IT - Pieces in the Dark

Chapter 11 - The Ship

Chapter 11  -  The Ship

Sam opened his eyelids, just very slightly. The glare of the hot sun was bright and harsh on his waking eyes, especially as he had no sunglasses on.

His body was warm and relaxed on the slatted wooden sun lounger, which also raised his feet off the hot wooden boards of the ship’s deck. The sea breeze gently flowed over his bare legs and arms. It was a lovely warm, relaxing feeling, comfortable, caressing, with that mellow ‘under the duvet’ feel.

He couldn’t quite work out though yet in his mind what was going on. He just wanted to stay in that blissful moment wrapped in a soft, virtual, protective blanket of half-awake serenity. However something was nagging at his brain.

Disoriented now, he tried to gather his thoughts and perception to work out where he was. He didn’t remember going to sleep, or of even getting here, or of wearing shorts and a t-shirt, or of being on a sun lounger. The sea air, and the ship - they were also things that didn’t make sense. It felt normal though, correct, but a little like waking with a hangover with no knowledge or memory of the night before.

It was a pleasant feeling though, as opposed to finding yourself in the dog basket on the back porch with various complaining joints and bones, and a splitting headache, with a disapproving spaniel staring at you.

He could feel the slow rise and ebb of the ship beneath him riding over the gentle sea, and the vibrational throb of the engines deep down in the heart of the vessel. The railings, several feet in front of him the other side of the long deck, were the old fashioned type; thick cast iron, heavily painted in white and black.

 Behind him was a metal painted, riveted wall, and several feet above was the slight overhang of the deck above, which may have been another walkway or possibly the First Class deck.

His head was still a blurred fog. He looked out to the sea, which was a deep pearlescent blue, flat calm, and giving off sparkling reflections from the harsh sun.

There were only marginal hints here and there of waves and foam. In the distance there were a few islands, hazy grey and dark green, and indistinct at this range. In the medium distance was a large flock of seagulls, some on the water, some circling lazily in the air overhead - probably attracted by an indicative sign of a potential shoal of fish beneath the waves.

It all had a Mediterranean feel to it with the heat and the colour of the sea and sky. Also the distant vegetation, with occasional scented aromas on the air, indicated that it was somewhere closer to the equator than anywhere further south or north.

His arms were balanced on the wooden armrests of the lounger, and he looked down his familiar legs to see his bare feet crossed one over the other.

He was still half-asleep though and the information coming in was difficult to process and correlate. Suddenly his phone started to silently vibrate in his back pocket. And then it vibrated again; someone was trying to get hold of him. Instinctively out of habit he leaned over slightly to one side, and reached behind with his hand and into the flap of the pocket on his shorts.

But there was no phone there; nothing in his pocket, and yet he could still feel it vibrating. Then a few seconds later it stopped, like some sort of phantom phone. He was still too sleepy though to process what was going on; he must have just imagined it or something - how could he possibly feel his phone vibrating if it wasn’t there? It must have been some remnant of a dream still in his head, or some vibration from the ship.

Shading his eyes from the sun with his hand, he turned left and looked sideways. Brina was directly next to him on another wooden lounger. She was wearing a blue-black patterned bikini with gold metal circles on the waistband. She also wore a light blue and gold sarong around her shoulders and sunglasses shaded her eyes. She had one arm propped up on the arm rest, and was reading a book on a black e-reader that rested on her bent knees.