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

 

Simon’s Journal - Volume II

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter - 35

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 Lowell at first. He had strongly objected to my sudden change of sides, but when I explained to him and our bunkmates what I was doing, they embraced me wholeheartedly! I think Lowell took a bit too much enjoyment from stabbing me in the back with the occasional ‘Traitor’ or ‘Benedict Simon’. It was all in fun and don’t think for a second that I didn’t get my jabs in too. I guess that is why Lowell and I make such good friends; we can play like that and know that we’re only messing with each other.

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 some of the blame too, but it was mostly my fault. It was a simple, stupid mistake, which could have been easily avoided if we would have just kept our heads together and not let our emotions take over. However, it wasn’t; I messed up and I paid the price.

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 Lowell had joined Jamie, Micky, Jonathan, Peter and I on, and well, I had managed to forgot to tell Lowell to turn off his flashlight. After the excitement of watching those boats sink and nearly loosing Jamie, I had forgotten to keep my wits about me. Lowell’s mind must have been elsewhere too, because now that we were back on the Banachelli, he didn’t even need it; there was enough light spilling out of the random windows and open hatches to see well enough at night. So there I was, looking all sorts of stupid, having jumped right into the fire yet again.

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, Lowell put his hand against my plastic armor covered chest and pushed me behind him. “I will take care of this!” Lowell whispered to me. “Please don’t open your big mouth this time!”

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 Lowell.

Lowell was amazing! There we were, looking down the throat of a bloodthirsty shark named Runt and Lowell managed to crack a joke. “I would, but I’m afraid I’ve already soiled myself!”

Runt strode up to us with gleeful madness in his eyes. Lowell stood his ground, saying, “Buzz off! We were just having a swim!”

Runt didn’t stop. He blew past Lowell, knocking him out of the way, as if he was nothing more than a stuffed toy. Lowell hit the deck hard and slid about ten feet before he stopped.

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.

Lowell had got to his feet, blood gushing from his nose, and tried to inject himself between the two of us by saying, “Let him go! We were only swimming Runt!”

Runt looked at Lowell and said, “You expect me to buy that load of diaper gravy?”

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 Lowell, he didn’t give up easily. “Let him go you overgrown chimp!” and he punched Runt right in the sweet spot.

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 Lowell down again.

“Someone grab that little brat!” Runt shouted.

Instantly, Lowell was jumped and wrestled to his knees by two other boys. Whatever was going to happen to me, Lowell couldn’t stop it now.

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 Lowell scream my name once, or was it twice. Then a voice spoke inside of my head and it wasn’t the normal voice of my consciousness. This voice was unmistakably my brothers. At the instant that I needed Jamie the most, he had appeared within the recesses of my mind. As he had done so many times before, Jamie’s voice spoke softly but deliberately telling me to calm down and allow the air to come. Of course, that would have been much easier to do if I didn’t have Runt stalking me like some wild, bloodthirsty beast. Jamie’s voice kept echoing within my skull until I felt a tiny sip of air seep in.

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 Lowell a quick glance to see that he was still being held by two of the other boys, with a third holding a knife up to Lowell’s throat. I later learned that the boys were all from the White Lab. Until that night, I hadn’t ever seen any of their faces; but after that night I will also never forget what any of them look like. Their skin looked gray-white, as if a ray of sunlight hadn’t touched their baby soft skin ever in their lives. Yeah they were small but they must have been strong, because as much as Lowell was struggling, he still couldn’t get away from them. Lowell looked at me with desperation in his eyes. I knew he wanted to help me but it was hopeless for both of us.

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 Lowell, with the last boy no longer gray-white faced, but now oozing crimson from his nose and mouth. His face also seemed a little flatter then it use to be.

The boy that had been holding the knife to Lowell’s throat had stepped back out of the way of Fiers’ pans of death. That meant Lowell was finally free to fight back and boy did he!

Lowell gave the boy with the knife a solid uppercut to the chin that sounded like a tree limb being snapped in half. Lowell then kicked him so hard in the jewels, that even I felt it. The boy with the knife fell backward and his knife went flying over the side of the ship.

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, Tyler, stop fooling around with that and help them get that other sail tied down.”

“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. Lowell told me, that when they tried to get me to come eat, I just moaned like an angry sleeping bear. After supper, Sister Sarafina came to our room to fetch me. She had seen that I wasn’t at supper. I heard a horrified gasp from Sister Sarafina behind me.

“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?” Lowell asked from Micky’s bed, where he and Micky were sitting up looking over at me. Micky had told Lowell to sleep in his bed with him, so as not to risk hurting me more. Although, I would have liked to have had Lowell beside me to comfort me, but I was too weak to offer any protest.

“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. Tyler asked, “Did she g’mean wit’ y’?”

“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.

Lowell then walked up to me, put a hand on my shoulder and asked, “What now?”

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.

 

Chapter 36

 

** 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] **