Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Danger - A Safe Bahamian Novel - Day 25

Danger - A Safe Bahamian Novel - Day 25

(3:14 pm Sunday Nov 25, 2007)

*** A Lonely Room

Hey there gentle reader... well, you are looking at an official NaNoWriMo 2007 winner. Four straight now gentle reader. I feel great, and feel drained.

I want to sleep.

But for your gentle sake, I will try and find another two thousand or more words some where today.

I was reading back in last year's "Sayings - Deterred Bahamian Novel" earlier today and I saw where I was searching for a word factory last year. I thought that perhaps a word wholesaler would have served.

I could use a word factory today, that's for sure.

Or a time factory. Buy a few more hours to tack on at the end of... No! in the middle of the day. Stick them at the end of the day and I may be too tired to use them. It's the little details like that in life that can really mess you up.

You finally get what you ask for but it doesn't do you any real good. Watch out for situations like that gentle reader. They can get you even when you are in your guise as Fearless Reader!

(3:20 pm Sunday Nov 25, 2007)

You know, two thousand words should be a breeze to write. I just did over two hundred right there in about six minutes. If I could keep up that pace, I could do the two thousand in an hour, say an hour and a half to be generous.

Why, then, these four and five hour days. And those are just estimates. It is taking so long, that I don't have the time to go back and figure up more accurate times for each day.

At least you have managed to stick it out with me gentle reader and I really appreciate that. Lots.

It would be even more lonely here in this lonely room if I could not share the experience with you as I write each day.

You know, I don't actually recall ever reading a novel before where the author takes the time to share the actual experience of writing the story with the reader. If you know of any gentle reader, let me know. I would be interested in looking them over.

Well, except for my own poor attempts... And some of those I have written but not read all the way through in one sitting...

(3:25 pm Sunday Nov 25, 2007)

Gotta take a little break here and do some minor housekeeping with respect to yesterday's work. Not editing mind you. What I do is break each scene out of the one big leo node it is in and put each scene in its own node. It makes it easier to go back and look at what went on and continue that thread.

Be back in a bit. Or BBIAB as we say in IRC.

(3:42 pm Sunday Nov 25, 2007)

Back. Well, I ended up having to do one or two other things. Once again, life interrupts art!


*** 38' Cheoy Lee Ketch - Up Around Nun Jack, Abaco

"Look, just don't press me Fred!" shouts Golden Child, "I don't know what to do! There is no way for me to do the right thing now and it is driving me CRAZY! At least I cannot see any way to do the right thing."

Golden Child was in trouble. Between that old rock and hard place.

"If you would just tell me what was going on, I may be able to help you figure out the right thing to do."

"Fred, I am going crazy! Please stop asking me to tell you. I have to and I can't and that is a big part of the problem right now! Please don't ask me again. Let me try to think it out again."

Fred stand up abruptly, angry and confused, "I'm getting out of here! Take your time, I'm going to swim in to the beach and take a walk. I will be back later, or you can come and find me if you sort things out. Later."

He is up the ladder and taking a header into the water before she can even tell him to watch out for that shark. They haven't seen it again since it left that night, but the whole episode had left her a bit spooked.

She heard him stroking strongly for shore and resumed her fretting, confused, thinking.

Why did we have to find this treasure? Something that should be such a joy. Really, why couldn't we have found the treasure and not the map?

She wanted to share everything with Fred, all that she was, all that she had, but she couldn't share this. But she wasn't prepared to let this come between them.

She needed to let her sisters know about and see this new map. It could be the very key to all their efforts for so long. But the very rules of the sisterhood prevented it. Once a sister went outside to live with a man instead of bringing the man in, she was forever forbidden to contact her sisters in any way from that day forward. And they were very strict with those rules.

She had to tell them, and she couldn't tell them.

And she couldn't tell Fred why. More sisterhood rules. A sister could leave and go outside, but she was forbidden to mention or give any details of the sisterhood or her former life. They were very strict with those rules too.

A rock and a hard place.

If she wanted to do the right thing.

(3:58 pm Sunday Nov 25, 2007)

The easy thing would be to just keep the treasure, and to use her memory of the first map along with this new map and for her and Fred to go off and find the new treasure together and live happily ever after. Sure, happily ever after, knowing that it would doom the efforts of her beloved sisters and maybe even bring down the sisterhood for all time. And maybe get her and Fred killed if they ran into their enemies along the way. enemies Fred knew nothing about.

What to do? She was going crazy. She had to come up with some answer soon. Or at least some plan of action. She needed action. Deep in her soul. the thinking was getting her nowhere fast. Perhaps action was the answer! She would go and get Fred and they would take action! Together! And come what may they would stay together. She would not let this tear them apart.

She went up the ladder to the cockpit and slipped out of her cutoff jeans and her t-shirt and was about to dive in headlong and swim for the beach when a blur streaking in the corner of her eye sent a stab of fear into her heart.

She looked but didn't see anything. There was a lot of turtle grass over that way though. That bull could be camouflaged over there just waiting for her to enter his realm.

"Fred!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, "Fred, can you hear me? We need to talk! Can you come back?"

Nothing. Could he have gone that far already? Which way would he have gone? Probably down around the point and into the cove. That was his favourite spot on the island. And she could understand the reason why. It was lovely in that cove.


(4:16 pm Sunday Nov 25, 2007)

"Fred!" should she take the inflatable dingy in? That shark bothered her. He could puncture it if he got aggressive. Or tip her over into the drink. Not something she wanted to contemplate. "Fred! Come back!"


*** Beach On The Far End Of Nun Jack, Abaco

Fred could hear her calling in the distance but her was still a bit too upset to answer. let her come find him if she needed him that bad right now. He still needed to walk off some of his frustration.

(4:29 pm Sunday Nov 25, 2007)

Something in the tone of her voice made him almost turn back but he steeled his resolve and continued on down the beach.

What was that ship still doing out there? Could they be treasure hunters? Nah... Something closer in caught his eye. What was that floating over there? It looked interesting. He decided to swim out and bring it in to see what it was.

(4:44 pm Sunday Nov 25, 2007)


*** A Lonely Room

Well gentle reader, I was going really good there for a decent while, but I feel myself slowing down for some unknown reason. I really need to try and ramp up the speed again.

Where to now gentle reader, where to?


*** A Smack Boat Out Of Spanish Wells, Headed For Nassau

Our three friends are aboard. Rescued! The crew of the smack had been looking for them since the word came to the boats from home. They had spotted the fire last night and picked them up from the beach. They were too weak to really celebrate but they were felling better today.

They are all feeling a little more like humans today though.

They are standing on the bow, leaning on the railing and talking quietly together.

(5:02 pm Sunday Nov 25, 2007)

(5:59 pm Sunday Nov 25, 2007)

"So, what are we gonna do now?"

"Well Jack, when we get back, we're gonna hit the sack, Jack. How's that, Jack?"

"That's whacked mac!"

"Enough of the rhyming you two," says Sarai with a commanding voice "I've lost my yacht, we have almost died, can you stop with the clowning around and let's talk some serious talk here please!"

"OK, OK, Sarai," says Mandy, "well, I am going to get in touch with my people in Washington and see if they can scrounge us up another boat and I think we should head back out and see what we can see. Those jokers are not gonna get away with this. But we really should probably rest up for a day or two before going back out. I am sure this has taken a lot more out of us that we feel right now."

(6:48 pm Sunday Nov 25, 2007)


*** 38' Cheoy Lee Ketch - Up Around Nun Jack, Abaco

After too long, Golden Child decides to risk the dinghy. The bull has not made his presence certain, but she senses he is still out there and thinks she sees hints of his presence out of the corner of her eye every once in a while.

She goes to the stern grabs the painter and pulls the inflatable in close. Carefully she descends the ladder and gingerly steps into the bottom and gets the dinghy settled down and quiet in the water before transferring her full weight off of the ladder and into the boat.

She reaches up and un-cleats the painter and drops it into the bow. Just as she is about to sit down and start up the engine, something hits the bottom hard, almost sending her into the water.

"Ahhhh! Don't you mess with me you nasty fish, I will see you drying in the sun before tomorrow is done if you don't clear off and leave us in peace!"

She manages to get properly seated in the stern and gets the little engine started.

She gases it and heads straight in to the beach.

Straight in to the beach. She doesn't slow down until the last minute when she deftly cuts the throttle, kills the engine and tips it up.

The dinghy runs up on the beach and she is up and out over the bow, grabbing the painter as she passes.

The bull almost runs up on the beach after but manages to turn himself around while making a commotion splashing and twisting in the shallows.

(7:09 pm Sunday Nov 25, 2007)

She runs down to the water's edge and screams in rage and picks up sand and shells and throws them angrily in the direction of the shark. "I am not joking with you, you malevolent guppy! I will gut you and hang you out to dry if you don't cut it out.

She goes back to the dinghy and pulls it further out of the water and stakes and our in the sand and ties the painter to it. Then she heads off down the beach in the direction of the cove to the west.

She sees the bull following along about seven yards off shore.

"I am warning you! Are you hard of hearing or what?"

She picks up speed, breaking into a slow trot.

The shark keeps pace.

When she comes around the point, she sees Fred out in the water trying to being some floating to shore and the bull takes off like a bullet in his direction.

"FRED!" she yells, "Get out of the water! The bull is back! get out."

He looks in her direction and waves.

"Shark! get out!"

"What?"

She waves her arms in a motion that she hopes he understand means to get out of the water. "Get out of the water! SHARK!"

He must have heard something, "Shark?" he starts making his way to the shore.

"The BULL!" she yells as she sees his dorsal fin come out of the water much too close to Fred.

(7:27 pm Sunday Nov 25, 2007)

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