A strange thing happened to me my first night on board the Vulcania. I had spent the day getting my cabin in order. I had unpacked my boarding trunk and hung my clothes neatly in the wardrobe. A deck steward who seemed magically to know that I was done came and whisked my now empty trunk into storage.

The compact bookcase/computer desk combination I had brought with me fitted well into the cabin décor. It was secured so that it wouldn’t move should we encounter rough seas. My books, several small volumes of Mary Oliver’s poetry, A Trail Through Leaves by Hannah Hinchman, WatercolorPencil Magic by Cathy Johnson, and Into your Digital Darkroom by Peter Cope, had been stowed and strapped in place so they would not come sliding out in the aforementioned heavy seas. My laptop fitted snugly into its compartment. To the right of it, there was room enough for my journal, colored pens and pencils, and other assorted paraphernalia.

I was tired after a full day of arrival and preparation so I slipped early into my bunk style bed. My body seemed to float beneath the colorful down quilt. The design was that of pale blue, tropical waters…a sea with silky wavelets where a myriad of small tropical fish left rainbows in their tiny wakes.

It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep. When I awakened it was dark, except for the moon spotlighting a path through the porthole and onto my pillow. I could not tell what had awakened me except that I thought I heard a voice, one that I could not identify. Out of habit, I looked for my watch but remembered that L’Enchanteur had suggested we leave all time pieces ashore. We would be sailing, she said, by Lemurian time; timeless time is the way she described it. An interesting concept to say the least.

I heard the voice again, or I thought I did. “Who is there?” Looking around, I saw nothing except a diffused green glow on the foot of my bed. I sat up quickly pulling the quilt with me and causing the glow to tumble off the bunk and onto the deck.

“Hey, watch out,” the voice said, “I’m not so young any more and my arthritis…well, it’s been a cold winter, even in Arizona.

What the heck? I was by this time getting a little nervous and beginning to question my sanity.