I stood at the bow with my feet sopping in dirty socks. I could see the bioluminescence of dinoflagellates beneath the dark water. It made me think about red tide. Remember those seals that got sick and washed up on shore? How the toxins affected their brains? I barely knew you then.

I had been walking around the deck because I was afraid to pee, the wind cutting through my thin cotton pajamas. This trip was better than the one where we had to pretend we lived during the time of Two Years Before the Mast aboard the remastered Pilgrim. Max didn’t cry this time because the First Mate was too mean (rather, realistic).

A chaperone came up behind me and told me I should be in the cabin, that we were snorkeling tomorrow.  I watched a seal chasing a group of squid. Didn’t squid feed on the dinoflagellates a few steps later in the food chain? I went back to bed, urine dripping off the side of the vinyl coated cot.