That goddamned thing

Chapter 16

I wake up as the first ray of sun hits my face. Cracking my eyes open, I peek towards the window. The rays are straight toward where my bed is. I turn on my side facing the wall but I cannot sleep anymore. It had been an unexpected night and as Derrick had said, the storm was just a passing one. The sun is up and shining like there was no storm last night. I hear Alex snoring softly in the upper bunk and smile. Even his snore is reassuring. I get up from my bed and try to shake the sleep away from me. Stretching, I turn to look at Alex who is still asleep on his side. Standing on my tip toes, I touch his face. A few lines appear on his smooth features as he opens his eyes slightly.

"Wakey, wakey." I say.

He smiles and he sits up. When he looks down at his watch, he slumps back on his pillow and says, "Its 6am Cara. Why up so early?"

I turn around to go to the washroom, "Don't you want to start this amazing day already? We are finally going to return the medals to your grandma and above all we are going to leave this sickening ship." I say while taking out clothes from my bag. I hear him laugh as I enter the washroom. "Get up now. It's going to be one hell of a day." I shout from the washroom.

After breakfast, Alex goes off to talk to Derrick to see if he can arrange a car for us which will take us from Bilbao to Villarcayo and doesn't come back for a long time. I just stand at the deck gazing out at the sea, a light breeze making my hair ruffle.

The day drags itself lazily and I almost get impatient for it to be afternoon. I watch as the deck dries slowly due to the blazing sun. Looking up at the sky, it is bluer than ever. One could never have guessed that there was a storm last night. I look at the stretching sea and all I can see is the world ending with the sea and sky meeting at a point which seems to be a zillion kilometers away.

I see a few workers dragging crates of load from under a tarpaulin and putting them away in what looks like a shed. They wave at me and I wave back.

Finally Alex is back and announces that we will be hitting Spanish water territory in an hour. We walk towards the front of the ship and surely I can see a distant line of land.

"And that, my lady, is Spain." He points towards it. I smile up at him seeing his blue eyes sparkle as he looks out at the land. He is surely excited to be back home – back to his land.

With every passing moment, I see the land growing. I start to make out outlines of buildings and gradually see the colors. As we approach nearer and nearer, I can see that we are approaching a port. I see that some of the huge shapes that I assumed to be buildings are actually ships which look even larger than the one we are on. I can even see people roaming around preparing for the cargo ship to arrive. The ship starts to slow down and we go back to the cabin to pack our things as we enter the port.

"I can't believe I will be seeing Granny today." Alex says excitedly while throwing his clothes in his bag. I squeeze his hand. I am also looking forward to meet his granny though I am a little scared of what she might think of me. I was never good with old people. Alex reassured me that she will like me alright so I am contended.

We are almost ready, just looking around the cabin one last time when I hear sudden shouts outside. The ship has come to a stop and I wonder why the sudden outburst. I look at Alex and he just shrugs. Holding our bags, we go out to the corridor and I freeze at the sight I meet. There are two men in the hallway pointing their guns at me. I jerk my head back to look at Alex and he suddenly moves in front of me pushing me behind him.

There is an angry exchange of Spanish words between him and the two men. Alex seems like a completely different man while speaking his native language. I don't get a word of it but I can clearly see why the men are here. Another man comes through the door and enters our cabin after a gesture from one of the men. Searching for the medals in the cabin. I feel my temperature fall, my whole body goes cold and I can feel the warm medals against my chest. The man comes out after a while and says something in Spanish which must have meant that he didn't find anything. He grabs our bags from us and quickly searches through them.