A MONUMENTAL JOURNEY

Chapter 7

I unfolded the detailed map, and laid it out on the old disintegrating sidewalk. There were several dislodged cobblestones from the old street lying in the gutter so we used them to hold done the edges. The wind had unexpectedly picked up, bringing with it scattered clouds and loose trash swirling in and around the abandoned doorways. A random gust blew the shops old sign back and forth, and on that single strand of rusted chain, it was producing an eerie metallic squeaking sound. I heard a door slam down the street, almost simultaneously accompanied with the sound of broken glass. Garrett and I suddenly straightened up; realizing that this part of town was by and large abandoned, we suddenly felt exceedingly vulnerable and on edge. A sinister figure, hunched over in a frayed dirty brown hooded cloak, unexpectedly shuffled out from one of the many deserted shops across the street, he was grumbling and talking indistinctly. He impertinently threw down an old brown bag that shattered when it hit the cobblestones, and then looking up at the sky, began shaking his fist and cursing. We stared at each other uneasily and shook our heads. Having completely stopped what we were doing, our full attention was now on the sinister figure slowly making his way up Cockburn Street. Still cursing and mumbling when he crossed over six shops up, he then turned towards us and began scowling repulsively, with one hand gesturing towards us rudely he vanished into an adjacent alley. Something was gravely wrong with this old decaying neighborhood, and that disturbing man had unsettled our emotions.

Chapter 11

Nervous tension was glutinous in the evening air, and it seemed that our once silent wristwatches now ticked with an exaggerated persistence, accentuating the strange vocalizations from the approaching Mortiken. Suddenly the chanting ended, leaving an eerie silence that filled us with even more apprehension. What was next? I clutched my oak bat tightly with both hands and braced myself for the unknown. At Captain Olaf’s behest we joined hands and prayed, asking God for wisdom, strength, safety, a warrior’s spirit, and for his will to be done. Afterwards, a wonderful sense of peace and focus filled us as we assumed our predetermined positions.

The mist had risen about three feet from the waters surface now, and while the setting sun cast continually lengthening shadows on the wooden deck we waited in breathless anticipation. Silently casting off our fore and aft lines, the Captain pulled in the gangplank, and while he nervously glanced up and down the length of the deck, he put down the oak bat and started the diesel. As he was slowly maneuvering away from the dock, one of the market employees suddenly started waving franticly and gesticulating fearfully towards the stern of our vessel, prompting the Captain to quickly disengage the transmission and slam down the rpms. Snatching the bat up with his left hand and hunching over like a large cat, he deftly jumped from the wheelhouse door and onto the deck. With a grimace and clenched teeth he pulled out his 357 Magnum and prepared himself.

Chapter 17

While we prepared for the first day of diving, it appeared even Jonah’s sagacious, outgoing personality had become reticent; it was the first time I’d seen him so preoccupied, there was something bothering him. When Roxanne came up from below she was immediately cognizant of the emotional quandary her husband had found himself in and pulled him aside. Together they went forward to the bowsprit where she put her arms around him; putting their heads together, they began praying.

Working together in quiet harmony, and all absorbed in our own individual thoughts, I pondered why whenever I became sullen and introspective, I felt compelled to express and notate my feelings in the intriguing verbiage of my doctorate. I was thankful though, that words had become my chosen medium of expression, and like a painter embracing a palate of many powerfully varied colors, I wanted to express the complexities of life’s struggles and victories in lexis. Sometimes though, no matter how much we desire it to be different; life becomes an emotional struggle, fraught with redundant rancor and the unforeseen. At the most inopportune moments, we are surfeited with the unknowable, and begin struggling fiercely against nasty little things besieging our minds, that during fleeting times of joyfulness seem so inconsequential.         I rationalized these dreary, helpless, somber seasons, were a requisite part of the human condition, and it was in those moments of despair that we all strove harder to understand our small places in life’s enormously complex puzzle.

Chapter 36

There was a sudden blur in my right peripheral, I quickly turned and watched Rorek stumbling out the galley door with binoculars in hand. Unexpectedly infused with the Captains optimism, the crew struggled up the stairs in cautious pursuit, and when we’d gotten safely on deck, we all attached ourselves to the rails with nylon safety tethers. The outside environment was frightening, an intense exhibition of the laws of nature in upheaval. The wind whipped around us mercilessly, ripping at our skin and raingear as if hundreds of invisible fists were pummeling us at the same moment. Heimdall sloshed about indiscriminately on the agitated surface like a cork in the sea of churning white foam. Hunched over and peering out through the blur of wind and rain, in the direction Captain Olaf was pointing, I gasped at the incredible sight unfolding around us, while Betsy clung to me tightly. I immediately understood the reason for the Captain and Rorek’s unexpected joyfulness; we were safely anchored in the eye of the Maelstrom.