(no subject)
The weather was getting colder as the winter slowly approached. The skies were gray during the day, with a wind that carries the faint smells of snow and burnt wood. Snow had yet to come, but there wasn’t a tree that hadn’t dropped all its leaves to the ground in anticipation of icy weather. Prices for heat were continuing to rise, so there wasn’t a chimney visible from the harbor without white puffs of smoke slowly rising, then disappearing, and becoming a part of the crisp, cold air. Even the fish seems to have left in search of an area with more emotion and life, instead of this gray, cold, New England harbor. There seemed to be a blueprint that had been laid out for this town, a plan that had come from a world of standards, and expectations of nothing. No one was expected to succeed, no one would ever leave, and there would never be an easy way out of the life that fishing the depleted New England ocean.
It was late in the evening every night when Charlie finally got home, and after such a hard day with nothing to show for it, he was not in a good mood. “Why is it that I fish all day, then come home, and there isn’t even fish to eat for dinner?” asked Charlie, who was eating the leftover soup that had been thrown together by his two sons in hope that it would at least be a hot meal. “I dunno dad, why don’t you ask the fish?” Alex spit back. Immediately regretting the comment after the glares he received not only from his father, but also his older brother Dan. Before Charlie could respond Dan jumped in, letting his anger get the best of him, and declared almost yelling, “How many days a week do you help dad, one maybe two, you used to barely even wake up for school, now it’s almost eleven o’clock before you roll out of bed!”, “If I don’t start work until twelve what reason do I have to get up any earlier?” Alex asked, still trying to defend himself although he had clearly lost the argument already considering he knew his dad would be on Dan’s side anyway. So instead of arguing a lost cause, Alex left the table and headed up to his room for the rest of the night, to get ready for tomorrow, which was Saturday, the day he couldn’t get out of helping his dad fish, because he wasn’t scheduled down at the local gas station.
Hours before he usually woke up, Alex was standing on the docks watching his brother and Father load the boat, making no effort to help them. They were still in a bad mood with him anyways, so he figured he couldn’t really do much worse then keep to himself for the day, and avoid confrontation. Charlie’s shipmate Mike came running down the hill ready to set off for a day of hard work, it amazed Alex that someone could be so awake this early. As the boat started to take off, Alex hopped in and laid down on the waterproof couch in the back of the boat. They had a while before they got to the right place to fish, considering there probably wasn’t even seaweed in this lifeless ocean.
As they sailed away the ship slowly rose from the water, trailing streams of water down on the mirrored surface of the ocean, which took on the appearance of an endless pit that was going to swallow them up at any second. The clouds slowly drifted by, making the boat feel as if it was going backwards but still moving towards the warm sun, which by now was only inches away. It seemed dangerous that they should travel so close to the sun, but as Alex opened his mouth to voice his concern, a flame reached out and engulfed the ship in flames, Alex immediately jumped up, trying to douse his flaming clothes, looking around for some source of water.
He landed on the deck of the ship and looked up to find Mike and his brother staring at him, both of them wondering why he had randomly convulsed during his sleep. Embarrassed Alex returned to his seat, but was cautious of how comfortable he got, in fear of falling asleep again. As he sat squinting his eyes against the bright afternoon sun, he noticed little bits of the rope holding up the sail popping off, and becoming undone, slowly disassembling the rope. Before he could shout to his dad, the rope snapped, whipped through the air, and with the force of a steal whip, knocked his brother unconscious. Charlie rushed over to tend to his hurt son, and Mike rushed below, in search of a first-aid kit, Alex panicked, not knowing what to do, and decided to go help Mike find the first-aid kit. As Alex came down the stairs, Mike was nowhere in sight, but the first-aid kit was right by the door, so he grabbed it and ran upstairs to help his brother.
During the confusion Charlie had forgotten to guide the ship, and the compass mounted on the side of the boat had somehow been knocked into the water. Dark was slowly approaching, and Dan had just recently been revived, although he was still in a daze, and even with the rope somewhat repaired, they were getting nowhere without their compass. Alex could feel the creaking of the boat loudly in the dense silence, and decided to go see how his dad was doing with navigating. As he climbed the stairs up to the hull, he walked directly into Mike who was blocking his path, “It’s dangerous up here, you better stay down the bottom,” Mike informed Alex, “what’s dangerous about being up here?” Alex asked as he tried to push by Mike, “Me”, he replied, as he pushed Alex down the stairs, knocking him unconscious as his head struck the hard metal railing.
When Alex woke up he was disoriented at first, but soon realized he was in the cabin of the ship, he heard nothing but silence, and tried to move and open the door. Halfway across the room, the rope around his ankles tripped him, and he fell flat on his face at the feet of Mike, who had just entered. “What’s going on? Why are you doing this?” Alex moaned, not thinking that his voice was even loud enough for Mike to hear him, apparently he had though, because he quickly responded, “you know why, you know how terrible the work is, I make no money, you father pays me, and he doesn’t make a penny,”, “so the way I figure it, I’ll take this boat off your hands and relieve you and you family from the life of poverty that you’ve suffered through all these years.” As Mike finished talking, he left the small room, locking the door behind him, Alex tried to shout after him, but his grandfather had built this boat strong, with thick cherry wood. As he laid there on the floor for hours, he slowly drifted into sleep; Mike had at least tied him to the bed, so he had enough rope to lie down comfortably.
During his sleep he woke several times to what he thought was shouting, it sounded like his dad, but older, and more frail, at one point he clearly heard Mike saying what seemed to be a plea for forgiveness, the lights went out and a loud splash erupted from the right side of the boat. Alex wondered who had been shouting so forcefully at Mike, and what had happened upstairs, if it had even happened, and wasn’t just another eventful dream. After all why would his father have been shouting about things like building the ship with his own hands? He didn’t build it, his father did, and he had long since passed away. As Alex continued to think, he drifted off into sleep that was unavoidable in the pitch darkness of the cabin.
A glare of sun erupted from the doorway and a dark figure stood in the doorway, silhouetted by the bright sun. The man entered the cabin, informing Alex that he was a police officer and that he was going to have some questions for him. After Alex was brought out onto the docks, he was told that he was the only person found on the ship, no other crew members were present, and it seemed that the ship had just drifted into the docks over night, colliding with several boats on the way. This was impossible Alex told them, he had left home with his father, brother, and Mike, and at the mention of Mike, Alex began to tell them what had revealed to him in the cabin that previous night. Alex was taken off to the hospital, for the injuries to his head, and the boat was investigated more by the police. What happened on the boat remains a mystery, with the only clue being Alex’s knowledge of an older man’s voice, apparently defending the ship with his life.