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myNotes
47 I woke feeling as if I hadn’t slept at all, head thrumming like a
symphony. I sprang off the bunk, eager to get the journal back to Kate
and talk to her. But it wasn’t until lunch that I had a chance. At breakfast
I was serving, and Kate’s chaperone, Miss Simpkins, was at the table the
whole time, and then she whisked Kate out before I could even hand her
the journal. Then there was the clearing up and the preparing for lunch.

48 Around midday we were passing over the Hawaiis, and the captain
slowed down and took us lower so the passengers could get a good look.
On other trips we sometimes made stops, but this was a direct passage,
so everyone had to content themselves with peering down at the lush
foliage and hearing the shriek of macaws and spider monkeys and

toucans and cockatoos; the heady scent of the islands’ flowers reached
us even at a hundred feet. We were close enough so people on the
ground waved and cheered, and bathers on the beach shielded their eyes
with tanned hands to look up at the great ship as it painted its massive
shadow over the sand and water.
49 We were cruising over the outer islands when the captain entered
the lounge, grinning.

50 “Ladies and gentlemen, a point of interest. Off the starboard side,
we’re passing Mount Mataurus, and, if I’m not mistaken, she is about
to erupt.”

51 Nearly everyone put down their forks and knives and rushed to the
windows. In the distance was the island with its volcano, a great heap
of stone, looking more like the devil’s anvil than anything, despite the
green hue of its lush vegetation. Great puffs of gray smoke were

billowing up from its jaws, and getting darker by the second.
52 “Thar she blows!” shouted Baz.
53 Black bits of rock came shooting out from the cone, and the sound
hit us a second later, a deep thunderous vibration that passed through
the entire ship and rattled the windows. We were upwind of it, or we
would have soon been choking on the ash and smoke it was venting
high into the sky.

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