Chapter 5

“Glen. Glen! Glen!”

My head was pounding as I forced my eyes open. I looked up, craning and straining my neck to see Scully’s bearded face looking down on me.

“Jeez Glen look at you. How much did you drink?”

“...just a beer....” I groaned

“Looks a little bit more than that” He said pointing down at the empty bottle in my hand. “Anyway clean yourself up, I need your help putting the Jones’s cat back in the water”

I grunted in agreement as I peeled my face from the pool of drool on the deck. I clasped a hand at the back of my throbbing head and looked down at my hand. There was an empty bottle of bourbon in it.

What the hell happened last night? I thought to myself. I sent a probe into my head searching for any kind of information and came back empty. Jeez when was the last night I got black out drunk. Come to think of it when was the last time I drank bourbon? I always remembered hating bourbon.

A splitting pain ran through my brain as I stood up. I dragged my swollen head down below deck put the coffee machine on, ruffled through the medicine draw and pulled out some ibuprofen. I knocked it back with some milk from the fridge before stumbling to the bathroom to splash some water on my face.

I cleaned myself up the best I could, grabbed my coffee in a thermos and headed out to the dock. I went down to the south side of the harbor to help Scully put the boat back in the water. My head was still pounding like I had done a few rounds with Tyson. I think Scully saw how I was feeling and after the job was done took pity with me and gave me the day off. Well that and it was a Saturday, but then the old geezer had never really been one for off days. He always said that if your restin’ you ain’t earnin’. While that may be true I could certainly use a break from earning today.

I ducked back into the belly of Ussain and went to the kitchen and fixed to make myself something to eat. As I swung open I felt a jolt in my leg and immediately cracked the back of my head against the kitchen counter.

“Fuck!” I yelled in pain. Feeling a familiar pain run through the back of my head accompanied by a sudden dredge of fear. “That couldn’t be...” I murmured to myself as my attention reverted back to my buzzing pocket. I reached inside and grabbed my phone

“Ahoy!” Came a voice from the phone.

“Hey Dillon what’s up”

“Nothing much mate. Hey you working today?”

“Nah Scully gave me the day off. Why?”

“Then come round mate. I’ll cook you some lunch. I’m doing a bouillabaisse”

“What the hell is that?” I asked, my eyes now being pulled towards the book on the counter.

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"It's a kinda seafood stew, got great recipe from my Aunt in France. Hey you couldn't do me a favour and pick up some fish on your way could ya? Having a bit of trouble finding some at the moment."

"Sure no problem, I'll pop down the shops on the way."

"Cheers mate see you then."

I grabbed my backpack slung it over my shoulder, headed out the door and down the road towards Aldi. My head was still pounding away with every step, so figuring I must still be dehydrated from the night before I popped into a corner-shop on the way to get myself a drink. I had just about drained the last of the saccharine electrolyte drink when I arrived to find the supermarkets glass front in tatters. The window lay in shattered crumbs across the car park floor as a group of employees reluctantly shuffled around sweeping it away with undersized dustpans.

“What happened?” I asked a sweeping employee.

“There was a break in last night. The news were here this morning and everything” The young teen said in a squeaky voice, he couldn’t have been much older than fourteen.

“That’s terrible” I replied, unsure as what one should really say in these circumstances. “Is everything alright?” I continued awkwardly

“Yeah, they didn’t really take much.”

“Well that’s good”

“Just a bunch of fish.”

“Fish?!”

“And shell fish, pretty much the entire seafood section actually. Didn’t take anything else, just fish and that’s it. Strange really. Manager thinks it’s probably some dumb prank by some of the uni students. Weird. What the hell are they gonna do with all that fish....”

“Yeah weird...” I muttered. “Ok I’ll try somewhere else then” I said as I started walking away.

“WE’VE GOT OTHER STUFF STILL. YOU COULD ALWAYS DO A CURRY” The boy shouted out at me, but I was already gone by the time he finished.

I tried a few other places, Lidl’s, Morrisons, the fishmongers down the high street, all had shared the same fate. Late last night someone, or something.... had broken in and taken all of their fish. After fourty minutes of trekking from shop to shop I gave up and headed over to Dillon’s place empty handed. Well bar a bottle of reasonably priced Chianti.

I climbed up the infamous hill halfway to Dillons house. Why of all places in town did he have to live here, I thought to myself. I could only imagine that the rent must have had a reasonable discount on account of the sheer unpleasantness of getting to the damn place. I knocked the door, propping my wheezing body up on the door frame as I tried to catch my breath.

“Hey man”

“H....hh....ey” I panted

“Come in, come in. Any luck on the shop?” He said as he led me into the living room

“Nah....”I wheezed as I collapsed onto the couch.”Went everywhere....no fish.....all...stolen...”

“Yeah that’s what they said down at Tesco’s. Weird right who steals fish? Anyway not to worry I’ll just switch it up a little. How about a bit of ratatouille?”

The words shot through my mind like a bullet, ricocheting and reverberating around my mind. Bouncing again and again around my brain. Why was that so familiar? Why was all of this so familiar.

“I need to go.” I said standing up

“What about the ratatouille?”

“Sod the ratatouille”

“Well that’s not very nice. My ratato....”

“Skip it. Next time. It’s not important. Just come with me”

“It’s important to me, I skipped breakfast this morning”

“We’ll get a sandwich on the way or something. There’s something you need to see”

I rushed out the door down the hill, Dillon trailing behind, as I trudged down the street at top speed. In no time at all we were back at the docks aboard Ussain.

“So what was it you needed to show me so bad?” Dillon said through a mouthful of meatball sub.

“This!” I said grabbing the book from the counter.

“A book? We came all this way for a book? We passed a Barnes and Noble on the way you know.”

“Look here” I said opening the book to the first page. Dillon leaned in closer to take a look.

“A fishing boat crashes on the shore.” He read aloud “So what’s that got to do with anything.

“Look at the date” I said fervently “I read this sentence on the day just before It happened!”

“Huh...strange but then there’s a lot of shore mate”

“Look at this page then!” I said turning over to the next page

“March 11th .......news casters......fish... Hey!...Is that my name?”

“Everything that happened today it’s all written in this book. The fish, the break ins, your bloody recipe it was all in here when I read it last night!”

“Ok so you have a magic book that tells us the future. So what happens tomorrow then?”

“I don’t know I didn’t get that far, I was reading it and then....”

“Then... then what?”

“I don’t know I can’t remember. I think I had too much to drink.”

“Well what are you waiting for” Dillon said “Turn the page”