the stuffiness of the room. Everything felt stiff and recycled, like it had been dug up and buried time and time again. I needed to breathe fresh air—I needed to get out.
Of course Charlie didn’t have a clock anywhere, and I neglected to charge the laptop, so I didn’t have any sense of what time it was. However, by the sounds of silence in the hall, I guessed it was still night. I traded my soiled tank top for my clean t-shirt and put on the denim jacket Charlie had left behind. I wondered if he did it on purpose, but tried not to put too much thought into it. I decided I would only go out for a minute—just one minute, sixty seconds, then retreat to the safety of the cabin. I knelt in front of the plastic crate and looked around for something to cover my face. In the second drawer it was easy enough to find a couple of ball caps. I picked the cleanest one I could find, which seemed to be one that was never worn.
I unlocked the door and cautiously looked both ways before taking the route to the deck that Charlie had showed me the day before. The fluorescent lighting hurt my eyes at first, but I kept my head down and propped the collar of the jacket up to keep my face covered. While it was obvious I wasn’t a member of the crew, I hoped I could at least blend in a little bit should the situation call for it.
I kept my pace steady as I made it through the final stairwell to the deck. I could smell the salt of the ocean and limestone being unloaded nearby. Taking a moment to breathe it in, I never imagined I could feel so happy from such a simple combination. My pleasure was easily broken up, however, as I leaned against the deck entry door and heard laughter and the voices of people I didn’t recognize speaking something I didn’t understand. I can’t say that it didn’t scare the hell out of me—I unexpectedly couldn’t breathe. I was being a complete idiot. Did they have brigs like they did in those old war movies? Would anyone understand me when I tried to explain I was here against my will? I tried to think of the Chinese equivalent for taken or stolen and translated the verb, but my head wouldn’t work properly.
With the voices coming closer, I pushed myself onto the deck. Although it was still dark, thin tufts of pink were floating on the horizon, pushing their way upward. I must not have slept long…I felt the chill of the sea and the night instantly. It was both wonderful and overwhelming at the same time. I took a few steps forward and saw a door latch marked Safety Equipment in English and maybe ten other languages, marked like so many other doors with stenciled numbers and penciled lines. Inside I found an oil-stained life vest that I put on, if for nothing else than it would add to my disguise.
I couldn’t see anyone around me, although on the other side of the deck I could see welding sparks and hear more voices. When the wind blew I could smell some kind of chemicals in the air that made me gag. I closed my arms around myself and took a few steps forward. I didn’t want to be too far away from the door in case someone spotted me and I needed to make a quick getaway. But the closer I got to the sea, the more I wanted to see the morning waves. The pink in the sky gave way to shades of yellow and orange, each lovely in their own respect. They took out the dark of the night and those pearly stars like they were made of nothing.
My family had never been big beach-goers, but when we had gone, I was the one crazy for the water. Even now I watched the miniature waves collide with the side of the boat. It fascinated me that they would still be here, millions of years from now, long after we were gone and this misadventure was through. I sighed and rubbed my temples. Where would I be when all of this was said and done? Where would Charlie be?
I dismissed the image from my head, but it kept popping in there, reappearing when I least wanted it to. It was his fault I