And now, the final chapter of A Little Fox Tale. A Little Fox Tale By Kaho Chapter 23 – Setting Sail

April 24, 2009 - 23:53 (11:53pm)

Master at Arms Chief Petty Officer Sean Roberts had just assumed the duty as Officer of the Deck.  He always hated having the mid-watch on the night before getting underway.  He could never get any sleep before the watch because of work to do, and the general noise in the berthing compartment before lights out.  After the watch, he could get about two hours sleep before reveille and then the noise of his shipmates would wake him up.  And having the watch the night before getting underway was even worse.

Both the Petty Officer of the watch and the Messenger of the Watch had received their turnover information and were relieving their off-going counterparts.  Upon hearing a step on the brow, Chief Roberts turned to greet whoever was coming aboard.  It was Petty Officer Stanton, carrying a duffel bag, returning from leave.  Just in time too, as his leave was to expire at midnight.

“Good evening, Chief!”  Joe said as he stepped down from the brow onto the ship.  I need to check back in.”  He handed some papers to the Chief.  Chief Roberts signed and dated the papers, and then made a log entry.

Handing the papers back to Joe, Chief Roberts commented, “It looks like you just barely made it.  You remember that we set sail in about nine hours, right?”

“Sure do, Chief.  A couple of hours in the sack, and I will be right as rain.”  He resettled the duffel bag, and walked off the quarterdeck.

* * *

April 25, 2009 – 03:23

The Messenger of the Watch had just walked onto the forecastle of the ship.  His watch was almost over and he couldn't wait to get relieved and turn into his rack.  All he had to do was finish this security patrol and turn over the watch status to his relief.  As he glanced around the deck, a white piece of cloth caught his eye.  Walking over to it, he picked it up and shined his flashlight onto it.  It was a tee shirt, or rather, what was left of it.  Examining the cloth, the Messenger could see ‘Stanton J’ and part of a social security number stenciled onto it.  After looking around for any other pieces of cloth, the Messenger hurried to the nearest phone and called the quarterdeck.

* * *

April 26, 2009 - 08:33

Chief Roberts unlocked the door and walked into his closet of an office.  It had been a tiring twenty-four hours.  Just as he was getting off watch yesterday morning, the messenger had called during his rounds about a torn piece of one of Petty Officer Stanton’s tee shirts he had found on the forecastle.

A quick check at Stanton’s rack turned up his pants and shirt, but not him.  In fact, a thorough search of the entire ship failed to turn up Stanton.  Moreover, he hadn’t left the ship via the brow, which was the only available exit off the ship.  All indications were that he had left the ship by going over the side rail of the forecastle, probably unwillingly.

Chief Roberts heaved a sigh as he sat down and divided the papers he had been carrying into two piles.  NCIS would have an agent out soon to look things over.  One copy of the incident report was for them, and one was for his own files.  The Captain had delayed setting sail for twenty-four hours to allow for a complete search of the waters around the ship.  When nothing else was found, he decided that the mission was more important than continuing to search for one missing man.  Besides, the search itself was now in the hands of the base police and the port authority.

The chief picked up one copy of the report and put it in a folder, which he then filed.  Then he picked up the other copy and put it in a large brown envelope labeled ‘NCIS’.  Putting the envelope in his ‘out’ box, he got up to make security rounds about the ship.

* * *

April 26, 2009 – 09:27

Chief Roberts finished making rounds inside the ship, and went out onto the weather deck to watch the ship pull out from the dock.  On the dock were a few family members waving goodbye to their loved ones onboard the ship.  The smaller ships stationed in Japan seldom had very large crowds of well-wishers on the pier when the ship pulled out to sea.

The flutter of red caught his eyes.  A young woman with long red hair was standing on the end of the pier alone watching the ship slowly pull out.  Chief Roberts was familiar with most of the dependents of the sailors onboard, and he didn’t recognize this lady.

As his position passed even with her, he could see that she had Japanese features.  Very puzzled, he filed her looks away in his memory to ask about when he had time.  He was sure that a redheaded Japanese girl who was a dependent would have stood out in his memory.  He watched her curiously until the ship turned and he could not see her anymore.

* * *

May 26, 2009

Blanca Stanton had just returned from the mailbox by the curb.  As usual, the pile of mail was full of junk mail and bills.  The men from the Navy had come by two weeks to tell her that they had decided to declare Joe dead even though his body was still missing.  While they had admitted that foul play was suspected, there was no evidence to implicate any suspects.  Reluctantly, she and her husband had finally held a memorial service for their son on Sunday before last.  Since then mail just wasn’t interesting anymore.

A small postcard fell out of the pile of mail and landed at her feet.  Setting the rest of the mail on the small stand by the door, she bent down and picked the postcard up.  On one side was a picture of Mount Fuji, framed by cherry blossoms.  Flipping the card over, she read the few short lines in familiar handwriting.

“The cherry blossoms were great this year.  I hope that you can come out and see them next year.”

As tears started to form in her eyes, she noticed something odd.  The postmark on the postcard was from Yokohama, Japan, dated only eight days earlier.

* * *

[Author’s Notes:  I wish to say ‘thank you’ to all of my proofreaders for your sharp eyes and helpful advice.  Without your help, the quality of this story would have been much poorer.  Also, thank you to all who commented on my story.  Your kind words helped me stay motivated on this project.  To all of Sakura’s fans, there will be more of her story coming in the future.  In the mean time, I am working on another project that I hope some of you will like just as much.]

Characters and story
© Copyright 2009 Kahoko Nakamura, All rights reserved.
Art by Rexlent90.