Chapter Four: A Deckhand's Guide to Avoiding Arrest
The Invisible Ship
Welcome! If you’re new to “A Deckhand’s Guide to Avoiding Arrest”, consider stopping by my chapter index to get started. Otherwise, enjoy chapter four!
“Come on, you’ll love it,” Reid said as he got ready for his night out.
“Reid,” Nim groaned. “I can’t show my face at The Heron after…what happened.”
He shrugged as he tugged on a flannel over his t-shirt. “That was almost a year, and it’s probably not even as bad as you remember it.”
“The fire department was called.”
“Right, well…it was a while ago-”
“I’m not going, but it’s fine. Enjoy your night out with your classmates; you deserve to celebrate.”
“I just wish you could come with me.”
She offered him a small smile. “Really, it’s alright. I’m tired anyway, so I’ll probably go to bed early. Maybe tomorrow the two of us can celebrate your graduation at the beach or something.”
He hesitated before nodding in agreement. “Alright, that’d be nice.”
“It’s a plan,” Nim said as she stepped out of his room and into the hallway.
She entered her own room and dropped onto her bed with a sigh. As Nim sprawled across her bed, she stared up at the water-damaged ceiling and listened to Reid’s distant sounds as he got ready.
Eventually, she heard the door to Reid’s room shut. He shouted out a quick goodbye before leaving the apartment. His departure left the small space in silence.
Nim hated silence.
She sat up in bed and reached for the box she kept on her nightstand. Gently, she cradled it in her hands as if she held something of deep value. For a long moment, Nim just stared at the box, contemplating if she had the courage to open the lid.
The box had once been a dark blue, but the paint had worn away with time. Woodgrain showed through along its well-worn edges. The little star decals around its edges were in similar condition. At the center of the lid was the image of a young girl trapped forever in a pirouette. Her hair was a soft, ashy blonde, not dissimilar to Nim’s own hair color.
Gently, she ran her fingers along the edges, debating if she should open it–if she should reread those words Agnes had written to her. With a deep, steadying breath, Nim opened the lid of the box. Inside was nothing but a handful of cheap jewelry from her childhood and a folded-up note.
Nim removed the note and set the box beside her. Slowly, she unfolded the note until she could see her mother’s familiar handwriting. For a moment, she felt like she couldn’t breathe.
Just as Nim was about to reread the letter, a swift knock came to the door of the apartment. For a moment, she did nothing, assuming that Ethel would get the door.
The knock came again, this time louder.
Then she remembered that Ethel had gone out as well for the night. It was her weekly bingo night at a local bar, and she never missed bingo. With a sigh, Nim stood up and tucked the note into the pocket of her baggy cargo pants. She left her bedroom and walked to the door.
It’s got to be Reid, she thought to herself. He probably forgot his something.
Nim crossed the living room and opened the door, surprised to find that it wasn’t Reid but a man she had never seen before. He was tall but not in a particularly foreboding way, with a well-tailored suit and a practical, short cropped hairstyle. The military-style hair only made his sharp features look sharper. He had the distinct characteristics of a raven–intense black eyes and an aquiline nose.
“Umm, hi,” she muttered.
“Hello,” the man said. “I’m Agent Lawless with the ESA. I’m hoping to speak to someone named Wilhelmina Penzey. Is she around?”
Nim swallowed hard. “I…well, yes, she’s…around. Lawless? You said your name is Lawless? And you’re an officer?” Despite the intense anxiety she felt at that moment, she couldn’t escape the irony of the officer’s name.
“Agent,” he corrected, clearly agitated by the comment. “May I speak with Miss Penzey?”
“You already are,” she said with a small smile. “But I already have plans to pay for what happened at the warehouse. I don’t need an agent to come tell me what I-”
“I’m not here on behalf of any warehouse,” his tone was sharp. “There are sensitive matters that I would like to discuss with you. May I come inside?”
“Sure,” she said before she could stop herself.
Nim found herself sitting in the living room of Ethel’s apartment wishing she had never answered the door. Agent Lawless sat across from her, looking incredibly monochrome by comparison to the garish colors of the apartment. His intense eyes were fixed steadily on her as if he could see straight to her core.
“So,” Nim began. “Do you want some water or tea or-”
“No,” he replied. “I want to know if your mother, Agnes Penzey, ever spoke to you about something called Design 23.”
Suddenly, it felt as if cold water had been dumped on top of Nim’s head.
Design 23. She had not heard that name in a long time. The mere mention of it made her heart begin to beat rapidly. However, she did what she could to keep calm. This man was from ESA. Whatever he wanted with Design 23 wasn’t good.
“Hmm,” she faked a look of concentration. “I don’t know. My mom told me a lot of stories about space. Was that a ship or something?”
“You don’t remember ever hearing about it?”
“Nope, sorry.”
“Are you sure? You would have been very young when she…talked about it. I have reason to believe it was something she…was hiding.”
“Hiding from the ESA? She’d never do that, sir.”
Nim threw in the ‘sir’ for good measure, but the second she said it, it felt wrong. Her heart continued to pound in her chest. She could feel blood rushing to her face. The longer the conversation went on, the redder her face would become.
“I need you to think about it for a moment,” the agent said. “There are some who believe that Design 23 was stolen by your mother. There’s a chance she called it something else.”
She swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat. “I’m sorry,” her voice was weak. “I don’t know.”
“According to the information I have, Design 23 was a life-like model. Meaning it likely looked very alive–just like you or I. Do you remember your mother hiding what would have looked like a woman?”
“No, I’m sorry,” she repeated.
“Any information is helpful.”
He won’t leave, she realized. He knows, a voice screamed in her head.
“You know,” Nim began. “When my mom passed, she left me a bunch of documents. I haven’t gone through them all yet, but maybe there’s some information in there that could be helpful. Would you want me to go grab them?”
“That could be helpful,” Agent Lawless nodded.
“Alright,” she tried to keep her voice calm.
Slowly, Nim stood and made her way towards her bedroom. She could only hope that Agent Lawless didn’t see her hands trembling. As she stepped into her room, she didn’t hesitate to open the window. As quietly as she could, she climbed out the window and onto the fire escape.
Outside, the air was cold against her flushed cheeks. Nim’s heart somersaulted in her chest, but she knew that she couldn’t stop now. She had to get away from the agent, and she had to do it fast. It would only be a few minutes until he began to suspect something.
Nim raced down the ladder. Her bare feet hit the pavement, but she didn’t flinch. There was no time to consider the fact that she should have grabbed shoes. Instead, her focus was on running. She took off into the familiar neighborhoods, cutting between buildings and down alleys. Buildings loomed above her, providing some protection from what would soon become a chase.
In the distance, a siren blared. Agent Lawless was quicker than she would have liked.
The windy streets of Old-Town soon opened up to a more popular part of Angel’s Landing. Both sides of the road were filled with bars, nightclubs, and cafes. For once, Nim felt relief at the sight of a crowd.
The streets were packed with celebrating college students. Large groups cheered and laughed, excited to be done with their studies. Most of them were already intoxicated. Therefore, they cared little about a barefoot woman running through the crowds.
Nim slipped through the crowds with ease. She refused to let herself think about the implications of running from an ESA agent. Her focus was on getting as far from him as possible.
Daring to look over her shoulder, Nim was shocked to see a black suit racing through the crowds. He had found her already.
Who is this guy? She wondered to herself as she slipped inside a well-packed bar. She almost instantly bumped into a guy, spilling his beer all over both of them.
“Hey!” He shouted at her, but Nim was already bolting towards the back door.
The alley behind the bar smelled like cigarettes and overfilled garbage bins. She tried not to think about the grime on the ground as her feet hit the pavement. She raced through alleys, buildings, and every crowded place she could think of. Somehow, Agent Lawless followed as skilled as a bloodhound.
At last, Nim found herself far outside of town. At some point, she had taken a wrong turn and ended up in a dusty parking lot. All around her were run-down warehouses and dilapidated manufacturing plants.
Where am I? Nim wondered.
Before she could find the answer, a black suit appeared in the distance.
How the hell did he follow me this far? Sweat dripped down her back and along the sides of her face. Her body ached, and her feet were bloody and swollen. Nim wasn’t sure how long she could keep running for. But she also knew the horrors that awaited her should Agent Lawless catch up with her.
Despite the protests from her feet, Nim continued to run. She ran through a warehouse, jumped over a fence, and stumbled as she raced across an open tarmac. Her run was stopped suddenly.
With a loud bang, Nim fell to the ground. It felt as though she had run face-first into a brick wall. However, there was no wall in front of her. There was nothing. Her head ached from the impact, but her fear kept her moving.
Confused and slightly concussed, Nim reached out. Her hand felt something firm and cold. It felt like the hull of a ship–an invisible ship.
What the hell? She thought as she ran her hand along the smooth surface. Despite not being able to see it, Nim was certain that she was touching a ship of some kind. She could feel the rivets of metal sheeting.
And a door.
The realization struck her like another blow to the head. Whatever this invisible thing was, it had a door. She grabbed hold of the large circular handle and spun it until she heard a hiss of air. Slowly, the door opened, revealing a cargo bay.
“Holy shit,” she gasped under her breath.
Without a second thought, Nim stepped into the cargo bay and shut the door behind her. It sealed with a hiss and a lock.
For a long moment, Nim waited with bated breath. Every fibre of her being was tensed, waiting for Agent Lawless to find the invisible ship. However, he never reappeared.
I did it, she thought. He’s gone.
Finally, Nim relaxed, collapsing onto the ground with a hushed sob. Everything hurt. The world spun. All she wanted to do was go home, but the longer she sat in the cold cargo bay, the more she realized that she couldn’t go back. She knew the ESA better than most, and they would keep sending people after her if she had something they needed.
I hope Reid is alright…and Ethel, she thought.
After taking a moment to regain herself, Nim finally looked around herself, realizing how incredibly lucky she was to find it when she had. From the looks of it, she seemed to have opened the loading hatch of a ship. All around her were boxes and crates of supplies. There was no doubt that she was in the cargo bay of a schooner.
Crates were stacked high along the walls with the necessities for long-distance space travel–nutri-pacts, toiletries, and ship parts. However, it was the medical supplies that captured her interest. She stepped over to the crate and pulled out a small first-aid kit.
Maybe my bad luck is finally over, she thought as she took a seat and pulled out an alcohol wipe.
The second the wipe touched her skin, she felt otherwise about luck. Nim hissed as she cleaned the dirt, gravel, and blood from her bare feet. She wished she had thought about shoes before climbing down the fire escape. Fortunately, the cuts on her feet were small and mostly inconsequential. They would heal quickly; what mattered most was that she escaped Agent Lawless.
Eventually, Nim found a small space between two crates where she could stay hidden. She sat down on the ground and hugged her oversized sweater closer to her chest. She knew she had to figure out a plan, but her body was exhausted, and her mind felt sluggish.
With the temporary shield of safety the ship provided, Nim leaned back against the wall. Her eyes drifted shut without her knowing it. The disaster of a day left her so worn-out that she didn’t even hear the engines of the ship engage.
***
Reid returned to his grandmother’s apartment feeling a little more intoxicated than he would have liked. He was not a drinker, but he also wasn’t particularly social. When he had been invited to an end-of-the-year party at a local restaurant, he agreed without thinking it through. Without Nim there as a social buffer, he decided beer was his next-best option.
As he climbed the steps, Reid wished he had tried harder to get Nim to join him. It felt wrong abandoning her to celebrate while she was clearly struggling. When he finally made it to the top, he had come up with the perfect apology.
Upstairs, the apartment was quiet. Reid was rarely out late enough to return home to such utter and complete silence. It felt strange.
Reid made his way through the house. He would have gone straight to bed if it hadn’t been for Nim’s door. It was left wide open; her mess of a room was put on display for the whole world. He approached the room quietly, giving a gentle knock on the doorway as he stepped into Nim’s space.
Her bed was unmade, clothing was scattered around her floor, but strangest of all, her window was wide open. The curtains fluttered in the soft, summer breeze.
Reid approached the window, expecting to see her out on the fire escape. However, as he glanced outside, Nim was nowhere in sight.
“Nim?”
There was no reply.
Reid turned and assessed the room. Nim was messy, but this was beyond even her norm. Her wardrobe had been completely taken apart. Clothing and knick-knacks covered the ground. Reid felt a wave of anxiety wash over him. What happened to her? Where was she?
Reid woke Ethel to tell her what he found. She was worried, but she also reminded him that perhaps there was an explanation for everything.
“Let’s give her some time,” Ethel said as she put a kettle on the stove.
Reid sat with his hands dug deep into his hair. “I shouldn’t have left.”
“Oh, this has nothing to do with you. For all we know, Nim got a job, and she’s just busy. She used to work odd hours.”
“Then why does her room look like it was run through by a tornado?”
“Well,” Ethel paused. “Nim’s never been the…most organized.”
“And the window? Why was it open?”
“Reid,” his grandmother met his eyes. “Dear, we don’t know the full truth. Before you start spiraling, let’s give her some time. She’s not a child. She’s a twenty-two-year-old woman, and maybe she’s out someplace.”
Reid nodded. However, he couldn’t help but imagine the worst possible situations. Was she kidnapped? Was she being held against her will someplace terrible? Had she been hurt?
“I do wish that girl had a visi-screen,” Ethel sighed.
“She’s destroyed every one I’ve given her,” Reid groaned. “You know how she is with technology.”
Reid and Ethel stayed up until the early hours of the morning. Eventually, Reid saw how incredibly exhausted Ethel looked and told her that he’d stay up if she went to bed. She reluctantly agreed, and Reid found himself sitting alone on the living room couch.
At some point, he dozed off against his will.
Reid didn’t awake until a pound came to the door. He jumped awake, startled by the sudden noise.
“Nim,” he said under his breath. She must have locked herself out.
Reid walked to the door and opened it. He was about to say something smart but stopped abruptly when he was met with a face that wasn’t Nim’s. It was the man who had come into ‘Past Lives’ only a day ago, looking for Nim. Reid would have recognized those dead eyes anywhere.
“Hello again,” the man said. “Do you have a moment to talk about Wilhelmina Penzey?”
“I…what…what is this?” He stumbled over his words, tired and confused by what was happening.
The agent gave him a sharp look. “I’m Agent Lawless with the ESA. I want to inform you that running from an ESA agent is considered evading arrest, and it is punishable by-”
“I didn’t run from anyone.”
“Yes, but Miss Penzey did.”
He felt himself tense. “Where is she?”
First glance..,,,I honestly thought it said “A DICKHEADS GUIDE” 🤣🤣🤣
*Personal reminder….wear reading glasses when opening substack!