Lucidity

Captain Nemo knows all the music of the ocean. Although the notes may have been composed by the hands of men on land, when they come from his fingertips, they are enhanced by all the fluidity of the seas, their elusive majesty… I sometimes childishly consider him to be the master of this element, as if he controls it through his touches on the organ. It is a naively fanciful notion but while sitting in the Captain's spacious salon and watching the wonders of the world pass before me on the other side of the panes of glass, something always comes over me which takes me back to the days of wide-eyed awe.

I know that I am a witness to secrets which no other man could ever dream of. Each time the windows draw back, the feelings of being a prisoner instantly depart me. Instead, the terrestrial world that I have been torn from seems like a prison, its boundaries clearly defined and its laws firmly imposed. While gliding through the depths of the ocean and observing such marvellous, hidden wonders, all my worries are cast aside.

I am a guest in a hidden, pure world, untainted and previously unexplored… It thrills me to my very core.

And all the time I observe, trying to capture these delights on my page, Captain Nemo will play. The life outside the panels of the Nautilus appears to dance in time with his music and the tide moves in perfect synchronicity. Light spills through onto the floor in diamond-like blue prisms, flowing and careening over everything in sight.

I frequently become intoxicated by the lucidity of my vision and its simultaneous tuneful accompaniment. All existence seems to tunnel into these moments, made into reality by the hands and mind of my enigmatic Captain Nemo.

He is as mysterious as the oceans from whence he comes. I find myself thinking of him as though he has inhabited this submarine world his entire life. He belongs in the beautiful depths of the sea. It is my opinion that I have never met a man on land who has been content with his position. But Nemo – though I am sure I will never discover everything of him – has a home beneath these waves.

He resembles the ocean. A force that can be as calm and serene as a summer's day but which harbours deep currents, hidden to all but those who find themselves trapped within them. A wonder which attempts have been made to navigate and which those who claim to know well will only have glanced the surface. I often feel that my studies do not concern only the life outside the ship.

He fascinates me just as intensely. Such a man so strange yet so sublime – he is ethereal to me and I cannot bring myself to hate him as Ned Land does, though he has taken us as what can be termed as hostages. But I do not feel so much like a victim. There are moments when I doubt but they are outbalanced by the elation I feel to be a part of this voyage beneath the seas.

When I return to the surface – if I return to the surface – I feel the world will not be as joyous as I recall. For what marvels can match what we have witnessed down here? I dare say Ned Land would oppose me on that view.

But he has not the same mind as I. I am occupied by my studies and find myself enchanted by more than just the subjects of my notes.

I sometimes become distracted from my studies as Captain Nemo plays – no, I often do. I watch the watery lights bathe him in a soft glow, welcoming him into his familiar world. The aqueous patterns dance and shimmer over him, constantly changing in time with the notes from the organ. In his moments of musical ecstasy, he bares a side which touches me deeply. I cannot capture it with ease upon these pages, but it is as though all emotion is unleashed and captured, caged, within his playing.

Ah – I am no man to try and dive into the mind of Captain Nemo! I am the one who is truly captured, but not in the walls of this gilded cage, not in the sense that Ned Lands thinks…

For now, I will continue to observe. Maybe one day the terrestrial world will know of my discoveries, I do not know. Yet there is one thing that I am certain of amidst all this transcendent mystery –

Even if the ocean gives up her last secrets, Captain Nemo shall not.

-END-

Because, by about a quarter of the way into 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, I couldn't read it without seeing Aronnax as having the most adorable crush on Nemo. ;)

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