Mary Ann, the first, was practice. Rough work it was, marked by passion and fear. “Polly,” as she was sometimes called, did not want a cracker. But what else could be done to shut that bone box? A couple of sure swings from the gentleman’s cane and her mouth shut up like a trap. A knife is to a body as a ship is to the sea. A small woman before, but now that the work is near, she is a giantess. How does a vessel choose its path? So many possible routes, suggestions in the stars, half-remembered superstitions, promises in the wind, and above, a waning, half-lit moon. Crisscross the ocean with
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