Captain Tory part 1
A group of street boys gathered curiously around a middle-aged man asleep on the ground. He looked like any other Dempsey man in England, with his dirty, blonde hair, tattered clothes and a stubby beard. Draped over him was a woollen coat that one could only assume was placed on the man to shield him from the bitter coldness of winter. And on his head lay a peculiar purple hat that had a red feather sticking out at the side, and proved to be the reason why the children had been attracted likes bees to honey. A layer of fresh snow had accumulated on the man yet none had dared to awaken him. However, as the children were never exposed to the dangers that faced many, they chattered constantly to one and another as they questioned his identity.
The chattering had unexpectedly woke up the sleeping man and he sat upright reluctantly, still dazed from his slumber. One of the mischievous and younger boys snatched the hat from the man and placed it on his own head. He attempted a jab at the man’s side by missed and rolled over. Laughing, he looked up and smiled innocently at the man.
“Ay sir, are you a pirate?” the boy asked in a snarly voice.
“I am a captain of the ol’ Roger, dear lad,” he replied wittily and added, “though I have fought pirates before.”
The boys stared adorningly at the man whereas the eldest departed from the group to rummage through a garbage bin behind them. From it, he pulled a navy blue cap that once belonged to a sea captain who had passed by their street and offered it to him. He tossed it at the man who caught it miraculously between two fingers.
“This is a true captain’s cap,” he said defiantly, “wearing one of a pirate will get you mistaken captain...”he paused in thought and asked. “Have you no name captain?”
He smiled with a tinge of sadness and whispered softly, “They call me Captain Tory, though it hadn’t always been that.”
With saying so, he gathered the little belongings he had with him and stood up. Brushing the snow off, he slowly walked off into the dying sunlight without a word to the boys. They noticed however, that the man had no shadow behind him. And for a moment when he turned back to wave farewell, his sky blue eyes seemed to be glowing. Most of them could swear his eyes looked different from afar, that the eyes were not of a man, but of a boy who lost his laughter and simply wandered into the wrong world. But then again, the entire encounter with Captain Tory seemed like nothing more but a figment of their imagination.
