S. Welles - To Ocean's End

“Just explore. Maybe try to get to know more of your crew, or just beat up the punching bag a little more.” She waved and headed for the hallway. Cancer’s eyes followed her, unhappiness all over his face. She stopped. “What?”

“Don’t go looking for Dyne.”

Jessie held up her hands. “If you’ve got him in quarantine, I don’t want whatever he has.” She walked off.

In truth, she had no intention of bothering him in his container. Sure, she was curious. What was it about his curse that required locking him up for five days a month?

Maybe she should sneak in and find out…

The idea gave her the same thrill as breaking a rule when no one was looking. Except this bit of rule breaking seemed a bit too dangerous. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder what was in there.

What was she thinking? Sneaking into a double-padlocked iron container? It was stupid.

She shook her head at herself as she climbed a set of stairs that led to the main deck. Maybe this was what it was like to be called by a mythical Siren, being lured to danger, knowing it was dangerous, yet feeling powerless to resist the call. Ever since she’d asked the question pertaining to Dyne’s whereabouts, she kept picturing herself sneaking inside.

There was heavy fog blanketing the ocean. It was too early in the day for sun. Jessie meandered along the deck and took the long way to the wheelhouse so she could walk past Dyne’s container. She needed to see Rammus, ask him a few questions and see if he always carried the key to the padlocks at all times.

It was already muggy out, low wind and calm seas. Jessie came upon Dyne’s container and stopped at the door leading in. Two rotate-able bars were locked in place. She lifted a padlock. The keyhole was just a normal lock. Nothing fancy. Still, she knew nothing about lock picking. She released the lock, letting it thunk against the door, the sound making her flinch. It wasn’t a loud thunk, but would Dyne come to the door, expecting to be let out? Had it sounded louder on the inside?

She walked the length of of the container, passing a knuckle along the vertical ridges, making a soft ping on each one. The more she stayed near the container, the more she wanted to know what was on the inside.

Something banged against the container from the inside. Jessie jumped back and almost screamed. The blank side of the container stared back at her and she heard no further sound. She tentatively held up a hand, paused, then gently rapped against the container. Seconds later, she felt someone splash a cup of water on her back. She sucked in a deep breath and cringed, then turned around to snap at her splasher, only to find that there was nothing but open deck and ocean surrounding her. She bounced her gaze between the container and calm ocean. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out who or what just splashed her. She had a sneaking suspicious it might’ve been Dyne, but that was ridiculous. There was no hole in the container.

Keeping an eye on the ocean, Jessie took one tentative step, then another. No water magically rose up to splash her. A few more steps and she cleared the container. She relaxed her arms and headed for the wheelhouse in earnest.

Rammus was bent over some maps when Jessie knocked on wheelhouse door. He did a double-take, then waved for her to enter. Thank goodness whatever had splashed her had gotten only her back. The water was soaking into her pants, but that was no big deal. So long as she kept her back to everyone until she dried, no one would ever know about her supernatural experience.

“You wouldn’t happen to have any thoughts of taking this boat elsewhere now would you, miss Jessie?” he asked with a smile.

She shook her head and stood just inside the door.

“Then to what do I owe the pleasure of your company? And by the way, it’s good to see you awake again.”

“Thank you. I just have some questions. I was hoping you were the person to ask since I can’t seem to find Dyne anywhere.”

“He’s sick. Just leave him be,” he said a little too quickly.

“I know. Cancer told me.”

“Okay, good. What’s on your mind?”

“The funeral,” she said, testing the waters. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Rammus sat up. “Oh, yeah. We never did take the time to give the three of you a heads up. Don’t let the water show spook you. But anyway, you’ll find that every boat has its own way to say farewell to lost crew mates. Back in the day, whole fleets knew each other. Nowadays we just know who our enemies are depending on the location. Too few good guys roaming the sea now. But anyway, I’m digressing.’”

Jessie forced herself to stay quiet until Rammus gave her a chance to speak. Maybe the more polite she was, the more she could weasel out of him. He did have a circle of keys tied to his belt.

She shook her head. Why was she still thinking of sneaking in there? It was clearly dangerous, not to mention stupid. If it wasn’t serious, he wouldn’t be in a sixty-foot iron container. She just needed to forget about it.

“I imagine you’re wondering about that water stuff. Dyne’s the one who can explain it best but, seeing how he’s down for a bit, I’ll explain what I know as best I can.” He took a bit of driftwood from his jacket and began whittling at it with a small knife. “Captain don’t like me doin’ this in here, but oh well.” He grinned slyly. “I’ll clean up later. Anyway. As you know, sailors are a good bit superstitious. A lot of it’s a buncha nonsense, but there’s truth in every tall tale. Sometimes it gets hard to see the truth in it all, so we do and don’t do certain things just to be safe. We do our drumming to make sure the sea comes to take the souls it’s snared in life. You follow me so far?”

“Yeah. So what’s with the fish that ate my sneakers?”

“That was a koi fish. Good luck for you. Symbol of strength and courage to overcome obstacles. Means the sea’s supporting you through this tough time in your life. Wants you to let go of your fears, so it sent you a symbol of strength. Kois are freshwater fish but I guess that doesn’t matter to the souls that live beneath the surface.”

“How much of all that mythical stuff is real?”

Rammus shrugged and made a face. “Beats me. I wish I knew. All I can tell you is that the ocean’s full of surprises. Always respect it and always err on the side of caution.”

“Is that why my given name’s forbidden?”

“That’s a question to ask Captain.” He spoke carefully, like he was trying to hide something.

“Can you tell me what you know?”

Rammus gave her a studious frown. “Save those questions for him. It’s not my place to say anything, okay?”

“May I ask why?”

“You may, but I won’t answer. Just be patient and wait for him to get better.”

This visit wasn’t yielding many answers. As much as she wanted to nose around for more information, it looked like she was going to have to suffer through waiting. Her mind wandered back to the container.

“Did you have any other questions?”

She thought a moment. “Yes, but it looks like I’m just going to have to wait.”

“Alright. Away with you, then. Stay out of trouble.”

“I’ll try.”

Rammus grunted, then set his driftwood aside and bent over the charts.

Frustrated, Jessie decided to head back to the punching back to vent.

The next few days were agonizingly devoid of answers. On top of that, the nightmares returned. Sometimes she’d wake up covered in sweat and start crying. She was reliving her nightmare on Tethys’s ship. Ed and Ted would soothe her back to sleep, only to be woken up by another nightmare. After the third nightmare, Mido came in and gave her a kiss on top of her head. The other men teased him for trying such a thing, but for some reason it worked. On the fourth night of Dyne’s lockdown, he gave her a good night kiss and she slept wonderfully. She didn’t question how or why it worked. She didn’t care. The nightmares were making it hard to progress during waking hours.