Neptune, God Of the Sea

                                                                                      Word Count 631
   


   
                                  Neptune, God of the Sea
                                      by Bristel Hopkins

When I turn six years old, most parents' thoughts usually turn to thoughts of school, but not in my case. My mother was buying warm weather clothes, shorts and tops, because instead of starting school in September, she was taking my 20 month old sister and me to Australia to meet her side of the family. We took a cruise ship, stopping in Hawaii on the way.
                                                             
The first night’s dinner struck down three-quarters of the passengers and crew with food poisoning, I was among the ones not sickened because I refused to eat the oysters they were serving. That made me one of the fortunate few who were still well, and that made way for one of the best times I have ever had.
       
I learned the next morning that I had the run of the ship; from the bridge to the boiler rooms and because I was quiet and everyone was so busy, since they were short-handed, and they just ignored their pint-sized visitor. Oh, the freedom this gave me!! I found out a wealth of knowledge about that ship; how it worked and how it ran. I saw the Crows' Nest and the Captains' bridge, and as long as I stayed quiet and out from under foot, I was welcomed to stay.
My best memory of the cruise was when we crossed the Equator.     
                 
The Captain got on the loud speaker and said for everyone who had never crossed the Equator to gather on the portside of the ship where the pursers where.
         
My mother had told me they would do something for the first timers crossing the Equator and that I was one of them. So when I heard the message, I went where the Captain had said. The Captain made a short speech about how Neptune, the God of the Sea would judge the people crossing the Dateline to see if they were worthy of crossing his kingdom or if he would send them to the watery deeps.

As the sun set, over the railing of the ship a man draped in dark green seaweed with more seaweed in his hair and beard came aboard. Neptune, The King of the Sea, with a pitchfork stave and water dripping from him was a sight to behold. I wasn’t afraid because I’d heard people all over the ship talking about what was to come.                             

He greeted us one by one by our names and talked about how it was a privilege to cross over his kingdom and not everyone was allowed to do so. He also spoke about how he had appeared to sailors long ago, ever since the first days that man had sailed the Ocean.  He welcomed us into his Kingdom and then he went back over the side of the railing and into the sea from which he’d come. 

All of us “initiates” were given flower leis we where to wear for the rest of the time because we were the honored guests for the night. Of course not all of the festivities were for the children. For the grown-up there was a party and when I couldn’t sleep that night I went on deck and watched them dance and drink and have a great time. We were given documents that proclaimed that we had crossed the Dateline from the cruise ship.

When we retuned from Australia we took an airplane and the certificate was different. For the plane the document was of Jupiter, God of the Skies. I have all of mine, framed, and hung on my walls to this date.