Up There: Voyage 3—Ananta
Jack voyages with Angie and Seph to Henderson Island to find Melusine's daughter Ananta.
Up There: Voyage 3—Ananta
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Voyage 3—Ananta
John got a little mad. He guessed that the extra bits were written by the two Dupont girls. But it was his story! They were putting words in his mouth! They had Black Jack saying, “You’re completely right! Girls are better and more important than boys in every possible way.” Was that something that John would ever say?
Well, he couldn’t let himself get mad. If he lost his temper, he might write something dumb. Also, he thought the girls were a little older than him. They didn’t write like the girls in his class at school. They seemed smarter, and they wrote longer sentences with bigger words. He wasn’t sure he was as good at writing as them.
Also, he realized something in a flash. The girls hadn’t put words in his mouth. They put words in Black Jack’s mouth. John had been thinking of Jack as himself, John O’Toole. But he wasn’t! Jack was just a made-up person in this story he was writing. No, in this story that they were writing together. Jack and John were different people.
It was obvious when you thought of it, but he never really had before. The people in a story could say things that the author of the story wouldn’t say.
Thinking of that, he looked again at those words they had written. “You’re completely right! Girls are better and more important than boys in every possible way.” They were too strong. In fact, John realized that Jack, with these words, was being sarcastic. He was making fun of Seph and Angie. That made him feel better. The girls’ version of Jack was funnier and smarter than John’s Jack.
And he thought the girls were making fun of Angie and Seph, too! The part with the “stony looks” was actually kind of funny, when he read it again.
John wondered if he could write like that. Could he make fun of Black Jack, too?
He didn’t think so. He wasn’t as smart as these girls. Yet—maybe some day. But he no longer felt angry at them.
“Where are we going, Jack?” asked Angie.
Jack had a chart locker in his cabin and a cabinet of books. He unlocked the cabinet and took out his copy of Bowditch’s American Practical Navigator. He opened it up to the big map of sailing routes in the back. He spread it out on top of the chart locker.[i]
“Henderson Island. That’s where my mother left Ananta. It’s probably too small to appear on this chart, but from the longitude and latitude it’s about here,” he said, pointing to a spot in the South Pacific between Australia and South America, but closer to South America. “It might be one of the Pitcairn Islands.”
“Is that a long way away?” asked Angie.
Jack pointed to a location in the Indian Ocean, a little northeast of Madagascar. “We’re about here.”
“Well, that doesn’t look very far,” Seph said. She alighted on the map and stretched out her arms. “See, I can almost reach from here to where we’re going, all by myself.”
“Have you ever used a map, Seph?” Jack asked.
“No,” she said.
“Neither have I,” said Angie. “See, we can just go anywhere we want with a thought, so we don’t need those things you mentioned, ‘latitude and longitude.’”
“Well, it’s harder for us humans,” Jack explained. “If we want to go from one place to another, we have to go through everything inbetween.”
“And this picture you’re showing us?” Angie asked.
“It shows the oceans and lands of the Earth,” He placed his finger on the chart near their current position, then moved it south and east, then east past Australia, then north and east up to where the Pitcairn Islands were marked. “That’s what we have to sail.”
“So we just follow those blue arrows?” Seph said. “That doesn’t look hard.”
“Well, here’s the thing about maps. They are much smaller than the Earth. That means the Earth is much bigger than the map.”
“How much bigger?” Angie asked suspiciously.
“Well, it’s about 17,000 miles from here to where Ananta is.”
“Is that a lot?” she continued.
“On a good day, if the winds are right and we sail all day and all night, we can travel 200 miles.”
“So?”
“It’ll take us three months to get there. At least.”
“THREE MONTHS!!” Seph and Angie shouted together.
“Or longer.”
“Can’t you speed it up?” Angie asked.
“Well, maybe if you…” Jack said, hesitantly.
“WHAT?” Seph asked. “Maybe if we WHAT?”
“Here’s the question,” Jack said. “Are you real, or are you just in my head?”
“What kind of question is that?” Seph asked. “Of course we’re real!”
“Well, what I mean is,” said Jack, “Can you help me sail the Sea Devil?”
“We don’t know anything about sailing a ship,” Angie said.
“I know that,” Jack said. “That’s not the problem. I can teach you.”
“Well, then, what’s the problem?” Seph asked.
“Can you push and pull on things? Can you haul on a rope? Can you turn the wheel? Or do your bodies just go through solid things like a ghosts?”
“Jack, I think you know less about ghosts than we know about sailing ships,” Angie answered.
“You’re right about that,” Jack admitted. “Show me. Can you pick up this book?”
Angie and Seph flew to the left and right sides of Jack’s open copy of Bowditch and lifted it off the top of the chart locker.
“Why are you so small?” Jack asked. “Can you make yourselves bigger?”
Setting Bowditch down on the chart locker, Angie and Seph flew down until they were standing on the floor. Then they grew bigger until they were a head taller than Jack.
His eyes popping with surprise, Jack asked, “How big can you make yourselves?”
“As big as we want,” Angie said.
“But there’s no room in this cabin to get bigger,” Seph added.
“Are you strong?” Jack asked.
“We can be as strong as we need to be.”
“Could you lift the Sea Devil out of the water?”
“We’re strong enough,” Angie answered.
“The problem is, there’s nothing to stand on here.” added Seph. “The only thing under the ship is water.”
“And it might break,” added Angie.
“How do you want us to help, Jack?”
“Well, I have to sleep every night, or most nights. When I sleep I heave to—stop the ship—so I can rest. But if you can sail the ship while I sleep, then we can keep going all day and all night.”
“We can do that!” Angie said. “We never sleep.”
“And—you can help by keeping a lookout ahead. You can warn me if there’s a storm ahead, and perhaps help me avoid it.”
“That’s easy,” Seph said.
#
They sailed onward. Jack was surprised how much he enjoyed it. Seph and Angie were quick and strong and didn’t even need to climb—they could just fly when they needed to go aloft.
They quickly learned to sail. At first Jack stood watch with them. But he soon felt it was safe to nap for an hour and leave the sailing to them. He told them they should wake him immediately if anything unexpected happened.
Angie and Seph were new to sailing and didn’t know what to expect. For them every little thing was unexpected. For a week, Jack didn’t sleep much. The second week was better—he was getting enough sleep, even if they woke him several times each night.
And he found, to his surprise, that he enjoyed their company. They chattered and chattered, but mostly to each other. They were lively. Often they were funny, without necessarily meaning to be. Sometimes they joined him when he took a swim in the ocean.
He taught them to play chess. They were very good. Seph always played black and Angie white. Seph was tricky. Angie was a solid careful player. She seldom made mistakes. Seph made lots of mistakes. When Seph and Angie played each other, Angie usually won. Seph always pouted when she lost, and explained how, if things had been just a little different, she would have won. Angie didn’t argue or gloat. Jack usually lost, no matter which of them he played, but it was very satisfying when he managed to win.
Sometimes they would fish for him. They didn’t need any fishing tackle or lines. One of them would just dive into the ocean, then come up a few minutes later with a convenient-sized fish. This gave Jack a little more variety than his stores would have allowed, and helped his stores to last longer. Sometimes Angie and Seph ate with him. They didn’t need to eat. They did it to keep him company.
They stopped for provisions at port cities in Australia and New Zealand. Jack sold one of the pearls from his grandfather’s chest, so they had money for shopping.
Angie and Seph couldn’t shop by themselves. Only Jack could see and hear them. But they sometimes went with him. They asked him to buy things they saw, often items of clothing. They liked to look stylish. Seph and Angie had opposite ideas of what that meant. Anything they wore fit perfectly. What’s more, their clothes changed size with them when they changed. Jack thought they weren’t really wearing the clothing, but the idea of the clothing.
Past New Zealand they headed Northeast. Jack had bought a detailed chart of the Pitcairn Islands in Wellington.
A week later Jack shot the sun. When he charted their position, he saw that they would arrive at Henderson in days.
He asked Angie and Seph to scout it out, and especially to look for Ananta.
They didn’t come back for hours. When they did, Angie looked glum and Seph looked disgusted.
“Did you find her?”
“No. That blasted island is seven miles long. We went around it twice, one of us underwater and one above, and we didn’t see a serpent,” Seph said.
“We’re sorry Jack. We don’t know what to do. She’s younger than Melusine and probably smaller. And of course it’s possible she’s gone somewhere else.”
John said, “Was there anyone else there I could ask?”
“No,” said Angie. “It’s uninhabited.”
Jack had an idea. “Let’s keep on,” he said aloud to Seph and Angie. “Can’t hurt to take a look.”
“Waste of time,” grumped Seph.
But they sailed on. There was no harbor or bay. There were sandy beaches where Jack could land his canoe. Jack anchored off one of them. Then he got his six-shooter and a megaphone he used for hailing other ships.
He fired the gun into the air. Then, using the megaphone, he shouted, “Are you here, Ananta? My name is Jack O’Toole. Audrey Murphy was my mother. She carried you here years ago.”
Nothing happened. Jack got ready to pull up the anchor.
But Angie flew up, up, up, until she was high in the air above the Devil. From there she could see the whole of Henderson.
Seph told Jack, “Angie says to wait here. She sees something coming.”
Soon Jack and Seph saw it, too. A wake was approaching from the north. Angie came back down
“How did you know that would work, when we couldn’t find her?” Seph asked Jack.
“I didn’t,” said Jack. “But I remembered how Melusine came out to attack me when I approached Snake Island. I thought that might mean that sea serpents are territorial. Even if we couldn’t find Ananta, I thought Ananta might find us.”
A snake’s head rose from the water until it was level with Jack’s eyes. She was indeed smaller than Melusine, the head only three feet long. But she was still a really big snake.
“Who are you talking to?” she asked. “Why are you here? Why should I not eat you all up, you and whoever you’re talking to?”
#
At this point John felt a little stuck. All his ideas for continuing the story were too much like what he had already written.
Then he had a thought. The most surprising new idea in the story so far had been the appearance of Seph and Angie. That had been the sisters’ idea He added a note at the bottom of the page.
Over to you, sisters…
Another year passed. John was now nine. He would be starting fourth grade in the fall. John leapt up to the attic first thing on arriving, to find…
#
Jack told Ananta, “My name is Jack O’Toole. I am the son of Audrey Murphy, and the grandson of Jonathan Murphy.”
“Can you prove that?” Ananta asked.
“I know my mother, Audrey Murphy, brought you here, that she named you Ananta She left you here and sailed away. She refused to tell you where she had found you or where she was going after she left.”
“Can you describe her?”
“Only as I knew her, perhaps ten years after she left you. She was a small woman but strong, with brown hair and green eyes.”
“Do you know where she found me?”
“She was there when your mother laid the egg from which you hatched.”
“Did she know my mother?”
“She met your mother, but I don’t think she knew her well.”
“What was my mother’s name?”
“Melusine.”
“Perhaps you are really who you say you are. I don’t think I ever told anyone my mother’s name,” Ananta said. “Have you met her?”
“I have.”
“Where is she?”
“I promised your mother I would not tell that.”
At this Ananta looked angry. It was a surprisingly human expression on that snake’s face.
“Tell me, or I will eat you!”
“No, I don’t break my promises. I promised I would not tell you where she is, or tell her where you are.”
“Why did you come here?”
“We wanted to meet you. As far as we know, you and Melusine are the only sea serpents on Earth. Also, since my mother took care of you when you hatched, I feel as if you and I are almost sister and brother.”
“Ha!” scoffed Ananta. “Who were you talking to when I came? And why do you say ‘We wanted to meet you?’” Who is with you, and where are they?”
“You can’t see them? Here on my right is Angela.” Jack handed her the megaphone. She waved it over her head.
“On my left is Persephone.” He handed her his six-shooter. She held it up and fired a shot into the air.
“That was not really necessary, Seph” Jack told her, while Angie looked reproachfully at her.
“No but it was fun!”
“Give that back before you hurt someone,” Jack said, taking back the gun.
Ananta looked surprised. “You are a sorcerer, Jack O’Toole?”
“No,” Jack said. “I’m just a sailor.”
“But you command invisible spirits, and they do your will?”
Angie scoffed, and Seph blew a raspberry.
“No. I don’t command them. We talk, and sometimes we help each other.”
“They help you?”
“Well, they help me handle the ship. And they scout ahead for me.”
“What will you do now?” Ananta asked.
“To be honest,” Jack answered, “I don’t think we made any plans beyond finding you.”
“Have you heard of an island called Ireland?” Ananta asked.
“Yes, of course,” Jack answered.
“Audrey spoke of it fondly. She thought it the most beautiful place on Earth. I would like to see it.” Ananta said. “Will you voyage there, and take me with you?”
“What do you say, ladies? Up for a sail to the Emerald Isle?” Jack asked Angie and Seph.
Angie nodded, and Seph gave a thumbs up.
“We’re game,” Jack told Ananta. It’s a very long voyage from there, though, almost the other side of the world.”
“I would like to adventure with a powerful sorcerer..”
“I am no sorcerer!”
“Jack, a man who has the friendship and aid of invisible spirits is a sorcerer,” said Ananta.
“She kind of has a point, Jack,” Seph said.
The story of Black Jack O’Toole, the sea serpent Ananta, and the shoulder angel Angie and devil Seph will continue in “Up There: Voyage 4—Rounding the Horn.”
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Afterword
The cover image is a phase portrait of :
A phase portrait is a visualization of a complex function introduced by Elias Wegert in Visual Complex Functions: An Introduction with Phase Portraits.
Come Sail Away
[i] This chart is Appendix A of The American Practical Navigator, by Nathaniel Bowditch. John knew about this book because he had read a book about Nathaniel Bowditch called Carry On, Mr Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham. The librarian Mrs Carter told him that they had a copy of The American Practical Navigator in the library. She explained that the US Government bought the rights to the book many years ago and continued to publish it for free. He found this map in Appendix A. He made a copy in the library, He folded it up and put it in his writing notebook in the attic.
You can find The American Practical Navigator free on the web at https://msi.nga.mil/Publications/APN. Copyright National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.
i really loved the dynamic between john and the sisters in this. the moment where he realizes black Jack is not actually himself, but a separate character, felt surprisingly profound and very beautifully written.
there’s also something so charming about the world of this story - Angie and Seph learning sailing, maps, chess, and even fashion made everything feel playful and alive. and Ananta’s introduction was fantastic. she immediately feels ancient, intelligent, and emotionally real.
really enjoyed this, thank you! 💗