Lonely Ship

She still couldn't shake the previous night's dream. It was as if she were still in the lonely boat rocking to and fro on the ocean waters. She could still feel the ocean mist, smell the salty air, hear the knocking of the masts upon their poles. When she closed her eyes she could even feel the sway of the boat rolling with the waves.

"Bizarre," Chloe said aloud.

The gentle rain from before had turned into a downpour, beating against the window as she sat staring through the glass lost in thought.

Thump... thump... thump... thump. The pattering rain was mesmerizing, the sound of a heart beat. Chloe's eyelids began to grow heavy as she breathed deeply, inhaling the cool air from the ocean that still lingered in her thoughts.

The muffled sound of the television left on in the other room caught her attention. The voice was alarmed, shaken.

"The tower is falling! Oh my God, the tower is falling! All of those people! How could they possibly make it out alive?!"

Chloe jumped from her chair and rushed to see what the commotion was about. Her previous reverie of the dream dropped, she sat fixated to the television screen watching in horror as clips were played again and again of the airplane colliding with a tower of the World Trade Center. Horrified, shocked, speechless, she watched as the second plane collided, and both towers fell.

Hours passed. The phone rang several times... friends and family calling with information Chloe already had permanently etched in her psyche. The same words kept echoing in her mind, "terrorist, attack, emergency." It was as if the images were seared into the backs of her eyelids so that whenever she closed her eyes she could still see them in order: the crash, the fire, the towers falling, smoke, the terror on the faces of those reporting or being interviewed.

Exhausted, Chloe turned off the television and laid back on the couch. Questions with no answers formed in her mind. Why did this happen? What caused these people to do such a thing? How many people were killed? How far reaching would this be?

Chloe drifted off to an uneasy sleep.

......

The ocean beat against the sides of the boat, water flooding over the sides and around Chloe's feet. She held tightly to the steering wheel trying to keep her balance from the rushing waters pushing against her.

As she squinted her eyes to see through the fog, she heard, "Throw some of the boxes overboard! We'll flip with this weight!"

"No, that's all our food! We'll die of starvation surely then!" Another voice yelled in return.

Chloe turned to see several people scrambling across the deck of the ship, terror on every face.

"It's a hurricane, sir! If we sink, we won't have the chance to starve!"

Then, just as the last man spoke, Chloe heard a voice that seemed to come from the ocean itself.

"You need not fear this storm. The captain is on course. She knows the way."

Chloe realized that every eye was on her. She stood, perplexed, gaping back at them until it dawned on her that her right hand rested on the wheel of the ship. She was the captain.

"I know the way?" she thought, "Way to what? Where am I going? I don't even know what direction we're headed." Chloe snorted, "I don't even know how to read a compass."

......

Chloe opened her eyes. She looked around the room expecting to see masts, planks and sea, but soon realized she was in her own home.

Thump... thump... thump... she heard against the window. It was still raining.

Looking out the window, Chloe's eyes fell on a reflection in the glass. She stood to approach it and then realized she was looking at a photo of a compass rose on a magazine cover. The caption read, "Overcome your Fears and Steer Your Own Course." Just under that was a photo of the American flag with another caption, "united we stand, divided we fall."