My Journal
By Harriman Nelson
71
Despite a only a few hours of sleep, I was wide awake enough for
this morning’s Operation Sneaky Spy with Chip.
It wasn’t long before the image formed of Joe, still in his night
attire and yawning, as he began to peck away at the keyboard. We could see Lee
on the bed behind him, still asleep, but tossing and turning, even groaning a
little.
Joe turned to look at him in the dim light from the monitor, their
room still dark in the pre-dawn hours since Joe apparently didn’t want to risk
waking Lee by opening the curtains or turning
on a light.
Satisfied that Lee’s moan wasn’t anything physical, Joe resumed
his task, whatever it was.
That is, until Lee began to whine. Yes, actually whine.
“Lee? Hey, bro,” Joe said as he got up, and sat down on Lee’s bed,
shaking his shoulder, “Lee, wake up, you’re having a bad dream.”
“Huh? Wha...” Lee mumbled, confused for a moment as he woke, then,
“Joe! Seaview. She’s hurting! She...”
“Whoa there. You’re still asleep…snap out of it,” Joe said as he
helped Lee to sit up.
“No. it was no dream. At least, I don’t think so. No, I’m sure of
it. Seaview’s hurting.”
“I think maybe you had a bit too much brew last night, bud.”
“I know what I’m talking about! It’s...it’s like… something’s…
biting her! Get me Clyde’s engineering team....”
“Only the base command post will have anyone on watch at this
hour. You really want them to wake up the Commodore to take your call? And even
if he did, you think he’ll buy your story about a titanium hulled submarine
being eaten?”
“She’s hurting. I know it.”
“First Sir Walter Raleigh makes a little visit to you after Maple
Grove; I can understand that, but this, Lee, it’s just a dream.”
Oh gawd, not another ghost.
“I’m not dreaming now,” Lee was saying. “I tell, you, she’s
hurting.”
“Your imagination’s in over drive, that’s all.”
“I’m not imagining it!” Lee said, pouting and rubbing his
forehead, “she’s having sharp pains.”
“Well, she’s certainly not having a baby or appendicitis.”
“Sharp pains,” Lee mused, “Ohmygod! That’s it. Has to be! Joe, she
must have rats!”
“Rats? Well, all boats get rats sooner or later, but you know as
well as I do that anything chomped on would show up on instruments, and now
with a visual inspection going on....”
Lee got up and began to pace. “Why hasn’t Chip called? Kept me in
the loop....”
“Why should he? The last I heard, he was Seaview’s captain, not
you.”
Lee looked at Joe as if he’d been slapped, then, coolly, “I’m
still co-owner. I have a right to know what progress is being made.”
“With the other half of the partnership right there aboard Seaview?
A bit superfluous of you to check, don’t you think?”
“Just get me the damn boat!”
“Chip won’t thank you for checking up on him.”
“I’m not checking up on him! I have valuable information.”
“That, bro, is a matter of sheer conjecture.”
“I’m still calling Seaview,” Lee headed the few steps to the
laptop, “I don’t trust the hotel phone and my cell’s not finished charging.”
“Oh good grief,” Joe said, getting up. “Do whatever you damn well
please. Just remember, thinking too hard spoils the team.”
“Very funny,” Lee said as he sat down in front of the monitor,
“what’s this? McDonald's? They have a McDonald’s here?”
“Yeah, was going to surprise you with an Egg McMuffin this
morning.”
Just then the bedside phone rang. Joe picked it up.
“Yes? The captain?” he answered, and handed the receiver to Lee,
still at the laptop.
“Crane...er..Nelson-Crane.”
Oh, how Jiggs would have tossed that in my face. The very man the
name belonged to got it wrong himself.
“Yeah...we’re still on Mrs. Piccadilly’s Culinary Tour...I
see...yes, we’ll be there. Thanks,” he said and handed the receiver back to Joe
to hang up.
“The front desk said we have a reputation as no shows and wanted
to make sure we’d at the group’s
restaurant seating. Sorry about McDonald’s, Joe. I couldn’t bring myself to
disappoint Mrs. P. again. I could hear her in the background.”
“You all calmed down about Seaview now, then?”
“No. Now where’s that signal to the radio shack....”
Joe removed Lee’s hand from the keyboard. “Give it a rest. Let
Chip be in charge on this one, okay? Either he’s the captain or he isn’t. It’s
as simple as that.”
“I can’t help hearing her cry….”
“Lee, bud, she’s not crying. She’s an inanimate object. She doesn't have a heart or soul.”
“She does to me.”
“Okay, okay. She’s crying. Lee, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist
to know she’s gotten the better of you. Why not just take her back?”
“You can’t know how much I want to, but I can’t take her back.”
“Can’t or won’t. Lee, bro, I wish Chip knew how much you’re giving
up for him. And I wish you could believe how much he doesn’t want command.”
“We’ve been through this...he just doesn’t know he does yet, but
he will. With all his heart. I know he will, and....”
“Just because you think the sun rises and sets aboard Seaview,
doesn’t mean everyone else does and...”
Whatever he added was lost as Joe turned off the machine. No doubt
he was giving Lee an earful as they got ready to join the group for breakfast.
“Sharkey, issue heat sensors to the inspection teams as soon as they begin
today,” Chip ordered via the intercom.
“You got a lead, sir?”
“A big one. Straight from the skipper.”
“Yes sir!” Sharkey replied, a smile in his voice.
“I wonder if the Commodore has a gym or something we can all bunk
in while we fumigate,” Chip said to himself.
“We’re not sure about the rats yet, Chip. One step at a time, Lad.
We may not need to go to all that trouble.”
“No, but how come something tells me we will.”
It’s been a few hours and the inspection teams are using the heat
sensors in the attempt to find any stowaways.
Maybe we should get a ship’s cat.
