There's a Ship in the Woods [Part 14]

Day 21 at the Cabin

It felt good to see Otis again. Something normal, or at least normal enough to not spike my anxiety. And he brought what I asked. The binoculars, he said, are made for specifically for bird watching so that will be a nice addition to my dwindling pass times. And he was able to score me two gallons of gasoline. While I poured one into my tank, we started up a light conversation.

"Keepin' well?" He lit up his pipe.

"As well as I can." I emptied the can and locked the second one in my car. "There were some hunters or something out here. Shooting and messing with me." I didn't want to tell him everything, mostly cause I was already doubting my own memory about the whole ordeal from the other day. He just nodded his head as the embers glowed bright in his pipe.

We went inside and he helped put up some groceries, and helped himself to the tomatoes again. I got some ramen cooking for myself and he spoke up after licking the juice from his fingers.

"How's the hand? And your eye, Vinny, what did you get in to?" He sounded stern but compassionate. How I think a father should talk.

I touched my gloved hand under the injured eye. The glove hasn't been taken off since I put it on. "It's been alright." I flexed my hand under the glove and winced as I felt a scab pull taut. "And a branch fell on my face. But the blood will clear up after a while, no big deal."

"You're alright at dealin' with injuries," he gestured for me to hold out my hand, "but you can't be ignoring them." He pulled at the glove and everything was fine til it passed the heel of my hand. A white hot flash of pain flared over my palm and I had to bite down hard on my cheek to keep from yelling in his face. His good eye widened slightly and he huffed before holding up another pipe. "Bite down on this, lad." When I did just that he ripped the glove away completely.

At some point the bandages must've given up and ended up bunched against themselves, which left the wool of the glove to press freely in to the cut. It had partially healed around the small, loose bits of fabric. Pulling it had torn away the healed skin with it. Otis shouted some expletive but his voice was drowned out by the ringing in my ears. I was vaguely aware of the warm blood flowing down my wrist and fingers.

Soon I realized I was sat in the living room and Otis was muttering some apologies as he wrapped up fresh bandages around my hand. I know I tried saying it was okay but I don't think the words went farther than the back of my throat. More things became clear and I saw him drinking from a flask. My vision was still swimming and I could've sworn his beard was green instead of white and the floor was swirling like a whirlpool. When he noticed I had more or less returned to reality, he pushed himself up from his chair.

"I'm leavin' some bandages with ya this time, lad. Clean that wound up at least once a day and put fresh bandages round it." He hobbled to the door. I didn't really want him to go but I couldn't find my voice. His hand landed on the door before he added, "Storm's comin', a big one. Better batten down the hatches, lad." And he left.

I really didn't know what to do with myself after he was gone. The loneliness crept in fast, especially as I ate the remains of my cold ramen. The ship groaned low and long when the wind picked up and I dared to go up on the deck. There was a constant rush of frigid air. With the binoculars in hand I wanted to try and spot something today. And I saw a blue jay, blue like a sunny day. He stood out stark against the cloudy sky which made it easy to track him. Unfortunately I lost him when I did a double-take at a tree I thought I had seen a face in, but it was just normal bark and then I couldn't find the bird again.

Thought whistling would help. Blue jays don't really whistle but it's the best I could do. The wind picked up harshly and I surrendered back down. What's that thing called where you see faces in stuff? Briefly forgot I could actually use this dumb laptop to look things up. Pareidolia. Happens to me a lot, which is sort of funny to me cause sometimes I can't recognize the face in the mirror. There's also some, it's prosopagnosia. Face blindness is what I was thinking of. Out town has this local annoyance who has this. He's just a dumb nuisance, but at least he stays far away from my house and the college.

I want to keep going on tangents cause I don't want to go to sleep yet. Once again I am forgoing my comfortable bed for the couch since it's even windier now. I'm not sure when it's gonna storm, I just hope it doesn't last long. I really wanted to ask Otis again about the captain's quarters, but I don't think he really could've given me any more insight. Guess I'll just deal, and try to sleep. Til next time.