Sunday Fiction - Chapter 21

For previous entries please visit the fiction page

Steve told Bruce that he should remain bed ridden for a couple of days and to take it easy. He was not completely sure what had caused the black out, but he wanted to make sure that it didn’t happen again.

While Bruce remained in his room the questions swirled like a tornado in his brain. Who would really know what they were doing? Would Carl have the answers? After all how could you be captain of a ship if you had no idea what the mission is? Or did Lyle know? It was fairly obvious that if they were in the middle of the Amazon River, which was a river, there would not be islands present. There was either the shore, or the other shore.

Perhaps they weren’t really charting islands, but were in fact charting indigenous tribes? If that were the case, why make such an elaborate showing of ‘charting islands?’

Would Monica tell him the truth? He doubted it as she’d been lying to him the entire time he’d been there. But the one he mistrusted the most at this point was Jack. He thought the man had been truthful and it turned out this was all part of one very large charade.

Did Matt or Joe know? How could a helicopter crew not know where they were? But when Bruce thought about it, they had never told him what they were doing. They simply appeared and picked him up. Perhaps they were telling the truth when they said they’d seen his fire and went back to investigate. The biggest problem right now was that no one seemed to know where he’d been picked up from. There was absolutely no way that the boat had drifted to the Amazon River, and there was no way he’d been stranded on one of the shores. He had definitely been on an island!

Steve brought him lunch and dinner for two days; no one else came by. On the third day he left his room and began to explore the ship. Because all the doors looked exactly the same it was difficult to determine what was behind them.  He went up the deck and then went in search of the captain’s perch. He knew where the galley was, as that was where they shared meals; but other than that he did not know what was on that level.

There was the helipad, which took up nearly one third of the deck. As he walked away from the helipad he saw a door that led inside, but on the same level. He entered the door and discovered another set of halls. He did not know much about the structure of boats or ships, but logic mandated that the captain would have to see the way the ship was going; therefore he had to be at the other end of the ship from the helipad. It did not take long to find the door. He knocked on it before opening and was stunned when he did. This room was definitely at the front of the ship. It had windows just like the galley; a whole bank surrounding the room. Carl was sitting there reading what appeared to be a newspaper. At the sound of Bruce entering he lifted his head. A bright smile crossed his face at the sight of the young man.

“Well, well, you found your way to the hub of the adventure!”

Bruce smiled back and said, “Yes I did. It took me a while, but I found you.  The view up here is amazing.”

“Well you can’t very well commandeer a ship if you don’t know what lies ahead. We have maps and charts, but this area can be quite tricky.”

Bruce asked, “Have you done this before?”

“What? Captained a ship?”

Bruce laughed, “No. Taken a ship up the Amazon.”

“Oh yes, many times,” Carl replied. “But how do you know that is where we are?”

“Steve told me.”

“Ah.”

“Can you tell me why we are riding up the Amazon? I don’t really believe it has anything to do with charting unknown islands. There wouldn’t be any islands off of a river.”

Carl’s smile had left his face. He looked straight and Bruce and answered with earnest, “Honestly son, I have no idea. I was hired to run the ship. I was not told about the mission and truth be told, the pay was so good I didn’t really care. I spend most of my time by myself in here. I don’t have much interaction with anyone else. This has actually been a fairly easy adventure for me. We move a few hundred kilometers and then we put down anchor and stay put for a month. Then we do it again.”

Bruce’s eyebrows arched, “And you never wondered why?”

“Son, I don’t get paid to wonder.”