Who is Averill from Friend of My Youth: Stories and what is their importance?

Averill is a young woman weighed down by her responsibilities to her dying mother. She must nurse her and stay with her in her sickness, and a part of her guiltily longs to be free. She is also used to her mother claiming all the attention, and seems fairly happy to blend into the background. She enjoys being on her own, but still longs for something that will make her as special as her mother, and for one person at least to share a connection with her. She is used to taking the backseat to her mother's story, talent and fame, and now longs for her own romantic story to come true. She creates a fantasy in which the captain comes to her after her mother dies and makes love to her. She sees him as a kindred soul, wandering the deck alone at night.