The Dream

It’s another warm summer evening in South Carolina, the little town of Melvin, that has about four thousand people in it, is on it’s way to being shut down for the evening. Everything, including the two gas stations close by 9 p.m. and most of the residents are home by 5. The sun is setting as I myself am on my way home from a long day at the Aquarium I work at. I’m an Aquarist, meaning I make sure all the specimens are well cared for. I mostly just direct my coworkers for their daily duties, fill out a lot of paperwork, not so much of cleaning tanks and habitats anymore. The Aquarium sits on the edge of the bay on Hilton Head Island, a wide horizon to the east, and the rest of South Carolina to the west. I enjoy “Island Life” but everyone always seems a little too pampered. There’s always kids that apply as janitorial staff in the summer, but I’m always having to walk around behind them and remind them to clean things. I have a good reliable staff that are here year round, but the seasonal workers are a different story. My house is a small cottage in a little cul de sac where most of the people who work in town reside. It’s about a twenty minute commute, not bad considering this is a huge tourist town. Melvin is our little slice of peace away from the strangers we see all day. Sometimes there will be people you remember, but usually, nobody bothers to talk to the employees if they don’t have to.

I arrived home, about 9:30 p.m., not bad for a Thursday night. I make a cup of tea and sit on my back deck. I call it a deck but it's a small 4X4 square space, but it has a magnificent view of the coast. Pointing eastward, towards the Atlantic Ocean. I see the lighthouse, signaling for the incoming freighters bringing in fresh produce and toiletries I suppose. That was one downfall of living on an island, everything has to be shipped in which also makes things much more expensive. Add that in with this being a tourist town, I guess that explains the population number for Melvin. It can be hard to make it here. About halfway through my tea I feel myself dozing in my chair outside, I only wake up because I can feel the cold fog rolling in. I look back to the horizon, mostly dark except the lighthouse. I can see a ship coming in now, but it’s not a freighter ship. It looks like a passenger ship, but not as fancy as a yacht and definitely not a ferrie. This is unquestionably unusual to see, but it’s well past my bedtime and I have to be up bright and early.

The next morning I prepare myself some coffee and turn on the news, waiting for the weather. I saw a clip of the ship I saw last night, it looks like a pirate ship turned houseboat. Never in my life would I expect that, but the crazier part is the passengers are all missing. I don’t know if this is real or not, but I have so many questions. How is that possible, how long have they been gone, and who was supposed to drive the ship? So many others rush through my brain, and the mayor comes on the air. He assures us that there is nothing to worry about, and perhaps the crew had an emergency and received help already. The validity of this hypothesis is slim to none, but I’m sure my friend Nat has some insider information for me. Considering she is one of the main people to have gone and looked inside the ship. Being a detective she gets all sorts of information about anything that happens here. Obviously she can’t tell me anything that could potentially put me or the town at risk, but I’m curious and honestly I just can’t help but ask.

I knew Nat would be at her lunch at 1 p.m., so I decided to go pick her up from the station and take her to lunch. It’s the least I could do if I’m going to ask her about work, right? She sees me waiting outside for her, and runs up to my car, smiling across her tan face.

“Hey!” She says standing at my open window

“Hop in! Let me treat you to some food” I say smiling back.

“You want to know about the ship, don't you?” She laughs as she gets in the passenger seat.

I laugh, mostly because she's right, but also because I would've taken her to lunch anyway. The Aquarium is closed today because of the ship, they wanted to make sure no other ships came cruising in with hundreds of guests there. We go down to our favorite diner and order our usual meals while I wait for her to divulge her tale.

“The ship is full of dressers and clothing, shelf stable food. Whoever they were, they were prepared to be on the water for a while and they all just disappeared or something. I don't see any sign of an emergency that would require them all to leave suddenly.” She paused, taking a big sip from her drink.

“So their stuff is still there, food is still there, and the boat is still in perfect condition?” I asked to confirm.

She nods, mouth full of fries.

“What if they docked somewhere but forgot to anchor the ship? Or forgot to tie it up, or both?” i asked

“Well, I think they would have to use a small rowboat to get to shore from the ship, but its possible they forgot. But they were pretty well prepared for what they would need ON the ship, i'm not so sure if they would just; ooops i forgot” she replied to my question.

“There's only a few options, really. One, they all vanished. Two, they were all kidnapped and based on the roster there should've been about 40 people on there so where is someone going to hide 40 people. Three, they docked somewhere and forgot to tie up and anchor the ship. Four, which is the most realistic and saddest, they all died.” she thought out loud.

“But wouldn't there still be bodies? Where would they have gone?” I asked Nat.

“Hmm..” She thought for a minute. But before she could answer, her timer went off warning us she had 10 minutes to get back to the station.

“I’ll come over tonight and fill you in on anything else i find out, let's split” She said

I drop Nat off and head back home. I pull into my driveway, only to find a small child on my porch. Girl scouts don’t even sell me cookies here, what the hell is a kid doing on my porch? I look around my neighborhood and there's a child on EVERY porch on my street. I lock my car doors, still inside my vehicle. I don’t know what’s going on but I am NOT moving out of my car. I back out very quietly trying not to raise suspicions of the… children. I drive through the other side of the neighborhood and see a kid standing on all the porches, knocking on the doors. I see one resident open their door and invite the kid inside.

“Yeah that seems like a great idea. Nobody was on the ship to begin with, and now there's children on porches? No thanks”

On the radio I hear a broadcast warning residents not to open the doors to the kids, that they’re dangerous. He sounds frantic.

“Don’t open the doors to your homes for these kids. I don’t know where they came from but they are on every doorstep. Oh my God! There's one outside of my booth! I’m glad it locks from the inside, but man these kids are creepy!”

That's all I hear from the radio jockey before the radio signal cuts in and out with screams between the static. I go to the police station to find Nat, hoping they didn’t get her too. I don’t see any kids outside the station so I risk it and run inside. I look around trying to scope out my surroundings before I get myself too deep into trouble. I see Nat and the others in their offices, so I run back to them. The phones are ringing off the hook.

“Nat! We need to go, it’s not safe!” I said.

“I can escort you home, but I can't stay with you. I'm sorry I have to help regain control of the town. Everybody's going crazy right now” Nat was obviously worried, and felt bad she couldn’t do more to comfort me.

Either way I accepted the escort but I was still scared out of my mind. I'm a short 15 minutes from the station, and when we pull our cars into my driveway, the little girl that was there before is gone. Nat walked inside and checked top to bottom for me, helped nail a few boards on my windows and secured my doors.

“Please come here if you get a break from your shift, it will make me feel better to know where you’re at!” I pleaded, I meant to just ask but it came out a lot more like a begging child. I readjusted and cleared my throat, kinda laughed for a moment.

“I will definitely come here, this has to be the most secure house on the block” She laughed my desperation off instead of calling me out, thankfully.

I locked Nat out, and we made a password for if there is danger and if it’s safe, and I decided to get some rest, while I could. My head hit the pillow and I was in the deepest sleep I've had in a long time. I wake the next morning, I look at my clock, seeing its Friday, 9 a.m.. Friday? Yesterday was Friday! I walk downstairs and there's no boards up, no news of the children. I call Nat and ask her about the events that transpired yesterday, and she has no knowledge of what I'm talking about.

“You know, it must’ve been another one of those crazy dreams,” Nat said.

I hung up the phone. It must have been a dream.