The room was getting noisy. There were my parents, my aunts, my cousins, their long-time friends, they all seemed to be speaking exclusively to themselves.
"Get out of the room", I heard my grandfather say, "get out!"
It has stopped the talking and everybody seemed to be confused at the request until my grandmother stepped on:
"He's right. He needs to relax and we're not helping him at all. We better move elsewhere"
We began to move out of the room, but I heard my grandfather saying my name:
"Ellen, you stay here"
Everybody but me, my grandmother and my father had left the room.
"I want only Ellen here"
They tried to object, but my grandfather made it clear and they left the room, closing the door.
There I stood, alone with my grandfather in the room. He was laying in a single bed with a thin blanket covering him. I could spot multiple equipments keeping him alive. I knew he had advanced lung cancer and I could tell he wasn't lasting long.
"Hello, Ellen", he smiled.
"Hello", I shyly replied.
"You want to work with the marine, am I right?"
"Yes, it's my dream"
My grandfather worked for many years with the marine and the stories he told me got me interested, although nobody else in my family batted an eye. His stories seemed pretty unrealistic, but the action in high sea still attracted me.
"I want to tell you a story", he said.
"Oh, not again..."
"I never tried to tell anyone else this story before. And I want you to promise not to tell them"
"Grandpa, you need to..."
"Please, swear it to me, Ellen", he insisted.
I knew his story wouldn't fit the reality at all, but it was better to not refuse a request from your grandfather days before death.
"I promise not to tell anyone", I said.
"Thank you! It's about a woman. A woman I met before your grandmother. She was just...so wonderful".
He told me her name was Beatrice and began to talk about how they met each other at the marine. She was the first woman in the US marine although never recognized. And how they ended in a relationship. But eventually he made it clear he reached the part that matters.
"One day we were travelling in the ocean towards the Vietnam, when the waves started to grow stronger..."
The sky was of a dark grey color and the clouds responsible for it started to shower water. The ship we were in was thrown here and there and I struggled to not be thrown out of the ship. It got so extreme we all went to the lower level of the ship and insisted to use the submarine.
But the captain refused. The submarine was supposed to be used only when they could spot the Viatnamese coast, and we knew there were risks using it earlier.
"C'mon, c'mon! This ship is of steel. It's just a small rain", said the captain.
I knew the ship wouldn't resist long, but I couldn't question the captain's orders. We moved to the surface of the ship. The waves were being thrown right above it and I had to grab the handrail tight all the time. As I got to the captain's cabin I saw Beatrice was there.
"Beatrice, you have to get out of here!", I said.
"I can't! I have to retrieve the signal"
And she would keep refusing. The sea would eventually stop and I took that opportunity to grab her and push her out of the cabin towards lower levels. I could see the dark horizon of the agitated sea and I appreciated its chaos. But something caught my eye.
Out of the sea, came an unimaginable huge serpent. I first spotted its massive head, considerably larger than the ship. Then the long body, which seemed to never end.
A huge wave went across the ship, throwing countless men to the ocean. I threw her and me to a lower place, which seemed to be a storage.
"Do you know what was it?", I kept asking.
"I don't know", she paused, then said: "Joggur...Jomun...Jörmungandr!"
"What?"
"It's the serpent from the Norse mythology! My adoptive parents...they used to be part of the Scandinavia. They told me stories about Jörmungandr, but I never believed them at all. Until now"
We ran through multiple corridors. The men were screaming at the top of their lungs and I could tell the ship was a wreck, our only chance was get to the submarine.
We had hopped to the submarine alongside five other men, one of which was trying to get the wheels unstuck.
"Are you sure that thing is Jor...Jormugarden or whatever?"
"I...I think so".
"What do you mean?", asked one of the men.
"Nothing", I said.
At this rate the other man got the submarine unstuck, but screamed loudly when it teared his arm off. Another man went to help him, while a third kept shouting they needed to focus on getting away. The situation soon got tense and we were all in panic.
"I know you're...you're alone
Deep...deep down the sea"
That was the voice of Beatrice, as if she was trying to sing something.
"What is it?", I asked her.
"It's...it's a song I heard about Jörmungandr. It's...it's supposed to calm it down"
The submarine at this time got off the sinking ship and was deep the ocean. Suddenly, through the window, it was possible to spot the colossal serpent facing us.
"Fire!", one of the men shouted.
A torpedo was launched towards the serpent, but it obviously did absolutely nothing. The serpent responded to the attack charging against it. The shock threw all of us against the wall and killed four of us and left the submarine sinking.
"There are scuba gears we can use to escape the submarine!", said the remaining man besides Beatrice and me.
"but the serpent is still out there!", I shouted back.
"We're gonna get attacked anyway!"
"But serpent don't you fear
Because I'm...I'm here"
She stopped, then said: "sorry...it's just...that this song is supposed to be relaxing".
"What are you talking about?", said the remaining man through the scuba screen.
"Beatrice", I said, "I think you could calm down the serpent with this song".
"I know", she said as she approached me and took my scuba screen, "but it requires a sacrifice".
She kissed me just like that ending movie kiss, then she put the scuba screen and threw herself into the ocean. I soon realized what she meant.
"I couldn't hear her, but I imagined her voice singing that all the time she approached the serpent and calmed it down, but she never returned", my father finished, "to this day I still think of that song".
My father rested against his bed, clearly struggling to breath.
"I know you're alone", I started, "Deep down the sea. But serpent don't you fear, because I'm here".
"You have just her voice", my grandfather said, "wished I heard the complete song from Beatrice, and then you".
