A Lovely Cruise

 25 Days out of Singapore, south-southwest of Sumatra, the USS Coral Sea slowly crossed the Indian Ocean in search of our mock enemy.  In the pre-dawn gloom, the ship still running dark as is the custom of a combat ship on patrol, I hurried through the maze of passageways to my station. Upon reaching the balloon room I dropped a bathythermograph for deployment into the calm seas we traveled through.
   Fishing a smoke out of the patch pockets of my dungarees, I stood on the launch platform watching the sunrise and scanning the surrounding waters as I normally did each day underway.
  Not that I expected anything, perhaps a sighting of one of our battle group. A destroyer, or perhaps a light cruiser standing by on patrol for a submarine or small boats that would come out to watch a launch and recovery had we been flying. But this morning all was quiet. Almost eerily so.
  This morning as the gradually lightened the sky I was surprised to see in the distance off starboard a small island. I had thought we were clear of the small chunks of land that made up the Indonesian Archipelago. As far as I knew there wasn't supposed to be any land out here where we cruised. The wake informed me that the Skipper had brought the ship into a slow turn in that direction, perhaps to recover an aircraft.
   Or perhaps to get a closer look at this mysterious island where no land should be. That proved to be the case. As we approached the details of the land became clearer. A narrow beach with scattered palms gave way to the dark interior of dense rainforest. That in turn led up the steep slopes of a dormant volcano rising out of the jungle. It's upper reaches suggesting a human skull. Well schooled in classic films one word stood out in my shock numbed mind. Kong!

  Rooting around in my garage yesterday I came across a copy of The Dictionary of Imaginary Places I had bought for Shari and the kids years ago. Its one of the few books that seems to make every move with us. Published in 1980 the book covers a lot of the older works of fiction and specualtion going back centuries. Skull Island the home of the infamous ape King Kong is actually one of the newer imaginary places reported on. Many of these names in this book are quite familiar such as Tolkien's Gondor and Burrough's Pellucidar. Others though are obscure, but fascinating none-the-less. Way back in 1846 Herman Melville wrote of the island of Bora-Nomma, also called the Island of Dreams in the book  Mardi, and The Voyage Thither.  On Bora-Nomma you must pay tribute to the King for entrance to this wondrous land. The tribute consists of a nap, something I could afford quite easily.

   Like the science fiction I wrote of yesterday these adventures to fantastic places were where I spent most of my time as a child. perhaps I found the details of my everyday life to be too hum-drum. Perhaps I used adventure to escape the constant presence of my siblings and the noise they generated. Perhaps I imagined myself as the hero of each of these adventures. Perhaps all of these and more.
   Books were my constant companion growing up and they still are during times of stress. Today its just as easy to get lost in a seiries such as Terry Pratchett's Discworld as it was to get caught up in the L Frank Baum's Oz back in the 60's. Sadly, Discworld isn't in the the dictionary. Ether is is Frostbite Falls or Hogwarts. Fortunately there is a wiki to keep us updated on these and other lands of our imaginations.

In my ear: That damn Walk Away Renee. Thanks Limes : )