The Watermanby Adrienne Ray © 2006
Technical advisor: Joe Boulter
He lay there on his back staring at the crystal blue sky.
That cruel, heartless crystal blue sky.
He had been on his back for two days or more. Lying on a portion of the boat. The hull. Floating out there in the endless, endless water.
Several days ago he had been a man named Gabe Hinley. He didn't know what he was now. Maybe he was dead. He couldn't remember the last time he had moved. If he wasn't dead, then he was dying. That was okay. At least he was doing something.
Gabe Hinley had been a happy fellow. He had been a waterman, as were most of the young men in Wachapreague, Virginia. Accomac County's "Little City by the Sea."
Gabe had never wanted to be anything else. He was, like most of his neighbors, of mixed descent: mostly Caucasian with a touch of some lost Indian tribe. Blue eyes peered out from a native American bone structure. Sandy brown hair completely hid his lost heritage. All he knew was he was a waterman; his father was a waterman; and any ancestor he was aware of had made their living on a boat.
Gabe had been a waterman on a sixty foot trawler, The Half Moon. It had not been a very big vessel but it was big enough to employ his best friend, Carl Watkins, along with two others, Frankie Prettyman, and Earl Hopkins. Captain Jenkins had been a friend of Gabe's father and a decent enough boss.
That was before The Half Moon had exploded, probably due to a gas leak in the galley. The explosion sent Captain Jenkins flailing through the air to points unknown. Gabe had seen Carl sink like a rock. Some watermen do not care to learn how to swim, feeling it is more merciful to drown quickly than to do what Gabe was now doing. Waiting for the sea to take him. One minute Carl was there, a look of horror on his face, the next minute he was gone. Before Gabe even realized he was in serious trouble. Several days ago, Gabe had struggled to stay afloat. He had even tried to find Carl and Captain Jenkins. Back then, he thought he was going to live. He even entertained the idea that someone would say he was quite brave for saving the other men.
But then Frankie and Earl floated by and Gabe knew people really did die. They were the first dead people Gabe had seen outside of a funeral home. After he saw them, he climbed up on the shattered hull - just to rest. Then he gave up looking for Carl and Captain Jenkins. After that, he just gave up altogether. He lay there on his back staring up at the sky. Waiting for whatever was going to happen.
A seagull landed on top of him. It walked all over him like he was a piece of drift wood. Gabe supposed he was just a piece of driftwood. Just some kind of garbage floating on the water.
Maybe Frank and Earl were thinking thoughts like that when he saw them float by. Earl had a section of the motor lodged in his forehead- Gabe thought it was the valve cover. Gabe didn't have anything sticking out of him. That was good. A long, long time ago, when Gabe was alive, he had watched a horror movie where there was this close up of a dead body and a bird was picking at it. Gabe had thought that was really, really cool. Now, it didn't seem so cool to know that, if he didn't move soon, the bird would eat him.
Gabe tried to make himself move but he was too afraid. He was afraid if he tried to move he would discover that he couldn't. He would discover that he was really dead. So he lay there as the bird nested on his chest. Something gurgled beneath the water. If Gabe was able to move, he might have thought it was a fish. But he wasn't moving so it didn't matter. The bird didn't like it. As the gurgling grew more agitated, the bird flew away. The gurgling became splashing and a mass of seaweed burst onto the surface. No. It wasn't a mass of seaweed. It was a head with tangled hair that looked like seaweed. The head was attached to some shapely shoulders. She looked like a beautiful woman except she was green with iridescent skin. Except her shapely hips blended into a fish tail. Except she was a mermaid.
She plopped herself down next to Gabe and said, "Hello there, Gabe. Happy?"
Gabe lay there afraid to move. He didn't know if he was speaking or just thinking the words. Whatever he was doing, he said, "Happy? What are you, nuts? It's like I'm
dead or something!"
She rubbed his arm affectionately and said, "Why don't you come with me? I can make you happy."
"I dunno...." Gabe muttered. He was beginning to miss the seagull.
"Your friends are there," She coaxed. "Frank and Earl. Carl and Captain Jenkins too."
"Where?" Gabe asked. He felt like he was in a dream. "Where did they go?"
"They're at the bottom of the ocean. It's wonderful there."
"The ocean?" Gabe smiled. "I was hopin' we might have drifted back into the bay..."
"Come with me, Gabe. All your friends are there," she pleaded. "They're all laughing and eating and drinking..."
"Drinking?" Gabe said, at last interested. "What are they drinking?"
"They're eating steak and drinking wine."
Gabe laughed.
"You're a liar," he said. "I was willing to go along with the mermaid thing but there's no way those guys are anywhere drinking wine and laughing. They'd rather take a bullet than drink a wine cooler. Ha!!"
She thought a bit and then she said, "Beer. They're eating steamed crabs and drinking beer."
"Too late. Just shut up and look pretty. If I'm going to die, I might as well have a floor show."
She grinned and he wished she hadn't. She revealed a row of jagged teeth. Razor sharp. Would she bite? Was she going to eat him? Where was that seagull? Somewhere far away he heard someone faintly calling his name. She did too. She crouched down on the hull as if she didn't want to be seen.
Gabe could see a small skiff with an old man at the helm. The old man peered anxiously across the waters.
"Gabe Hinley!! Where are you?"
"Here..." Gabe whispered. He was too weak to speak up.
"Gabe Hinley! Where are you?"
"Here!!!" Gabe's voice cracked. He couldn't make himself heard. The mermaid laughed scornfully.
The old man sailed away. Gabe thought of all the stories he'd heard of people lost at sea. Almost all of them had stories of floating right past the search ships without being noticed.
"Guess they don't care enough about you to really look for you," the mermaid said. She was starting to smell bad. Like rotting fish.
"You shut up!" Gabe said. "That was Mr. Fisher. I've known him all my life. He won't stop looking for me."
"They don't care about you," the mermaid said.
"None of them do. Everybody that ever gave a rat's behind about you died on the Half Moon."
"If they're dead, then they're not drinking and eating anything, are they?"
The mermaid bit her lower lip and looked annoyed.
"Yeah, I thought so," Gabe said. "Don't mess with me, you're just a figment of my imagination. Stupid hallucination!!"
He returned to the job of staring at the cloudless sky. He thought if he did not look at her, she would disappear. But she didn't.
She crept over to him and straddled his motionless body. "Perhaps you're right," she said. "Perhaps they will keep looking for you and maybe they will even find you. So I better do what I have to do before they get here."
She moved closer to his face. At first he thought she was going to kiss him. Her breath was putrid. But she did not kiss him. It seemed she was intent upon sucking his breath
out of him.
He struggled but he was not strong enough to fight her. In his confusion, he said, "You wouldn't do this if my mother were here.""Where?!" she screamed. She jumped up and frantically looked around. Frightened, she dived back into the water.
Several minutes passed before her head popped up again. Only her forehead and eyes were visible.
Gabe laughed and laughed.
"You're a piece of work," he gasped. "The great big scary monster. What are you scared of? My mom?"
She reluctantly climbed back on the hull. Gabe giggled like a ninth grade school girl.
"So now what? Should I be scared of you or just feel sorry for you? Uh oh! Look out!! I might get a little fluffy bunny after you next!"
"I can be anything you want me to be-"
"Can you be the Coast Guard?"
"Do you think this is funny?"
"Do you think you could do something about that odor? I mean, you smell like the bottom of a fishing boat. I may be an ignorant waterman but I still got standards. If you want to seduce me, you need to be more concerned about your personal hygiene."
"I will not be denied!" she shrieked. The wind picked up. The waves swept across the raft threatening to wash Gabe into the sea. The mermaid grew larger, darker. The
hull began to pitch and roll.
"You think this is funny? You aren't afraid of me?! I will teach you fear!!" she roared. "I will-"
"Look!! Look!!" Gabe cried, sitting up. He pointed to something swimming toward them. "It's Susie Bartlett's dog!"
Susie was a girl Gabe sometimes dated. Her dog, a lab mix, climbed onto the raft.
"The dog must have swum from the harbor." Gabe said. "We can't be far from shore!!"
He pushed the mermaid off the raft. The dog barked happily and climbed aboard. Gabe hugged the dog. Finally, for the first time since the explosion, he fell asleep. Somewhere in a deep sleep he heard the sound of a helicopter. A voice told him it was going to be all right. Another voice said he was a very lucky man. It was a very good sleep. Gabe didn't want to open his eyes. He felt cool and comfortable. When he opened his eyes, he knew he would be back on the water and seeing evil things.
At long last, he could not keep his eyes closed any longer. Reluctantly, he opened his eyes. He stared up at the ceiling tiles. Those God awful, wonderful, wonderful tiles.
"Where- where am I?" Gabe croaked.
"You're in the hospital," his mother's voice told him. It was hard to focus. But, with effort, he recognized his mother's face.
He must have been unconscious for a long time because his mother looked like she'd aged ten years. Her eyes were puffy. She'd been crying. Gabe struggled to sit up. His skin was badly sunburned but the mermaid was gone. Susie Bartlett was also in the room.
Mrs. Hinley stroked his forehead. That hurt his skin but it was okay. Everything was okay. It was better than the open sea.
"I saw Mr. Fisher looking for me in his skiff, but I was too weak to call out to him," Gabe muttered.
Mr. Fisher wasn't out there, honey," Mrs. Hinley said gently. "You know he has a broken hip."
"Oh," Gabe whispered. "He must have been praying for me or something, because I saw him out there..."
"We were all praying for you," Mrs. Hinley said.
"I know you were," Gabe smiled. "She was afraid of you. She was trying to get me but she was afraid you would get her."
He became aware of someone holding his hand. It was difficult to focus but he finally determined that it was Susie.
"But you must have been praying hardest of all," he said, meaning Susie. "Because when your dog jumped on the raft, I had the strength to push her butt into the water."
"What are you talking about?" Susie asked. "I don't even own a dog."
"Well, it was something that was a part of you," Gabe rambled. "Something you sent to protect me."
"He's delirious," Mrs. Hinley told the young girl. "Give him some time."
***
The moon rose high in the sky.
They were swimming as fast as they could but it was still after them. It looked like a beautiful woman but it was deadly. Frankie, Earl, Carl and the Captain could not find
any place to rest. All they could see was water.
The Half Moon sailed toward them through the darkness. A figure stood on the bow.
Gabe Hinley.
"Get in the boat," Gabe told them.
"You can't help us," Cap said. "We are already dead and you are just dreaming."
"Just get in the boat," Gabe said.
They climbed aboard. The Half Moon looked like it had before it ever exploded. Gabe handed Carl a pair of binoculars.
"There's a fellow coming for you in a ship," Gabe said. "You want to follow him."
"I know what you're telling me," Carl said. "but we don't even know him. He's a carpenter. He's not one of us."
"What's wrong with you?" Gabe said. "Didn't you ever go to church? Everyone knows Jesus is a waterman."
"Yeah, and the miners in Pennsylvania say Jesus is a miner."
"I don't know what the miner's say but I'm here to tell you, go with Him. He is one of us," Gabe said. A ship appeared on the horizon. A trawler like the Half Moon. Only bigger-a hundred footer-with a newer motor. A better paint job. As it got closer, the captain hailed
them. The Carpenter.
"Follow Him." Gabe said. "You know me and I know Him. What? You don't trust me?"
The men hesitated.
"Then trust in the power of prayer," Gabe said. "It kept me safe in the ocean and I believe it will save you even after death."
Carl looked over at the other boat. A first mate came on deck and waved. "It's....my Dad!! It's my old man!!!" Carl cried.
Cap waved to his old friend, long dead but none the worse for wear. Carl's father seemed quite chummy with the captain.
"I think the captain might be a carpenter...you know, during the off season. But you can see He is a waterman," Cap told the boys. Then Cap said to Gabe, "You can go back now. You have to wake up and go on with your life." Gabe nodded.
"Hey," Carl said, "whatever happened to that girl you were dating? Susie something?"
"I'm going to marry Susie."
"Yeah, I figured," Carl said. Then he added, "Be happy, Gabe. We'll be all right."
Gabe woke up. He didn't remember the dream. Then again, he really didn't remember much from his time out at sea. When the sea almost claimed him. What he did remember was something that changed his life. Something everyone else in Wachapreague already knew:
Jesus is a waterman.