St. James Island: A Short Story

When he was alive, the Captain would always say, “Now, that’s what I call being struck down by the Laws of God and Nature,” when they happened upon mass destruction of this type and magnitude.
“That place needed a good douching out,” was what he said when they sailed into Port of Spain, Trinidad, in the Gulf of Paria, and found it destroyed by a hurricane about a year after Thomas began living with him.
At the time, Thomas thought Captain Jackson’s views harsh, but not anymore. He now understood why the Captain had said what he said. The filth, corruption, and wickedness that went on in some places were likened to Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible- Thomas tried to avoid such places if possible.
“What do you want us to do, Captain,” asked John

James Island, clearly, from atop the house and part of Fort Sumter which was a little further out. When she turned in the opposite direction, the City of Charleston lay spread out before her. She gasped aloud at the amount of water that saturated the landscape- it was impossible to tell where the rivers ended and the harbor began. The tops of some houses barely peeked above the water’s surface, others, that were several stories tall, were halfway underwater the same as they were. Trying to right her senses, Allie searched for a glimpse of her grandparent’s home, which she knew was five or six blocks inland from her home. When she finally spotted the upper story, she could tell that it was inland far enough that the water had not breached the first

After a week of helping the citizens of Nassau bury their dead and haul debris to several areas designated for that purpose, Thomas and his crew were physically exhausted and ready for some downtime.
Thanks mainly to he and his men, the local tavern was ready to open its doors, and he and his crew were some of the first in line.
Besides being tired from the physical exertion, and due to the cause of their labor, they had barely eaten the first three days there; burying dead was never easy for any involved, however, everyone was thankful that it now seemed as if the hardest part was behind them. To celebrate and raise the moral of the residents of Nassau, the mayor had organized a barbeque banquet. A fat pig had been roasting in a back of hot coals all day and the local women had prepared a buffet of available foodstuffs and deserts for them to eat; all in all, it promised to be a good night. Sitting at a table, along with the mayor and several other businessmen, Thomas smiled politely at their jokes and offered a few of his own; however, his main goal was to establish trade. Not long into the night, he had his answers. British ships had already begun meeting blockade runners there in Nassau, mainly to trade cotton for British