Arthur and the Wind

Steady steam from the boat’s engines blew along the sea winds, its plume almost as black as the near starless sky. In fact, everything past the massive ship was dark. The ocean and sky lines blurred together, making it seem like an endless world of dark. It gave Arthur a sense of fear along with the slight shiver of excitement for adventure that was pretty uncalled for someone chilling on a cruise ship.

Still, near everyone was on the forward of the ship, enjoying a party or movie or some other activity, and it let Arthur relax in the Aft top deck. There were only a trickle of people coming up to this part of the deck here and there and so Arthur spent most of his lone time on the end recliner with a book tossed by his feet- a bit too young adult for his tastes but it’s the only one he brought- and a coffee that was almost too quickly cooling from the high winds. Unwilling to go back to the room yet, he’d tried a myriad of things to keep his attention. He even tried meditating a little until his back became too stiff and he had to move. He’d tried star gazing for a while but there was disappointingly little starlight in the sky. This far onto the ocean, he’d been hoping for a sea of stars.

The strong winds blew his hair around wildly and wrapped around him like a comforting blanket. He’d always enjoyed the wind. Since young he dreamed of flying; had always wondered how it would feel with the cloud between his toes and the stars almost in his reach. It might have stemmed from growing up traveling, though he can’t tell you for sure. Just that his favorite memories were always pressing his face against the reinforced windows of the airplane for hours on end, watching the sky and imagining that he wasn’t in a metal contraption and instead soaring on his own.

Now, at 25, he still thinks of the sky and the winds and of flying, though maturity has subdued his dreams. He absently reaches for the coffee mug and takes a gulp of the sugar and cream saturated liquid. It’s ice cold now but he pays no mind to it. To him, it still tastes the same, really.

Arthur sits cross legged on the recliner and stares ahead at the pitch blackness past the deck railings. He’s tempted to get up and peer over the edge, just to see if he can see anything at all, but the knot of anxiety curling in his stomach stops him from doing so. He’d promised his dad and himself that he would enjoy the vacation without his mental illnesses ruining it all but the sea? Scary. He tries not to think too much on it, though and focuses on the sky instead.

His legs are cramping and the need to pee is making him twitchy so he downs the last of the coffee and grabs his book before getting up and heading toward the nearest bathroom. His walk is slow and footsteps heavy from the stiffness of his legs. Arthur admits silently that maybe he had been sitting for too long- oh geez, three hours according to his watch- and maybe after the bathroom break it’s time for a walk.

The public bathroom stall door of the cruise ship closes heavily with a bang and each time someone leaves a stall, Arthur has to force himself not to startle from the loud noise. He finishes up as quick as he can, washing his hands thoroughly but efficiently before ducking past a few other people entering the bathroom and exiting into the buffet room. He takes five steps into the room before deciding that he wants to walk cross the ship to enjoy the weather and u-turning back toward the deck area.

He climbs back up to the eleventh floor and starts making his way to the Forward when he comes to a dead stop. He’d spent so long looking past the back of the ship that he hadn’t noticed the moon hanging on to the left. It’s beautiful and it takes Arthur’s breath away. Suddenly the pitch black nothingness that seemed to consume everything past the lights of the ship is illuminated in the moon’s glow. The dark ocean glitters a trail towards the horizon and the effect of it calms a lot of Arthur’s nerves.

Walk forgotten for the moment, he stays by the railing and just takes in the sight and wishes that a camera could do it justice so he can keep the sight forever. The moon almost looked like it was moving closer, growing larger and larger and larger until it’s all Arthur could see. He’s sure if he just reaches out, he could press his hand against the surface….

He must have zoned out because a loud whooping from somewhere else on the deck startles him back to reality. For a second, he thinks it’s a scream from someone who fell overboard but the girl’s voice is coupled with some other joyful voices and he relaxes. With his trance of the moon broken, the moon returning to its regular size like it wasn’t just the same size as Earth. Must have been his overactive imagination, then. Shaking his head, Arthur decides to start his way again toward the Forward of the ship.

With each step the wind gets stronger. Arthur’s hair and clothes are blowing this way and that in a frenzy but Arthur relishes in it. It feels good, not too cold but a nice change from the day’s heat that baked his skin red. He climbs to the highest deck possible and finds a comfy spot on the row of recliners to sit at. There’s no one up here other than him and Arthur once again relishes in the quiet as he lies down flat on the cushions of the chair.

Without realizing, Arthur falls asleep there, comforted by the almost blanketed feel of the midnight air. He dreams of sun spotted feathers that spread from the skin of his back and of the wind whispering promises into his ear.

‘We’re friends, Arthur’ the wind says. ‘Come live in the skies with me.’

Arthur thinks he might have answered.

The feathers in his dream turns into clouds and Arthur feels his body rock as he floats through the air and he feels like the kids from the Peter Pan movie he watched all the time as a kid.

“Where are we going?” Arthur asks the winds in his dream.

‘To make you one of us.’ The wind replies.

“One of you?”

‘Yes, One of us.’ This time, the voice of the wind echoes as if a thousand voices answered him. Arthur thinks that sounds swell. He lets the winds carry him away.

It’s a dream anyways, he thinks.

But when he wakes, he’s not on the cruise ship. When he wakes, he still hears the voices of the winds echoing, not through his ears but through his soul. When he wakes, he wakes to his life changed forever.

He wakes to the breeze brushing across his skin, pushing him through the air and into the sky toward the moon.