First Day In The Mission

I remember my first day in the mission, as a young boy. We weighed anchor off Ocean Island. It was hot and humid.  The sky was clear, and the ocean heaving.  We needed to jump from a rope ladder into a launch.  Timing was critical.  With every swell of the ocean, the launch drifted from the ship, then slammed back into its side. I was already in the launch when my father jumped -- but his timing was wrong.  He fell into the breach between the launch and the ship.  The launch slammed into him.  His sunglasses -- his only pair -- went to the bottom of the ocean.  An islander pulled him from the ocean with a badly grazed leg.  I could see that he was suffering. “Look!” someone said. “Sharks!”  I saw their fins in the water all around us. I was in quarantine when we arrived on Ocean Island -- for measles -- and was hurriedly taken to a room with high ceilings and shuttered windows ...