Unknown Forces

Dad was a pain in the ass, but he was a financial genius. He invested early and heavily in Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Tesla, and Intel. He made an incredible amount of money. Then he became an investment adviser. People paid him outrageous amounts of money to tell them they were idiots and how they screwed up their last investments. He bragged all the time about how stupid they were. The upshot was that he had one hell of an ego.

It was his Forty-Seventh birthday. He bought two hundred tickets for a cruise around the Caribbean on a ship called the Friendly Dolphin. He invited only his closest friends and family. Mom made me come. The last thing I wanted was to be a witness to Dad’s self-glorification.

I had managed to get a bottle of high dollar whiskey. I found a secluded spot on the deck. No one could see me in the shadows as I drank swigs of the brown liquor from the bottle. I watched as people would come out on to the deck, smoke a cigarette, then go back into the ship. None saw me.

Kevin was a boot lick. He always agreed with everything Dad said. I was surprised to see him by himself at the rail of the Ship. He took out an E-Cigarette and took a deep drag.

He said to nobody, “I’m going to get that asshole if it is the last thing I do.”

He took another deep drag off the electronic device and looked to the stars. I went back to drinking my bottle.

Next thing I know, he is in the water screaming, “Help! Help! I was pushed. Help! Help me!”

One of the crew shouted, “Man overboard, Port side.”

The ship took a hard turn to throw the screws away from the port side where Kevin floundered in the water. Several crew men brought out spotlights and raced to see what they could do to keep the man in sight. I was spotted.

A big ape of a crewman walked up to me and said, “What the hell happened here?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “He was standing by the rail. I looked away to take a drink. Next thing I know he’s in the water screaming.”

The crew man said, “He is screaming someone pushed him,” he said, “Did you push him?”

“Oh, hell no,” I said, “Why would I want to do that?”

“For the fun of it,” he said.

“You are sick bastard,” I said, “I shoved no one overboard.”

He said, “Get up and come with me.”

“Kiss my ass! I’m not going anywhere with you.”

The crewman reached down, grabbed the bottle, and threw it overboard. Then he grabbed me by the arm and walked me to the bridge while I protested as I said, “Let me go you asshole.”

The Captain was watching from the port bridgewing as a boat was launched to get Kevin.

The crewman said, “Excuse me sir, this one was on the deck drinking in the shadows.”

The Captain looked me over and said, “How old are you son?”

I said, “I’m seventeen, and I’m not your son.”

“What happen,” he said?

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Look son, you better come clean and tell me what happened,” he said.

I frowned and said, “You must be calling me Sun because you think I’m so bright.”

The Captain said, “Confine him to his cabin until I know more about what happened.”

The crewman said, “Yes Sir!”

He grabbed my arm and I said, “You can’t do that. I have rights. Let go of me you ape.”

“We are not in America,” The Captain said, “We are at Sea, and I am the ultimate authority on this ship. You are not very bright are you, son. Fact is, I have seen brighter colors than you. Get him the hell off my Bridge.”

I was locked in my cabin. When Mom found out, she threw a fit, but I stayed locked in the cabin for over three hours. I was told later by Neil, a family friend, that after Mom’s continuous complaints, the Captain released me.

Dad did nothing and said, “I am sick and tired of his constant shenanigans. The young man best straighten up and fly right! I’m not going to bail the asshole out of problems of his own making.”

When the same big ape of a crewman released me from lock down, he said, “We’re watching you, problem child. Step out of line and we will blackball you, throw you off the ship, and you will never be able to get a ticket on any cruise ship or airplane ever again. Then you’ll find out that money can’t buy you everything, punk.”

Oh, was I mad. I wanted to go home, but I was stuck on this stupid ship at Sea. I swore to God, I would never let myself be put into this position again. Everywhere I went, one of the crew seemed to be watching me. I could not escape the constant scrutiny. I got an iced tea and sat in a common area. I was checking the stats of some of my stories on the vocal.media webpage, when I became aware that a female crew member was reporting on me to someone on their phone. I got up and went into the men’s room to see if she’d follow me. I sat in a stall and continued to check my stories stats and how much money I made. After fifteen minutes when I came out, she was gone. Moreover, I managed to get back to my cabin without seeing a crewman.

When I got in the stateroom, I opened the portal in the cabin and let in the fresh sea air. I took a deep cleansing breath of the sea breeze trying to clear the bull shit from my mind. I sat down and did some writing on a story I called the Tin Man. This story asked the question, could a computer A. I. program believe in God? I worked on it well into the evening.

About an hour after sunset, through the open portal, I heard someone on the main deck shout, “Man overboard, Port side.”

The ship took a hard turn to port. Suddenly, there was a banging on the door of my stateroom.

“Are you in there, punk?”

I opened the door and the ape of a crewman burst into the stateroom, grabbed me, my computer, and said, “The Captain wants to talk to you, punk.”

I called him every name in the book as he forced me to the Bridge.

“Here he is Sir.”

The Captain glared at me and said, “Where have you been for the last hour, son?”

I said, “I was working on a story in my stateroom.”

The Captain said, “Who can vouch for you?”

I said, “No one. I was alone.”

The Captain said, “Why did you ditch the people that were watching you this afternoon?”

“I didn’t like them following me.”

“Now ain’t that just dandy,” the Captain said.

One of the crewmen came up and saluted the Captain, “She’s dead, Sir. She could not swim in the flowing material of her dress, and she drown.”

The Captain frowned and said, “Anybody see anything?”

“No Sir. Here is his computer.”

“What is the password, son,” the Captain said?

“Eat shit!” I said, “I’m not giving you anything!”

He gave my computer to the ape of a crewman.

“Give this to the Electronics Officer. Have him break in the system and record the drive, and then give it back to the boy.”

“Yes Sir,” the crewman said.

“You can’t do that,” I said, “that is private property!”

“Nothing on my ship is private property, son. Read your agreement you took to get a ticket with the cruise line,” the Captain said, “Crewman, You have your orders, carry on.”

“Hey, you tin plated tyrant,” I said, “I had nothing to do with this shit.”

“That’s not what it looks like to me,” he said, “I’ve had it with your American rich boy attitude. You’re out of here. Blackball him. Then, lock him down. When we dock at the next port, escort him off my ship.”

“I don’t get a trial to prove my innocents,” I said, “Just your opinion and your bullshit.”

“Get him off my Bridge!”

I was grabbed and pulled by my arm.

As I was forced off the bridge, I said, “This is bullshit. You can’t do this to me. I’ll file a complaint with the owners.”

The crewman snickered and said, “You do that, but not until you get home, punk and that will not be today.”

He threw me into my stateroom and there was where I stayed for the next day and a half. The same ape brought me food, and finely my computer. Mom said she was trying to get me freed, but I had really messed up this time. There was little she could do to help me. I fired up the computer and went to the page to reset your password, for all the good it did me. Mom tried to get a ticket for me to home but I was on the no-fly list. No one would give me a ticket.

I stood on the pier in Jamaica and waved to Mom at the rail as she cried. In an hour you could no longer see the ship. Mom booked me a room at Montego Bay. I got in a taxi and was soon checked in to the hotel. She put in a call to the U.S. Embassy for me, and I had an appointment at Nine the next day.

I took some money from my stash, then, locked my passport and credit cards in the safe. I sat in the bar that night and ordered a rum and coke. I got a shot of coke, and the rest was rum. After the second drink, a cute young girl asked if she could sit down with me.

“Call me Marly,” she said, “Mon, what’s your name?”

“Call me Jake. What are you drinking?”

“Frozen Pińa Colada, Mon,” Marly said.

She told me about her family and how they sold ganja to the tourist.

“Jake, would you like some good ganja?” she asked, “We raise the best on the island.”

“Okay, Marly,” I said, “What you got?”

“Oh, good,” she said, “You will like our herb Mon. Come with me.”

We got up and left. We got in a Taxi, and she told the driver in that strange creole something and we took off. We went outside the city and stopped in front of a small shack of a house.

She opened the door and shouted, “Juan!”

A voice said something in creole, and she answered back.

“He is bringing a nice bag,” she said, “Just a second. Would you like some Sun Tea, Mon?”

“Okay,” I said.

Next thing I know I hear someone who said, “Hey! Get up! You can’t sleep here!’

A cop was shaking me. I don’t remember much beyond that. I was oozie

“What happened,” I said, “Where’s Marly? Hold it, where’s my wallet and my phone?”

“What hotel were you at,” the cop said?

He took me back, but I don’t remember the trip.

I woke up in my room with the phone ringing. It was a wake-up call to get ready for my appointment at the Embassy. I took a shower in a mental haze. Got dressed, then collected some money and my passport. I went to the lobby and out to the next waiting cab.

“Where to Mon,” the cabbie said?

“The Embassy,” I said.

“Which One, Mon?”

I said, “The US Embassy!”

We got on the road and the cabbie said, “Would you be needing any herb, Mon?”

“I could use a good doober about now,” I said, then thought about last night, “No, that’s alright. Just take me to the embassy.”

I quietly sat in the office of a Mr. Thomson. The sign on the door said, “Undersecretary to the Ambassador.”

When I finally got in to see him, I was not happy.

He said, “Good day, what can I do for you?”

“I was thrown off a cruise ship and can’t get a ticket home,” I said.

“It’s always the same with you types,” he said, “You get in trouble, then you want the government to bail you out.”

I said, “Look, can you get me home or not?”

Mr. Thomson said, “I might be able to get you a working passage back to Miami on the ship The Queen of the Caribbean it will hit Miami in nine months or so.”

“What do I do for nine months,” I said.

“Work for your passage,” he said.

“I don’t think so.”

“Your choice,” he said, “The ship sets sail in 72 hours. Let me know if you change your mind.”

I got up, left, and got a taxi to go back to the hotel. As we sat in traffic, I saw Marly on a motor bike.

“Hey Cabbie, see that girl on the blue motorcycle? Follow her but don’t get caught, and there is a big tip in it for you.”

We followed her out of the city. The road cut through the jungle. The cabbie hung way back. Suddenly there was this local bar, The Loa’s Din, and Marley’s bike was parked outside the front door. In the window a neon beer light flickered. A skull sat in the bottom of the window, with incense smoke coming from its eyes. The skull looked all too real.

“Stop,” I said.

I gave the cabbie three crisp tens and opened the door.

The cabbie said, “Oh you are not going in that scarry place after that one are you Mon? I can get you a much better girl if you want, mon.”

“I have a second-degree black belt. She has my phone. I’m going to get it back. They are the ones who better beware of me!”

“You’re crazy, Mon. I ain’t stickin around here waiting on you, bye.”

The cab drove off as I walked in the door. The man behind the small bar glared at me.

As I walked up to the bar he said, “What you want, Bumboclaat?”

“Just give me a Rum and Coke,” I said.

As my eyes adjusted to the dark gloom of the bar, I could see Marly sitting at a back table with two men. One had a black silk top hat in front of him on the table. There was a bottle of the local rum next to the top hat. They were watching me. A third shabbily dressed man stood by the table. He had a strange far away look in his eyes.

“We have no coke, Mon, only Ackee.”

“Rum and Ackee then.”

As I paid the Bartender the man with the silk hat said, “A who yuh mon?”

I took a sip of my drink and said, “I’m the guy who wants his phone back, mon.”

He said, “I don’t have your phone, mon. You should leave.”

“She has my phone, not you. Give me my phone, Marly.”

Marly said, “Jake you don’t know what you are messing with …”

The man with the hat said, “This mermaid took your phone? They will do that. You must watch them. Marly, give the man his phone back.”

The man stood up. Marly picked up her bag and put it on the table. I watched her open it and reach inside. As she handed the phone to me, the man opened his hand and blew a white powder in my face.

He said as I fell to the floor, “Now you are dead, Mon.”

I was taken to a casket which set in the yard. While I was aware what was happening, I could not do a thing about it. Soon there was a drumbeat. Then another. Then people came into the yard. As they came by me, they would look and shake their heads. Their bodies moved to the rhythm of the drumbeat. The man raised his hand, and everything stopped.

He said, “You all see him. Is he dead?”

There were many sounds of agreement. He came over to me and rubbed an oil on my forehead.

Then he said, “Arise and do my bidding.”

My body stood up and the group gasp. I had no control anymore. I was his slave.