This is the continued story of Simon’s Journal.
Before you begin this third volume in this series,
I would highly recommend that you read the first and second volumes
as each picks up were the previous left off.
Simon’s Journal -
Volume I
Thirteen Days – The First Crusade
Thirteen
Nights – After the Crusade
ADMONITION:
The
following narrative is nearly a complete work of fiction. Some events and
characters were pulled from real life but have been changed, enhanced and
twisted to comply with my will. Any other similarity to actual individuals
living or dead is completely unintentional, but it would be incredible!
WARNING:
The
following story contains diaper use, violence, adult language and strong sexual
content. If reading a coming of age story about boys wearing diapers and
exploring their awakening sexuality doesn’t tickle your pickle, or if pickle
tickling is illegal in your area, then I suggest you select something else to
read.
Simon's Journal
Volume III
Thirteen
Sails
Adventures Abound
Written by Danny
Who’ll
cry for the Amazon?
As one of Miss-M’s chosen ones, many of the
other kids aboard the Banachelli, even some that used to be buddy-buddy with
me, started to shun me. If truth be told, I hadn’t fully expected that part of
it and even if I was expecting it, I wasn’t prepared for just how much it would
hurt. I don’t think anyone ever enjoys feeling rejected, but I felt that what I
was doing was for the greater good.
There were a few boys, which stayed close to
my side, including everyone in my cabin room. Well I did have some opposition
from
Within days of joining myself to Miss-M’s
side, my bunkmates and I started working behind the scenes to disrupt Miss-M’s
plans as best we could. Actually, that was our second priority. Our first
priority, our Prime Directive if you
will, was to not be caught.
We even got Fier, Cho
and Sister Sarafina to help us quite a bit. Basically, Fier
was the brains of our little rebellion, while Cho
acted as our eyes and ears. Then there was Sister Sarafina, who did her level best
to keep us from crossing the line and doing something, which we all might
regret later.
Everything was going great, until the day,
when a single mistake caused everything to turn against us. We had returned
from a third successful mission of sinking the boats, that we’d just spent the
better part of the day loading up with the subliminal CD’s and DVD’s and
frankly it had got a bit dodgy, when Jamie was nearly sucked under with the last
boat. You see, Miss-M had figured out that instead of bringing the Banachelli
into port and risking being seen, she would have smaller boats come out to the
ship to receive our mind altering CD’s and DVD’s. Because of this, it made it
easy for us boys to stop any more of the CD’s and DVD’s from ever making it
onto land. When we would have the boats fully loaded, under the cover of
darkness, one or two of us would stow away on each boat. Then, when we were far
enough away from the Banachelli for anyone to notice, we would knock a hole in
the bottom of the boat. While the boats sank to the bottom of the sea, we would
quietly swim back to our own ship.
Let me tell you, on that particularly fateful
night we were all on a serious adrenaline high. As I think back on what
happened next, and I think about it a lot, I can’t believe how monumentally
stupid I was. I guess, I have to give
Lowell and I were on deck first. We were
slipping back on our diapers, which we had left hidden by the railing, while
the other boys were still climbing up the rope.
“Hey you two! Stop right there!” a voice shouted from across
the deck.
I instantly realized my mistake. This had
been the first mission that
Thankfully, the other guys had the presence
of mind to climb back down the rope. I found out later, that they had swung
over to an open porthole two decks down and climbed in that way. Lowell and I
weren’t so fortunate; we’d been caught dead to rights.
Amazingly,
In a different place and time I would have
taken offence at his off-handed slam against my character, but let’s face it, I
do tend to open my mouth at the most inopportune moments.
As I said, it was dark but not so dark that
we couldn’t see, that walking toward us, was a brawny looking figure. It wasn’t
until he was less then twenty feet away that I could make out who it was... “Oh
crap! It’s Runt!” I whispered to
Runt strode up to us with gleeful madness in
his eyes.
Runt didn’t stop. He blew past
As Runt strode toward me, I was like a deer,
caught in the headlights of an oncoming semi tractor. I didn’t even know I was
moving until I backed into the side rail. There was no place to go! Runt
grabbed me by the front of my plastic armor just below my neck and, with a
strength that can only be birthed from anger and hate, he lifted me up until I
was on my tippy-toes. However, the Velcro straps that
held my armor in place had become frayed and loose with repeated use, so they
didn’t hold my weight. With a rip, my armor tore away from my body. Having not
been expecting it I fell flat on my diapered butt with a squish.
I had only just regained my senses, when I
was again seized around the neck and dead lifted until my feet dangled. In essence,
I was being hung to death as Runts fingers squeezed my throat.
“I knew you were up to something!” he seethed
and I saw, that in his left hand was some kind of, odd looking, single
binocular thing. He jammed it against my right eye so hard, I thought my
eyeball was going to be driven through the back of my skull. Instantly I knew
what it was. I’d seen enough war movies to recognize the green view one gets
with night vision goggles. Only it wasn’t just for seeing at night up close,
but far away too.
Runt looked at
Runt held my throat tighter, as he pulled me
away from the railing and directly under one of the upper deck lights. By now,
several more boys that we knew were loyal to Miss-M, had heard the commotion
and started coming up from the lower decks.
Bless
Runt must have really been worked up, because
all he did was wince and moan slightly before dropping the night vision thing,
so that he could shove
“Someone grab that little brat!” Runt shouted.
Instantly,
When Runt released his grip on my throat, he
didn’t just let me drop. With strength that can only come from true hatred, he threw
me to the deck. I hit hard, rolled head-over-heals backwards once, and then
amazing I pop right back to my feet again. Runt seemed surprised by this action;
I know I sure was!
Up to that point, things had happened so fast,
that I hadn’t really noticed that the whole time Runt had been holding my
throat, I hadn’t been able to breathe. Now that I was free of his grip, I
gasped like a fish out of water for air but none came in.
As I clawed at my neck in panic, I honestly
remember hearing the words inside my head, “No, no! Don’t have an asthma attack
now!”
I think I might have fallen to one knee, but
I am not too sure about that. I do however, remember hearing
That one sip of air was like watching a
hundred Fourth-of-July-firework-displays, all going off at one time. Just
getting that one wisp of air was sufficient to get me to calm down enough to
once again breathe. Granted I was only breathing in shallow, raspy and painful
gasps, but I’ve said it before and I will continue to say it... beggars can’t
be choosers!
I’m not sure what I was thinking. Actually, I
don’t believe I was thinking; I was in a deadly situation, where instinct takes
over. Of course there was no way I was going to attempt to fight him. I’d been
down that road before and came out on the loosing end. There was also the
option of running; I’ve been told that I am fairly good at that too. However, running
wasn’t going to happen either, because we were quickly surrounded by more of
Madam-M’s loyal followers.
Now that I think about it, where could I have
run to, that they wouldn’t eventfully find me? The Banachelli might be big, but
it isn’t so big, that I could have remained hidden indefinitely. Then again, my
brother pulled it off.
My mind began scream out desperate questions
such as; “Where were my friends? For that matter, where the heck is Jamie when
I needed him?”
I was trapped inside a circle of angry
looking boys, with a very big and very angry guy, who would like nothing better,
then to rip me apart and feed me to the sharks.
I shot
I looked back at Runt. He was less then ten
feet away from me, and when our eyes locked onto one another, he smiled. Let me
say that again... he smiled as if to say, “You’re mine now!”
However, Runt didn’t attack me; at least not
right then. Because at that very second, there was a loud sound that drew everyone’s
attention. Whatever made that sound could not have been human. I’m telling you
that it was the scariest sound I ever heard in my life and when I heard it, I’m
sure that I wasn’t the only one that wet himself. I hadn’t known I’d done so at
the time, but then again, peeing on myself was the
least of my worries.
Everyone looked up into the air in different
directions to try to see what had made the sound. I had looked up too, but
thankfully, I hadn’t taken both eyes off Runt.
Runt had taken advantage of the distraction
to lunge at me. My entire body tensed in preparation for the impact, but it
didn’t happen. One second Runt was diving toward me and a second later, he was doing
a midair back flip before landing on his butt. None of us saw what knocked him
down. Well, I can really only speak for Lowell and myself, because I never got
the chance to ask the other boys if they saw who or what it was.
Most everyone on deck stood there, staring at
Runt, who was staring up into the night sky. He looked visibly stunned, but not
hurt.
Then we started to hear it again, except this
time it was coming from directly behind Runt and in front of me. It wasn’t
until after Jamie swung down and kicked Runt right in the face that I saw, it
was my own brother that had taken Runt down. He was doing one of his Tarzan
rope rescues again.
However, he should have quit while he was
ahead because when he came swinging in for a third blow, he was stopped dead in
mid-swing. Miss-M had appeared on deck and clothes lined Jamie with a massive
chop, which sent him crashing to the wooden deck board. When he hit, his body
made a sickening solid thud, rolled a few times and then he didn’t move again.
Two of the other boys had rushed me and were
holding me too, while Runt staggered to his feet. He began telling Miss-M about
the three boats he’d watched us sink. Remarkably, Miss-M didn’t appear to be
mad; well let me rephrase that... seeing her reaction was what I imagine it
would look like to peer into the eyes of Satan himself, powerful and dreadful.
When she spoke my name, it sounded as though
she were going to crying. “Simon, why?” she asked, putting a trembling hand up
to her quivering lips.
When I didn’t answer, Miss-M turned back
toward Runt and in that sickeningly sweet tone she uses she said, “Runt darling,
I do believe that one,” she jabbed a finger in the direction of Jamie’s
motionless body, “has made you bleed.”
With a single finger, she wiped the blood
from Runts ear and stuck it into his mouth. That sick jock actually sucked on
her finger like it was some dudes penis.
“If I remember right,” while looking down on
Jamie, who was still lying lifeless on the deck of the ship, Miss-M started to
say, “I told that one if he ever crossed me I’d...” she didn’t finish her
thought.
Leaning in close to Runt, she gave him a peck
on the cheek and whispered, “Be a deer and get rid of him.”
Runt moved so fast that I hadn’t realized
what he was doing until he had Jamie’s limp body hoisted over his head.
“NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!” I screamed and struggled to
get free, as I realized that Runt was about to throw my brother overboard. I
knew that if Jamie wasn’t dead already, he would be within seconds of hitting
that water.
If I ever doubted Tater, what he did next
removed any lack of faith I had in him. From out of the darkness, Tater had
blindsided Runt and tackled him to the floor. Though Jamie’s body hit the deck
hard for a second time, at least he hadn’t ended up in the water. The two of
them began rolling around on the floor with fists flying. However, Tater never
had a chance, because Miss-M came to Runts rescue once more. I’d seen her kick
someone a few times now, so I wasn’t surprised when she kicked Tater, but this
time she kicked him harder then I’d ever seen her kick someone before. Tater’s
body flew across the ship and had the railing not been there I am sure Tater
would be dead right now; as it was, Tater was down for the count.
In those few seconds that Tater had been on
top of Runt, pounding his face, something else had happened. At first, I hadn’t
realized what I was seeing. I saw Tater’s younger brother Mikey reaching low from
behind one of the boys, that had been aiding Runt
before, and pulling Jamie down below deck. Had it been during the day, Mikey
never would have gotten away with it, but thankfully it was the middle of the
night and he had the advantage of shadows.
Really, the fight was over before it started.
When Miss-M had kicked Tater, she’d broken several ribs; boy, I know how that
is! When Runt got back up his nose was crooked and blood was gushing out like
water from a faucet. He was also bleeding from both ears now and was missing at
least one tooth. I looked back to Tater, he was laying
there in the fetal position with his big diapered butt resembaling
a giant marshmallow. Once more it occurred to me that I was on my own again, or
so I thought.
CLAAANNNGGG!
PAANNNGGG!
CLUUUNNK!
Everyone turned toward the noise, me included.
There stood Fier with an iron skillet in one hand and a saucepan in the other.
At his feet lay three of the White Lab boys, knocked out cold.
BOOONNNNGGGG!
CLLLAAAANNNGGG!
Down went the two boys holding
The boy that had been holding the knife to
Fier then asked me a silly question; “Is it bad
that it felt so good doing that?”
Oh man was I glad to see him, but let’s face
it; he might be a giant, trapped in a dwarf’s body, but even he was no match
for the Amazonian Warrior a.k.a. Madam-M. then again,
Fier wasn’t some dumb jock either.
Madam-M had started after Fier
and for a second I feared for his life, but then Fier
bellowed, “Get her boys!”
From every direction came the diaper clad
boys of the Banachelli and leading the way was one of my bunkmates, Micky and right
beside him was Sister Sarafina. Every last one of the boys were
wielding weapons more deadly then guns or knives; they all clutched soiled
diapers and used them with deadly accuracy.
As for Sister Serafina? Allow me to share a very important piece of
wisdom with you. If you ever find yourself up against an angry Jamaican Nun ...
RUN! Between the Sister and Micky
they had taken down half a dozen boys before any of them knew that they were in
danger.
Then Micky launched himself at Madam-M. With
cat like agility, he went on the attack.
“WAY TO GO MICKY!” I cheered, as he jumped on
Madam-M’s back and began pounding her in the head with a poop-encrusted diaper.
For all of forty-seconds, it looked like
Miss-M and her plans to turn all the boys of the world into diaper wearing,
diaper wetting boys, was over but then something happened to turn the tables on
our little mutiny.
Suddenly, the ship lurched heavily to the
starboard side and then, just as suddenly, it lurched to the portside. No one
moved and no one breathed, as the ship seemed to hang in time just before jumping
forward, as though a great hand had reached down and gave the Banachelli a
healthy push from behind. The sudden forward momentum was so strong, that no
one was left standing except for Madam-M and me; and the only reason I hadn’t fallen
down was because I had one arm wrapped around Madam-M’s neck and was banging
her in the head with the pan Fier had been using
before.
With a singe motion, she reached behind her
head, pulled me off her and dropped me flat on my back. If I had been able to
breathe before, I wasn’t after crashing to the deck, at least not right away.
By the time I caught my breath and got to my feet, the ship had picked up a lot
of speed.
“Maelstrom!” Madam-M shouted as loud as a
foghorn and though every pair of eyes was on her, not one of us understood what
on earth she’d had said.
However, no one had to ask what she said,
because she had pointed toward the bow of the ship and like clockwork, every
head turned toward that direction. We all saw it, but I don’t think anyone
could believe or even understood what it was they were looking at.
What we saw drained the fight out of
everyone; black clouds were stretched across the sky and a charcoal-gray
curtain of rain, that looked more like a wall than
rain. However, it wasn’t the rain that Madam-M had been pointing at but what
was happening at the surface of the ocean.
Just as she had done when the Banachelli
found itself at the mercy of Hurricane Katrina, Madam-M took charge, barking
out orders to anyone, as though the mutiny had never happened. Seconds before
we had been divided, now we were one crew again, because we had to be or we would
all die!
“It looks to be at least two miles wide!”
someone shouted, but I couldn’t tell whom it was because of everyone else
shouting to one another.
“Simon! If you’re not going to help then get
below!” Madam-M shouted loud enough to be heard over the crowd.
I took a shallow breath, because that’s all
my lungs were able to take in. I then shrugged my shoulders while looking
around. Madam-M pointed at the forward mast. I gave her the thumbs up and took
off to help get the sail down, before we entered the storm and were caught in the
vortex of the massive maelstrom.
Now, I remember from science class that
maelstroms, though quite rare, do occur and typically ones, like
we were facing, only happen in the rarest of rare circumstances. Ones on the
magnitude that we were witnessing, are almost always a
result of an earth quake down on the ocean floor, which causes the earth crust
to open and the oceans water to spin down, like water down a bathtub drain.
“EVERYBODY STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GRAB
ON TO SOMETHING SOLID... NOW!”
Madam-M yelled over the roars of the water and the creaking of the ship, “HANG
ON, WE’RE GOING IN!”
So, how do you get a ship as big as the
Banachelli out of a two-mile wide maelstrom? Well, it involves a lot of
spinning, round and round and round, and it also involves a lot of barfing and
I do mean A LOT of barfing!
“Peter, Jonathan!” Miss-M’s voice rose above
all other sounds, “Get those hatches closed now!”
The ship was rising and falling with such
violence that it was nearly impossible for anyone to remain standing for very
long. In addition, if we weren’t holding on to something, we would have surely
been thrown from the ship. As it was, before we would get out of that storm, we
would loose three from our crew.
Miss-M continued to shout out orders, “Abe,
when you finish with that help those boys!”
“Simon, lash that down!”
“Allen,
“Timmy, you fall on your butt once more and
I’ll have it for dinner tonight!”
For several hours, our ship was buffeted and
tossed about in the maelstrom before fortune began to favor us. With a bone
jarring snap, the ship was expelled from the whirling vortex. With all of our
sails down and everyone hurt or sick, there was little any of us could do but
to hang on, until the ship slowed enough.
I couldn’t believe when I got to my feet and
saw that throughout the entire ordeal Miss-M had not once lost her footing. She
looked about as green as someone could be without actually barfing, but
otherwise she was still standing strong.
She didn’t allow any time at all for anyone
to regain their composure before barking out new orders.
“Runt, Runt! Get to your feet and hold
Simon!” she said.
I was still coughing up some seawater that I
had swallowed and Runt had me in a headlock before I even knew what Miss-M had
said.
“Tate? Tate where are you?” Miss-M shouted.
Someone else, I don’t know who, spoke softly.
“I-I think he was blown overboard.” It wasn’t until later that I saw that he
hadn’t been blown overboard.
“Get off me!” I growled at Runt, but it was
useless. His arms constricted around my head so tightly that I couldn’t think
for the pain.
The next thing I knew, I was lashed to the
forward mast, which had snapped off in the storm and now was a messily ten foot
tall fractured pole. I can only guess that Runt had squeezed my head so much,
that I had passed out. Because when I came too, tied to the broken forward mast,
my mind was swimming and my eyes had gone all blurry as I saw, that most of
those boys, as well as Sister Sarafina and Fier, were
tied at the feet and hands and were looking directly at me.
"Turn around and bend over," Runt
said with a devilish grin, reminding me briefly of that lunatic in the movie, The Red Dragon.
I looked at the ropes that held me to the
mast and saw that there was slack so that I was tethered to the mast but still
had enough rope to move much like a dog on a short leash.
I looked at Runt and saw that in his right
hand he held tightly the handle of a long leather whip. He was no longer
bleeding and it looked as if he had even been put into a fresh diaper. I then
looked around and saw that everyone else was in dry diapers too, everyone
except for me; I was completely naked.
“Turn around and bend over!” Runt said again,
though this time there was mounting anger in his words.
I scanned the crowed and found Lowell, Jamie
and Micky, all hog-tied and lying on the deck, looking at me with tears
flooding from their eyes as they watched.
This time when Runt spoke, he did so through
clenched teeth, “I said turn around!” and I felt the first lash of the whip, as
it struck my left shoulder.
Instinctively I turned away and dropped to my
knees to try to protect myself, but all I had really done was to expose my bare
back to Runt. I can remember wishing that my mother would suddenly come bursting
onto the scene shouting, ‘Stop! How dare you do that to my son!’, but she
didn't. All I heard was Madam-M's dreadful high-pitched voice behind me
screeching, "This one's the worst of the bunch! Make sure you lay into him
good and hard!"
Runt did just as he was told. He stood back
and took a firm posture with his legs shoulder-width apart. He raised his arm
high above his shoulder, and as he brought it down, it made a loud swishing
sound, just like in the movies. I remember thinking how melodious it sounded
and then there was a crack like a gun shot as it struck my back. At first, I
felt absolutely nothing at all. I had just enough time to wonder, if he had
missed me. However, then a fraction of a second later, the burning sting that spread
across my back was so terrific, that all I could do was gasp. I gave a great
gushing gasp that emptied my lungs of every ounce of air that was in them. It
felt like someone had pored molten iron over my flesh.
I seemed to lift about a foot into the air
and yelled, "Ow-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w!" and straighten up like I was trying to stretch myself in half at the waist.
"Harder!" shrieked Madam-M from
across the deck.
I was told that she was bouncing up and down
on her tiptoes like a ballerina. "Lay it into him!" she was yelling,
as though thoroughly enjoying herself. "Let him have it! Open him up like
a gutted fish!"
"Hold on!" I heard one of the other
boys warn me.
One boy later recounted, "I could hardly
believe what I was seeing. It was like some awful movie scene. The whipping was
bad enough, and being made to watch it was even worse, but with that black..."
a racial slur was used to describe Madam-M, "...egging him on, the whole
thing seemed like a horribly choreographed nightmare!
Swish-crack!
The second stroke landed. I was thrown
forward so violently that, had there not been the mast right there, I think I
would have fallen flat on my face. As it was, I was able to keep my balance.
I was told that my scream was unearthly.
"Harder! Harder! Harder!" She would
order, "Make it sting! Tickle him good and proper! Warm him up! Go on;
warm him up my sweet love!"
I stood there, wishing I wasn't there, as she
kept up her cheering all the way through, exhorting Runt to greater and still
greater efforts. The awful thing was, he seemed to be
responding to her cheers. He was like an athlete, who is spurred on by the
shouts of the crowd in the stands. Whether this was true or not, I was sure of
one thing, he wasn't weakening.
Swish-crack!
The third stroke was worse then the first two
and this was mainly because Runt was able, so it seemed, to land the third
stroke almost exactly across the narrow line, where one of the previous ones
had struck. It is bad enough when it lands on fresh skin, but when it comes
down on bruised and wounded flesh, the agony is unbelievable.
I lost track of how many lashes I had been
given, and by the time the last stroke was delivered, my entire back seemed to
be going up in flames. Even after Runt had stopped, it still felt like he was
striking me over and over and over.
Far away in the distance, I heard Runt
saying, “Now that was fun!”
Someone came over, cut my ropes, then lifted
me to my feet and forced me to limp across the deck. I fell hard into the arms
of the spectators, a cackling sound echoing in my ears, and then I heard the acidic
voice of Madam-M saying, “I am much obliged to you, my sweet-sweet boy, very
much obliged. I don’t think we will have anymore trouble from now on.”
My eyes and face were wet with tears and
everybody stared at me. My back hurt when I so much as dared to take a breath.
With just the slightest of movements, my vision would be overpowered with pain,
like flashes of lightning.
I honestly don’t remember anything between
that time and later that evening.
“What’s this?” she gasped. “What’s happened
to you?” she was staring at my bleeding back. I myself had not inspected it in
the bathroom mirrors up to then, but when I twisted my head around and stole a
corner of my eye glance, I saw the scarlet stripes and the deep blue bruising
in between.
“Who-who-who did this?” Sister Sarafina cried.
“Tell me at once!”
I was confused. I thought I had seen her on
deck just before Runt had whipped me, but I guess I had only imaged it. In the
end, I had to tell her the whole story, while my bunkmates stood around in
their dry diapers, listening with bulging eyed and filling in the bits that I
didn’t know.
Sister Sarafina listened in silence. She
asked no questions and just took in the story. When I had finished, she said to
the other boys, “You get into bed. I’ll be back.”
If I had had the slightest idea of what she
was going to do next, I would have tried to stop her. However, I hadn’t and I
didn’t. She marched out of the room, down the hall, up the staircase to, what
we boys had nicknamed, ‘The Queen’s Deck’, where Madam-M had taken up
residence. A couple of the guys followed her at a distance and reported back,
that she was walking very quickly, with her head held high and her body erect,
and by the look of her, the guys figured that Madam-M was in for a hard time.
About an hour later, Sister Sarafina returned
and came in to kiss us all goodnight. The entire time she had been gone, I had
been worried sick for her and feared the worst. When she bent down to kiss me,
I whispered to her, “I wish you hadn’t gone to her!”
She kissed me a second time. “They don’t beat
animals like that where I come from, let alone small boys,” she said. “I won’t
stand for it!”
“What did Madam-M say to you, Sister Sarafina?”
“She told me I was a foreigner and I don’t
understand how ships are run,” the Sister said with a scowl.
Now all the guys were sitting up in their
beds.
“Very mean,” she said. “She told me, that if
I don’t like her methods, she would be more than happy to put me off the ship.”
Of course, we all knew that Madam-M meant that she would throw Sister Sarafina overboard.
“What did you say?” Jonathan asked with a
sniffle.
“I didn’t say anything,” she said, “She
ordered me to ‘Get out!’ and I did.”
“Does that mean you’ll be leaving us?” Timmy
asked.
“Not a chance in... well, let’s just leave it
at no. How about that?” she said with a smile so sweet, that just seeing it,
nearly threw us all into diabetic commas.
Thanks to Sister Sarafina’s help I was on the
med quickly, but not quick enough for me. Only a few days passed before I
couldn’t stand lying on that cot for another minute.
No one else was around when I got up and I’m
glad, because that meant that no one was around to hear me crying and screaming
as the scabbed flesh on my back flexed, stretched and tore.
I got to my feet and felt so sick that I
puked right there in our cabin room. After I got sick, I realized that aside
from the bandages that were held to my back with straps of cloth that wrapped
around my chest, stomach and shoulders, I was also wearing only a triple thick
diaper.
The first couple of steps I took hurt a lot,
but each step was easier then the one before. I stopped in the bathroom and
splashed water on my face, before continuing my trek. I had one thing and one
thing only, on my mind. I was done playing and I wanted to go home.
My first stop was Madam-M’s office, but no
one was there. I rummaged around the office, looking for something, anything I
could use to defend myself. What I found, was a small silver gun with pearl set
into the handle.
Now, if I were any kind of real storybook or
movie hero, I would have known to check if the gun was loaded, but that never
occurred to me.
I made my way to the steep steps, which lead
to the deck and climbed them. The pain I felt was excruciating, but I had the
strength of pure, unrefined hate burning within me.
Standing on the deck of the ship, I saw Runt
about twenty feet away from me with his back to me. All the way at the front of
the ship, I saw Madam-M who was overseeing the installation of a new forward
mast.
No one saw me, no one seemed to even know I
was anywhere around. Then Runt turned slowly and his eyes fell on me and the
gun that I was pointing directly at him.
Runt screamed, “MISS-M!!!” and those were the
last words he ever spoke.
Madam-M could be heard screaming, “SIMON NO!”
I heard her enormous feet pounding the deck
board toward me. I closed my eyes, squeezed the trigger and BANG!
When I opened my eyes again, I saw Runt
teetering and then falling backward over the side rail.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Madam-M shrieked as she ran
to the railing.
They say that when you kill someone for the
first time, a part of you dies too, but I don’t believe that. I don’t believe
that a part of me died when Runt died. What I believe is, that in that brief
instant, as I watched Runt fall backward over the rail, as the last essence of
his life left his body, black, evil worms came into being within my stomach, heart
and brain; worms that ate at my flesh from within, devouring me bit by bit.
Something else happened when I fired that gun;
it was as if I had just awakened every boy on the ship from some sort of evil spell.
I later learned that, as they all watched Runt whip me,
almost every last boy that use to believe in Madam-M swore to themselves, that
they wouldn’t follow her any more.
Like a tidal wave of diaper-clad boys,
Madam-M was rushed and overpowered. Dozens of diapered boys were able to do, what
no ten men could have done. They brought down the Amazon! And though she
shrieked and screamed, she couldn’t escape.
Once Madam-M’s hands and feet were firmly
bound, every boy turned to me.
“What now Simon?” one of them asked me.
They were looking to me for direction, but I
had nothing for them. I had expended every bit of strength just to get myself
to that point. There was nothing left, no reserves to dip into, not even one
last second wind to catch. I collapsed to my knees. Had someone not caught me
by the arms, I am sure I would have crumpled to the deck.
“My brother and Lowell, where are they?” I
managed to ask.
“Sister Sarafina is caring for them both.”
Timmy said and I looked to my right to see him holding firmly onto my right arm
and beaming at me.
“And Fier?” I asked.
“Right here boy!” came Fier’s gravely voice.
“By god what happened!” he said and for the
first time I saw that Fier looked like I felt. His left eye was completely
swollen shut and his left arm was hanging in a sling that hung from around his
neck.
“You boys do that?” he asked looking at
Madam-M who was laying face down on the deck hogtied and gagged.
“What? Where’s her monkey?” Fier asked
spinning around to find Runt.
“He’s gone.” I murmured.
Fier saw that I wasn’t doing so well and he
ordered the boys, “Find the white lab boys and bring them here. And find that
other monkey of hers.”
After helping to lower me down onto my
stomach, Fier then sat down on the floor next to me.
“It’s alright boy, I gotcha.” he said, as he patted the side of my head.
I must have fallen asleep because the next
thing I knew, Fier was shouting to have Madam-M and
the others who were still loyal to her thrown overboard.
Now, I wish I could say that I sprang to my
feet but the best I could muster was to cry out, “STOP!” as I hoisted my aching
body up ever so slowly. Jonathan and Micky both ran to help me, but I yelled at
then, “No, leave me alone! I can do it!”
All eyes were on me as I staggered but no
matter how much it hurt, I was able to stand. Lowell and Jamie, who both looked
bruised and beaten, came on deck and I looked to them both, then called for
Micky.
“Micky,” I said putting a hand on his
shoulder to steady myself, “Have the gang drop one of the small dinghys in the water.” I
stopped talking long enough to lick my lip, “Put Madam-M and anyone that wants
to go with her in it.”
“No!” Fier argued
but I snapped at him, “Fier, if you don’t like what I
say, then by God, you are welcome to join them!” I don’t know where that came
from and for sure it didn’t sound like it had come from my mouth, but it must
have because with that, Fier stopped voicing his
objections.
The look Madam-M gave me as I walked up to
her was one of complete and utter hatred.
“You killed my sweet Runt!” she hissed and
then spat on me.
“For what it’s worth, I wanted to kill you
too.” I said and turned my back on her.
I then turned to Tater, who was also bound
and gagged. With tears now in my eyes, I asked him, “Do you want to go with her
or go home?”
One of the other boys removed Tate’s diaper
gag to allow him to answer me.
“Simon, I just want to get off this effing ship and take my brother home!” Tate said and I
didn’t miss the fact that instead of cussing he used one of my slang’s.
I then looked at Mikey and he nodded his
desire to do the same, but there was something more. As I looked into Mikey’s eyes it struck me; what I was seeing was that same
boy I had helped to the nurses’ office so long ago.
The corners of Mikey’s
mouth turned up ever so slightly.
“Cut them loose and get the rest of them off
the ship now.” I said to Fier, who wasn’t nice about
shoving each of them off the ship and into the dinghy that awaited them below.
One of the other boys then repeated, “You
heard Captain Simon! Get them off his ship!”
“My ship?” I thought, “When did I ever say
that it was my ship?” but I was too sore, to tired and just to fed up with the
whole experience to care one way or the other.
The dinghy was allowed to drift behind the
ship as far as the rope would let it go. I then went up to Fier, took the
butchers knife from out of his belt and with a single slice the rope parted
with a snap. I stood and watched as Madam-M and the boys, who were all still
bound, drifted further and further away until they couldn’t be seen anymore.
Fier came up next with Jamie leaning heavily
on him and several other boys crowded around to hear, what I had to say next.
I wanted to run to Jamie and throw myself
onto him, but I didn’t. Instead, I settled for a momentary glance between him
and me, abd then I softly spoke, “First, I say we
celebrate!”
The entire deck of the ship erupted with
cheers. “And then we set sail for home.” And again, everyone cheered and
chanted, “Hooray for Captain Simon! Hooray for Captain Simon!”
The party that proceeded was the biggest and
most joyous I can ever remember. Even those of us that were hurt had joined in.
It was funny to watch Fier dance with both, Cho and Sister Sarafina. But after a time, I drifted away
from the festivities in search of Tate and Mikey and Vera too, who somehow had
missed the battle.
I found Tate and Mikey in, what had been
Runt’s Cabin room. They were ripping down every painting, every picture and
throwing everything out the small round portside window, which had previously
been hid behind one of the paintings.
They both stopped when they saw me standing
in the doorway and Tater looked at me, “You don’t mind, do you?” he asked.
I didn’t answer, but walked into the room,
picked up the painting that I had painted with Runt, tucked it under my arm and
headed back out. Just before I left I turned back
around and said, “Don’t leave anything else of his on this ship!” and I left
them to their work.
However, I wasn’t but about ten feet away
when Mikey came running out of the room. When I turned around, he threw himself
around my neck and said, “Thanks Simon!”
When he finally let me go I said, “Listen, no
matter what, you and me are friends and friends look out for one another.”
With that said, Mikey ran back into help his
older brother and I continued searching for Vera. It took nearly an hour of
searching the ship, before I found her. She was lying behind one of the
generators down below and lying there with her was a full litter of newborn
kittens.
She spotted me instantly and let go a soft
tired meow. In that one cat word, I knew she was asking for my help. So many
times Vera had saved me and now she needed my help. With strength I didn’t know
I had in reserve, I ran all the way to Sister Sarafina and brought her to Vera.
After a while the Sister turned to me and
said, “Simon, she’s old and giving birth has taken a lot out of her.”
“No!” I snapped at Sister Sarafina, but she
only frowned and embraced me.
Vera didn’t die then, but she also didn’t get
any better and I made her a promise. Petting her head I said, “All you have to
do is stay here and stay alive and I will get you back home.” And that is just
what I did.
** I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and
as always, your thoughts matter to me, so if you feel moved to do so, I would
love to hear from you. [email protected] **