Typical Day
Perry Scope wakes up at 2 a.m. to his alarm clock. 2 a.m. might be a strange time for anyone else in the world, but for Perry and the other members of the U.S.S. Big Black Boat, it’s just another day underwater.
The U.S.S. Big Black Boat, a submarine in the U.S. Naval Fleet, first went underwater two months ago. They have one month left, and Perry’s teeth are on edge. All the same, though Perry would give anything to be on land right now, there’s nowhere to go. There is no escape.
With a sigh, Perry stretches and gets out of his cot. He walks two feet to his right to the little wardrobe he keeps with neatly stacked uniforms. Before leaving his quarters, Perry dons his commander’s dress hat – scrambled eggs and all.
Perry’s proud of those scrambled eggs. Now 48-years-old, Perry joined the U.S. Navy as a recruit when he was just 21-years-old – though he talked about the Navy so much as a little kid, that most of his friends considered his enlistment just a matter of due course. Perry dedicated the next twenty-three years of his life to the Navy. No family. Not that it ever bothered him. Without any real friends on land, other than his younger brother who he hasn’t seen in almost fifteen years, Perry never gives much thought to what he missed out on. For Perry, it’s worth it to be able to wear that dress cap.
Uniformed, Perry goes to the Officers’ shared bathroom. No separate toilet for the Commanding Officer. His business done, Perry heads to the crew canteen, where he grabs whatever the meal is that “morning.” It’s only 3 a.m., but Perry can tell it’s the morning meal because the food is relatively fresh. It’s still prepared from cans, of course, but at least it’s not leftovers like the meal he’ll have in a couple hours. Perry chokes down his food without speaking much to the other officers. Soon, Perry is stacking his tray with the rest of the red trays that are forming a pile outside the cabin and… whoosh, he’s out the door!
Just a few steps out of the canteen, Perry runs smack into his Lieutenant Commander, Ray Darr, who is clutching a report from the Navigation “community.” The U.S. Navy divides its enlisted employees into different communities: Navigation, Weapons, Operations, Supply, and so on. Though most of Perry’s days are spent meeting with his own Executive department, he still checks in briefly with many of the communities.
“Ah, Commander, sir, there you are!” Startled, Lieutenant Darr stands up straight and salutes.
Perry surveys the Lieutenant closely, noticing that his shoes could do with a little more shining but decides not to mention it. In Perry’s office, Lieutenant Darr briefs Perry on the sub’s progress, noting what seem to be two other subs in the distance. After thanking Lieutenant Darr for the information, Perry dismisses him. He won’t do anything about the subs at the moment, but decides to closely monitor their movements.
As he reviewed stats on the sub’s progress, Perry realized to his dismay that that morning’s breakfast – if one could call it so much – had passed through his system. He needed to visit the little boy’s room.
One of the most dreaded aspects of life aboard a submarine, the toilet situation is something to behold. Standing up, Perry organizes a couple of documents and reports on his office desk before heading to the small cubbyhole, just four square feet, they collectively decide to pass off as a “toilet.”
Angling his knees awkwardly on the seat, Perry contemplates how to shut the door without it hitting his knees. (Submarines, he thinks, were not designed with men like Perry, who stands at a proud and rim-rod straight 6’ 4” tall, in mind.) Straining to poke his head around the corner, Perry looks from one end of the hallway to the other.
No one was coming. Now’s his chance!
Without shutting the door, Perry quickly did his business, sparing his knees any extra discomfort. After all, Perry thinks, the crew have been living together on the U.S.S. Big Black Boat for more than two months. They’ve seen it allll…
Returning to his desk – a small one, because everything is small on a submarine except the nuclear warheads – Perry settles into yet some more reports and meets with a few members of the Nuclear Community. Perry looks forward to these meetings, when instead of disciplining out-of-order seamen, he can put his engineering background to work. Like many submarine commanders, Perry was an engineering major in undergrad and worked for years as an Engineer Officer.
Finally ready to pack up, Perry returns to his small cot. He slowly drifts of into a fitful sleep with strange dreams of floating through an open sky