The Unforgiving Sea

Nightmare

      I sent my students to investigate Plankton I had discovered as a young man. I was thrilled by their previous discoveries and wanted more information after their short expedition. I wanted to know if they would encounter the same anomaly I had all those years ago. They had barely scratched the surface.

       I awoke in a sweat out of breath. I clenched my chest with my left hand and pushed myself up into a sitting position with my remaining hand. Martha sat up next to me, sleep still heavy in her eyes, she met my gaze and I saw worry take over her once peaceful expression. I let out a sigh and leaned back against the headboard of our king size bed wiping the sweat from my brow. Even in the dimly lit room she could see in my eyes the horrors I had relived. On queue she spoke in her soft voice, "The same one James?" I scratched my beard and nodded giving her my silent reply. "Do you want to talk about it?" I shook my head in response leading to her breathing out a heavy sigh. "I'm going to set your chair up on your side of the bed and I'll put on the pot of coffee." She gingerly placed a kiss on my temple before leaving the warmth of the covers. She set my wheel chair up on my side of the bed and walked out of the room. A slight shiver ran down my spine at her absence. I silently cursed the draft in the room before stretching and positioning myself to get into my chair.

      The only other person aware of the events in my nightmare  is my best friend and coworker Colin Cortez. The reason he was aware of my nightmare is because it is a shared memory. He was the only other survivor from our research trip that had taken a turn for the worse. We lost five colleagues that day and nearly lost our lives in the process of trying to rescue them. I rescued Colin from the sinking boat losing my legs in the process. My legs were crushed and I lost all sensation in them while pulling Colin from the cabin of our research vessel. When we were finally plucked from the water by the coast guard in our hypothermic states we were told another 30 minutes and we both would have succumbed to our wounds or the cold. Colin at least got the "cool" injuries or so we're told by the new students each year. He sports a long scar across his right temple down to his jawline among other small scars on his forearms and hands from the debris of our ship reck. I got the worst end of the injuries. The students always joke with me that I should change my name to Charles Xavier and I always reply with, "Doesn't James Oliver sound like a hero name as well?" If Colin is around though I warn my students not to make the joke or any involving me being wheelchair bound. One year a student in my class was making fun of me at lunch, Colin overheard and had a talk with him. The next day I had found out he dropped my class and changed Universities entirely. When I asked Colin what he said, he always denied having a conversation with the student and quickly changed the subject. Something I strongly don't believe but I don't have any proof on the matter. Other than that incident, at the University Colin and I are well liked by students and staff for our humorous demeanors.

    When I finally made my way out of the bathroom and to the kitchen after freshening up Martha had managed to scramble eggs, bacon, and hash browns. She set my plate down at the table next to my steaming cup of black coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice. The condensation rolled down the side of my cup and on queue my stomach let out a bellow. "Thank you my heart beat. What on earth would I do without you?" Martha smiled mischievously at me before replying, "Well you'd definitely starve or have a heart attack from all the fast food you used to eat." I rolled my eyes at her response letting out a chuckle. "I love you too." She smiled and said, "I know." Before she disappeared down the hallway to get ready for the day. I smiled shaking my head knowing she'd be ready to leave by the time I was half way through breakfast. I made our lunches for later in the day before I scarfed down my food. Martha returned to the kitchen grabbing the keys and both of our lunches, "Ready to go?" I put my dishes in the rack to dry and smiled speedily wheeling myself past her to the garage. She laughed light heartedly remarking, "Just you wait and see one of these days you're going to run my feet over and then who will drive us to work hmm?"

She always dropped me off at the university before heading to the veterinary clinic. It was a ten minute drive from the university to the clinic so we frequently had lunch together while she told me about her cases. We left home and I was antsy to get to work since it would be the first check in with my graduates. Time to test their radio and get the first update.