My Journal

 By Harriman Nelson

16.  Trance

I wasn’t able to sleep last night and I have a whopper of a headache this morning. Lack of sleep and  the stress of this whole mess between Lee and his mother has made me miserable. It’s all my fault. God knows I’ve tried to get him to renounce the name of Nelson. That would solve the problem in one fell swoop, but he’s pretty bull headed about keeping it. Part of me is so damn proud of him for retaining it, the other part of me knows he shouldn’t have to!

I was glad to observe the Control Room from the ‘front porch’. The usual noises of Seaview herself and her crew attending to business helped to distract me a little.

“Sonar’s not picking up anything,” Ski told his XO for the umpteenth time.

“Nothing out of the ordinary here either, sir,” Patterson reported from his own console.

“Except for those ghosts still bugging the skipper,” Riley added.

“I’m getting a bit sick and tired of all this ghost business, Riley,” Morton scolded, “now cease and desist, sailor.”

“But all those cold drafts he’s been getting. It’s a sure sign they’re here, whoever they are. Targeting him and…”

“Riley” Lee interrupted, but not ungently, from his stance by the aft hatch, having overheard, “you heard Commander Morton’s order.”

“Aye sir,” the crewman said, shaking his head, dejected, certain of his facts. It hadn’t helped that Lee had pulled his sweater tighter around him.

“Thanks,” Lee told Chip as he approached and accepted the clipboard.

“Oh, I didn’t do it for you. He just won’t quit talking about it. You, er…would tell me though, wouldn’t you, if you had an um…visitation?”

“Don’t be silly. Of course I would. Seaview’s had enough trouble from ghosts and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night.”

“Skipper?” O’Brien called out, “that new weather satellite’s reporting some atmospheric anomalies.”

“What kind? What do they profile like?”

“Well, if I didn’t know any better I’d say sunspots. Like the states got in some areas last month. Only, well, there’re no reports of sunspots by NOAA.”

“Then it’s probably not sunspots, NOAA is always right on top of things,” Lee said, furrowing his brows.

“But,” Chip said, “perhaps so minor they don’t think it worth checking out.”

“Or maybe they’re on a coffee break,” Ski muttered.

“Pipe down, Ski,” Lee ordered gently, “I don’t like things I can’t explain. Periscope depth, XO.Let’s see if we can get any visuals.”

“Up scope!” Morton ordered.

Sharkey had the scope ready for Lee the moment he stepped up onto the island.

“That’s weird,” Lee muttered as he looked into the eyepiece. “Mr. Morton, prepare to surface and then come to a full stop…er, sorry, I meant ‘Commander’.”

“I’ll let it go this time,” Chip said, but not quite as aggrieved as I would have expected. “Prepare to Surface!”

 “So we have the Northern Lights near Bermuda,” I mused, as I watched the flickering display from the viewports and the monitor. It wasn’t quite sunrise yet, so it was easy to see the colors dance in the sky. 

“Columbus reported strange lights on his voyages in these latitudes,” Lee said, leaning against the window, “some crewmen even claimed to have seen them rising from the sea and going up into the sky.”

“Optical illusion,” I said.

“Probably too much grog and rotted food,” Riley said.

“Enough, all of you,” Chip ordered.

“It could have been rotten food,” Lee mused, “God, I hope it’s just an aurora borealis and not aliens again.”

After a few minutes with nothing to indicate any intruder, Lee felt comfortable enough to invite the ladies forward to take a look before sunrise would hide the lights.

I was pleased that all three arrived in minutes, despite varying kinds of attire so early in the morning. At least, I was glad to observe that Edith had managed to change into day clothes, not the robes and slippers that Miss Bates and Mrs. Crane were still in, along with curlers.

After the initial ‘ooh’s and ‘ahh’s’ from the women as they watched, Lee asked if they would like to go topside to get a better look.

I noticed Mrs. Crane lagged behind as Chip escorted Miss Bates and Edith up the ladder.

“Mom?” Lee asked her, “you okay?”

“I’m fine and you know I don’t want you to call me that,” she hissed, barely audible.

“Well,” Lee said quietly, his arms around his middle, “until the dissolution of our relationship is signed, sealed, and delivered, I’m going to continue to call you ‘Mom’. You may have tossed away my key to your heart, but I’ve still got one right here,” he said, patting his chest. “I don’t care if you’ve thrown me away like garbage like my real mother did, whoever she was. I’m still going to love you. Until my dying breath, and beyond. In fact, I think  that even after the paperwork’s completed, I’ll still call you Mom, whether you like it or not. So get used to it. Now, do you want help with the ladder or not?”

“I can climb the ladder without your help, Captain,” she huffed and removed herself from her son’s presence.

Lee said nothing as he returned to the Nose and poured himself a cup of coffee.

“I think perhaps you could use something stronger,” I said, nodding toward the sideboard where I kept the company libations. Not the family label or an especially fine Glen Livet that I kept in my cabin, but ‘Johnny Walker’ would serve as well.

“Might help warm me up, at least,” Lee grinned and poured a little to his brew. “Have some?”

“Might as well. Lee,” I hesitated, “I….”

“Don’t say it,” Lee warned, “don’t even bring it up again. I’m not getting rid of ‘Nelson’.”

“I was going to ask if you’ve visited Doc regarding feeling cold so much.”

“You don’t think we have ghosts, then?” Lee laughed.

“Let’s just say I’m open to a more scientific explanation. Lee?” I asked as he hadn’t responded. In fact he had a glazed look in his eyes. “Lee?” I asked again, concerned.

Suddenly he dropped to his knees.

“Lee? Lee?”

But Lee, very still, made no indication he’d heard me.

“Get the Doc down here!” O’ Brien ordered.

I guess Chip must have heard the Lt. summon Doc through the PA, as he rushed down the ladder, followed by the ladies.

“What’s wrong?” Chip asked as he ran to and knelt by my side at Lee’s.

“I don’t know…could it…could it be a stroke?” I barely managed.

“Ohmygod,” Mrs. Crane said in response to that, as Miss Bates and Edith supported her, making way for Doc and the corpsmen who were panting from their run.

Will was very thorough in his exam, checking Lee’s eyes, heart, blood pressure and blood sugar with one of those pinprick blood tests, all while Lee didn’t move a muscle.

“Normal…everything’s normal,” Will said confused, looking at me as if I might have some kind of explanation.

“Wait!” Chip yelled, “Doc? Look at his eyes!”

Indeed, they were morphing into a kaleidoscope of color, stopping as an iridescent opal.

“The ghosts got him,” I heard Riley say from the Control Room.

“That’s not funny mister,” O’Brien warned.

“I wasn’t being funny, and…”

Suddenly Lee’s eyes returned to normal and he fell forward, groaning. Just as suddenly he took a deep breath, and looked around, looking bewildered that he was on the deck.

As Chip and Doc lent a hand to help him up, he shook them off. “I’m okay…it was just…Harry? She’s here. Sea Nymph, or at least what’s left of her…”

“See?” Riley said, “the ghosts told him.”

“Is that right, son?” I asked, as I put my arm around his shoulder.

“Are they still here?” Chip asked, looking around nervously.

“No, no ghosts,” Lee said, his voice a bit hoarse. “But…she’s here, I know it. And what’s left of the ones that were trapped below.”

“A vision,” Miss Bates said as if to explain things.

“I guess,” Lee said, running a hand through his hair as I let go.

“But we’re nowhere near where the cabin boy said it happened,” O’Brien said. “Even accounting for drift, she shouldn’t be here.”

“It might have been his imagination, or a hallucination,” Edith said. “The mind plays tricks on all of us at times.”

“Good grief Edie,” I scolded. “Just because you took a psychology class doesn’t mean you’re an expert in such matters. I don’t know what happened, but I’ll be dammed if I don’t credit Lee’s story.”

“Come along Skipper,” Doc said. “I’d like to run some tests.”

“For what? I’m not possessed or anything.”

“Just a long overdue checkup then; might even lay the ghost business to rest,” he added nodding toward Riley.

“Very well,” Lee agreed. “I would like to know why I get so cold when no one else does. Chip? I want divers out there. Perhaps they can see what our instruments can’t. Have them use metal detectors. Won’t pick up rotted wood, but it might pick up nails and….chains.”

“Aye Skipper.”

I couldn’t help noticing that Chip hadn’t even winced at Lee’s use of his given name, and that Mrs. Crane almost reached out to touch Lee as he headed aft with Doc. A portent of hope?

I also had to wonder if the anomaly had anything to do with Lee’s ‘trance’.  Daylight hid the aurora  from sight but they were still there.

I didn’t know if Sea Nymph was below us or not, but I’d have been a fool not to investigate. Ghostly or God given, I had no choice but to act on Lee’s vision.

It wasn’t long before the divers reported they were picking up metal.  

God help us, we may be uncovering those entombed souls.