Page 2 - Lustgarten Presentation_Leviathan

Leviathan
The crash of the high swells into the hull beneath my feet sent a jolt through my legs, leaving me with sudden but fleeting alarm. There was an eerie silence traveling through the wind, almost as if there wasn’t a sound in the world. I locked my eyesight onto the fuzzy horizon as I created a list in my head of all I’d left behind. My wife, Evelyn, and my daughter, Emma. Emma, only six years old, had already grown used to my leaving for extended periods of time. She had an astute understanding that Daddy would always return home. In fact, she had been fascinated by the ocean ever since she was a toddler, old enough to comprehend the stories I’d recite to her at bedtime. Her favorite, by far, was that of the Leviathan.
I should clarify that I am not a religious man. I am merely a deckhand on a whaling ship. My own mom and
pop never forced a Bible or a God on me, and Evelyn and I decided to raise Emma the same way. Sure, we’ll go to the Orange Street Church for the annual Christmas fair if I am fortunate enough to be home for the holidays, but that’s about all we partake in. It wasn’t until my first captain, Captain Dorsey, told me his first-hand account of laying his eyes on such a creature that I ever indulged in its origin. But between shifts on deck, I must admit I’ve found my nose nuzzled in the Old Testament or in the captain’s diaries to pique my intrigue about such a species that could lurk below us.