Jonah And The Whale Ocean City
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I woke up with a start in the middle of the night and found myself standing alone on the deck. I could smell the salt air, and feel a breeze blowing off the ocean. There was no moon out tonight, so I couldn’t tell exactly how far offshore we were, but it didn’t seem to matter because there was no land anywhere nearby either.
It was just a big dark expanse as if someone had taken an ordinary sheet of paper and drawn a perfectly straight line through the sky, connecting North America with Europe. I’d seen the stars above that vastness before – in Boston Harbor on Christmas Eve—but never like this.
In Boston, they looked tiny, far away, and dim. This time the stars seemed very close – as if they’d been painted onto the night sky by some master artist. They glittered and sparkled and filled every bit of space between the black velvet clouds. Their light washed over me from horizon to horizon in waves of warm silver fire.
I turned around slowly, feeling my way along the edge of the ship with one hand. At least the ship was still there. We hadn’t sunk yet. Or rather, we weren’t sinking now. But what about after this storm? And then what?
How would we survive the winter without food or shelter? What about our families back in Boston and New York City? I felt tears welling up behind my eyes, threatening to overflow. I blinked hard against them.
My parents! I suddenly realized I might never see them again. My throat tightened. My mother’s voice echoed inside my head: “Always think positive!” She always told us to do whatever it took to reach our goals.
But what would happen to her and Dad if I failed? Would I even make it back home at all? I’d be too busy trying to stay alive to worry much about helping them… wouldn’t I?
No, I decided right then, I absolutely must get back home. I had to help my mom and dad and sister. I’d have to try harder. No matter how difficult or impossible the situation seems, if you’re not going to give up, you’ve got to keep on trying.
I started walking again, this time making sure to stay clear of the railing. A wave rolled towards me and soaked my feet, sending cold water running down my legs. I shook my shoes off and continued trudging forward, following the curve of the deck until it met the bulkhead.
Once again I noticed how strange the wood looked under the moonlight—not smooth like regular wood, but bumpy and rough. Then something else caught my eye and drew my attention further down the ship. There was something moving below. A faint flicker of movement caught the corner of my eye. I strained for a better look, but couldn’t see anything in particular. Just another shadow, perhaps, moving across the deck somewhere.
Then I noticed another small shadow farther down the deck, and another still farther below. There were dozens, maybe hundreds, of them, moving quickly back and forth. I couldn’t figure out why they kept bobbing up and down, like a swarm of tiny insects.
Then something happened that made my breath catch in my chest. For a brief instant, the darkness seemed to split open, and I thought I saw three pairs of glowing red eyes staring at me from beyond the shadows.
What was that? Was I imagining it? Maybe I hadn’t slept enough last night. Or was it possible that those lights I’d spotted belonged to animals, some kind of giant whales or sharks swimming around the deck in search of prey? Could that be why we had been sailing so deep into the Atlantic Ocean? To find more food?
I shuddered, thinking of all the horrible creatures that lived in the water. Sharks and jellyfish, sea lions, killer whales, and the dreaded great white shark that had attacked our schooner in Maine two summers ago. I’d read about the giant squid too, who sometimes grew to be over sixty feet long and weighed as much as twenty elephants.
And of course, there were thousands of other sea monsters out there that I’d only heard about. All these thoughts combined in my mind and sent a wave of panic coursing through me.
Suddenly I realized I’d stopped breathing. So did the creature. He’d been following me ever since I’d climbed up onto the deck, and had just watched me stare at his backside. I tried to move my arms and legs, to pull myself together and continue walking forward, but they wouldn’t obey me. I froze, paralyzed with fear. If I moved, I might frighten him away!
The creature stared at me in silence for a few moments, then slowly turned around and began climbing back down the ladder. The moment he stepped off the top rung, though, he stopped again. His eyes locked onto mine once more, and this time I noticed they looked strangely human-like.
I could almost feel his presence behind me, staring at me from the darkness. Something in the back of my mind whispered, “Don’t turn around.”
But what if I didn’t? What if I let him follow me all the way down into the hold? I felt a chill crawl down my spine.
“Come on,” said someone behind me. “You can do it—just one step after another!”
It was Captain Smith standing next to me on deck. He put an arm around my shoulders and gave me a little push. “C’mon, boy! Don’t be a baby now! You’ve gotta keep trying. If you don’t get your wits about you soon, you’ll be lost forever in these waters, where no man has gone before!”
His words snapped me back to reality. I turned around and forced myself to take slow, confident steps forward. It took everything I had inside me not to look back, but I knew that if I did, I’d never be able to go any farther. I’d just stand there like a statue, frozen in place, afraid to face whatever might be waiting for me in the dark.
My eyes darted nervously about everywhere except toward the ladder, which was probably exactly what the creature had intended. He must have thought that if he waited until I was too scared to move, he’d win the battle of wills and drag me down into his lair.
That’s all this was—a power play to make me look weak before the rest of his pack. I wasn’t going to let him intimidate me. I took another step. Another one. Then another. As I continued to walk, my pace quickened to a steady jog, but even then I forced myself to keep looking straight ahead.
If I didn’t watch where I was going, I would fall into a hole or trip over a loose board and fall to my death.
My heart pounded wildly in my chest, but I kept pushing myself forward. Just one more step. Just one more. I glanced back every ten paces or so, but I never looked directly at the creature. Instead, I watched the light streaming through the hatch above and focused on its brightness. The longer I stared at the light, the less my body trembled and the quicker my footsteps became.
After what seemed like hours, I finally reached the bottom of the ladder. I stumbled over to Captain Smith and collapsed next to him with a deep breath. When I spoke, my voice sounded strange to me. The words came out slurred and broken-sounding—as if my throat had closed up.
“How did you know I was down here?” I asked.
Captain Smith smiled. “Your brother told us, lad.”
I shook my head. “My brother isn’t here anymore…”
Captain Smith nodded. “He is now,” he said.
***
When I woke up the next morning, it was still dark outside. Captain Smith was standing by the door, looking down at something in his hand. He walked over and handed it to me.
“Here,” he said, “take this.”
I held up the object in question: a small leather pouch filled with salt and pepper. In addition to the two seasonings, the pouch contained five pieces of bacon and four biscuits that had been wrapped tightly in wax paper and placed in another bag.
I stared at the contents for a while, trying to process what was happening in my mind. I’d expected to find the creature sitting beside me, waiting to devour me once he’d finished with the bacon. But he wasn’t there. Was that because I hadn’t given him a chance? Had I failed in my attempt to resist the temptation to eat?
Or had I succeeded in my mission?
I stared down into the bag and saw that the bacon was still wrapped, but the biscuits were open. I sniffed at the biscuits—and found that they smelled delicious. It was hard to believe anything in my entire life had tasted as good as those biscuits smelled at that very moment…but the truth of the matter was that nothing did.
The biscuits had been left open for a reason—they wanted me to eat them. They wanted me to give in to the temptation and succumb to my hunger. The salt and pepper in the pouch were no different.
The bacon was tempting me just as much. I could feel the warm grease sliding down my throat as I stared at the piece in my hand. If I’d been alone, I would have eaten it in one bite and enjoyed every single second of it.
But now that I was in a confined space, surrounded by people who knew how to fight the creature, I knew that I couldn’t do it. I had to wait and see if the beast made an appearance again; I had to wait and hope that I’d been successful in my task. So I put the bacon back into the bag and stood there staring at the other food items for another long minute.
Finally, I pulled a biscuit from the bag and popped it into my mouth, chewing slowly and savoring the taste. I chewed until every last bit of meat was gone, then sucked on my fingers until they were clean. I washed them off using some water from the bucket, then picked up the leather sack. I took one more glance around the room before placing the contents inside and tying the top shut.
“That should be enough for the day,” I said as I turned to leave.
Captain Smith nodded. “We’ll get you more soon enough,” he replied.
And with that, I stepped over to the hatchway and went back upstairs. As I entered the kitchen area, a group of men was already seated at the table waiting for breakfast. They all jumped to their feet when I appeared in the doorway.
“Good morning,” I said to everyone as I walked toward the table. “What’s for breakfast?”
They laughed.
“Nothing yet,” said one of the cooks. “Just coffee.”
I sat down. “Oh.” I felt deflated. “Coffee?”
Everyone nodded.
I sighed. “Okay. Thanks.”
I waited while everyone else gathered around, grabbing plates and cups of coffee and tea and whatever other drinks they liked. I didn’t drink any, so I simply leaned against the wall and watched the others enjoy their meals. After about ten minutes, a large man wearing a chef’s hat stepped through the doorway into the dining hall. He looked at me for a moment before speaking.
“I thought you might be hungry after yesterday’s ordeal,” he said in a thick Irish accent. “So I brought some food from the cafeteria.”
He pointed at a table across the room where several large platters were stacked high with fried eggs, bacon, potatoes, and sausage. There was even a plate full of toast, which was probably the most important thing they had.
It seemed like it was going to take forever for me to wait until the rest of the crew could join me for breakfast, but I didn’t say anything out loud because I knew the cook wouldn’t let me eat alone.
“Thank you,” I finally said to the man after watching him walk away.
I grabbed a piece of sausage and took a bite. It tasted heavenly, although I noticed that it was somewhat greasy. I took another bite, then ate as fast as I possibly could without making it seem obvious. I needed to keep up my strength.
I finished eating and wiped my mouth with a napkin. By the time I finished, I felt completely stuffed. My body was in such pain that if I had been alone, I would have curled up into a ball right there and died—which reminded me that I still needed to get out of my clothes.
“Are you ready to head back down?” asked one of the cooks as he approached me.
“Yes, please,” I replied, nodding my head in thanks.
I followed the cook to the ladder and climbed down. When I reached the bottom deck, I walked quickly past the sleeping quarters toward the bathroom. I opened the door and slipped inside. I took out the small bottle of alcohol that I’d taken from my father’s cabin and poured the liquid directly onto my wounds.
After finishing with his own injuries, Captain Smith joined me inside and sat down on one of the two stools lining the wall next to the toilet. I looked at him curiously as he stared at me.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he motioned at his chest with his thumb. “I didn’t mean for things to go like this.”
I smiled. “No need to apologize,” I replied as I began unbuttoning my shirt. “You did what you had to do.”
“I know,” he said. “But I don’t want anyone getting hurt because of me.”
My face fell at that point. “It’s okay. Everything’s going to be fine,” I reassured him before turning back to my task. “If I get caught, they can just send someone else to do what I did.”
The captain frowned. “That won’t work.”
“Why not?” I asked.
He shook his head sadly. “Because we’re already down one man.”
“What do you mean?”
“One of our best men, actually,” he said.
I looked at him in surprise. “What happened?”
Captain Smith shrugged. “A couple days ago, a group of sailors came by and told us about the trouble you were causing on the ship.”
I frowned. “Trouble? What kind of trouble?”
He held his hands together in front of his face, then looked away.
“I didn’t do anything!” I protested. “I wasn’t even on the ship yesterday or today.”
“You weren’t on the ship,” he agreed. “But you still caused trouble for us. You made your own crew members look bad. If they weren’t good enough to stop you, how are they supposed to handle it when pirates come aboard?”
“Pirates aren’t coming onto our ship,” I argued. “We’re in port now. We’re safe.”
“No, we’re not,” he corrected me. “There’s always a chance of being boarded. Pirates will board ships anywhere. No matter where we are.”
I sighed and lowered my arms, then began undressing again.
“Just be careful,” he added before walking out of the bathroom.
I closed the door behind me and stripped off my clothes. I pulled them over my feet and tossed them into the corner, then washed my face and brushed my teeth. Then, after washing my hair and drying myself off, I wrapped a towel around my waist and left the bathroom.
I went back downstairs and stood by the railing of the upper deck where all the other crewmembers were gathered. The cook handed me a cup of water and I sipped it slowly. It was nice to finally have some water again.
“All right,” Captain Smith shouted. “Let’s make sail!”
At that moment, I heard a shout outside of the main entrance and saw the first mate running toward the ship as fast as he could go. The captain ran over to him and spoke to him. I didn’t understand what was going on until the first mate turned around and shouted something I couldn’t hear clearly, but which sounded like an order.
I glanced at the captain, who was staring straight ahead, and then back to the first mate. He yelled another order, but this time I understood it perfectly.
“Get the cannons loaded,” I heard the first mate say. “Everyone else should get down below and prepare yourselves.”
I looked at the captain as he stared at the first mate.
“Prepare ourselves for what?” I asked him.
He gave me a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”
I pointed forward. “For what’s coming.”
The captain nodded, then turned back to the first mate.
“Load up the cannons,” he instructed him. “Then let’s make sail.”
The End