Kathy was rewarding herself with the vacation of a life time. 50. She made it to 50. And it was time to celebrate. Her best friend had talked her into going on a singles cruise. It didn’t have to be a singles cruise but she had always wanted to take one. So away she went. Nerves in tow. This trip would help her overcome her debilitating claustrophobia.
Everything was going along well. Calm water. Blue sky’s. Valium just incase. And social mixers galore. She almost felt like a wallflower. The more the alcohol flowed; the wilder the party got. The more she backed away. Day 2 into the cruise left her thinking, ‘maybe this was a mistake’.
She walked up to a balcony. Being a country girl, she had seen her share of stars. These stars were different. Brighter. Closer than they had ever seemed. Maybe, she could reach up and touch one? Pluck it out of the sky and hold it in her hand. She pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders. The air was getting colder. It wasn’t so cold that it would chase her inside. The stars had her captivated. Mindlessly, she caressed the cross hanging from her neck. God’s stars in God’s sky.
This was something else. She had never seen this much water in her whole life. If you could take all the drops of water from the rain, creeks, lakes, and rivers, they would never amount to the volume of water all around her. God’s water.
Though it looked black, she daydreamed about all the animals that lived under there. At one point in her life, she had played with the idea of being a marine biologist. How amazing it would be to hire a submarine and watch them in their world.
Kathy was violently thrown from her bed. Waking just before she hit the floor. When she stepped into the hall, she was swept up in the mass of screaming bodies. Pushed up to an upper deck. Crammed into a life vest, before being physically thrown on a life boat.
“Damn!” A man sitting beside her hissed under his breath as the huge ship groaned, as it rolled in the water. The screams had long since died down. The cold was setting in. The people in the small life boat started to huddle together to stay warm. Many of them in nothing but their p.j.s.
“How many of us do you think made it?” A small feminine voice asked.
“We haven’t made it yet.” A husky masculine voice growled.
Cold silence filled the space once again.
Kathy touched her neck to stroke her cross. Shock overtook her. She didn’t have her necklace on. Then she remembered, she never slept in her jewelry. A wave of sadness overtook her. That necklace had been a gift. A gift from a fellow Christian friend. In a lot of cases it was her worry stone. She would rub it as a silent prayer to God. How was she going to be able to tell her friend she lost this gift? This would devastate her friend. It was such a precious gift. Panic rippled through her. The night closed in. She had to get off this boat! Now! She had to get off now!
Kathy woke in a dark, cold environment. “Next.” She heard from somewhere. Before being pulled back to sleep.
“Hey, hey,” a small voice shook her. “Wake up lady.”
“Leave me the fuck alone.” Kathy instantly regretted using that word.
The shocked lady that she was abrasive toward, held up her hands as she backed away.
Sleep took her again, she woke in that dark cold environment. “Dear God, would someone please bring me someone interesting.” A voice rang out in the dark. “I’m so sick of studying claustrophobics. Bring me someone with a better phobia to do these experiments on!”
*I finally got to write to my own prompt. 🤣
Poetry & More 