The Phantom Storyteller of the Ship Destiny's Dreams

Below the clipper ship's deck, deep in the darkness of the steerage, Ana turned up the flame on the wick of her lantern.

Light shined through the blue etched glass. In the indigo glow, Ana felt the ancient stories begin to awaken within her.

Characters seemed to waver and dance in the shadows. Patterns flickered on the walls from the light of the blue lantern. The ship's passengers gathered there turned toward Ana and the source of the blue light.

A girl named Liliana and her younger brother called Juan crawled closer to see Ana and her blue lantern. Juan's eyes were wide and frightened every time the ship slammed into another big wave.

The Destiny's Dreams tossed and pitched. Liliana and Juan felt the blue glow from the lantern was comforting.

Ana sensed a stirring inside and instinctively knew a story was rising like a bubble from the depths of her mind.

Soon it would float to the surface and Ana would share it with listeners, speaking it in the ancient oral tradition.

She was blessed with a voice that was soft but with resonant tones.

Up on the deck, the crew of the Destiny's Dreams struggled in the stormy seas of Cape Horn, the southern tip of South America.

“I hear that mast groaning like it is telling us something,” said one of the deckhands.

“Do you think it could give way and fall?” The other sailor’s face was wet from the seas.

“If it does, get out of the way.”

“How many ships are in the bottom of the ocean here?”

“Stop it. Don’t talk that way.”

On the deck of the sleek clipper ship Destiny’s Dreams in 1898, sailors were soaking wet in the windy gales and tall waves of the treacherous Cape Horn at the tip of South America.

The day was gray, with a cloudy sky, and the air was cold.

Not far away they saw a shoreline of jagged, rocky cliffs. In the other direction, farther out to sea, were several stony, bare, saw-toothed island shores.

“It is like threading a needle to get through this passage.” Captain Alfonse spoke to his navigator.

If they ran into the coast or the islands, the ship would be dashed to pieces.

There was nowhere to put into a sheltered bay. The coast was desolate and without villages or ports. They were on their own to survive.

Captain Alfonse vowed not to let his ship wind up wrecked on the rocky coast.

The Destiny's Dreams needed to reach a small port near Lima, Peru, on the west coast of South America. Captain Alfonse's wife and children waited for him there.

An image of them at their little white stucco cottage, with its red tiled roof, flashed through Alfonse's mind. Home and his family beckoned to him. He could not wait to see them again.

Now the sails were trimmed tight on the Destiny's Dreams. The ship was tacking upwind in a zig-zag pattern, almost sailing straight into the wind, called beating upwind. The downwind side of the deck’s railing was buried in the waves.

The wind carried water from the tops of the waves up into the air.

“See how high that spindrift is flying, Adelberto?"

Captain Alfonse respected the ocean’s power, sometimes fearing it, although he hid his feelings. But he also admired the beauty of it. His home was on the sea. 

Even now, Alfonse wanted to sail clear around the world, through the stormiest seas as well as the peaceful waters.

“Adelberto.” Captain Alfonse Belanger’s voice carried over the shrieking of the wind.

“We need to check the main mast. I don’t like the sounds it is making.”

“Let’s reduce the pressure on the main spar before it snaps in the wind.” Adelberto studied the tight, square sails.

“Alright. You’ll need to climb up the rigging. Drop some of the sails and furl them around the booms.”

The captain’s voice rose and the wind whistled through the halyards holding the sails up.

Another gust hit and the wind sounded like wild animals howling.

Alfonse’s long beard was tucked into the high collar of his dark coat. His bushy hair was held down by a knit cap. Everyone on the deck was wet and cold. Salty water dripped down their faces.

Adelberto got ready to scramble up the thick, woven ropes that created ladders upward toward the square-rigged sails of the clipper ship.

Right before he started, the main mast gave a louder moan than before. There was a long whine from the wood, as it seemed to cry out. A split appeared in the tall wooden spar that held up the sails.

The other smaller two masts and their sails held. But the top of the main mast broke off. It fell onto the wheelhouse and the deck. The square, white canvases of its sails came down with it.

The Destiny’s Dreams slowed to a crawl. The ship made a sound like a groan of her own.

The leeward side of the ship, away from the wind, came back up out of the water. The ship stopped leaning.

A huge wave whacked the ship from one side of the bow.

“Tighten the other sails. We’ll keep going with what we have left on the other two masts.”

Captain Alfonse's voice bellowed out, deep and loud.

The Destiny’s Dreams kept pulling forward. She fought her way against the waves. The remaining sails strained, but their shorter, stout masts held strong. 

When it fell, the loud crash of the main mast was part of the booming symphony of wind screeching and waves pounding the wooden ship.

The passengers below the deck felt the ship shake and heard the sounds. But they thought it was part of the storm.

Deep down in the bottom of the ship, the passengers sat shivering and shaking. They watched the woman with her blue lantern, sitting in the center of the group. She was by herself.

“Hello. I’m Ana.”

She introduced herself with a friendly nod. as if they were cruising quietly on a pleasant day.

 Her face had a look of serenity. This attracted the panicking passengers and they clustered around her.

No one had noticed her boarding the ship, yet here she was now.

She was alone and traveling that way was unusual. But she did not seem upset about it.

She was holding the old lantern that glowed with a blue light.

The blue light from it had a calming effect, like watching gentle blue seas on a summer day.

“Mama. Mama.” A small child was crying.

Ana listened to the group.

“Here.” They heard Ana's flute like voice pierce the air. “Gather round. Get closer.”

Ana opened her arms, and waved her hands. The passengers felt as if a welcoming connection was made.

“We’ll be alright. Come and hear this.” With hopeful faces, they came closer.

Ana paused. She heard the voices of her ancient ancestors, like muses sending her inspiration.

She could almost hear her grandmother’s voice next to her whispering into her ear. It seemed to say “The Secrets of Natia.”

Yes. Ana remembered that story well.

“On an island thousands of miles away, there was a little girl named Natia. She was nine years old and she loved to explore."

"Sometimes her curiosity got her into trouble. But she always survived and came out of things fine. Her name meant treasure or secret.”

“One morning Natia and her family got onto a wide raft with goods to trade. They began to paddle across quiet seas to a distant island. Somehow they lost sight of them. By noon they did not know where they were.”

Ana’s voice had a melodic quality.

“Everywhere she looked, Natia saw blue. The ocean. The sky. A blue world. It was peaceful and serene. The raft made of logs lashed together rose and fell with the waves.”

Ana turned the flame up on the blue lantern so it flashed and then turned it back down.

“At last an island came into view. The raft floated closer. On the beach they saw something moving.”

A child’s voice rose, “wild monkeys!”

Another young voice called out, “giant turtles.”

Then another, “lizards.”

The panic and the storm seemed to be forgotten.

Ana listened again for her grandmother’s whispers. She imagined her grandmother sitting in the ship next to her.

Everyone became quiet. Waiting.

“What happened next?” A small voice came through the darkness.

“Natia’s raft got closer to the beach. Sounds from something in the forest behind the beach floated through the air.” 

Ana’s memories of the old stories flowed through her. The tales were not written in books or on parchments anywhere.

Ana's grandmother had not known how to read or write. Like her grandmother, Ana knew how to tell tales using the spoken word and she could not read or write either.

“Listen closely, my dear, and let these stories come to rest in the depths of your mind.” She could hear her grandmother’s voice as if it was yesterday.

While they listened to Ana, Liliana and the other passengers felt their pounding hearts slowing and their bodies relaxing.

“Something or someone in the forest was singing.”

From the back of the group came a voice. “Parrots.”

Another voice offered, “Shipwrecked sailors.”

Then another spoke, “With treasures.”

“It is like a cave down here.” Liliana whispered to her brother, Juan.

 They felt the ship leaning over on its side and they held onto the hull’s structures and swayed with it.

Several people lost their grasp and slid across the bottom of the ship.

The blue light from the lantern bobbed around and shadows bounced. Someone groaned. A small child whimpered.

Ana’s voice was calm. There was a slow cadence to it and the tone was low.

Then she turned the flame way up for a moment on the wick so the lantern grew brighter.

Everyone looked around at their blue faces.

Liliana looked at Ana and saw a youthful, tan face with shining dark eyes, attractive with an elusive magnetic expression.

“She’s very young. Our age.”

Ana turned the flame on the lantern wick back down again.

On the deck Adelberto and the deckhands looked upward. The next wave seemed to touch the sky. Shouts erupted.

“Hang on.”

“Look out.”

“Grab this.”

Captain Alfonse gripped the ship’s wheel and spun it to meet the wave.

Sheets of water exploded over the deck.

Down below, the group sitting in the blue light of the lantern, tumbled against each other across the bottom of the ship.

Ana held tightly onto the ribs of the hull, holding the lantern.

“Blue lantern,” she thought, “Please bring me muses with stories.”

Once again Ana turned up the flame on the wick again and the light brightened.

“Look at Ana.” Liliana’s voice was urgent and Juan looked up.

“She’s glowing like the lantern.” His whisper came to Liliana’s ear.

Up on the deck the waves began to seem to be less angry.

“Soon we will be past the worst of it.” Captain Alfonse encouraged the crew.

Below in the steerage Ana’s voice caressed the ears of the travelers huddled together.

On the deck, Captain Alfonse bowed under another strong gust of wind. The ship leaned over on its side.

"Would you check on the passengers down in steerage?" Alfonse's voice carried over the wind and Edelberto nodded. Downstairs in the steerage he saw the group sitting around Ana with her lantern. He listened for a moment.

Ana spoke to the listeners, “Natia and her brother began paddling the raft toward the island. The creatures on the beach ran into the trees."

"When they got close, Natia could not control her curiosity. She jumped off the raft and began swimming into shore. On the raft they called out to her. But she was too headstrong and impulsive to stop.”

Adelberto felt a sense of peace coming from the group gathered around the blue lantern.

He waved to them and left. 

“Captain,” Adelberto hollered on the deck, “they’re fine.”

He came closer to Alfonse.

“That storyteller named Ana has everyone in steerage caught in a spell. Her lantern with the blue light is almost magical.”

Captain Alfonse made a puzzled face.

“Ana?” He thought. “I don’t remember a passenger named that. I must have missed her. I haven’t seen any blue lanterns either.” 

Alfonse looked at Adelberto and Raul. Then he shrugged.

"Maybe she is a phantom storyteller of the seas. I have heard of those before."

Adelberto and Raul looked closely at Captain Alfonse.

“The storm seems to be calming down now.” Alfonse sounded like his usual self.

Adelberto felt his chest relax and he took a deep breath.

In the dark bottom of the ship’s hull the group sat entranced with Ana’s story.

Liliana nudged her brother. “The ship is not pitching as much. We must be coming out of the Cape Horn storms.”

The group was lounging in a relaxed way by now. Ana turned down the flames in the wick of the blue lantern.

Later, Adelberto went down to the steerage.

“The worst of the gale force winds and tall waves are past. You can come up on the deck now.” The passengers smiled at his announcement. 

Liliana and her brother stood and joined the others streaming through the door.

Soon the whole group was gulping in the fresh sea air that was so different from the stuffy, airless steerage in the bottom of the ship.

“Where is Ana?” Liliana looked around. “Does anyone see her?”

The children and adults spread out over the ship’s deck but they did not find any sightings of Ana.

“I checked the hold. There is no one there. And there is no blue lantern there either.”

Raul passed the news to Captain Alfonse.

Then he saw Alfonse go into his trance like face, looking across the ocean. Raul knew no one would ever know what passed through the captain’s mind when he did this. 

Alfonse not surprised when unexplained things happened. He had a theory about Ana.

"The storyteller with her blue lantern seems to have vanished." Adelberto looked at the captain. "Like a phantom."

Alfonse smiled at Adelberto. Then he spoke.

“There are many tales of such phantoms appearing on the ships when they are needed. The seas are full of the unknown. I am sure Ana is fine, wherever she is now.”

Adelberto and Raul tilted their heads and raised their eyebrows at Alfonse.

They left the storm behind and ahead there was a soothing blue sky blending into the sea on the horizon. Wisps of mist made designs in the sky over the ocean.

It reminded Adelberto of the glow from the lantern with the blue light.

A light breeze blew through the rigging with a sound like a flute or a musical voice.

The Destiny’s Dreams glided forward quietly over the water under the brightening sky.

Adelberto thought for a moment he heard a melodious voice whispering, but he knew it was only the wind. 

Then the door below the wheelhouse that led down to the steerage opened and a woman's figure emerged.

Passengers clustered around her.

When they parted Captain Alfonse saw Ana holding her blue lantern.

"So the phantom storyteller is real after all." Alfonse spoke to Adelberto.

That night after the evening meal, the crew and passengers gathered on the deck under the stars and crescent moon. The ocean stretched out with gentle swells.

In the tranquil night they sat in the indigo glow of the blue lantern. Ana continued the tale of Natia traveling thousands of miles across the sea on a raft made of logs.

Only Ana could see the old woman sitting next to her, whispering stories into her ear. Grandmother was the real phantom storyteller.