I dreamt I was lying in a hammock, as formerly during my first years at
sea. Yves' hammock was near mine. We were swinging violently and his
became unhooked. Beneath us there was a confused movement of something
dark which it seemed to me was deep water, and he, Yves, was about to
fall into it. I stretched out my hands to save him, but they seemed to
have no strength, they were nerveless as in dreams. I tried then to
seize him round the body, to knot my hands about his chest, remembering
that his mother had entrusted him to me; and I realized with anguish
that I could not do it, that I was no longer capable of it; he was going
to slip from me and to disappear in all this moving blackness which
roared beneath us. . . . And then, what struck me with a horror of fear,
was that he did not waken and he was icy cold, with a cold which
penetrated me also, to the marrow of my bones; and the canvas of his
hammock had become rigid like the sheath of a mummy. . . .
And I felt in my head the real concussions, the real pain of all these
shocks, I mixed the real with the imaginary of my dream, as happens in
conditions of extreme fatigue, and on this account the sinister vision
assumed all the more intensity and life.
Afterwards, I lost consciousness of everything, even of the movement and
noise, and then only did my rest begin.
When I awoke it was morning. The first light was of that yellow colour
which is peculiar to the sunrise on days of tempest; and the roaring of
the wind persisted still.
Yves came and opened my door a little and looked in. He propped himself
in the doorway, holding on by one hand, bending his body now this way
and now that, according to the needs of the moment, in order to preserve
his equilibrium. He had put on again his damp clothes, and was covered
with sea salt which was deposited in his hair, in his beard, in the form
of a white powder.
He smiled, looking very calm and good-humoured.
"I wanted to see you," he said, "for I dreamt about you a lot in the
night. All night long I saw those good Burmese ladies with their long
golden nails, you know. They surrounded you with their evil monkeyings,
and I could not drive them away. At last they wanted to eat you.
Fortunately the réveillé sounded then; I was in a cold sweat when I
awoke."
"And I, too, am very glad to see you, my dear Yves, for I have dreamt a
lot about you also. Is it as rough as yesterday?"
"Perhaps a little more manageable. And, anyhow, it's day. As long as
it's light, you know, it's always easier to work at the masthead. But
when it's as black as the devil's pit, as last night, I don't like it at
all."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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