Habits

by

Myron Night

Chapter 6

That night, M. Vincent slept deeply, exhausted after his long day, worn out by his run.

A dream came to him just before he woke.

He was on a battleship running through dense fog, an ancient battleship with one massive gun barrel projecting from each of its turrets. Though old and crusty, the ship was large and powerful. In the fog it was impossible to tell where the ship was headed, but it kept on at full speed, the decks pounding with the vibration of its powerful engines. Not being able to tell where the ship was going filled M. Vincent with anxiety. He sensed another ship somewhere ahead of them in the fog, perhaps an enemy, and held his breath, expecting a collision.

But there was no collision. Instead, he saw the lights of another huge ship flashing by, steaming rapidly through the fog in the opposite direction. As soon as it had disappeared, he was unsure if he had imagined it.

His crew detected an enemy submarine in the water behind the ship and, aiming one of the huge gun barrels downward, fired a charge into the depths. A clear, gasoline-like substance floated to the surface, caught fire and burned brightly. The crew cheered.

M. Vincent was afraid they had been tricked by the submariners, who could have released the flammable substance to fool them. It was impossible to tell if the threat had been eliminated or if it remained unseen, beneath the water.

Then the sea became a large pond in the bright sunlight and M. Vincent was a small boy, playing with his toy battleship. If he brought the focus of his attention very close, the scale of his toy battleship became detailed and immense. It was as though he could walk its tiny decks just by focusing his will into a point, a locus of perception. Duckweed clung to the bows of the little ship.

M. Vincent looked longingly up the gravel road alongside the pond, hoping that his father, who was away at war on a real battleship, would come home. Then M. Vincent noticed his grandfather, an indistinct presence with silver hair, smoking a pipe and watching from the shore.