The day had become more glorious than I could ever have imagined. No concoction of my past experiences could have created what I was seeing, and I can find no words to give it an accurate representation, so I will suffice it with my description of the fact that there is no description. I made my way down from the plateau and to the wharf. There were many boats, but I had to find one that was going across the sea. Luckily, I found a cargo ship heading to Europe. The containers had already been loaded and I never did find out what it was the ship was carrying. This was not like a cruise ship and so I was sure that I couldn’t buy a ticket or convince the crew on board to just take me along with them, so I walked around the docks waiting for an opportune moment to sneak onboard. Finally my opportunity came, when the crew was called to a deck fire on the other side of the ship, I bolted up the gangplank and onboard the ship. Realizing that I did not have much time before they would resume their posts, I searched for an entrance to the interior to the ship, but most of the doors were shut tight. Around the backside of the boat I managed to find an open door and slipped inside. I had never been on a large ship like this before, but from what I had seen on television and movies, it was everything I expected. There was a constant groaning of the steel hull and the ceilings were low. My only goal was to find stairs down into the darker parts of the sip where there was less traffic and I could more easily hide. Eventually, I found the engine room. It wasn’t dark, but the noise of the engines and the plethora of places to hide made it a fairly ideal place to be. I found a corner away from areas I thought the engineers might need to work and settled behind some boxes. Now there was nothing to do, but wait. This was not an easy task because of the excitement burning within me.
With nothing to do, I became incredibly bored and decided that it would be worth the risk of going to the deck to at least entertain myself. We had been at sea for quite some time now and I concluded that the worst the crew could do was put me in the brig until we arrived at the destination. Once we arrived they would have to release me and take me to some sort of authority, at which point I could find a way to escape. However, this did not keep me from airing on the side of caution in my ascent. It must have been late at night because the crew seemed very thin and it was not very difficult to remain unseen. There was one instance where I thought all was lost when it looked as if a crewman was looking right at me, but he must have been lost in his own thoughts because he didn’t even blink when I ducked out of his vision. When I emerged from the bowels of the ship it indeed was night and the moon was low in the sky, which made it appear massive on the horizon. This was the first time I had seen the moon appear so large, it took up much of my area of vision and the reflection in the water made it appear even larger. It was an astounding sight to see and even more impressive than my experience with the stars. I almost felt like I could reach out and touch the moon, feel its rough surface under my fingers. Shaking off the mesmerizing effect the moon was having on me, I looked out across the ocean. We were indeed far out into sea. There was no land in sight and it felt like we were our own island. It was an intimidating feeling because there was no hope of rescue out there. I had been on boats before, but never this far out. I could see the appeal of the sailor’s life; out here the worries of land life could easily disappear. More important things like survival take the forefront and the most important worry is that of the storm. From the way things looked then I found it hard to believe that anything that bad could happen out here, but I knew the temperament of nature and how easily a good thing could turn bad.
My leeriness about the conditions was confirmed not too long after I had been on deck. As the moon began to fade and the sun initiated its upward journey, clouds accumulated from everywhere. At first they were only spotty, but they became thicker and much more ominous. Before I knew it the sky had once again grown dark despite the rising sun and I could feel that something terrible was about to happen. There was a loud crack and then the rain began. The sky unleashed a terrible fury down upon the ship and the once calm sea turned into a violent inundation. The boat shook back and forth with tremendous force and I found it hard to maintain my footing. I could hear voices shouting from below deck and then the door I had come out of shut tight. Desperately, I ran around the ship trying to find a way inside and out of this storm, but to no avail. Finally, I ran down in front of the bridge trying to catch the attention of the crew in hopes of saving myself, but no one seemed to notice my flailing or shouting. There was no other choice, but for me to find something to hold onto and ride out the storm. In the bow I found the heavy chains of the anchor and wrapped myself around them. Things only became worse, the rocking of the boat became more epic and I was afraid that the boat might turn over on its side. Despite the large size of the ship the swell became so large that water was splashing over the sides and onto the deck of the ship. From my vantage point I could still see the bridge and the faces of the crew told me that this was no ordinary storm. There are rumors I have heard of super storms, where a group of smaller storms comes together and creates a tumultuous stew of high and low pressure. These storms are one of the reasons some boats never come back. At that time I felt that we too would be one of those unlucky victims; however, this was not the case, though the boat felt like it would be torn in two by the sea, there was only one person tossed into the dark sea. That person was me.
The waves continued to grow and crash more and more over the sides of the boat, and the wetness of the chains was loosening my grip. I struggled hard to maintain my position, but eventually my hands slipped and I slammed against the side of the ship. Before I could gasp in shock a wave came over the bow and pulled me up and out of the boat. Apparently we had just crested a large wave because I found myself a hundred feet above the water. After I slammed into the water and sank a short ways underneath things were calm. Looking down I could see nothing because there was no light to pierce the dark of the water, but I felt a calm coming over me. No matter how violent the storm was above the surface, underneath there was no inclination of disturbance. The sea was being disturbed so much by the sky above, but it refused to allow itself to be moved except on the surface. It was an immovable object that took everything in stride, protecting the inhabitants within. Surprisingly, the water was not cold, as I would have expected, instead it was warm and sweet; something I did not expect in the salted ocean. Swimming upward I broke the surface only to find that the storm had completely disappeared. There was no trace that a storm had ever been there. The sea looked as if it was glass, and again it was night. The moon was again a huge orb in the sky and its glow allowed me to look about me. The ship I had been on was nowhere to be seen and I was alone in the middle of the ocean. I felt no panic and somehow I was not lonely at all. I had this sensation of complete contentment. The fact that I would surely not be able to continue onward did not bother me at all and I could not explain it at all. It was then that I heard a voice calling out to me and when I looked I could see a small boat in the distance. I tried calling back, but whoever it was didn’t seem to hear me, so I tried swimming toward the boat. Much like my previous experience with running after something, I didn’t move at all in the water, so I resigned myself to lie on my back. Whoever it was had seen me and would surely come over to pick me up. I stared up at the sky and despite the glow of the moon the stars were brightly shining, but in a rather strange fashion. Things looked as if they had been painted, the sky looked as if it had come from the brush strokes of Van Gogh or Monet. I could see great sweeping brush strokes of some cosmic painter. It was far more beautiful than I anything I had seen. As I stared into the sky, lost in its splendor, I noticed someone breathing next to me. It was the person from the boat. It was a woman with soft breath. She was only inches from my face, but I could not make out her face. There was only a blur, but just feeling her breath next to me caused the most fulfilling sensation, even more so than when I had been with the hermit. There was no doubt in my mind now. Even though I could not make her out because she was not an easily defined being. She was like me. She was discovering her being. She was becoming, she was not yet fully formed. This was her. The one. Everything I had been searching for. The end of itself, for itself. My Eudaimonia. My Love. The entire reason for my being and I had all the time in the world to discover her.
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