Seeing is Believing

Chapter 1

I was unconscious. Or maybe asleep, I wasn't sure. And then I was awake. I lay there with my eyes shut for a few moments before I had to get up. I tried to remember where I was, or what day it was, or anything. But I couldn't. So I opened them. I still couldn't see anything. I mean nothing. This was not your average, run of the mill dark. This was the total absence of light.

I hate not knowing where I am or what is going on. I hate being in the dark, both literally and figuratively. All I knew at this point was that i was not in my dorm where I ought to have been. So I began to discover my surroundings, attempting to reason through it and determine where I was.

I sat up and realized that I was lying on what felt like a straw mattress. Literally one of those old fashioned, stuffed, straw mattresses. I got poked and stuck with the stuff several times while trying to maneuver my way to my feet. I say trying because as soon as I was able to put my foot on the ground I tripped on...my gown?

I felt for the first time what I was wearing. I definitely had on a corset, that was for sure. Not too tight, but now that I knew it was there, I knew it was there. The skirt was wide mostly at the hips, so maybe eighteenth century? It felt nice, not like some raggedy servant's garb.

Once I was finally vertical, I felt it. The gentle rocking, swaying, back and forth. And then I smelled it. The saltiness of the air, like ocean water. That nice smell I always love when I get out of the car for the first time at the beach each summer. Was I on a ship? Yes, now I heard it too, the lapping of water on the hull of the boat, a wooden hull at that. Once again a relic, a museum piece, something never ever used but for reenactments and Hollywood magic.

What the hell?

And I don't curse.

Finally, out of frustration I called out

"Where Am I?!"

And then a voice-a mysterious British accented voice, too-answered from what I assumed was the corner of the room.

"Haven't the faintest."