The Dwellers of the Sea

The Beginning---

Once upon a time, there lived a man in the town near Sicily, who has in his late twenties. Simon Blake was a traveler and explorer. He had explored the road and the air. He hadn’t explored the sea yet. So his next voyage was on the sea. He had brought a houseboat to start his journey. But the day, he began his journey. His motor was overheated and he needed repairmen to continue his journey. He went to find a repairman. He didn’t find one but the one he found was an old guy (James) who was the only one available at the off-hours. The repair guy seemed edgy and cranky at the same time. Simon patiently waited for James to finish repairing the motor of his boat.

James while working on the wiring he started recalling his younger days. When he was a sailor on a ship where he would do odd jobs and would assist the head engineer on the ship sometimes. There he learns to repair and engines of the ships. He became a sailor as he wanted to explore the sea just like Simon 40 years ago around 1981. He vividly remembers the smell of water and the floor of the boat he was cleaning as the cold breeze brushes past his skin. His days would go by cleaning and looking at the sea. Studying the sea map on his own at night to be on par with every other sailor on the boat or his seniors. He was a curious child who wanted to know every nook and cranny of the sea and beyond. During the day he would clean and at night he would look at the maps of other stops or ports where they would go next. The next stop was always on his mind. It was a new experience for him during those days. The night was always cooler. Sometimes he would be scolded by his seniors for dozing off while cleaning and sometimes he would sing and party hard in the boat with his crewmates when there would be a birthday party and celebrations on the boat when new members were added or retired. The captain of the ship would celebrate once in a while. And they would relax for the night and have fun. They would return to work the next day. The crew was his family for months and years. He (James ) was closer to them. There was an incident that changed him completely.

He remembers an incident where the ship was involved in a shipwreck during a storm and he had a near to deadly experience with the whole thing. The ship’s lateral part was hit severely and the water has entered the ship through those cracks. When the crew noticed the ship was steered in the opposite direction of the hit. The panic and fear rushed in the crew and they started taking out the life jackets for safety. When the water entered the midsection of the ship, the ship started tilting towards the sea and from there the ship started sinking.

The crew along with James(the repairman) started jumping out of the ship and into the sea. However, the damage was not much some of the crew were killed and injured. Some were even reported missing. Danny, James’s roommate was killed in this incident. James survived with injuries in his leg The ship was destroyed during the incident. This incident changed James' perspective of the Sea. It left a pretty deep impression on him. After this incident, James retired and came back to his hometown near Sicily. He missed the sea so he started working as a repair guy near the seaports and he’s doing this for the past 10 years. He was narrating this story to Simon while he worked on the wiring of the motor. The motor got repaired. Simon, after the story, felt that life is really short, and it can’t be taken lightly. He also felt that he needed to check the safety of his boathouse before venturing on his sea trip. So he wanted to prepare and postpone his plans for a week. After, a week he went on his trip and visited James and said that he would bring souvenirs from his trip.

The End.