North Star

Chapter Twelve: Selene

The shore line looked beautiful. I could see many colors dotted along it, the warm browns I missed so much and lush greens from trees and grass instead of the turquoise you saw in the waves. I longed to see something brighter though, like a purple or pink. I also longed to see other people. The same faces were becoming to be a little too much, 6 months at sea was crawling to a close and I was ecstatic. I'd be able to move more than 20 steps in any direction at a time, move around like I wasn't being watched 24/7 by a persistent camera crew, not smell like fish that's been over cooked in the sunlight, and actually be alone.

During the last few days on the Ultimate June, we'd made contact with the show's producers and The Captain said we'd be staying in the hotel Terminal Leuca after we docked. I'd never stayed in a real hotel before. My mother was more of a 'save money, let's go to a motel' kind of person. There were lots of restaurants around the hotel as well, Loot told me later, clearly excited about all the food that wasn't from the sea, mouth-watering as she described in gross, extent detail about the cow she was going to devour. Personally, I was more looking forward to washing my hair.

It was almost night fall of our second to last day of being on the Ultimate June and the Captain was trying to gather everyone above deck. Camera A and Twitch were off somewhere, hopefully confessing their love for each other, Camera B was following the Captain around like he always was, Cig was probably up in the bridge radioing her family and everyone else was where ever they could be in such a small space. The night air was warm on my skin, and it was quiet. Looking over the water, I tried to sear the image to my mind. Was this the last time that I'd experience this feeling? See this site? Would I ever set foot in a boat again? In 50 years would I remember my friends? Chewing my lip I swung myself up onto the fringe of the boat, swinging my legs over the side. The dark water lapped at the barnacle free sides of the boat (which the Captain had made us scrub vigorously, the Ultimate June is a lady he said, she had to be camera ready), and I watched slightly hypnotised.

Honestly I was a little restless. I was just... Ready to be moving again. I was so close. I could just, reach out and grasp Caralye in my two hands and never let go.

It had been almost three weeks since our dreams had gone back to normal. The storm was broken and we sat, and talked about a lot of things that made my heart flutter. I was so excited to meet her face to face. So I could touch her for real. We were so comfortable with each other, like two pieces of the same puzzle. I felt complete but at the same time incomplete because she wasn't by my side. I loved to listen to her talk about the things she was passionate about, she got this light in her eye and her movements became freer, I loved seeing her be her. I loved that we had so many things in common, that she seemed so generally interested in our future together.

Of course we couldn't talk real details, the dreams had a weird way of deterring any information about ourselves, like naming a city was a big no, I guess it was just fates way of trying to make us run around like chickens desperately searching for our forever people.

Tomorrow I'd be back on dry land. But tonight, I'd be able to see her again, even if it might just only be for a minute. My silent, wistful thinking was broken my many voices talking at once, turning, I was pleased to see that the Captain had rounded up everyone, ushering them to stand in a group beside me. Interest peeked, I swiveled around in my seat, mindful not to slip backwards off the boat and into the water. Week 1 of this adventure me would have done something as noobish as that, but not 6 months experienced me.

"Right!" The Captain clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention. "Since we're now all together," I rolled my eyes as Camera B did a close up of the Caps face. "I have an announcement. The studio wants all of us to do a video diary, a sort of, recap from our own perspectives of the last 6 months. Since, Bucket over there is the newbie, a fresh face, I volunteer her to go first!" Magically, Camera A appeared beside me and handed me a video recorder, one of the ones you could carry around with just one hand and flip the screen to see yourself.