GOD of a man

“All men are born equal, great men just stand up for what they believe in.”

Chapter Twenty Four: Stepping stones
Dated: May 2426

It’s easy to blame men for their fallibility in the face of testing times but to think of it, majority of the human population is in a never ending struggle of providing food and shelter to their families. In such a scenario the easiest and safest possible way of doing things is the way of least resistance. However it’s those who resist whatever is wrong with their society that are important. Depending upon their fate they may either end up wasted by the society and forgotten, or end up changing the society and long remembered. The only glitch is no one can decide their fate. One may decide to take things in his or her hands to sort out the kinks but there’s never a guarantee he or she will be able to finish what has been started.

Steve is one such man and Clara one such woman who have it in them to stand tall for what they believe and change the fortunes of those who associate with them. Their’s something in their attitude, something in their mental acumen, something about their way of doing things that makes them stand tall even amongst the crowd. However, that does not guarantee their survival if nature decides to stack its’ odds against them.

As Clara was finally broken down by the heat of reality that surrounded her and collapsed on the ground it wasn’t her who was in control of her destiny anymore. She was merely a puppet in the hands of nature that could destroy her like a dried leaf of the fall, trampled under a heavy foot. “Steve,” the last word that escaped her mouth before she fainted spoke volumes about the fighting spirit of this young lady who didn’t give up on what she had decided to undertake even when she was staring at her own untimely demise.

As Clara’s eyes shut for the light her fortune started to shine on her.

“Clara!” Steve emerged at the top of a sand dune and as soon as his eyes fell on Clara rushed straight to her side.

“Clara! Clara!” he tried to shake her up but when she didn’t respond he knelt beside her, his back facing the beach and his body blocking the sun that was burning Clara’s face. He turned Clara around and lifted her torso slightly and supported her back and neck on his knee. He pulled out what looked like his last container of water, moistened Clara’s lips a bit and sprinkled a few drops on Clara’s eyes.

“Steve! Where are you?” Clara’s faint voice answered to re assure Steve that she was still alive.

“I am here by your side Clara. Please wake up and open your eyes,” Steve shook her.

Clara finally opened her eyes and Steve straight away put the water container to her mouth. He supported the container and Clara managed to gulp a few sips of water.

“What happened to you and what are you doing here?” Steve asked.

Clara was a bit disoriented and took her time to re-access where she was and then finally replied, “I was looking for you. Where have you been all night? I was worried.”

“I was sleeping at a place I dug up yesterday. You wouldn’t believe what I found,” Steve said as his eyes lit up. Clara balanced herself on her own without the support of Steve’s knee and looked at what Steve had to show.

Steve pulled out a bunch of necklaces and other items of what looked like gold and diamond jewellery from one of his pockets, “I found a jewellery store. I found gold and diamond jewellery.”

“That looks pretty amazing,” Clara said as she took one of the necklaces in her hand and admired it.

“Clara, I am rich and I am going to give all this to wife when she comes over here,” Steve said as he looked on at Clara and then at the jewellery in his hands and then got lost in his thoughts for a few seconds. Tears rolled down his eyes, “Clara, she will come will she?” And the next moment, Steve the big man broke down and cried like a girl with his hands in his eyes, “I love my wife. I miss her. Now I will never see her again.”

Clara realized how troubled Steve was but there was nothing she could have done to change their current predicament, “Steve, hold on! She will come! Even she loves you! She will come along with your child and the rest of the people very soon. Stay strong!” Clara tried to comfort Steve, rubbing his shoulder and speaking all the wisdom she could conjure up for the moment. Steve was weak and needed support badly. Clara gave it to him, like a good old friend. All the hard feelings Steve had for Clara went down with the setting sun. They finally got up and walked to their camping site which Steve knew exactly by its’ location now as he had been scrolling the entire area for over a month now. Steve gave Clara the physical support she needed while Clara provided him the hope that he needed. They both hoped the other three would bring the rest of the people along with them to their new abode and it won’t take too long, little did they know the rest were battling their own fears and misfortune.

“Why is this happening to us?” Daniel cried out in frustration as he struggled to maintain his composure. The dawn of a new day had just woken him up to the harsh reality he would rather happily forget as a nightmare if he got a second chance at life.

“Relax Daniel, we need to think of something,” Robin tried to calm him down.

“What if we used a tree each to sail across the sea?” Daniel asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous! We won’t be able to balance ourselves on one single tree and plus it won’t be safe. Have you forgotten what happened with Clara on our trip the other way?” Robin almost rebuked him with his reply.

“Yeah, you are right. Plus we don’t have ores as well,” Daniel added to the answer for himself.

“Damn! I’ve even lost the count of days now,” Robin finally gave up on thinking as well.

“Why are you so quite and calm? How can you be so calm?” Daniel turned towards Andy and asked him with a seething rage as to how Andy wasn’t concerned about their safety and well being anymore.

Andy however didn’t answer. He was lost in his own thoughts when something came up in his head and he got up, walked around the drums and looked straight ahead.

“What happened? What are you doing?” Daniel got worried about Andy’s actions and he and Robin immediately followed him around to the front.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” was all Robin said as he and Daniel approached Andy who was standing at the front looking far ahead.

“Why are you quite? Why are you not saying anything? What happened?” Daniel asked with frustration at Andy clearly noticeable in his tone.

But Andy didn’t say a word. He just lifted his hand and pointed in a diagonal direction with his index finger.

“What are trying to say?” Robin asked as he craned his neck to have a look at what Andy was trying to point out but there was nothing he could see and so was the case with Daniel.

“Have you gone mad? What are you pointing at?” Daniel asked.

“GOD is sending us help,” Andy replied.

“You have gone nuts,” Daniel was infuriated, “You mention that word again and you are dead.”

Andy however didn’t need to say another word as a ship appeared on the horizon.

“What the hell is that?” Robin exclaimed.

“That’s a ship,” Daniel replied as he frantically started jumping and crying out for help.

“We are hallucinating. Our situation has gone to our heads and now we have started imagining things,” Robin said shaking his head, still not sure if he was awake or dreaming.

“Who could that be?” Daniel also became a bit cautious, “Is it really there or are we seeing what Andy is thinking?”

Many questions and a general sense of disbelief overtook their brains as they waited impatiently for the ship to sail closer.

“That’s impossible, Nakata?” Daniel screamed as he saw a familiar face on the deck of the approaching vessel, “Are we dead? He’s come on our ship to take our bodies!”

“Take hold of yourself you idiot. That’s not Nakata, that’s Ono,” Robin replied, “But what is he doing over here and who is he with?”

“The important thing is, he is here with who ever he is with,” Andy said.

“Oh the penguin skin sails! I missed them,” Daniel exclaimed as he identified the vessel as distinctly different from the one they deserted a few weeks back.

“I can see them. It’s them,” Ono started shouting towards the wheel house of his boat as Gary and Shiva rushed out of the wheel house.

“It sure is them but why do I see only three of them and where did they get all this wood from?” Gary asked.

“I think they’ve found a new land and that’s where they brought the wood from. But you are right I don’t see the rest,” Shiva replied.

“Where is Nakata? Where is my Nakata?” Ono realized his brother was missing from the scene and immediately lost his patience and cool. He started shaking with the stress resulting from the emotional turmoil. “I’ll go and check for him,” he said as he nearly climbed over the metal bars lining the deck and jumped into the sea without thinking.

“What are you doing? Have you gone mad? Do you want to die? We are going to dock with their watercraft pretty soon anyway,” Shiva spoke as he and Gary grabbed Ono from jumping into the sea in an attempt to get to Robin and the others on their craft, forgetting the fact that he can’t swim. But such is the power of love, it makes one forget one’s physical limitations and attempt the most unimaginable of acts, putting to risk all that one has even if it is their own life.

“Larry, turn the boat around and dock it on the other side of their wooden craft,” Shiva shouted towards the wheel house.

As their LCM went around the wooden aboard of the three men lost and found at sea, Ono’s prying eyes were frantically and desperately searching for any signs of his brother but to no avail.

“Where is he? Where is Nakata?” he kept murmuring, his eyes moist, as he craned his neck and lifted his body on his toes as if to get a better view of the high rise wooden bundle.

“Relax Ono, he might be sleeping or he might have been left with the other two at the other side of the sea,” Shiva tried to calm him.

“Left at the other side of the sea? What for and who dare do such a monstrosity?” Ono burst out.

“Calm down Ono, we don’t know anything yet. Lets’ not start assuming things without getting to the bottom of all this,” Gary tried to soothe Ono’s hyper state.

They soon docked with the wooden bundle and the three men climbed down the bundle on to the LCM one by one.

“Oh boy, am I glad to see your pretty faces?” Robin exclaimed as he embraced Shiva and Gary one after the other and then looked at Ono and hesitated for a moment before he finally took him in an embrace as well, “How are you Ono? Your brother sends you a lot of love.”

“My brother sends me a lot of love? Where is he?” Ono cried out instantly.

“He’s alright. He’s just at the other side of these waters along with Steve and Clara,” Robin said as he looked around and towards Daniel and Andy who were shocked to hear what Robin was saying and wondering why is he hiding Nakata’s death when he had made a different plan with them. Robin just looked them in their eyes and said a lot without saying a word. But Daniel and Andy were not the only ones who heard it. The message went across to Shiva and Gary as well.

“You see Ono! I told you your brother will be fine. Now lets’ get the men inside and sort out our next plan of action,” Shiva said clearly understanding that something was deeply wrong somewhere, “You know guys he is the one who dragged me, Larry, Gary, Vir and Susan into this search mission for the missing six of you. He hasn’t let us sleep in peace since the last three months.”

“Thanks Ono, you actually saved our lives. We’ve been stuck at the seas for the last six months now. Possibly even more, we’ve lost count,” Robin said as Daniel and Andy looked at him, still at loss as to what is he up to.

“Six months? It hasn’t been that long,” Andy said.

“Relax Andy. You badly need some rest to sort out your problems,” Robin exclaimed with a stern glare, “He hasn’t been feeling well of late. All this turmoil at the seas has affected his mental health and infected his thoughts with all kinds of rubbish including that about GOD.”

“We understand Robin but you don’t worry. Now that we have found you people, I am sure he will get better in no time once we get back home tomorrow,” Shiva said.

“Tomorrow? How far are we from shore?” Daniel was surprised.

“Not too far! We started our search only yesterday, the twenty ninth of May,” Gary replied.

“Wow! The wind must have pushed our craft towards the shore without us realizing it,” Daniel exclaimed.

“Perhaps it did,” Robin replied, “Perhaps the buoyancy of wood and the air getting trapped in the air spaces amongst the tree trunks pushed us slowly towards home.”

“How come we didn’t realize it?” Daniel asked.

“Perhaps because there are no landmarks at sea to know if we are moving or if it’s just the water passing by. The speed at which we must have travelled must have been too slow for us to judge from the changing position of night sky or the passing clouds,” Robin tried to figure out the logical explanation.

“Maybe you are right Robin but you must admit you were really lucky the wind pushed you towards home and not away from it or in some other direction,” Shiva said.

“That’s because GOD didn’t want us to get lost,” Andy stated.

“See, that’s what I meant,” Robin said as he pointed out Andy’s statement to the rest while Daniel looked at Andy with spite.

“Don’t worry Robin, we will work things out with him once we get back to the shore,” Shiva said patting Robin’s shoulder.

“Lets’ hope he gets better,” Robin said.

“By the way, why did you bring so much wood and what happened to the rest,” Shiva asked.

“Its’ a long story and I will tell you all a bit later but lets’ get moving towards our home,” Robin said.

“What about the wood?” Shiva asked.

“Lets’ just leave it here. We don’t have sails to toe it along and we don’t want to risk sabotaging our rescue boat too,” Robin replied.

“Don’t worry about our boat, Larry is with us. And you said you don’t have sails for it, well let me assure you we have brought two sets of spare sails. In fact if it wasn’t for the extra caution that we were using, we might have started at least four weeks early,” Shiva replied.

“Well if that is the case, lets’ put some sails on the wood and see if it can float on its’ own. But I won’t recommend towing it along. That is the mistake I made and risked our lives and I regret it from the deepest part of my heart. I hope Daniel and Andy will forgive me for putting their lives in danger,” Robin made a statement that raised the eyebrows of both Daniel and Andy.

“But why did you toe the wood along?” Gary asked.

“Well, to cut the long story short, when we reached the former Australian shores, Adelaide metropolitan shores to be exact, we found the radio activity levels to have dropped to below the maximum range for human survival. So I thought it might not be a bad idea to move over there with the rest of the population. So I asked everyone to collect and bundle trees that we could toe back to Hatsu Saisho for making a boat for us. Only Steve didn’t agree but thanks to the rest who worked diligently with me,” Robin played his first card.

“What? Why didn’t Steve agree?” Shiva asked, a bit surprised that Steve won’t agree to such a thing which was clearly in the benefit of the remainder of the human population.

“Agree with us, he used a gun to threaten us and made all of us do his biding by virtue of it,” Robin stated.

“A gun? Where did he get that from?” Shiva and Gary were shocked.

“I don’t know, perhaps from The Phantom. But all I know is that he used it to force us back on the ship and sail alone while he chose to stay back, making sure he will stay safe even if something was to happen to us. He forced Clara to stay with him saying he needed a nurse in case he was to get sick and all this with the barrel of his gun pointing at our heads,” Robin had finally started his game.

“Steve can’t do all that. I don’t believe you,” Shiva was shocked and refused to accept what Robin was saying at the face value.

“Don’t believe me, ask any of these two guys,” Robin said pointing to Daniel and Andy.

Daniel took the hint and joined him, “He is right. Steve is the biggest jerk I’ve ever known. He even got us lost in the sea when we were sailing towards the new land. He was angry for having been forced to undertake the mission and made his disenchantment loud and clear. In fact he even admitted dragging Robin along just so as to revenge Robin recommending his name for the mission. I wonder if he had set up Charles using his wife only for his revenge.”

“I don’t believe it. Look these are some serious allegations against a very senior, intelligent and beloved man of our community. Lets’ first get back to the shores and we will take it from there,” Shiva still couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Lets’ then get the new sails out and put them on the wooden load,” Robin said.

“You are right. Ono, will you bring the new pack of sails out and wake Susan up as well. It’s almost time for her shift at the wheel house,” Shiva said.

“What happened to Nakata? You are hiding something from us,” Gary asked as soon as Ono went inside.

“You are right. I was hiding something from you because of Ono. Nakata is no more,” Robin shocked Shiva and Gary with his disclosure.

“What?” was all Shiva could muster.

“He died of a food allergy on our way towards the new land and never made across the seas alive,” Robin said and continued, “I didn’t mention it earlier because I didn’t want to put Ono at risk. We don’t know how he would react and he might do something stupid.”

“No, you did the right thing Robin. We should not let him know about this, al least not until we have reached the shores,” Shiva agreed.

“By the way, who’s the President in you absence?” Robin asked.

“I abdicated the post to travel on this trip. The reigns are in the hands of Demetria now,” Shiva replied.

“Steve’s wife?” Robin was taken aback by the news.