DestinationPart IIIGordy had vanished! How or when had he’d left the damned boat, we didn’t have a clue. Sid and I saw him throughout most of the night. He would be setting at the saloon table, sometimes with a cup of coffee, sometimes just rubbing his hands together like he was trying to wash the dirty gray skin away. Sometimes he’d be lying in the quarter berth. I’d watched him there, curled up like a frightened child. Sometime around daybreak, we Lost him. We couldn’t find him anywhere. He just sort of "Went away", Silently, mysteriously. Sidney had relived me soon after Gordy left the cockpit last night. We had rotated watches about every 3 hours. Although we both we dead tired, the two of us managed ok. But neither of us had slept. We were too scared to. So, there was always someone awake in the cockpit. Gordy couldn’t have slipped by us. All the cabin hatches were tightly dogged down. One of us would have heard something if he’d tried to crawl out. He couldn’t have left the boat without us seeing him go. We did a search of all the spaces where he might have hidden and found nothing. Nothing, except Gordy’s Daily Journal…. We didn’t take time to read it…THEN.....We should have. Now, there's only two of us aboard. What had happened to Gordy? How? Deep inside we didn’t really want to know. It just didn’t make any sense. Well, for that matter, our captain had left the two of us on a boat that was motoring along, On confusing headings, The speed claiming we're at 6 knots SOG, but apparently not moving ... and going nowhere… A lot of things didn’t make sense. "Pawn Pawn, Pawn Pawn, Pawn Pawn, This is the sailing vessel L’Espoir , Position... 42 degrees 50 decimal Zero NORTH...125 degrees, 42 decimal Zero WEST… . We are declaring a possible Man Overboard at this position …… Over " It was time to call for help. The Coast Guard at Newport could surely hear us and come to our aid. Even if we didn’t find Gordy, at least they could tell us where we are. The Coasties would know. But the VHF radio remained silent except for an odd background noise. It sounded like breathing. "Pawn Pawn, Pawn Pawn, Pawn Pawn" .. I repeated the call several times but only that "breathing" sound came out of the speaker. In a past life I’d done some radio engineering but I’d never heard that kind of sound from an FM radio. I’d never heard that sound even on the old noisy AM radio band either. It sounded like the labored breathing old people make just before they die. I HATE that sound. Still no response from the Coast Guard or any nearby vessel. A lot of other folks, on shore, monitor Channel 16. We’re not that far from land that they couldn’t hear our radio. At least I think we’re not far from land. Wait! Did I just say something about AM radio? AM, Of course! Why didn’t I think of it before? The AM broadcast signal can travel a long way at night and some signals can travel distances during daylight hours. Those broadcast signals, with a little "Old Time" radio engineering, can be used to get a rough Bearing. Rough, sure, but at least a general idea of direction. And, with a little luck, we could even identify what city or cities we’re close to. I found a roll of wire and wound it into a loop about 1 foot in diameter. Turning the loop around could act a little like an old RDF system. By rotating a loop there’s a position where the radio signal strength gets weaker. Called the "Null", it points the way to the radio station. I could use it to get a bearing on some station on the coast or inland. I pulled the stereo out of its mount just far enough to get to the antenna input connectors. After hooking up the wires, I turned the radio on. Tuning the dial from one end to the other …I heard nothing. Nothing, but that "breathing" sound again. Wait! What was that sound? Just for a moment I thought I heard music. I held my breath and listened carefully. THERE! It's the faint sound of music. Like a woman’s voice. It WAS a voice! Then, I came the sudden realization that the music wasn’t coming from the radio at all. In my excitement I had forgotten all about Sidney. It was Sidney singing. Not the radio. All that came out of the radio speakers was that same awful "last hours breathing" I’d heard before. Sid’s singing shook me. It sounded "Wrong". I had to find out why. I climbed out of the cabin and up into the cockpit. She wasn’t there! She should have been on watch. She wasn’t. I followed the sound , forward, and saw her.. She was standing at the bow of L’Espoir. Her clothes were gone! She stood there, arms outstretched, singing. Head tilted back, she was swaying from side to side in a kind of dreamy dance. I recognized the tunes she sang…. But the words were all WRONG! The lyrics sounded like a recording played Backwards. Then ...I saw it! The dirty, greasy fog had wrapped around her like a shawl. It had TAKEN her! It had turned her into a Madwoman! There was something in that FOG that destroyed the soul of anyone who touched it ! Gordy had gone into it and vanished. Now it had claimed Sidney. When I first saw Sid out there, naked, and quiet insane, I thought I'd go forward and try to get her back to the cockpit.. back to safety. But, now, I KNEW that any contact with that unknown gray wall of "Decay" would surely catch and destroy me as well. I’d have to stay in the cockpit protected by the dodger and bimini and not risk the open decks I shouted to her to come back to the cockpit. The singing continued. She sang familiar tunes but with words that were Wrong. More than "wrong" they were Lyrics of Madness. Sidney never came back to the safety of the cockpit. She sang and danced for a few more days, out there on the bow. Out there with that ugly haze. Then, with only shallow dying breaths, she was gone. She left L’Espoir. And she left me here alone.. With that soul destroying, ashen fog. It Continues....... |