15 April 2007

Scenes from the Flight Deck

He saw her face. That beautiful brunette with that cute smile, little twinkle in her eyes as she laughed, and those beautiful lips that were great to kiss. Her lips where moving and he could hear her voice say, "I love you and write you as you are gone. Give me one last kiss before you go."
He was confused and tried to say that he was right here and wasn't going any place. Yet just as he opened his mouth to say something instead a constant buzzing started to go off behind him. As he turned around to find the buzz it just go louder and louder. He tried to turn back to tell her to hold on, but she had disappeared from in front of him. Instead the world got very black and started to grope for light switch when a sharp pain came to his legs and a voice called out to him....

"Owww, god damn it."
His eyes popped open to the voice and to the feeling of a foot on his lower leg.
"Huh, Whaaa, where the hell am I?"
Sit up the little voice at the back of his mind called out.
"Okay" Another part of his mind said in return.
He sat up right when a sharp pain came to his forehead which caused him to slam his head back to the pillow. He then realized where the hell he was. Once more back on the boat and because the plane he was on was late he was on the bottom rack on one side of a six man cube. More thoughts started to come to his head and his mind started to spin up to speed. It was then that he realized the pain came from guy on the rack above him who was big footed and couldn't just swing out and fall out of the middle rack. His hand found the rack light and turned it on, that was when bright light startled him part of his mind said to turn it back off. The buzzing came back to his ears and he looked around. That was when he noticed his alarm clock up near the pillow on a little shelf that some one decided this rack was lucky enough to have. As more people stirred around him he felt for the little flip-flops that he wore to the shower and threw those out. He then pulled the little curtains that gave him some measure of privacy.
After pulling back the curtains he looked out and realized that no one else was stirring in his cube, so he picked up his clock and pushed the little button to shine light on the time.
"0500, What time did chief say we had to be in?"
"0630" came from some other part of his brain.
"Good if I can move fast enough there might be time to get breakfast in."
He rolled out of his rack and put his feet into the flip-flops. Stood up and stretch the stiffness out of his arms and legs. "Gosh those racks are never long enough to stretch out completely."
He then bent back down and took a chain off his neck. This chain held his dog tags and the key to his locker. Popping the lock off his rack and pop-up the cover which he was just sleeping on just minutes ago. Digging around he found the leather kit bag, his father had given him after checking into his first sea command. After closing the locker and lock, then pulling on the lock to make sure it actually locked he stumbled out of the compartment past others coming back from showering or just getting dressed.
The area was bathed in a red glow from the red lights in the passageway. The didn't hurt his eyes as much the white light that was his rack light. Into the head and finding the first empty sink. Put the kit bag down opening it up and pulling out the toothbrush and tooth paste.
About 10 minutes later after brushing his teeth and get a shave in he was back in front of his open rack this time feeling for a white t-shirt, pair of skivies, black socks, and the coveralls that were standard wear for in port. Stripping out of the t-shirt and Bahama shorts he wore to bed last night, then down to nothing as he pulled off the skivies he had worn since yesterday morning getting on the big C-40A that took him from the west coast to the east coast. 10 minutes later he was finishing up adjusting his boot laces when he picked up his clock and saw that the total morning ritual took about 40minutes. "15 minutes longer then normal. Can't let that happen too often." On out of the berthing compartment and down to the mess decks. Walking about 40 or 50 feet till he arrived at the outboard passageway he remembered from cruise two years ago and went out and down the ladder well that took him from the 03 level down to the second deck and the mess decks. All the way to the bottom he noticed there wasn't a line at all.
"What luck, I might actually be able to get some eggs and bacon in me before work instead of cereal."
Grabbing a tray and plate he walked down the line and scooped some scrambled eggs and bacon and healthy scoop of grits on to the plate. Walking past the grill with a cook that had a bored expression on his face, then past all the donuts and other breakfast pastries that the bake shop had made the night before. He arrived in another space which had various juice and soda machines set up. Grabbing a couple of plastic cups from the dispenser at the start of this line he walked past the fresh fruit.
"Oh joy they have oranges and they look pretty fresh and ripe. I think I will have two right now and save one for later in the day."
Grabbing 3 oranges off the pile that sat in the refrigerated tray, he went further down to one of the juice machines. Pushing the button for the fruit punch into both cups he went past everything else and went into the seating area. Finding a seat he sat down and started to shovel the breakfast down and was left to his own thoughts for a few moments. Those thoughts keep returning to her.
It was a few moments later and the ring of a bell and the ship's announcing system that told him the time.
"Reveille, Reveille, All hands heave up and trice too."
"0600, oh joy." He said to no one.
Going around to another part of the seating area he got in line to turn in his dishes. Dumping the scraps into the trash and handing off the pieces of his dishes to the various windows in the scullery. He got out of the line and started to walk further to find the ladderwell that would take him right up near his shop. But first he had to put the extra orange into his pocket, because technically taking food off the mess decks is bad juju.
"I might need it for later if I miss lunch, cause I don't know when the main ships store will open and it is healthier then the candy bars in the vending machines down here."
Getting up to the shop he realized that the door was shut and he didn't know the code to the cypher lock. Knocking on the door lead it to be opened by the new first class that had checked in a couple of months ago.
"Whats going on? How was the flight? Did you guys get any liberty time?" where the first few questions out of the PO1's mouth as both of them walked back into the shop and got settled.
"Not much, the usual, no we got in about midnight way past liberty expiration for all hands. I see the shop is set up. Beach det and early det do that?"
"Yea, Maintenance meeting is at 0645."PO1 said and guessing what the next question was. "What is that in your pocket?"
"Oh it is an orange I took off the mess decks for later. Do you want it?"
"Yeah, I didn't make it down to breakfast."
"You taking it or me? Or do you want to rock paper scissors for it and lose like you always do?" He asked. Basically wondering who was going to the maintenance meeting
The door swung open again startling both of them. The new shop chief that had checked in only 24hours prior to coming out on this adventure walked in.
"Where is the coffee?" He growled looking worse for wear then the other two in the space.
"So chief went out with the rest of the mess and tied one on. I wonder how bad he is hung over or was yesterday a special occasion because we are away from home and chief operates on a separate set of rules versus home?"
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Well that is it for right now. More will be written over the next few days. Just trying something different if you don't like this please feel free to comment in the comments box or via the email. Thanks for sticking around here folks.

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