iovi statori: the
rachel
branwen
blog

Sunday, June 29, 2008

3. Herman

Now, I’m just going to go ahead and tell you that, in the course of the story, I fall overboard many times. It’s just my clumsy nature and whenever the weather gets a little stormy, whenever the water gets a little choppy--heck!--whenever I’m standing close to the railing period there’s a good chance I’m going over. Thank you, god, for my two left feet and the many adventures they have occasioned.

Anyway, this time was the most terrifying, because it was the first. The water was cold and dark and choppy and as I plunged into it, I was thinking “Great! Here I am, setting off on this great adventure and I didn’t even going to make it to our first port of call.”

Swoosh!

I was sucked into a cold, churning, blackness. Opening my eyes was useless; I couldn’t even tell if they were opened or closed, which was terribly alarming, nor could I tell which way was up or down. I was doomed.

Then, all of a sudden, my head was above water. Something had pulled me up by the hair and was holding me there, suspended, but I couldn’t make out what it was. I groped blindly around, but there didn’t seem to be anyone next to me, and my first thought was that Ramone had somehow hooked me from above. I reached up into my hair and felt the most alarming thing: a fat, rubbery, tenticle.

My eyes went wide with horror.

But then I thought that perhaps, if whatever animal owned the tenticle was going to eat me, it would’ve already smuggled me down to the ocean’s depths instead of preventing me from drowning.

An instant later, another rubbery arm had scooped me up like so much ice cream and lifted me out of the water. I was shivering convulsively. As my eyes adjusted to the moonlight, I couldn’t see The Star Dust anywhere. But I did see two, giant, inquiring eyes set into a huge bulbous head right in front of me.

“Are you going to eat me?” I quaked. The bulbous head swung itself slowly side to side.

“Phew! I’m so glad.” Then I heard what sounded like a walkie-talkie.

Bzzcht... “Herman, now’s not a good time to play”...bzzcht... “It’s very windy and Lima Bean must be very cold after falling into the ocean” ....bzzcht.... “could you kindly bring her back to the ship?” Bzzcht.

It was Winston’s voice, but I didn’t understand where it was coming from. Herman blew air out from, well, wherever it is that giant squid blow out air, like a six year old being told that it is not the right time to tumble on the lawn, and started gliding through the swells.

The ship was somewhere behind me, because it still wasn’t anywhere in my line of vision and I didn’t see it until Herman had lifted me back over the railing and Winston received me into a big fluffy towel. Boy was I relieved to have some wood back under my bum! But it was still storming, and the boat was still tossing from side to side, so I leaned feebly against Winston and concentrated on not throwing up.

Herman did a few spins in the water, like a top, frollicked a little to and fro (have YOU ever seen a giant squid frollick?? It’s cuter than you’d think) and sidled back up to the side of the ship. Winston reached his long arm over the railing and scratched the top of Herman’s head.

“That was very good work, Herman, thank you for catching the lady.”

Winston took me downstairs and told me to take off my wet clothes. He gave me warm, dry sheets to wrap myself up in and tucked me into bed.

“I see that this trip is going to require a little taking care of you”

I grimaced, then indicated with my thumb and index finger ‘just a very, very little bit.’ He laughed.

“Perhaps you could have told me that there’s a friendly giant squid spotting your ship?” I managed.

“I was getting around to it,” he said, sitting down, “but I had no idea you were so clumsy.”

“Oh yes, I’m very clumsy.”

“Well, good thing he’s there, then. He’s very friendly; wouldn’t hurt a fly. He’s an excellent spotter because when we’re in warmer waters, we dive off the ship in all different directions and he darts around and gathers us up as fast as he can. It’s his favorite game.”

“I see” I said, yawning. That was a pretty mighty, if brief, exertion I had just made.

“There all kinds of interesting characters in these oceans,” Winston went on softly, “I’ll tell you all about them tomorrow."

There was a moment or two of silence, then he stood up, abruptly. He bade me goodnight, and, as my eyes gave in to the weight of my eyelids, I saw him bound back up the stairs.

next chapter

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home