A cold, dead body lays in the dark rusted belly of a coffin – tattooed from head to toe with a secret message – it floats with the will to survive. Will Davy Jones swallow it?

Description

Excerpt:

The cylindrical coffin rolled over – slowly. It is as if a crocodile is doing a death-roll on its prey. As it rolls over, the brown rusted underbelly of the beast is suddenly exposed – rows of pan head rivets studded the tummy. The body is incarcerated. Some of the rusted and battered plates are covered with sharp barnacles and seaweed. The heavy ballasts in the base of the coffin pulled sideways with all its might to hold it up; but, the storm had other plans. It had violent intentions. It wanted to roll the coffin over and over – Davy tried to swallow it. The casket – and the body inside – fought back in the rough seas.

Unwittingly the fate of the body was written on the needle. Intricate shapes and forms covered the body – ‘tattooed’ in an unknown code – not a letter or a number found amongst the inscriptions. It told a story – a story of ancients. Three-thousand-five hundred-year-old secrets were chiseled into the body. Was there a curse on the body? The storm was relentless; it wanted to destroy the coffin and the body. Davy Jones’ locker waited patiently for the body to sink into the depths. The hostile storm wished to send the ancient body deep down to the black, cold, and murky vault.

The body and the coffin were cut loose by an anxious captain, fearing for his men’s lives and his own. The captain had lost already 6 of his men. He had to let go. The casket was now at the mercy of the sea. The body bobbed up and down in the hostile white foam.

On day six – it was calmer – a friendly steamer spotted the drifting coffin. The surprised captain’s voice was filled with perplexion.

“What is a large coffin doing adrift in the ocean?” he asked. His brass telescope glistened in the sun and enlarged the coffin; he could see the belly of the coffin. He was perplexed. Who had left the colossal coffin in the ocean?

The captain towed the coffin back to shore; he would investigate later.

……………………….0………………………………

The captain entered the floating tomb. The torch-lit intestines of the dead body revealed a secret. It was a needle.

“What on earth!” the captain gasped.

Author’s sketchbook: Sectional view – plates of the pontoon removed to show the obelisk laying on its side in the ‘belly’ of the boat. Egyptian Obelisk in the belly of the pontoon boat.

“I am the Good Shepherd,” from the author’s sketchbook – May 2021.

Read the full article online as a blog post:

https://fivehousepublishing.com/2021/05/09/a-cold-dead-body-lays-in-the-dark-rusted-belly-of-a-coffin-tattooed-from-head-to-toe-with-a-secret-message-it-floats-with-the-will-to-survive-will-davy-jones-swallow-it/