Listening to the conversation going down, Ron added: "knowing that rat must be in the kitchen trying to steal some food before time"

After Lucas finished cleaning up the vomit, he went to the kitchen of the ship to be able to find Ricardo and by the way to eat something, since he was quite hungry after having spent a whole week in bed almost without moving.

The kitchen of the ship was quite small, and it was more of a warehouse where they kept supplies than a kitchen proper, there were boxes and barrels everywhere.

The only furniture that could be part of a kitchen was a rather precarious stove made of clay and some tables where, due to the blood and remains, it seemed that it was used to prepare food.

There were only two people in the kitchen, one was a fat, bald man whose paunch protruded from his greasy shirt, who was skillfully removing the visors from the fish on top of his table.

And the other person in the room was the good Ricardo, who was peeling some kind of vegetable with a lot of effort.

"Who are you and what the hell are you doing in the kitchen, boy!!!"

"It's not dinner time yet and there's nothing done to snack on" The ship's cook yelled angrily upon noticing the intruder.

"The first officer appointed me as the ship's cabin boy, I'll be working here until we make port in Los Alamos" Lucas said looking down at the ground because of the sudden scream

The cook's face completely changed when Lucas said that he was a new cabin boy.

"Haha...a new cabin boy"

"An extra hand is always welcome in this kitchen, come in I'll tell you what to do to help me cook"

Ricardo also seemed somewhat excited, learning that he would not have to do all the work himself for the next few months.

The chef looked for a knife in one of the boxes that were in the kitchen and handed it to Lucas "Here boy, go with Ricardo and help him peel all that box of sweet potatoes"

Lucas nodded and went straight to Ricardo's side, taking a box as a stool, and began to peel the sweet potatoes.

When seeing the boxes where the sweet potatoes were, Lucas noticed that there was a kind of viscous material on their edges and the inside of the box was covered with a kind of yellowish paper similar to that of the emergency food bar that Ricardo had given him, he supposed that this type of paper would be used to store some food on long trips

It didn't take long for Lucas to realize that it was a lot more complicated than it seemed to peel the sweet potatoes.

Everyone in the kitchen remains silent, concentrating on their tasks.

Only the sound of the fish being gutted and the boys struggling with the sweet potatoes could be heard in the kitchen, creating an awkward moment for the three of them.

*The knife goes in, the gut comes out* ....*The knife goes in, the gut comes out* ....*The knife goes in, the gut comes out* ....

Finally, the cook could not stand the silence and commented: