The Woman in Cabin 10

swept me off my feet,

kept himself to himself

felt out of place

The iron fist in the silk glove, you could say.

shut down the computer, picked up my book, and tried to read myself to sleep.

Even the technical specifications of the boat’s draft and tonnage weren’t enough to lull me to sleep. I stayed awake, shattered yet somehow, at the same time, wired.

making it sound funnier and more farcical than it really had been.

But the burglar was the person who’d committed the crime. So why did I feel like I was the one being interrogated?

I woke, heavy with dread. It took me a while to remember where I was, and still longer to realize that the roar in my ears was not part of the dream but real.

I had fallen before, and I’d survived.