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The first bite seemed to take moments that felt like minutes to develop on the tongue. Sweet, followed by strawberry with a hint of raspberry on the nose. It’s tartness coming to me almost instantly after the strawberry hit me. The icing was melting almost immediately upon my first chew. It was Sven’s birthday and I hadn’t seen him in years since our last get together, a funeral down in Key West. I could still taste the briny air and feel the wind on my hot, salty skin. Shrimp was cooking on the grill. Not too long I said, I hate it when it gets chewy. A little extra lemon please. She placed the chilled glass on the sail boat coaster next to me, condensation sweating off the glass in cool drops on my arm as she passed it across my body.
The ring of the bell tower over my shoulder startled me out of my fog. The mist parting in front of me. The breeze here was not crisp and cool like it was that night on the keys. It was stifling. It felt like I was inside the heart of a beating furnace. I yawn as the day gets to me. Fishing is not for the light hearted weak soul, especially if you don’t have your sea legs. Luckily my steadiness from which I draw my breaths help the assimilation to the sea manifest itself whenever I stand on the deck of a boat. I itch from the bite on my ankle. Slight sting. Intense itch. I can’t scratch it through my shoe and it’s driving me insane. My eyes burn with concentration as I try to reach the swollen raised bump under my sock. Every time I itch, it makes it worse. The moment the bridge was flooded by the saline spray of the Indian Ocean, I could tell things were going sideways.
My eyes stung like pickle juice had been flung into my eyes. I'm thinking too much and just need to write down in my log what's happened and where we are going, what we are doing, what I'm seeing, hearing. I taste the ocean on my lips as the boat rocks suddenly to the starboard side. My ankle gives way in a crack as I slip on the smooth floor of the cabin that's been my home for the last 3 months. I reach down to grab my ankle and suddenly the boat calms. Nothing's moving. Am I dreaming? I see a star over my left shoulder, its light blinding my eyes, leaving a glowing halo on my retinas that I can't look past. The orbs block my view of everything in front of me. Panic sets the hairs on my arms and neck to stand. Cling. Cling. Cling. It rings in my eyes as the water drains off my face, along with the blood in my veins. Smoke ringlets dance in front of me as the orbs start to dissipate. Clang. Clang. Clang. It rings again. Closer. More resonant. I hear footsteps on the cold grating above me, but my vision is still blurry. Consciousness leaves like an exorcism in reverse. Contorted and breathing heavily. I inhale the salty dew and go into a violent coughing fit. I'm not going to make it. Cling. Cling. Cling again. Wavering back and forth as the sinking vessel lists. I don't know where I am, but I see the sunlight and I see her face. I can keep my eyes open for only a few seconds longer. Cling. Clang. A rush of wind and light pours over me and I'm out in the sunlight before my eyes can adjust. |
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