Journey into the Deep

by Guy S. Stanton III

  We started screaming and then abruptly stopped as we were slammed hard into the deck of the ship as the Celestia’s Prize connected with something roughly. It felt like we were in a fast river of some kind.

  I wiped at the windows again as Jim managed to grab a hold of the wheel and steady its course. The ride was smoother, but we were moving unbelievably fast.

  The window was partially clear of condensation and both Jim and I were able to see that we were on a fast-moving current of water headed downward at a sharp angle. Up ahead of us the current of water culminated in a big kick up of sea spray where the waters of the above world were connecting with the waters of the interior.

  A lot of things were trying to fight their way through within my mind. Such as the reality that this hidden inner world really did exist, but those thoughts were put on the back burner of my consciousness as the kicked up white-water ahead of us got closer and closer.

  I left the window to brace against the wheel with Jim. We hit the white-water hard and both of us were thrown from the wheel. I somersaulted through the air to land with a smack against the wall and for a brief moment I was able to open my eyes, but something drove me under and I blacked out against my will.

  Chapter Six

  The Storm

  I blinked a couple of times and then I reached up to feel at my very sore head. Someone had wrapped a bandage around it and the smell of dried blood was heavy in my nostrils.

  I was still in the wheelhouse, but no one else appeared to be. Alarm at that helped drive me painfully up to my feet.

  I clutched onto the wall for a moment as I’d risen too quickly and the world was spinning. I suppose it was still spinning wasn’t it? Or did the world above spin upon this inner world?

  It occurred to me that I didn’t know as I didn’t know much about any of what was happening. I didn’t know from where all this light was coming from for instance.

  I stumbled out of the wheelhouse holding onto the railing as I went. Looking up I had my answer as to the source of the light and yet I didn’t.

  I could see where the light came from now, but I couldn’t explain how it was being generated. We were upon a sea and above us was a vast dome like ceiling of clouds. How high up I couldn’t say, but it was high.

  The top of the dome like enclosure was a mass of shifting clouds that strikingly resembled the Aurora Borealis or northern lights of the northern hemisphere. Instead of the blues and greens though the colors shifted from yellow to orange and then red.

  The light given off wasn’t as bright as the sun, but it more than lit up the place with a hazy twilight glow. I would never have believed that such a place as this was possible, but seeing is believing.

  I could only guess as to the makeup of the clouds overhead and the curious reactions taking place causing them to give off the shifting colors that they were. Perhaps gases interacting with the heat of the magma above, who knew, but what I did know was that we weren’t in the dark without light. I was grateful beyond words for that, even as I was pressed for words to describe the shifting beauty of the clouds overhead.

  The others had all been gathered outside and I walked up among them as they all stood staring upward.

  “Beautiful isn’t it?” Matt said, as I came to a stop beside him.

  The sea around us had a hushed awe to it as if the calm before a storm. I didn’t care for that sensation, but ignoring it for the moment I nodded in response to Matt.

  He tore his gaze away from the mesmerizing clouds overhead to me, “How’s that head?” He asked.

  “It hurts!” I said in response.

  He patted me on the back, “You’ll be fine. You always have been such a healthy animal.”

  He was silent for a moment before saying, “Thank you for bringing me along Eli. This right here is worth seeing.”

  “Don’t thank me just yet Matt.” I said grimly, as I followed where Serena pointed to something behind us on the horizon.

  Serena called out in concern, “I think a storm is coming!”

  Everyone else turned and gazed at where she pointed. In the distance the orange clouds had turned gray and then a blue electric beam of light streaked out through the clouds branching out like the outstretched many fingered arms of a tree, until the whole horizon was lit up by one fragmented bolt of electric sizzle, whose endless repercussions echoed loudly out across the water at us.

  It was the most indescribably beautiful lightning event I’d ever seen in all my years at sea and it was also the most horrifying. I wanted no part of such a storm that lit up the entire horizon with just one lightning bolt. The percussions of thunder that rolled across the waves at us sounded like World War III had just begun.

  “Ortega get our engines started up so we can make a run for it!” I called out.

  Ortega scurried off quickly followed by Flynn. Heavy wind hit us in the face all of a sudden and it soon became clear that we were in for a hard time of it all over again. I hadn’t recovered from falling through the Earth yet to suffer through a new ordeal of this magnitude, but that was the fickle way of the sea.

  I had never seen a storm move so fast as this one did. We were underway as the Celestia’s Prize gave all she had to keep us running ahead of the storm, but she wasn’t fast enough. The storm overtook us and a new horror revealed itself in the clashing waves that rose up vertically all around us.

  I did my best to steer through the troughs and then the sudden rises, but how could you handle the ferocity of a storm that had cyclones touching down everywhere?

  Funneled cyclones of swirling power radiated down out of the clouds to plunge into the sea and stirred it up to an even greater ferocity. I’d never seen anything like it and I lost the faith to believe that I could survive through it.

  Lightning streaks plunged all around us through the shifting maze of twisting cyclones and vicious waves. I came down into a trough and almost immediately a wave three times the height of the Celestia’s Prize rose up on the starboard side.

  There was nothing I could do as the wave spilled over and came down on the boat with deadening force. The Celestia’s Prize under the overwhelming force of the water hitting it amidships heeled over and dipped into the water off the port side until it was on the verge of capsizing.

  I hung onto the wheel as my feet left the ground and every window was busted out of the wheelhouse. The room filled with seawater and I held my breath underwater as slowly like a drunken sailor the Celestia’s Prize righted itself.

  I blinked and sputtered, as I tried to focus on the path through the swells up ahead of us as the water drained out from the wheelhouse. Why wasn’t Jim helping me?

  I could barely hold the wheel against the force of the waves on the slippery floor of the wheelhouse. I glanced around blinking my eyes trying to clear them of the burning sea spray being blown in through the shattered windows at me.

  Everyone was gone!

  I glanced the other way and saw Big Jim and Matt by the port side doorway. The door had been blown away by the force of the water.

  Jim had one hand gripped onto the corner of the door frame, while Matt further inside the wheelhouse held onto him desperately with both hands. Jim’s other arm was stretched out and I saw that he gripped one of Christina’s ankles.

  My horrified eyes traveled along out across Christina’s stretched out form to where she held on to Serena’s hands, who was suspended in mid air well out over the edge of the ship as a cyclone waterspout tugged at her. How Jim was holding onto them I could not fathom!

  There was nothing I could do but watch. I couldn’t let go of the wheel or we’d all be in the water.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Christina’s fingernails were drawing blood as she held onto her Aunt with everything she had. Her leg felt like it was about to be ripped off at the hip and the hard grip on her ankle was agony itself, but she wasn’t letting go. Serena was all she had.

  No one had told her about her mother’s condi
tion, but they hadn’t had to. It had been plainly obvious that her mother didn’t have long to live. Serena truly was all that she had now.

  Nothing could be heard over the roar of the wind of the storm that raged all around, but Christina saw Serena’s lips move and she read their meaning, “Let go.”

  Christina’s scream of “No!” was lost in the wind.

  Serena’s lips moved again, “I love you. Everything is going to be all right.”

  Serena twisted her wrists free, as she let go of Christina and it was too much for Christina to overcome as the wind ripped Serena away and into the whirlwind and out of view. Christina was abruptly hauled inward by Big Jim and Matt.

  She was completely inconsolable with grief and Matt pulled her into a corner holding her tightly as he rocked her like he would’ve done for one of his own children, if he’d ever had any.

  My heart was bleeding as I gripped the wheel. Christina’s wails of loss behind me pierced through me with awful force, but the worst was the sight of the big Samoan crumpled over on his knees by the broken door sobbing his heart out.

  I don’t think Serena had ever noticed the secret attraction the big man had shyly kept to himself for her, but I had noticed it. I had hoped he’d get the courage built up to tell her how he felt for her, but he’d remained quiet locked up in reserved shyness and now it was too late.

  The big man’s even bigger heart was breaking and I felt his pain even as I had myself once and still did.

  “Jim?” I called out to him.

  He looked over at me his eyes reflecting the raw misery that he felt. I gestured for him to come to me.

  Slowly he got up and came to me. I took his hand and put it on the wheel and met his eyes and let him see the commiserating emotion I had for him.

  “It helps to stay busy.”

  He nodded and grabbed a hold of the wheel with his other hand, which was bloody from where he had been holding onto the doorframe. I stepped away and let him have the wheel as I moved back to help Matt with Christina.

  Just as brutally quick as the storm had come upon us claiming the life of one of my friends it departed from us and the water was calm once more as the clouds began to glow brightly overhead again. It was as if the storm had never been, but my battered ship and wrecked heart of the girl sobbing against Matt’s chest were living testimony to the savagery of the storm that had left its mark forever.

  Where was God in this horrible life occurrence? Why did such a thing have to happen?

  Had God tricked me into making this trip into the deep?

  Was He really planning a harsh destruction of me and what little I had left in repayment for my harsh words and rebellious heart of the past seven years? Was the death of my friend my punishment?

  I could almost believe the negatives to all of my questions if it weren’t for one thing that I knew beyond a doubt. God loved me and knowing that wrote in the corresponding answers and opened up my understanding.

  The offenses and tribulations that come in the course of a person’s life are not God’s fault. Mankind made a choice to rebel from perfection over six thousand years before with a bite out of the fruit of a tree that was forbidden to eat from.

  The reproach of sin and all the suffering caused was mankind’s fault and not God’s, but God’s love showed through in that He hadn’t just left us to perish in our sin. He had made a way through the sacrificial slaying of His perfect Son in order to make a way for us to once again enter into harmony and experience the perfection of what was lost in the Garden of Eden.

  God didn’t need to do that, but He had and it testified of His great love for mankind in doing so. Serena’s faith had been a sure thing as evidenced by how she had defined her life in her belief in her Savior. Instead of her life just being over without hope of more she was even now experiencing eternity in the loving rest prepared for her by God in a body eternal that no storm could ever tear apart.

  As bad as the loss of her was to those of us still living, God had just gained another soul for all of eternity. To accept such an insight meant to accept the same in regards to my own wife and the lives of my two daughters taken from me before the age of accountability.

  I knew where my daughters were. Even knowing that it still hurt, but it was better than no hope. It was good to know that they weren’t hurting.

  That’s what was most important, but it was still hard on those of us left to pick up the pieces and go on living. As people made in the image of God we were fashioned to need relationship and the loss of it was awful, but instead of embracing the negatives in this moment I was making the conscious choice to fall deeper into my relationship with God rather than curse Him and die alone without hope.

  By my best calculations the storm had driven us off in a different directional heading than the one that we’d had when we first arrived to this inner world. I literally had no way of finding my way in this foreign place.

  There was no sun or stars to navigate by. I did my best to sail straight hoping that we would find land and a way of navigating about in this strange land beneath the land above.

  We soon figured out that time was a hard thing to measure. The overhead canopy stayed the same brightness level all the time. I sailed on having faith that something would occur to help me accomplish whatever purpose it was that I and my crew had been sent to this inner world for.

  Chapter Seven

  Strength of the Sea

  I ambled up the gangway from my cabin, Bible in hand. The Celestia’s Prize had taken a beating, but the damage was largely cosmetic. She still ran well and hadn’t sprung any major leaks. It hurt though to see the paint scraped off her and her railing and salvage equipment all mangled up.

  My abilities to mount a salvage operation were next to nothing, because of how much of my equipment had either been washed overboard or was damaged beyond repair. I had gotten the impression though that our purpose here wasn’t for salvaging Confederate gold off of the seafloor.

  I stepped up to the railing beside Christina. She had been silent for two days now. When she wasn’t sleeping she was here at this spot where her Aunt had been ripped away from her.

  She glanced at me from her bruised eyes and then at the Bible in my hand. She stared at it for a moment before looking back out to sea.

  I wasn’t going to preach at her, but I was going to extend an invitation to her. I extended the Bible out to her, “Would you like to learn more about what you’re Aunt believed in and perhaps find some hope and closure for yourself as well?”

  She stared at the sea a moment longer before nodding her head as I saw her start to cry again. I pulled her to me and held her for a long moment.

  I set her back a little from me and said, “Christina I wish I could take your pain away, but I can’t. There is One who can though. I encourage you to build a relationship with God and let Him heal and comfort you. Don’t be like me and run away from the answer for years on end piling up bitterness.”

  I left her then confident that she would pursue faith for herself. Even in death Serena was an individual worth being like and I could see that determination in Christina’s eyes. I prayed for her the rest of the day hoping that in the moment of loss that she would get it right where I hadn’t. It had been a mistake that had cost me seven years of my life.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Christina sat down with her back against the forward cabin. She looked at the Bible in her hands, which she hadn’t opened yet. A shadow fell across her, but she knew who it was without looking up. It was Big Jim.

  He found her two or three times a day always to do the same thing. The big man got down to his knees and tenderly took her shoe off and pushed her pants leg up to reveal the ugly swollen bruise that encompassed her ankle and lower calf muscle.

  Tenderly after dipping some kind of ointment out of a can he began to massage it into her bruised skin as he pushed the fluid away from the swollen area in order to promote healing and prevent the formatio
n of blood clots.

  He glanced up briefly at the Bible in her hands and surprisingly commented out loud, “You should read that.”

  Christina didn’t say anything for a moment, but then asked off topic, “You loved her?”

  Jim looked up and nodded before letting his head drop back down.

  “Can I talk? I need to talk! I have no one to talk to now.” Christina said, as the ever present tears came back up to the surface.

  Jim glanced back up and gazing deeply into her eyes he said, “I will listen.”

  It was like the opening of a set of floodgates as Christina spoke all that was on her mind of the insecurities that she had as a teenage girl with nowhere to go in the world and no place to call home.

  Jim listened to all of it attentively. He massaged her other foot just to have something to do in order to give her the time to unburden herself. Finally she came to an end as her pent up burden of words emptied her of anything else needing to be said.

  Sorrowfully she commented, “I don’t think we’re ever getting out of this place. It wouldn’t matter anyway, as I don’t have anyone back there waiting for me now.” Christina hugged herself tightly the Bible laying forgotten on her lap.

  Jim looked up from putting both of her shoes back on and said, “I will take care of you. I will protect you and care for you as if you were my own daughter.”

  Jim moved to sit back against the bulkhead beside Christina. He then looped an arm around Christina and pulled her to lean against him. Christina relaxed against the strength of the man beside her in complete trust as she gave the man holding her the part of her heart a girl gives her father, until the day comes when the right man asks to have what the father has safeguarded.

  Jim reached out with his free hand and opened the Bible up. He leafed through until he found the book of Psalms, “I always liked this one.” He said before he began to read out loud.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Matt stepped up beside me as I stood in the wheelhouse manning the wheel. He glanced out the broken window and smiled a little at the sight of Christina fast asleep against Jim’s side further up the ship.

  “Nice to see something positive come out of all this.” He said softly.

  I nodded in affirmation.

  It was a touching scene that I’d watch unfold for hours. The big man hadn’t been quiet this time. He’d read to Christina for hours flipping back and forth throughout the Bible, while engaging her in conversation with answers to the questions I saw her ask, until she’d fallen asleep an hour ago.