The Tragedy on the Orion

I surveyed my room with a growing intensity. This was the last time I was ever going to see it again. My rich mahogany desk, my small single bed. My eyes were never going to lay upon these items again. I was packing my clothes on my bed, my minuscule, worn bag lay open. I thought I would be happy this day had come. To finally go away from my mother, to sail on the Orion. It all seemed so gallant and rebellious before, but now a strong sense of nostalgia held me back. I shed a single tear on my bag.

“Ethan! Come downstairs! The Orion is about to leave!”

I slowly walked down the stairs to my mother of eighteen years. She was a short woman, I was at least a foot taller than my mother, but her back was as straight as a taught clothesline. Her coarse, grey hair tucked under her bonnet, she looked like a well-mannered woman. But I noticed today that she had a peculiar aura around her, as if her whole being was off-kilter. She looked at me with kind eyes and said,

“ Here Ethan, as my parting gift, I have some tea for you. Sailors get thirsty out at sea you know.”

Her voice was a lead weight on my shoulders. It almost made me feel as if I was carrying an enormous burden to her if some kind.

“Goodbye mother.”

I said and gave her a hug. It lasted for about two minutes or so and then we broke apart.

“ Oh, I almost forgot, I wanted to give you this tansy as a reminder if me. I knew how you always loved them.”

I put the dandelion-like flower into my breast pocket.

“ Thank you mother.” I said and walked out the door.

My walk was uneventful. But strolling by the church and all of the houses in rows made me regret leaving. When I walked up to the towering Orion, all of my regret vanished. Its crisp sails, now a bright white in the sunlight, and the proud stern beckoning me forward put a new sense of hope and pride into me. I ran towards the ship, hoping that it will give me a new life, away form the one-sided views of my mother.

I went into a massive crowd around the ship. Most of the people there were mothers and sons. All the mothers hugging, kissing, crying and the sons going on the Orion with a steely expression that almost frightened me.

I pushed through the masses to get to the front of the Orion. I saw the oaken plank leading up to her and walked on. I had a beaming smile on my face when I walked aboard the Orion and saw several other males, some young, some old and with different statures and going through all walks of life. Through the crowd I saw a familiar face. When I saw his face, a surge of panic welled up in my chest.

“Hello Ethan, it’s me. Simon, remember?”

Simon was truly a demon sent to torture me from hell. Ever since I was a child, he would beat me behind his house in a thick grove of pear trees. As he inched closer to me, I felt as if I wanted to throw up. He came so close to me that I could smell his musky scent and his acrid breath. He whispered to me softly,

“I’ll see you tonight, in the cargo hold. If you’re not there, I’ll find you.”

As he walked away, my knees trembled as if I was dangerously seasick. The Orion gave a sudden lurch and I fell backwards on my bottom. I slowly got up and found Simon sniggering at me. At the bow stood the Captain, a rather stern looking man with a tall skinny frame and a pair of foggy gray eyes that could see into your soul. He stood up on an assortment of barrels used as a podium.

“Hello I am Captain Smith and I will learn your names all in good time. Now I will assign you sailors a job. “

He surveyed the crowd, picking out people and assigning them jobs with strange names. He finally pointed at me and said

“ You...you will be in the Crows Nest.”

“I.. I... I’m in the what sir?” I asked.

His face came close to mine. He came so near that I could see that he hadn’t shaved in a while.

“In... the... Crows... Nest”

He said this very clearly as if he was speaking to a child no more than three years old. He pointed to a little basket like object on top of the mast.

“Of course, I see that now sir...”

I walked glumly towards the mast and decided that this was the best way to overcome my fear of heights.

After the incident with the Captain, I discovered that form there, I was supposed to keep a vigil watch for land., so I did. The job wasn’t to hard, except the heights part. Actually, it gave me a lot of time to think, to clear my head. When my time was up, I remembered that Simon was waiting for me. By then, the night was dark and crisp. It seemed serene to the naked eye, but the moon was hidden behind the clouds as if it’s pale, shining face did not want to witness what lied ahead.

I walked to a little door by the Captain Quarters and went down a narrow staircase and into a massive room filled with boxes labeled things like tea, salted meat and fabric. In the middle of the masses of boxes stood Simon with two burly men stood beside him. Simon and his friend had devilish grins on their faces.

“ Look Ethan, we have a little surprise for you.”

He had a red velvet bag in his hand. Simon slowly pulled out a thick, black handle out of his bag. Attached to the handle was nine braided, thick, ropes. A Cat O’ Nine tails. Simon looked as happy as a child at Christmas. I kneeled on the floor, trembling. Simon raised the thing over his head about to strike me. Then he gave me a puzzled look and said

“Ethan, you forgot to take off your shirt.”

I looked up at him and studied every feature of his face. His yellow teeth, his oily brown hair, his pointy crooked nose. I slowly took off my shirt and knelt down. I felt one harsh strike on my back. I winced in pain as a response.

“Two more for darling Ethan.”

Two more struck my back. Humiliated, I pulled on my shirt and left the hold.

“Oh Ethan! Come back tomorrow or again I will find you.

I traveled up the narrow staircase and fell asleep in my bed. The rest of the nights for at least seven days were the same. My job on the Orion was not boring but...routine. After the first week, I felt my mind starting to slip. I was climbing up to the Crows Nest when I was thinking to myself,

“Oh, how beautiful the sky looks t-t-today. Did I just stutter...when I was thinking? Stuttering thoughts...that’s absurd!”

At that moment I burst out laughing and most of the Orion heard me. After my hysteric laughing fit, I resumed my post but this time it was different. Just as the sun had risen, I saw an island.

“Land Ho! LAND HO!” I screamed.

The Captain came rushing out of his quarters. “What is it lad?” He asked with a hungry look in his eyes.

“Land Ho!” I replied and pointed North.

He looked into the distance with his eyes wide. Than he squinted into the distance.

“Lad, there’s no land there.”

“What!! There has to be ! I saw it! Its right there!”

He looked again and said that he saw nothing. As I persevered to search for the island, a hurried first mate came out with wide eyes and maps flailing about. He whispered to the Captain,

“ Captain, there is something very troubling I have to tell you. During the night, one of the crew members forgot to let the anchor down I suppose, and our vessel has drifted quite a great deal off course.”

“WHAT HAPPENED?!?” The Captain boomed.

He took the first mate into his quarters. There was a great deal of shouting and clamor but I suspected that the problem was getting solved somehow. A few minutes later, the Captain came out and said,

“Alright men, our situation is that we’ve been drifting off course a great deal. I am not particularly pleased about it but there is one thing I am happy about. We have drifted backwards, towards New Bethany. That this whole predicament was caused by an incompetent crew.”

He walked cooly towards his quarters and shut the door with a bang. I looked down to see Simons face, almost purple with rage. After a while, his emotional tempest subdued and he continued swabbing the deck.

That night, I was going down the narrow staircase to visit Simon again. I concluded that this time he would be angrier than ever because of Captain harsh words earlier in the day. As I walked in the darkness, I thought I saw walls in faces and faces in the walls. Instead of seeing boxes, I saw horrible alien creatures, eating human flesh. When I saw a bulky frame that resembled Simon, the image twisted itself into my mother. She was holding a knife saying ,

“Ethan, come play with me”

My response naturally was “NO!”

I wrestled the knife from my mothers wrist and took one stiff plunge into my mothers heart. It felt so effortless, like walking on my own two feet. I stared at her for a minute or so, me standing above her for a change. I picked up the body and threw it overboard. My mind was racing a mile a minute but my soul was strangely at peace. I crawled into by bed and I slept deeply. The next day, there was a frantic search for Simon on the Orion.

Two weeks later, the town of New Bethany was in sight. Just when we were about sixty meters away from the port, the crew wanted to celebrate.

“Let’s break open a bottle of rum!” One of the men suggested.

“Can’t” said another “There’s no more.”

Just then I came out walking in an animated fashion but with dark circles under my eyes. I handed one of the men my box of tea.

“What’s this then?” He took my box of tea and eyed it carefully. “Tea, eh? Well I guess it’s better than nothing.

He took my canister and brewed the tea. Every single member of the crew and Captain Smith had a cup or two. In the cargo hold I carried the hot beverage to my lips and downed the cup. This was my tenth cup of my mothers tea. A sharp pain in my chest, my breathing shallowed, I was starting to slip away.

My last thoughts were “Thank you for taking me now Lord...”

I sipped one last shallow breath and my whole world went black.