GOD of a man

“Bravery is not in the lack of fear but in standing up for what you believe even when you are afraid.”

Chapter Twenty Three: Spiteful fates
Dated: April 2426

There are two ways of judging the bravery of a person; question his beliefs and test him with what he is afraid of, or find out what he loves and test him for his greed by offering something vastly better. Only true bravery will withstand such a breaking experience while the rest will fizzle out without a trace remainder. Everybody has a right to be scared but only the brave can overcome their fears to triumph. People somehow have the wrong notion bravery resides in aggression, attitude and temperament. It rather rests in the unflappability of human spirit and unyielding steadfastness to principles in the face of monumental adversities. And unlike the popular myth, bravery has got nothing to do with morality and righteousness. The only thing bravery is concerned about is the belief of its bearer.

The trio of Robin, Daniel and Andy may not be the best of the saints living around the town, but that doesn’t justify a pre-judgement about their reactions to the situation they find themselves in. Fate has finally caught up with them to test their true mettles.

“The damn engines won’t start again. I don’t know what’s happening,” Robin finally gave up trying to start the engines.

“Lets’ go and check the engine room,” Daniel suggested.

“What happened? Are we stuck now?” Andy was getting a bit panicky.

They all walked down to the engine room to have a look and realized all the engine oil had leaked.

“Damn! That looks like engine oil! The pistons must be jammed now!” Daniel exclaimed.

“Can you do something Andy?” Robin took a couple of moments before he asked.

“Me? No way! I am an engineer, not a mechanic. Besides, all my knowledge is theoretical. Man, we are stuck. What will we do now? We will perish at seas and no one will know. I should have stayed back with Clara,” Andy panicked real big time.

“Relax Andy! Relax! We are not stuck yet. Let us sit down, relax and think of a way out,” Robin tried to calm him.

“Oh yes! I am sorry! How can I forget we have a motor boat? Let’s get on it and get back to Hatsu. Quick,” Andy wasn’t thinking clearly anymore.

“Andy, we cannot do that. You know we can’t carry enough fuel on the motor boat, we will get stuck,” Robin reminded him.

“We have got plenty of fuel on the woods. We will toe them along,” Andy still wasn’t thinking about what he is saying.

“We can’t. Motor boat doesn’t have an engine that will pull the weight of the wood,” Daniel got a bit irritated.

“Great! Then we are dead,” Andy burst out equally.

“Now relax you two and let me think about something. Lets’ get on the deck in the open and analyse the situation rationally,” Robin said, “And Andy, panicking won’t help either. So relax. If we are stuck, we are stuck, there’s no way out. So calm yourself and start thinking.”

But it wasn’t easy to calm a man who has panicked enough to die of a heart arrest. Andy kept muttering nonsense as they walked up to the deck. They all looked at their boat and the load they were towing.

“What a jerk Steve is, he’s created a mess for us while he happily lives with a chick on a warm beach,” Daniel set the tone for the next bit of conversation.

“He wasn’t the one sailing across the seas. Now he’s got us all killed,” Andy added.

“He is the dumbest man on this planet. Didn’t he know none of us knows how to fix this damn thing especially since Nakata is no longer amongst us?” Robin minced no words either.

“What does he care? He’s got a chick to start a new family and forget about the rest,” Daniel added as they continued to bicker about Steve and his idea of pulling wood to Antarctica. None of them realized that the wood thanks to its’ inherent buoyancy unlike metal had actually sailed past their boat sheerly by the force of wind and stopped only because it failed to tug the heavy boat along with it.

“If someone were to ask him now, who is responsible for killing us innocent men at sea? He should be forced to swim and tow that load to Antarctica,” Daniel said as he pointed towards the expected spot for the wood, “Damn, where’s the wood?”

Everybody turned around and looked at the missing wood and then turned the other way and noticed it floating ahead of their boat.

“Its’ sailed past us, how?” Andy exclaimed.

“I would rather put it this way; it sailed past us, wow!” Robin replied as his eyes lit up.

“Great! Lets’ hop on the motor boat and take our stuff over to the wood and travel the rest of the way on it,” Daniel said.

“I am so glad, we are safe,” Andy said.

Without an adequate thought or planning, they grabbed their stuff and transported it to their wooden vehicle and left the LCM on its’ own fate, alone in the middle of the sea. They toed the motor boat besides them with an intention of using it for fishing. The very next day they were caught in the rain and without protection. As they huddled together under a layer of wet blankets and folded sails, clinging on to the uncomfortable wooden base they were sitting on by the side of oil laden drums, they cursed Steve again for putting them in this mess. Little did they think, had they pulled the motorboat up above the wood, they could have overturned it made a temporary shelter from rain.

Two days of intermittent rain was followed by a windy afternoon. They had wandered off their intended course and lost their way. The overcast skies for the next week, followed by a full moon didn’t help their case either. A day later, they woke up to find their motor boat adrift in the sea, a couple of miles away from their wooden abode.

“Why is this happening to us?” Andy cried out.

“Relax Andy, I know the situation is tough but we can still feed ourselves and we still can sail back to our home,” Robin tried to calm him down.

“It looks like we will finally be having a bright sunny day. Let us put the sails on,” Daniel said. They all put the sails up again. Two days later, the seas ran out of wind.

“Damn! I’ve never heard of more unfortunate circumstances in my whole life and in the wildest of stories,” Robin lamented.

“How are we ever going to make it back to our home if this is to continue unabatedly, one trouble after the other?” Andy was too keen to press the panic button to miss the opportunity.

“That boat thing of ours, it never let us realize all these hardships all along while it was still working,” Daniel added.

“Thank GOD we haven’t run into a storm yet,” Andy said.

“Wait! What did you say?” Daniel rose up like a wild tiger.

“What? I just said we are lucky not have run into a storm,” Andy said as he was taken aback by this sudden aggressiveness of Daniel.

“No! I am asking about the other word you used,” Daniel nearly shouted as he put his hands on his waist and stared down in Andy’s eyes.

“What? What did I say? I just said thank GOD,” and Andy stopped at that word and thought about what he was referring to.

“That’s exactly right, that is the word I am talking about. Have you gone nuts like Clara? You say that word again and I will toss you in the sea,” Daniel roared.

“I don’t know why I said it but,” Andy became quite for a few seconds before he continued, “Why do I feel someone is testing us? Someone is telling us we have been doing something wrong? Why do I feel someone is watching us?”

“You have gone nuts,” Robin roared as well, “Just keep your mouth shut if you can’t say one decent word.”

Andy became silent and went into deep retrospection while the other two discussed how that diary of Lieutenant Hahn had corrupted everyone’s minds. Andy however didn’t hear a word of what they were saying.

Windless they waited for two days more when finally a slight breeze started flowing, followed by a windy afternoon. Their misery continued to first follow and then accompany them. The redone sails out of the worn predecessors finally gave way and were torn to shreds, leaving them rudderless in ruthless seas.

“Damn, now we are dead,” was all Robin could say.

“What do we do now? With the sails we were still making progress, however slow it might have been, but now we are stuck?” Daniel joined in but Andy was quiet. Robin and Daniel lamented and lamented but Andy was neither listening to them, nor panicking anymore.

“How can you be so calm Andy? You were the one who knew first hand we are dead, why are you quiet now?” Daniel nudged Andy as if trying to get some sympathizing words out of him to build up his own deserting strength.

“Andy, are you all right?” Daniel asked again when he didn’t get an answer from him. He shook him vigorously and asked the same question again.

Andy finally woke up from his slumber and said, “We won’t die guys!”

“What do you mean? How can you be so sure?” Daniel asked.

“I don’t know, but there is someone watching us and testing our strength and patience. If we had to die, we would have died by now,” Andy said.

“Fear has gone to your head and made things hazy in there. I regret even asking you,” Daniel retorted.

“You can say whatever you want to Daniel, but I somehow feel there is something more powerful than us, something that is watching over us,” Andy replied.

“What you are talking about is your hope. It’s your hope that is making you think positive in the face of adversity and giving you a false sense of security. We are alive just because we haven’t run into a storm so far,” Robin replied to Andy’s assertion.

“But now even hope can do little. Under current circumstances we can drift for years on the sea without getting to where we want to. We will survive as long as we can harvest and save water and as long as we can get some food, not to mention as long as this wooden bundle stays together,” Daniel described the whole situation in plain words. However, the discussion with Andy calmed down the nerves of the two senior members onboard and they went back to finding a solution.

Meanwhile back at the Adelaide shores Steve was still trying to come to terms with him being stuck behind with a woman he was no longer interested in, his heart longing to see his wife and new born child. Infact Clara’s face only flamed his furry every time it appeared in his sight. They hadn’t spoken a word to each other ever since the rest sailed towards their home. Clara however understood Steve’s resentment of her and did her best not to invite his wrath in any form. Clara used to fish for herself and Steve used to do the same for himself. With Clara’s advancing pregnancy she may have used a little bit of help but that was not to be the case. She was alone with her Nakata while Steve was alone with his frustration. She on her part made it a point to filter the water for their consumption daily which Steve reluctantly used, primarily because they had no other set of apparatus available. While Clara used to spend her time infront of the now collapsed Church praying to her GOD and then returning to the buried Nakata’s side, Steve used to wander aimlessly in the sand mounds, street directory in his hand, digging here and there every now and then not knowing what he needed. Perhaps that was the only way he could have let his frustration out.

One day Clara nearly drowned in the sea fishing as her foot slipped on a submerged rock. She struggled to get back on her feet, crying and fighting the waters vehemently, fighting for the life that was taking shape inside her, while Steve watched from the shore unmoved.

“What a man are you?” Clara’s furry erupted as she walked past him crying. But Steve didn’t say a word.

A few days went by when one night Steve didn’t return from his meaningless wanderings. Clara got concerned. She waited for him till the break of the dawn without blinking an eye. The morning light brought more concerns and questions for her. “What happened to Steve? Where is he? Is he in trouble? What should I do? What can I do? Should I go and search for him? How will I find my way?” were the questions taking their turns wrecking every bit of peace and sensibility that still prevailed in her mind. Finally she made her decision and gathered all her strength, without caring for her own physical condition, and set out to find Steve in a desert that was about to start burning. The unfamiliarity with the maze of sand-dunes, her condition, and the weight of water she carried along, all collaborated to make her progress slow.

“Steve! Steve! Where are you? Please answer me?” she kept repeating, drying her throat quicker than normal and draining her water resources quickly.

As the sun rose higher and higher and the heat started to burn her skin like dried moss, she realized she had less than half the water left on her. She looked around and realized she doesn’t remember the way back. She however was prepared for it as she could still vividly recall each and every detail of Andy’s experience. She started her march back to the beach in the westerly direction. She walked and walked, still calling out for Steve, hoping he will hear her. Her water ran from container to a trickle and then to a drop as she hit the beach. There was water all around her, water she could have drowned in if she wanted to but water that couldn’t have been drowned into her how desperate her need might have been.

She dragged her feet towards north hoping to be heading in the right direction, still calling for Steve, without getting any answer. She called and called and called, until her lips dried out and failed to make a sound. Her overburdened frame slowly sank into the sand and her eyes closed themselves.