My
Journal
By
Harriman Nelson
~In
God We Trust~
6
It
was a legal sized envelope simply addressed to Adm. Harriman Nelson, USN
Retired. I opened it to pull out the pages of official looking documents to
place on my cabin’s desktop, when a small padded
envelope plopped out.
More
curious about it than the paperwork from the US Navy JAG office, I had a
difficult time opening it, chiding myself for not using scissors to cut through
the padding and the sealing tape that had been used to secure the contents.
Then,
finally pulling the torn edges open, I reached my fingers inside, but instead
of secured contact info, I felt something hard. And cold. And my finger went
through it. A ring?
I
turned the envelope upside down and the ring fell onto the paperwork. And
another one, another, and another.
Curiosity
turned to fear. Fear to distress as they lay there, glinting under my desk lamp
on top of the chaste white papers which I only noticed now were edged with
black.
“Oh
gawd, oh gawd! No! No! No!” I moaned over Lee’s four rings. George Washington’s
golden signet ring I’d purchased anonymously for his most recent inauguration,
the Nelson family Celtic ring, if now only a reproduction, his wedding band
from his marriage to the love of his life, the alien Melody, and his iconic
ring, the one he’d made himself that he’d hardly ever been without, a simple
gold band with a black onyx gemstone in the middle.
Why
would the rings be addressed to me? There was only one answer I could think of and
I sobbed.
“Admiral?”
I barely heard, “Admiral?” Chip asked again, but I was too heartbroken to
answer. Then I felt my shoulder being shaken, and my body being raised from off
of my arms on my desk. My eyes opened next seeing my calculations and pencils,
their tips dulled from pressure and overuse on my notebook on my desk...where
were the rings? More valuable to me than Seaview herself...I looked about
increasingly distressed.
“Sir?”
Chip asked.
“The
rings...all of Lee’s rings...where are they...I just got them from JAG...came
in a padded envelope inside another and....where’s the big
envelope...where....”
“We
haven’t received any shore to ship mail....you were asleep when I heard you
moaning...found you with your head in your arms groaning and weeping. Must have
been a dream.”
“Asleep?”
I asked, my eyes moist.
“Oh gawd, it was a dream...a godawful dream...”
“Must
have been to affect you like this,” Chip said, sitting on the edge of my desk
as Lee usually had. “Want to talk about it?’
“Er, no, not really. Sorry I disturbed the boat.”
“Only
Officers Country. Ski heard you and called me. I’m surprised he didn’t just barge
in.”
“He
would have if it had been Lee he heard.”
“Well,
he thinks Lee can walk on water...would lay down his life for him. And of
course his training as a Corpsman would have kicked in too...”
“He
never did finish that training, did he,” I commented, using a tissue to wipe my
tear stained face. “How’s he really doing as a middie?”
“Pretty
well, only...I get the distinct impression that his heart’s not in it. You
okay, now, sir?”
“Yes,
thanks...Chip? In my dream...JAG sent me Lee’s rings. All of them...there’s
only one reason I can think that they would...that he’d...that he’d died....”
“Dreams
are weird things. Your mind probably remembered seeing him with his hands all
bandaged and your brain had to figure out what to do with his rings, and hey,
presto, your dream.”
“Of
course! They probably had to be removed to treat his wounds! Oh, thank God...he
wasn’t dead at all in the dream...”
“You
want Doc to take a look at you? Maybe give you something to help you sleep
tonight so you won’t pick up the dream where it left off?”
“I
doubt that would happen, but,” I mused as I looked at my watch, “I lost track
of time...Perhaps that’s not a bad idea, a sleeping pill. I’ll take care of it,
Lad. Thanks for stopping by. And tell Ski that if he hears upsetting sounds
from me again, to just come on in.”
Chip
grinned, said good night, and departed.
It
wasn’t quite midnight, so I figured I had a little time to pick up on where my
calculations had ended. But was wary to do so. Instead, I made my ablutions and
hence, close out this chapter of my journal, short though it is.
~***~