On the Ghost Ship
Lollipop
it’s a sweet trip
to your final stop …
“Is it always this tranquil out here?”
The weathered old sea captain pondered his pipe. “It’s always deathly tranquil out here,” he said through a puff. “Or deathly, not.”
She was taken aback by his response.
Her companion began rubbing her shoulders. “I think,” he said, “that what the captain is saying, is … the sea’s in a constant state of change. There is no ‘always’.”
He stopped rubbing and turned to the captain for approval.
The skipper grinned a little around his pipe. “Yeah, that’s it.” His smile faded quickly. “That’s mostly it.”
The couple exchanged a glance. She asked with her eyes, and he answered with a shrug.
She sighed, and again addressed the captain. “How far do you think we can see?”
He did not react to her inquiry, but stared off into the water.
She looked at her companion.
“Captain?” he said.
“Oh … yes … what can I …”
“Mae was wondering …”
“Lovely name, May. I once knew a girl … a pretty little thing. I think that was in May.”
“It could have been April,” the younger man said, with a wink to his lady. “I hear she was also―”
“Humph!” The captain bit down on his pipe. “Never cared much for that woman,” he said, “and April never cared all that much for me.”
“I … I had no idea …”
“Quite an unpleasant memory, actually. Thanks for bringing it up.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Aye, that you are. But you’re a paying fare … and it wouldn’t do to point that out.”
“Point what out?”
The captain declined to speak, other than with his eyes.
“That you’re sorry,” the woman connected the dots for him.
Her companion appeared confused. “I said that.”
And she looked flustered herself.
The captain’s gaze struck out over the sea.
A shape on the horizon caught the younger man’s attention. “What’s that, Captain?”
“Where?” the woman said. “I don’t see …”
“Is it another ship? Or is it like … an iceberg or something?”
“Humph!” exhorted the captain. “Icebergs don’t follow ships.”
“That’s a relief,” she said. “I can think of a few iceberg-and-ship incidents that have ended really badly.”
“They usually do.”
“So,” the man said, “it’s a ship?”
“And it’s following us?” she added.
The captain removed the pipe from his mouth. “That ship is the Lollipop.”
The younger man smirked. “The Lollipop, huh? That sucks.”
She laughed at his joke. “Oh Thad, you’re so― ”
“Humph!” The captain put the pipe back in his mouth. “You better hope the Lollipop isn’t following us. We all better hope it’s not following us.”
“Why?” she said. “Is it … some kind of ghost ship?” She covered her mouth as if to stifle a fake scream.
“Humph!” The captain’s disgust was palpable, they took him so lightly. “You better hope it never gets close enough to find out.”
He turned away and started to go.
“Captain?” Thad called after him.
The disinterested skipper waved him off as he continued to walk away.
The couple looked at each other, perplexed.
“What,” Thad said to her, “do you suppose that was about?”
She pointed out over the rail, at the far-off object. “Either it was about that thing, or a cranky old man … or both.”
“Hmmm … whatever it is … I trust the captain. He may a gruff old sea-dog … but he knows what he’s doing. He’ll keep us safe.”
“Who said they felt unsafe?”
“Didn’t you?” he said.
“I said no such thing.”
“Oh, well then …”
“Well what?” She crossed her arms.
“Well in that case … I suggest we check out what’s going on in the galley. I heard there’s all-you-can-eat, fresh caught seafood tonight. I bet it’s ready.”
“I thought something smelled fishy,” she said. “Maybe it’s the galley … and maybe it ain’t.”
She had a hard time letting go of the distant ship as he led her away.
“Good morning, sunshine.”
“Good …” she groaned under her breath. “… good morning. Why is it so hot in here?”
“I noticed the air conditioning had stopped in the night. It did get stuffy, fast.”
“I’m thirsty.” She threw the covers off and slipped into the bathroom. “There’s no water from the faucet. And the lights don’t work either.”
He reached over and tried the lamp on the bedside table.
“Hmmm … something’s going on …”
“Well nothing electrical is,” she said.
“Cute. Guess I’ll go see what I can find out. You want to come?”
“Captain!” Thad accosted him.
They approached the old skipper. “Just the man we wanted to see.”
“You want to see me?” The captain puffed his pipe and smirked. “I’m flattered.”
“Can you tell us what is going on?”
“Yes … I can.”
The three stared at each other in a moment of awkward silence.
“Then,” she said to the captain, “would you mind?”
He puffed his pipe some more.
“Telling us?” Thad attempted to clarify.
The captain removed the pipe from his mouth. “Well … we’re having a little problem down below.”
“I’ll say,” she said. “Nothing works in our cabin.”
“April …” the captain began.
“Her name is Mae,” Thad said.
“I can answer for myself,” she reprimanded him. “I’m Mae.”
“Ah yes,” the captain grumbled. “I used to like May … but I’m caring for it less and less, I have to admit.”
She gave him the eye. And when she noticed Thad’s amusement, she shot him an evil eye too.
“Humph,” the captain said. “Have you looked around, Miss?”
“Yes, I―”
“Nothing works in anyone’s cabin. The entire boat is dead … dead in the water.”
“Dead in the water?” Thad said. “Captain? But how can that be?”
The captain took a long draw from his pipe, and then slowly released the smoky breath. “How to end up dead in the water … let me count the ways. The trick, let me tell you, is how not to die in the water.”
The young man watched fear sweep over his girl.
“And it ain’t easy,” the captain continued. “I wouldn’t take that outcome for granted.”
“Captain, is this really necessary? Talking like that … look, now she’s―”
“She’s what?” Mae said, crossing her arms.
“Uh-oh,” the captain said, with a bemused grimace. “Now you’ve done it.”
“Done what?”
“You know,” the captain said to him, and then winked at the woman.
She studied Thad for his reaction.
“I … don’t agree with that,” he bumbled. “I didn’t say―”
“How long will it take?” she demanded of the captain.
“To what?”
“To get the ship fixed, or whatever.”
“That,” the captain said. “is the big question.”
“Well then, WHY don’t you answer―”
The captain’s stare stopped her in her tracks.
“I don’t know how long it will take. We all want to get back underway. It could be awhile.”
“Captain,” Thad said, “I’m sure you’re doing all you can, but … we have reservations already booked at our destination …”
“I understand you having some reservations.” The captain was pipe puffing and smirking again. “We’re doing all we can.”
And he turned and left, before they could trouble him with any more of their troubles. Humph!
A loathing ocean churned and turned.
“Are we having fun yet?”
“Are you?” he asked.
“What do you think?”
“Well, I’m sure you miss the air conditioning …”
“I do,” she said.
“And I’m sure you miss running water …”
“I do.”
“And refrigeration …”
“I do.”
“And not peeing in a bucket and having to dump it over the side after …”
“I do.”
“It would be the perfect time,” he said, “if I wanted to … to ask you to marry me … since you keep saying ‘I do’ … wouldn’t it.”
“No,” she said. “No it wouldn’t. I’m hot … and dirty … and grungy …”
“So that makes you disagreeable?”
“A little.”
He looked quizzically at her.
“Okay,” she admitted. “A lot.”
“Then never mind.” He grinned. “I could never marry someone who’s that high maintenance.”
“You know, pee’s not the only thing we’re dumping into the ocean, Thad. What you are is getting dumped over the side too.”
“Aw … that stinks.” He held his nose. “Keep your bucket away from me.”
“My bucket asked that you be kept away.”
“Tell your bucket,” he said, “that I’m in a sensitive place right now … I’m hot … and dirty … and grungy …”
She sighed and sat back in her deck chair. “WHEN are they going to fix this ship? I’m starting to worry.”
“Aw … don’t worry. We’re in good hands.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Seriously, the captain seems to really know what he’s doing―”
“If he knew what he was doing,” she cut him off, “we wouldn’t have been adrift at sea for―”
“Two days.” The captain had come up behind them unnoticed. “Aye, it’s been two days.” He puffed his pipe. “It’s true that I know what I’m doing.”
“And still,” she said, “here we are.”
“Aye. We are here.”
“Captain,” Thad said. “Nobody meant any insult …”
“Awww, there was none taken. Believe me, I wish I knew I was doing something better.”
“So what are you doing now?”
“Relaxing on the deck,” the captain said. “Smoking … and chit chatting.”
“Have you radioed the Coast Guard?”
“The guard of what coast, son? We’re out in open water … there’s no coast to be found.”
“Shouldn’t you still radio someone?” she asked.
“I definitely still would,” the captain said, “except that old radio is dead, too. Battery back-up and all.”
“It IS?” she wailed. “How is that even possible?”
“It’s just dead.” He smirked that smirk around his pipe. “Death is like that. It just happens. It just is.”
She wrapped her arms around her companion.
“That’s a cold way to put it,” Thad said.
“At least you got a nice hug out of it, fella. There’s much worse out there. You better count yer blessings.”
“It’s getting closer, isn’t it.”
“I think it is. But it’s almost night and … it seems to get closer at night.”
“Do you think they’re bringing help?” Mae asked. “Maybe we have the Lollipop all wrong.”
“That sounds like wishful thinking. I wish it were so, but … I get a creepy feeling seeing that rusty old ghost ship out there. Like it’s stalking us, you know?”
“That’s a comforting thought.”
“Hey, if you want comfort,” Thad grinned, “get a dog.”
“Since I’ve been stranded at sea for days, a dog’s sounding pretty good right now. Mmm … hot dog.”
“Well I don’t want to be the dog, so don’t be getting any ideas.”
She took his hand and pretended to bite it. “Bark for me … come on … bark for me.”
The cabin shook violently.
It shook them awake.
“What … what was that?”
“Did we hit something?” Thad said, sitting up next to her in the dark.
“Silly,” Mae said. “There’s nothing out here to hit … just us and water.”
The ship shook again, and thereafter continued a deep, structural pounding that they felt as well as heard.
“Well,” he said, “I think we’re hitting on something.”
“Or,” she said, “something’s hitting on us.”
They moved to the window.
“There’s nothing out there,” she said.
“So whatever it is, must be on the other side of the boat.”
He left the window, and she heard him rummaging for clothes.
“I don’t know about you, Mae … but I’m going to check it out.”
They stood on deck. Frozen.
“Uh-oh,” he whispered. “This can’t be good.”
“The Lollipop.”
The ghost ship was run alongside theirs, bumping and grinding, as dark and foreboding as the night-time sea at their keel.
“I … I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s just as well,” Mae said. “I don’t know what I want to hear.”
“It’s really … right … here. Unbelievable.”
“Where’s the captain? Where’s the crew? And the passengers?”
“You mean,” he said, “our captain and crew? Or the Lollipop’s?”
“You’re not helping, Thad. This place is deserted … could we be the only ones who heard―”
“Hun … I think I see … one of the passengers.”
“You see what? How can you see anything at all, it’s so dark out here. Oh … MY.”
A little girl was peaking over the rail of the Lollipop, looking down at them.
“Um … hello … hello, there.” Mae spoke in her gentlest voice.
The little girl held the couple in her gaze, seeming reluctant to speak.
“Hi there,” Thad said. “Don’t be …” He swallowed hard. “Afraid.”
She smiled.
A little.
The woman nodded, urging him to continue.
“What are you,” he said, “out for a boat ride? Hmmm … us too, I guess.”
The little girl smiled a wider.
“I think you’re getting somewhere,” Mae whispered to him.
“Never underestimate my charm.”
She rolled her eyes.
The girl stood up taller. “Can you help me?” she said, her voice of sweet and innocence.
“What’s that?” Thad said. “Whats the―”
“Can you help me?”
“We’d like to try,” Mae said, “if you would just tell us what is―”
“You CAN’T help me.” The girl began to sob.
“I said we’d like to help―”
“You CAN’T help me.” She stopped sobbing. “You CAN’T even help YOURSELVES!”
The couple jumped, startled as they were dumbfounded.
And the little girl ran away crying.
“Getting on this boat might not be the best idea I’ve ever had.”
“You mean,” he said, “getting on our boat? Or getting on the Lollipop, just now?”
“Yes,” she said. “Take your pick.”
“It’s so dark … you got that flashlight?”
“Yeah. I’ve been saving it―it’s our last battery.”
“Well, save it as long as you can.”
“I plan to. Did you see where she went?”
“She ducked into a doorway,” he said. “I think it’s that open doorway over there.”
“Most of the doors are open,” Mae said.
“I know. Spooky. But that’s the one, over next to the fire extinguisher … see the fire extinguisher on the wall?”
“I see it.”
“Maybe we should call to her,” he said.
“Okay. Little girl! Little girl!”
“She HAS a name, you know.” He grinned at her. “We just don’t happen to know what it is.”
“So … ‘little girl’ then?”
“Sure, why not.”
She resumed calling to her. “Little girl! Little girl!”
There was nothing but dead silence upon silence.
“I don’t think we should be in here.” She aimed the flashlight’s beam into the impossible darkness. “Do you know where we are?”
“In an old ship’s innards?”
She shivered. It was cold, getting colder. “Don’t say it that way … it makes it sound like we’ve been swallowed up.”
“Haven’t we been?”
She whacked him with the flashlight. “Knock it off.”
“You knock that off,” he said. “Break that flashlight, and we’re never going to find our way out of here.”
“That’s a good point. Sorry. I should have hit you with something else.”
“Just remember for next time.”
They crept on.
“Do you think,” she said, “the Lollipop is really a ghost ship?”
“I suppose it could be just a ship … a ship that apparently stalked our boat, without the benefit of any power or propulsion … or crew, or passengers … other than the one spooky little kid?”
There was a ‘clang’ up ahead.
“One spooky little kid?” she said.
“Only one way to find out. Little girl … little girl …”
A song of sobs wafted toward them.
“Yep,” he said, “that’s her.”
They hurried ahead.
“Let’s not lose her again,” Mae said.
“Wait,” he said, pausing to listen.
She stopped behind him. “I almost ran into you.”
“Shhh …”
“Sorry.”
The sobbing had gotten louder.
“I think she’s in here.” He pointed into the doorway on the right.
The woman nodded and they both headed right.
“Wait,” she said, stopping him. “Now it’s coming from the left.”
So they went to the left.
The sobbing grew louder.
They wound through a series of compartments and bulkheads.
“There!” he said. “There she is.”
The little girl stood crying in a doorway ahead of them.
They froze.
“We just want to help you,” Mae said to her. “Please don’t run away.”
The little girl stopped sobbing and looked up at them. “You can’t help me.”
Her words hit them as a frosty winter chill.
“It’s gotten so cold in here,” Mae shivered, rubbing her arms.
“It sure has,” he said. “Why won’t you let us try and help you?” he asked of the girl in the doorway.
“You CAN’T even help YOURSELVES!” she shouted at them, and disappeared again into the depths of the ghost ship Lollipop.
“Here we go again,” he said to his companion. “Did you see which way she went?”
“Down the hall, and then I lost her …”
“Shine the light down the hall, then.”
“Okay, let’s go see.”
They went down the hall, through a couple more compartments, and stopped.
“I don’t see her anywhere,” he said. “I don’t know what to do.”
“You mean, you want to go back?”
“I mean, we can’t go on doing this forever, and … I’m not sure I even know which way back is.”
“You’re lost?” She started to cry. “How can we be lost? Down here in the dark … so scared, and cold … down here with God-knows-what.”
Something banged nearby.
“Did you hear that?” he said. “I think it’s our little girl.”
Something else banged.
A door slammed.
There was another bang.
Doors slammed. Many doors.
The sounds were all around.
“Oh my … is that ALL her?”
“That’s NOT just a little girl.” He took her hand.
The banging and slamming intensified.
“We’re getting out of here—let’s run for it!”
He started moving, and she scrambled after him.
“Which way?” she said. “I thought you were lost?”
“You just point that light ahead!”
They were in a full run, bolting through the horrible chaos.
“We’re screwed if you lose that light!” he warned her between gasps for breath. “Whatever you do, don’t lose that light!”
And no sooner had he said it, than the light … went out.
Ensconced in blackness, they had to stop running.
The noise ceased.
All except for a single, blood-curdling … hair-raising … SCREAM.
“The SS Lollipop,” the crewman read off the side of the ship that had run up alongside theirs. “You ever heard of it?”
“No,” another crewman said. “I don’t believe I have.”
“Captain?”
“I don’t think it’s going to help us catch any fish.”
“Captain?”
“I’m sayin’, we only just put out to sea … and we’ve been adrift now for hours without power … and we need to concentrate on getting this boat fixed and back to work. If we don’t get back to port with that hold full of fish like we’re supposed to … well, it’ll be our arses.”
“Aye Captain.”
“Aye Captain.”
“Well don’t just stand there … disregard this stray floater and get back down to the engine room!”
“But Captain … you ain’t interested in the least ‘bout what this ghost ship is doin’ here?”
“I’m interested in … FISH. Nothing more and nothing less … so get to it!”
“Aye Captain.”
“Captain, LOOK! There’s people aboard that ship!”
“What the―”
“There is, Captain! Look!”
“I’ll be damned, there is,” the captain said. “Ahoy there! Ahoy!”
A man and a woman, looking all the worse for the wear, stood at the rail of the Lollipop.
“I say,” the captain continued, “AHOY!”
“Can you help us?” called the man on the ghost ship. “Can you help us?”
“Most likely,” the captain said. “Why don’t you come aboard?”
The woman began to sob. “They can’t help us.”
“We can’t? Well we’d be happy to try―”
A little girl appeared at the rail with the other two.
“You CAN’T help us,” she said, turning to her shipmates. “They CAN’T even help THEMSELVES!”
The End
Copyright 2015 Cock and Bull Publishing, LLC
