9th Wave (prose style)

[lionhart@netlink.cts.com (Jackie Zucconi)]

        My little creation after the Ninth Wave came out, I figured I'd 
finally "print" it somewhere. Hope you all like it and perhaps it could 
start some discussion about that nice Kate piece.
 
        Keep calm, panicking won't help. Look around, can I see anyone? Just 
ice, ice and water...Think, how do I get OUT of this! Light! no, I don't 
have any flares on me. My flashlight, where is it? It's not with me? An ice 
flow, I can swim to it. It's easier to seee me in motion than just bobbing. 
Damn, wish I had that light. Ma sent it to me for my birthday.She always 
sent me useful things, like my radio. She didn't want me to be out of touvch 
with the world. Radio news, one of the most stupid things a person can hear. 
        God I'm freezing! I have to stop, let me rest. I'll start up again 
if I hear engines. They have to send search planes. I'm sure Capt'n radioed 
an SOS. He was like a shepard, always taking care of his flock. A very 
religious man he was. Back home our pastor was our shepard. I remember the 
field of poppies just beyond the churchyard. I loved lying there on summer 
days looking back at the gravestones. It felt like I was on a cloud in 
heaven. I always pictured heaven all white, like the lake papa and I skated 
on. Papa said it was dancing on the water without really touching it. That 
was the only musical rhythm I loved. Pushing with the right foot then roll 
out. Pushing with the left foot then roll out. Like some of the good jigs 
the rhythm would get faster as I skated on. Shiny new skates. I raced to the 
lake to try them. Before papa got there I was already out on the ice. He 
caught me just in time, the ice was too thin that year to really skate. I 
sank up to my waist in the cold water.
        Oh this so cold water! Where am I? Am I under it? No, no, no, relax. 
I'm still floating...I'm being dragged under! I can't relax; I have to be 
alert to survive, keep my head up. School mornings I drifted from sleep to 
being awake. Every few minutes I would jostle awake and then sink back 
again. I was always late to history class. Witch hunts were my favorite.
In Scotland they "waked" witches with mouth prongs. Eyes open! No prongs 
here to keep me up!
        What was that? It brushed me, real close, too close. I couldn't 
tell, it looked black,, gliding through the water like a bird. Ma warned me 
about the sea. Every letter she said I should come home, but I loved chasing 
them, seeing those blood red roses. Now I'm going down, just like them, and 
just like those witches. But I'm a good Christian, why must I sink to the 
bottom of the sea? Blades? Did I hear chopper blades? No, I must have 
started dreaming. I'll go down a bold fisherman.
        "Twinkie doodle-um, 'twas a highly interesting song he sung...." Ma 
sang me that song. Her grandpa sang it to her. Home. Papa's pipe always 
leaning against the clock on the mantle. Funny, why are they crying? It's 
like I'm not there anymore....I'M HERE! They're not listening to me, but 
they heard something. Ma's family always told stories of sidhes. Maybe ther 
heard a sidhe? My brothers always said they heard a sidhe the night I fell 
through the ice. Saw her too! Old hag, traced a line in her palm, suppose to 
be our lives.
        Ma said she had lines from our lives. I wonder if I'll have lines 
? What will I look like in the future? What will I do, still be whaling? I 
can't if I drown out here. God don't let the sidhe take me! I want my life! 
I want to dance the jigs again, play with my sons and daughters, it's too 
early to say good-bye. Oh, the things I could do, places to go! I could put 
this past. I could go to school, be the first in my family to really make 
something. I could see things I never....Hello?
        The water broke over there. No, it danced. It looked like it was 
racing the waves, skipping over them like hurdles but it was too small and 
distant to really tell. Like the man in the moon. I remember watching on 
television, that American who landed on the moon. I wonder if he would play 
hide and seek with the Earth? That's what I would do and drive the little 
car around. Let the other astronauts sleep while I sped them around the 
moon. Glance back towards Earth. I see bright lights, streaks of them, like 
rockets. Missiles! From America and towards America. I'm safely on the moon. 
GET OUTTA THERE! Why are they staying? They're like the ones on the ship, 
they didn't want to jump into the ocean. They stayed there and drowned.
        I'm trying to explain what happened. The gales, water coming over 
the sides. When the storm started I went to the bridge, I tried anyway, 
that's when the shouting started. We were sinking everyone was running 
around looking for a way to survive. I ended up in the water, very tired. 
I'm tired now, I just want to sleep. To sleep, think of home and when we 
pull into dock....
        Light again, like my flashlight is in my eyes, coming through them 
even if they're closed. There's the shore, way off but I'll be home soon. 
How could I have left my home? My family that I love, why did I leave them? 
When my feet touch...I'm never going out to see again.

--                    
 lionhart@netlink.cts.com (Jackie Zucconi)  
NetLink Online Communications * Public Access in San Diego, CA (619) 435-6181