on the pipe and then a bit of coughing. Through the crack the pipe and lighter appeared; I took my turn and sent the pipe back through the crack. A repeat of before: lighter ignites; the pulled in breath; then coughing; then it was my turn again. The process continued until we had completely dusted the bowl.
“More?” I asked.
“I’m good. Thank you.” Came the same voice.
I went back to pay more attention to my scotch. While I was sipping and enjoying my high I cleaned up the location again – tucking things back into the little cooler.
I couldn’t believe that it had gotten dark already. Yeah, it was suddenly dark. I heard a loud click, like a dead bolt. I merely thought that my neighbor had left his balcony and turned the lock on his sliding glass door.
“What the…” my neighbor’s voice again. No he hadn’t left the balcony. So, what was that loud click?
You can imagine, I’m stoned and trying to figure out this great mystery, when suddenly I’m standing in the dark, the darkest of dark. The blackness was so complete it was as though the world had turned off all of the lights everywhere including the stars.
It’s odd that I didn’t panic. I closed my eyes because I could no longer use them to see.
Using my one hand and all my other senses as eyes, I felt my way to the sliding glass door and pulled on it to get in. It didn’t budge. It was locked. I pulled on it a few times feeling confused, no the door was definitely locked. Oh, that was the loud click that I’d heard.
About then panic was available to me but I was too stoned to think of freaking out. Confused, I just sank down into the chair closest to the door on my neighbor’s side. I still had my drink in my hand so I continued to enjoy the scotch and its burn in the darkness while I figured out what was happening. ‘Where the hell did I put that lighter’? My eyes worked best for my sense of sight and I needed a little bit of light to help my eyes see.
OK, now I’m stoned and in the dark and I’m asking myself questions I’m pretty sure I couldn’t answer. Another sip of the Glenfiddich, burn, and then burn again. ‘Where did I put that lighter’?
At first I didn’t realize that it was raining but the rain became more and more insistent, until it was pouring down on me like a torrent. The rain was cold and stinging. I was under the cover of the balcony above me but the rain came at me anyway like I was the target.
As a giant flash of lightning bolted across the sky I saw the narrow door that separated my balcony from my neighbor’s open slightly.
Right then, I was glad that my sister wasn’t there for she would be scared shitless!
A scary scenario went through my head that my sister would think of as fast as the lightning had flashed: ‘You just shared your bowl with a pot-smoking killer and now he’s taking advantage of the darkness to do his dirty deeds.’
“Hi, I’m Helen. Who are you?” The words came out sounding like they were someone else’s voice, a little too high pitched. I stood up and took a couple of steps away from pure survival instinct.
Another flash of lightning helped me see someone there, now on my side of the balcony. “Hello?” I tried again, still not hearing my true voice.
“What the..?” That same voice and I recognized that the stranger was trying to open the sliding door to my stateroom.
“It’s locked.” I volunteered. I got my true voice back and felt pretty good about it.
“I don’t know what all this means but I’m glad to offer you a drink of my scotch if you’d like.”
I reached the glass out into the darkness in the direction of the stranger’s voice but just at that moment a wind, a forceful wind took the glass out of my hand and sent me whirling and flying into the sliding glass door with a very loud thud.
Unfortunately for the “same voice” person, he was flung into the window as well. We hit with such force that both of us were sitting on the floor of the balcony at the base of the window. Actually I assumed we were both sitting, I couldn’t see a thing.
“Well, this is different.” I said, mostly to myself and I laughed. I couldn’t help it. I felt the crash into the window – the window didn’t break and I was hoping that I didn’t either. Plus, I was getting an instant replay in my head of something that I couldn’t see in the first place. You know the visual. It was funny.
Next to me, I could feel the arm of the stranger-voice-neighbor bearing down on me.
“Just a minute,” I said, as I could feel his weight pushing me down onto the deck.
“Come on, you’re heavy. Move over.”
I encouraged in a voice that was kind of whiney yet sisterly.
No response. Oh, my god!
“Are you ok? Hold on, hold on, and let me get you.”
I twisted my body around and grabbed what should have been his shoulder with my left hand which gave me enough wriggle room to worm my way out from under him. I gently lowered him to the deck and blocked the rain from getting to his face.
“Damn it, where did I put that lighter?”
I lost my fabulous high and had to do some deep breathing to gain control of myself.
Putting my hands on his head I explored for any damage. In the very middle of the back of his head was a large bump that felt as though it were still swelling. ‘I’ll get some ice from the cooler for that’, I thought. But I didn’t stop exploring his body: down his neck to his shoulders and arms; down his front torso (ok, yes this felt a bit unnecessary because he hit the window and possibly the metal jam from behind, but you never know) feeling for any open wounds and bleeding or any protrusions; skipping the groin (wouldn’t you, at first?) I explored down each of his hips and thighs; reaching under him to access his backside; continuing down the inside of each of his legs and back again to explore the outside of his legs. I felt something in his pocket that would prove interesting. I took the liberty to reach my hand into his pocket and retrieved my lighter. ‘He’s probably a nice guy but he was also a lighter thief’, I thought.
Unable to get the lighter to ignite I slipped it into my pocket and moved on my knees to the cooler for some ice. I made an ice pack using a sandwich baggy wrapped in my beach towel. ‘Oh yeah, that’s me - Nurse MacGyver’.
As an after thought, I put my head on his chest to hear his heart beat. It hadn’t occurred to me that he might be dead until that moment. My CPR instructor would instantly recall my certification. The rain was still loud and I had to cup my hand over my other ear so that I could hear his heart beat. Absolute joy surged through me when I caught the sound of his beating heart. Thank you God, I get to keep my certificate.
Placing a barricade of lounge chairs between us and the falling rain took some doing in the dark but offered some relief and I was grateful for it. I sat there, huddled up with his head on my lap; it give him warmth and it gave me some in return. For what seemed like a very long time, I held the ice compress to the back of his head. I had my hand over his chest to feel his heart and to offer him more comfort and warmth.
As I sat there I thought about what it meant that there were no lights on the ship. Ok I got a bit worried that other ships wouldn’t see us in the darkness and plow into us. I thought of aliens and the darkness. I thought about the Bermuda Triangle; maybe the Pacific had its equivalent.
I heard something in the distance and focused to make it clear.
“I’m going to ride forever. You can’t keep horsemen in a cage… should the angels call.”
The CD player was still going. Remarkably, I found myself singing along. Weirdness.
When the CD player stopped, I sat there cradling the voice, stranger, neighbor in my lap. Gently stroking his temple and forehead and arms with my finger tips, I realized how very comforting it was to have that other live body