessly, and I worried that she would not make it much longer. I was prepared to die, and to go down with my ship, but I had always hoped it would be in warmer waters than those of the Atlantic Ocean.

      I left my cabin and began the slippery ascent to the deck of my ship.

      With each step, the shouting became more and more clear. Was it as I thought? Was that really what they were saying? My strength vanished from me, and my stomach went sour. For a few moments, I almost fell off the ladder. Then I straightened my shoulders, took a deep breath, and erased all signs of doubt from my face. I was determined to be strong for my crew through it all. No matter what.

      I burst through the door, and all my senses became overloaded.

      The sight was overwhelming. The smell... well, I don't think you want to know about what I actually smelled, but it was strong. The sounds...the sounds of my men screaming at the top of their lungs, "MAYDAY! MAYDAY!" assaulted my ears.

      Then all of it stopped. My men turned to face me; silence reigned. Then Bellows bellowed (how else do you think he got his name?), "Three cheers for Captain Ruthie! She has led us through the storm to safety! Hip-HIP HOORAY! Hip-HIP...."

      My heart swelled with pride at the thought of my men's sincere appreciation and dedication. I could never have done it without them, but I'd tell them later when we celebrated. For now, I was more than willing to just bask in the praise. And as if to top off the moment, a seagull began circling our ship, hailing us with his screaming cries.

      Now I knew that the flower laden land mass in front of us was not a mirage. Nor the sunset, and the lack of thunderclouds. Nor was I imagining the fact that my men were screaming "MAYDAY!". Indeed, that was what they were saying. I only heard it wrong. It was May 1st, and a popular holiday we celebrated at that point in time on May 1st, is called May Day. May Day is celebrated by picking all the flowers one can find, and giving them to the people one most appreciates.

      We made it just in time to celebrate.

      I cleared my throat and addressed the men, who were awaiting orders. "Well? Isn't somebody going to drop the anchor? Bellows, tell Cookie to prepare a picnic breakfast tomorrow - we're going ashore!".

      I retired to my cabin, leaving the my men in a state of feverish excitement.



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Yep. Today is May Day! I didn't really have much to say about it, so I wrote a short story based on a play of words. How about that? I must be the only nut on my coconut tree crazy enough to do something like that!      

Since today is all about flowers, I thought that I would go take a bunch of pictures of the flowers that are currently in bloom all around me. 

The weather man must not like me. For once, when he called for rain, it actually happened! :-(

Instead, I'll share some flower pictures I took with four of our dolls (one of which is not among our models yet) and hopefully you won't feel too disappointed. :-)

And guess what? I made it into a short music video!

OOOOOoooooooh!!!!!

I hope you enjoyed today's post!

~ Paige