On that day, I had never imagined what It would’ve felt like to be distant from what was real and what was magic. Both concepts are things that I had never imagined before, yet both played a role in the world I live in now.
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‘Nothing new today.’ I thought as I walked through the cold and damp harbor.
It was the same feeling I felt almost every day of the week in the harbor. Every single day there would be ships driving in and out of the harbor unceremoniously blaring their horns to let everyone in the harbor know that they’d arrived.
I continued my walk toward the market to pick out supplies for a handful of things. Some of those things included a few iron wires, a roll of glass filament, and another roll of insulated copper wire and nickel. Of course, copper wire and nickel were the things that powered the lightbulb.
If you haven’t already guessed, I am a lightbulb maker who works at the factory in Anchorage. The factory makes an assortment of lightbulbs however because the company that owns the warehouse had a shortage in supplies, they wanted me to find the items needed to keep the production going.
Essentially, I felt like a mail boy running around from house to house, collecting mail and then handing it back to the sender.
Once I had reached the building I was assigned to go to, I was greeted by the warm scent of lavender. I didn’t know why they scented the entire place with it, but my hypothesis was that they wanted to ward off the awful smell in the market. My focus then drifted to what was in front of me, the door to a small shop that sat upon wooden pillars.
I walked in and my eyes landed on the owner who sat behind the cash register.
“What can I do for you young man?” The older man said as he stood up from where was sitting.
I wasn’t that young, moreover, I was 21 years old, and yet the older people mistake people's ages for something younger.
“Hey, I was wondering if you have any rolls of copper wire or rolls of nickel?” I asked.
“You bet we do!” He enthusiastically said.
Although the person in front of me was old, he sounded somewhat lively in a way. Something pretty rare to see in this town since it had a sort of gloomy tone to it,
“Now, if you don’t mind me asking, whaddya need copper wire for?” he asked.
“Do you know where the factory that’s near the old oil pumps is?”
“Yes? Let me guess, you work there?”
What followed was a simple “Yep.”
I pulled out a few dollars that the workers gave me and paid for the 4 rolls of copper wire.
“Sorry if I couldn’t get you nickel wire. It's hard to come by nowadays.” He solemnly said.
“Aha, It’s no trouble, If you don’t mind me asking, where could I find rolls of nickel wire?”
The man rubbed the back of his neck but shrugged.
“I don’t actually know, I haven’t heard of any store that was able to come across nickel wires.”
I sighed at the bad news and thanked the shopkeeper anyway for the copper wires.
I left the shop in a sort of happy mood, but that ended once I went back outside.
The next thing on the list was a roll of glass filament. The workers at the factory found it better to use a roll of glass filament instead of powdered glass since it was easier to smelt the filament rather than to crystalize the powder.
The next shop was located near the back ends of the docks where the shops were situated on the cliffs. Walking through the shop I had needed to find, I found Ms. Friedrich outside sweeping the front area of her porch. The older woman noticed me.
“Well, if it ain’t you Lorenzo, I would’ve told you to Git.”
Her southern accent showed pretty frequently. She wasn’t from Alaska but I’m assuming she came from Texas and moved to Alaska to start her own business.
“What makes you say that?”
“Ugh, those damn real estate owners, coming on to my property and trying to evict me so that a few rich people could enjoy their life.”
She was right. The rich people come here often to make deals with owners of shops to try and get a spot to start a business. Ms. Friedrich wasn’t a hypocrite but she did use the same method real estate owners used to start their own business here in Anchorage.
“So what do you need?”
I replied by saying I needed a few rolls of glass filament. However, what she said next further added to the list of bad news.
“Sorry, we ain’t got any glass filament at all.” she shrugged.
“Really, what about supplies that come from the mainland states, are you not receiving any?”
“Nope, and it seems like every shop owner is facing the same dilemma.”
First, I couldn’t find any nickel wiring, and now there’s absolutely no glass filament left.
I sighed in frustration.
“What’s next, another food shortage?” I asked.
Ms. Friedrich didn’t reply but instead pulled out a newspaper with one of the recent headlines that read.
[UNKNOWN-SHAPED ROCK FALLS NEAR ALASKA, UNKNOWN AS TO WHERE ITS LOCATED]
To add to my confusion, this kind of headline was quite rare to see, let alone that some sort of comet would even land near Alaska. But to add to my confusion, it also piqued my curiosity. I began to wonder what was inside that rock.
I looked over the paragraphs that described the event but ended up only finding speculation, and rumors that were formulated by the writers who made this heading.
Besides the weird headline, I flipped to the next page to see an article on the war in Europe. Both sides of the war were in a fiery state, the Russians had just retreated into Stalingrad whilst the Germans were securing victory after victory. The allies in West Europe weren’t faring well either, France had fallen just 2 weeks prior and now Germany had full control over the English channel.
While the events were transpiring in Europe, the United States remained unaffected by the war. Despite the non-activity, The United States remains in a neutral state, About a week ago, I had seen multiple navy ships enter the harbor to deliver supplies to Britain, however when I was expecting them to return, the locals said that the ships had sunk across the Atlantic.
I looked back up from the paper to find Friedrich staring at me weirdly.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to try to investigate. You realize you might not find anything right?”
I chuckled at her response.
“Of course not, what do you take me for, Mel Fisher?”
“Hmph, I thought not.”
She took the newspaper out of my hands as I had a short laugh at my own joke. After my visit, I made my way back to the harbor to meet up with a certain friend.
Arriving at the North section of Dutch Harbor I could see multiple boats arriving in and out of the dock. The harbor was almost always busy on weekdays as most of the sailors wanted to conserve their fuel for the boats. To me for some reason, it felt as if the harbor was too busy, nevertheless, I paid it no mind.
I walked over to the spot I’d usually wait for him and sat on top of an empty barrel. After that, I settled down with my bag of supplies in hand as I listened to the sounds of the harbor.
People worked in and outside of their boats, people unloaded their cargo onto the docks with nets and cages, the sounds of seagulls mewing in the air as they circled around the boats that were unloading their catches, and lastly, the open sea swaying along the harbor edges that seemed to calm even me.
Of course, that seems to sound like an exaggeration but, I couldn’t describe it without it sounding unbelievable. Then all of a sudden, I heard the familiar horn of the ship I was waiting for. I got off in an instant and saw him.
He stood on the port side of the boat as his gray eyes scanned the array of parking spots and his eyes soon landed on the one I was sitting under. His serious expression changed into one of excitement as he saw me.
“Hey!” He yelled at me.
When his boat reached the parking spot he jumped off to give me a hug. I returned the gesture by patting my hand on his back.
“Man, I didn’t see you for months, where’ve you been?” He asked.
“I was busy working at the factory, but more importantly how did your trip go?”
“I’m glad you asked. The guys found a new fishing spot, and from what I'm guessing, it’s near the northern reefs.”
So they found a new fishing spot, So I guess that explains why I felt as if the harbor was more busy than usual, everyone was trying to get a catch at the new spot.
“Now c’mon, help me load off some of these nets and cages.” He said to which I obliged.
For a few hours, we unloaded all the cages and nets that he used and placed them on the side whilst we also counted each and every fish that he caught.
“That should be it, Now c'mon let’s go get lunch now Johnny?” I asked him.
“Absolutely, you don't know how much I'm starving.” He replied.
Just as we were about to leave, I noticed a few ships with people being carried out in towels and a few falling out of the ships. I nudged Johnny with my arm to ask him.
“What happened to those guys? Did their ship sink from an accident?”
“No, those are the men from the SS John P. Gaines, we found them on the bottom of their ship that was flipped upside down in the water.”
I saw the looks of the men, and back then I was too naive to understand what would’ve happened next.
