The Star
by
K. Corris
It was
Christmas Eve. All was quiet in Santa
Barbara. Admiral Nelson had flown out to
Boston to celebrate with his sister Edith, and Chip Morton had flown home to
Kansas to be with his family. Both had
invited Lee to join them. There were no
missions scheduled for the next three weeks and all of the crew were on holiday
leave. Seaview floated silently in her
pen. As he did every year, the Admiral
had shut down the Nelson Institute from two days before Christmas until the
beginning of the new year. Let his employees
spend some much deserved time with their families. Of course, any scientific experiments going
on had to be monitored by the people responsible for them, and Security had to
be maintained. Other than that, the
Institute campus was pretty much a ghost town.
As the Admiral told his Captain, “No one is needed to mind the store,
Lee.”
Lee told
them he had plans of his own, but the truth was he just wanted to be
alone. Too often, ‘down time’ was an
exhausting vacation somewhere, or was spent with many other people. Every once in a while though, Lee needed to
be completely alone to recharge his batteries, so to speak. Not have to deal with anyone or anything. He believed this was the result of the
enormous amount of responsibility on his shoulders at the Institute, and
especially as Captain when they were at sea.
He was not only responsible for a one of a kind multi-billion dollar
research submarine, but more importantly, the lives of at least 125 men.
He wasn’t
lonely on Christmas Eve. He’d gone to a
lovely evening mass at his church, came home and made a simple dinner for
himself. Steak on the grill, baked
potato in the microwave, and he tossed together a fresh green salad. He moved it all out onto his back deck
overlooking the majestic Pacific Ocean and ate in peaceful solitude. He thought about taking his boat out
tomorrow, Christmas Day. It was supposed
to be a beautiful day for sailing. Do
some fishing, finish that Tom Clancy book he was reading.
After
cleaning everything up, he grabbed a cold beer and headed back out onto the
deck. He sat in his lounge chair,
enjoying the evening air and meditating on the reason for the day itself. He soon put his head back, and dozed
off.
It was
dark when he woke up, but the clear skies gave a breathtaking view of all the
beautiful stars. Being a sailor, Lee
knew all the constellations like the back of his hand. So he wondered about this one beautiful star
that seemed to shine so much more brightly than the others. He couldn’t place it. The more he stared at it, the more it seemed
to be pointing down to some specific place in the ocean, and almost seemed to
be beckoning him.
He tried
not to pay attention to it, but yes, yes that star was calling to him. He simply couldn’t ignore it any longer. He had to investigate. He grabbed his jacket and some waters, locked
the house, and went down to his dock. He
was out on the water in a few minutes, heading straight out to sea, to where
that star was pointing. He hadn’t raised his sails but engaged the boat’s
little motor instead. For a while, it
seemed like the star’s rays were always keeping a little bit ahead of him,
always just beyond the horizon, bringing him further and further out, like he would
never find where they pointed.
But then
he saw it, a little rowboat with two people in it. A man stood up and waved desperately. Lee quickly cut the engine. He carefully maneuvered his boat next the
tiny craft. The man stretched up and
grabbed the rope Lee threw down and tied it to his boat. He then reached over and helped the woman
stand up. It was only then that Lee
realized she was not only pregnant, but very pregnant and was obviously having
contractions. It took both men to do it,
but with great difficulty and care they finally got her onto Lee’s boat. The man explained, with a heavy accent that
Lee couldn’t quite place, that they had been adrift at sea for two days. Having lost his job and apartment, he had
borrowed the boat of a friend to try and get her to her family’s home up the
coast before the baby came. It should
have been another couple of weeks, but after the fire in the boat and their
narrow escape in the row boat, watching the boat burn and sink from a distance,
she soon went into early labor. Both had
hoped the pains would stop.
Lee had
his suspicions, but now wasn’t the time to deal with them. They obviously were fleeing something,
somewhere, or someone. So many poor
refugees in this world with no place to go, no one who wanted them. He knew they weren’t Americans but were
trying to get into the country for whatever reason, probably to have the child
born on American soil. Her groans bought
him out of his reverie. “Let’s get her below.” As he turned he looked up onto the night
sky. The beautiful star seemed to be right
over head.
Soon they
had made her as comfortable as possible.
She didn’t look like much more than a child herself. Maybe mid-teens, but the man was at least
middle age, or older. Lee didn’t have
the feeling that she was his daughter.
Lee explained he was going to call the Coast Guard to get a Medivac in
the air to have her airlifted to a medical facility. They both became quite upset with the idea,
almost hysterical. Ok, no authorities.
The man asked how far they were from shore.
Were they yet into American coastal waters? Lee explained as quickly as he could that, as
he understood it, the child had to be born on American soil to be an American
citizen, not in the coastal waters. The
response to his statement made it obvious that was exactly what they had hoped
would happen. He briefly considered
trying to get them to shore, but her next cry changed his mind.
Of course
Lee had taken the Navy’s first aid course that included delivering a baby, but
he had hoped he would never have to use it.
He had an extra set of clean sheets on board, and clean towels. He explained to them that he was with the US
Navy and had been trained in childbirth. But his on-board first aid kit wasn’t
going to be much help. He took out the small scissors and then removed his own
shoelaces, rinsing everything and his hands with the Listerine mouthwash he had
in the little head and then sat down on his tackle box at the end of the bunk,
putting several towels over his lap. He
had her scoot down and asked the man to please remove her undergarments.
It wasn’t
two minutes later when Lee was holding a precious, perfect little boy on his
lap, gently cleaning him up with a wet towel. The child never even cried, and
Lee swore the baby had smiled at him. He
wrapped the newborn in a folded sheet and handed him to the man. “Ok, Dad, just hold him steady right here
while I tie and cut the cord.”
Lee would
never forget the man’s response. “I am
not the father, we do not know who the father is. But I am here for her, and will care for
them.” Okay, it wasn’t for Lee to
judge, or even comment. After all, he
didn’t even know who either of his own parents were, he’d been abandoned at
birth and grew up in a boy’s home.
Lee
finished up with the cord and afterbirth.
What a mess. He looked up at the
girl, now holding her newbornson with a loving glow on her face, the man
beaming down at both of them. Lee sat
back and sighed. What to do next? He didn’t have the heart to report them. They had wanted better for the child, to be
safe as an American citizen, but he was born at sea, not on American soil. Wait a minute, wait just one minute. Lee suddenly remembered reading something,
something about a child born in flight or in International waters being granted
the citizenship of the plane or vessel’s registered owner. Could Lee’s boat, owned by an American
citizen, be therefore considered American soil?
He tried
to explain this to the couple, and assured them he would do everything in his
power to get the child American citizenship.
This precious little one seemed to be starting life with enough
disadvantages as it was. He went back up
and turned the boat back to shore. He
radioed the Coast Guard and requested an ambulance be waiting at his home. Soon he was pulling into his dock, grateful
to see both an ambulance and a small but official Coast Guard boat
waiting. They both would give them the
official documentation they would need to confirm the child was born on an
American boat. The ambulance crew and
Coast Guard officers took over caring for the mother and child, while Lee
pulled the man aside to talk to him. He
tried to find out where they were from, but the only answer he could get from
him was that “It doesn’t matter, we cannot go back there again for many years, the child’s life would be in great danger”. Lee just shook his head, then went over and
gave his statement to the Coast Guard officer and soon both the ambulance and
Coast Guard boat were gone. And so was
the beautiful star.
Lee
wearily climbed the steps up to his deck, collapsing into his lounge chair and
immediately falling into a dead sleep.
He woke up there about an hour later, and decided it was definitely time
to go to bed. But boy, that sure was
some dream, so realistic. He’d fallen
asleep while thinking about the reason for the day. He looked down at his hands as he was about
to brush his teeth before turning in.
How the
heck did I get blood on my hands?
The End
Merry Christmas to all!
And to all, a good night!
Please let me know what you think!