A crashing ego
- 1. Megan Lewis Jade Smith Jonathan Young Caleb Supple Jordan A Crashing Ego It was a hot, beautiful day in Turkey. People gathering at the docks to say goodbye to the ones that were lucky enough to board the ship. This was brand new with smoke stacks as tall as buildings and the name “The Platypus” painted on the side. The local bands play trumpets by Jason Durulo and other hits from Kid’s Bop 23. The ship’s Captain, Captain D, lulls over the water, puffing his Cuban cigar. The ship blows its final horn as the engines rev and the ship moves forward. You can smell chicken noodle soup made in the kitchen for lunch time. You can hear the women gossiping and the children laughing. The gossip around the ship was how attractive the captain was and what his real name was. Nobody knew what the D really meant. There were theories of course, but all seems to fall short. After everyone on the ship gets their stuff together and everything unpacked, the whistle blows to let the people know that lunch was served. Captain D stalks the dining room to find the group of people he wants to have lunch with. He finally sits down with an Italian family with five beautiful women and their husbands. The families didn’t have children of course. The women seemed much too young for that. The men told stories and laughed with Captain D as the women slipped in a few words every now and then. This went on until late in the afternoon, just enough time for them to get a good buzz from the lunch wine. An hour after the ships departure, lunch with the captain begins. Any one and everyone is allowed to come to the table and ask the captain questions on any topic. Some questions were complex like " which is stronger, wolverines Adamantium claws or Captain Americas vibranium shield?" Other questions were simple like if the captain was a single man looking for something new and exciting. Even though all the questions were worthy of answers there was one question that was reoccurring that the captain refused to answer. The reoccurring question was, ."what does the D stand for in his name .Eventually, after hearing the question continuously the captain stands up takes a sip of his 40 year old scotch, takes a puff of his Cuban and takes a deep sighs.
- 2. He says "questions have been raised about my name , would a rose by any other name be so sweet ?" The passengers chuckle. He continues by telling them about his life as youngster. As a child the captain was a troubled child. He wasn't in the type of trouble that was felony worthy but he occasionally would knock over a streets worth of trash cans, and light bags of cow dung and leave them in peoples mailboxes. One day his uncle caught him participating in one of his acts of mischief and decided that it was his civic duty to punish him severely . His uncle locked him in his basement chained up for three days watching 'Crank that' by 'Soulja Boy' on repeat. He felt as if his brain was going to turn to mush. The doctors believed that if the computer didn't short out on the third day, around mid day, from the amount of ignorance that was constantly streaming through it, he would have become brain dead. He told the passengers how this event traumatized him to the point that he couldn't speak correctly for four years. When he finally regained the ability to talk he still couldn't say the alphabet without skipping the letter D, or words that started with a D . As a result all the people who hung out with him started calling him D to remind him to not forget that letter. His uncle was never arrested for the abuse because when the detective that was on the case would ask who did this to him he could never say the name , he would choke on the words. He hasn't tried to say any words starting with D since. After he told his story to the people of the ship some people were disappointed and thought that it was going to be a more entertaining story and make more sense. No one on the ship realized how long the story took to tell or how close they were getting to the coast . In Italy, the major canal has a current that pulls in anything and everything that in the direct path unless it is strong enough to fight the current. An alarm goes off on the ship, which was the proximity alarm that alerts the people when they are to close to anything dangerous. Panic moves over the whole ship and people start rushing around to figure it all out. When Captain D gets back to the control room, his worst fear comes to life. He is stuck in the canals current and the engine isn't strong enough to pull out of it. the captain hits the emergency overdrive button but it is no help. There is nothing else he can do so he comes over the ships intercom and tells the passengers to brace for impact. Expecting that the wreck is going to be a tragedy the captain comes over the intercom again and says " the story I told you about my name was a complete and utter lie , I don't even have an uncle". He goes on to say that the reason he lied is because his name is actually just D, no middle or last name just D. The ship keeps getting pulled in. He goes on to say that he was left on the community church's step as a baby and the pastor who
- 3. found him just named him D so that he would have something to call him but something that wasn't a complete title so he wouldn't get attached, incase someone came back for him. After three years of no one coming after him he decided to adopt him officially and decided not to call him by any other the name because he didn't want to confuse the child. So Captain D Grew up with a father and a family but no full name. The boat gets drug in the canal hits a rock and sinks. There were no survivors.