1) Captain D is taking passengers on a new luxury ship called The Platypus departing from Turkey. 2) At lunch, Captain D sits with an Italian family, drinking wine and telling stories. 3) In response to frequent questions about what the D in his name stands for, Captain D tells a story about his traumatic childhood, but it turns out to be a lie. 4) The ship sinks after getting caught in a strong canal current in Italy, with no survivors.

1. Megan Lewis
Jade Smith
Jonathan Young
Caleb Supple
Jordan
A Crashing Ego
It was a hot, beautiful day in Turkey. People gathering at the docks to
say goodbye to the ones that were lucky enough to board the ship. This was
brand new with smoke stacks as tall as buildings and the name “The Platypus”
painted on the side. The local bands play trumpets by Jason Durulo and other
hits from Kid’s Bop 23. The ship’s Captain, Captain D, lulls over the water,
puffing his Cuban cigar.
The ship blows its final horn as the engines rev and the ship moves
forward. You can smell chicken noodle soup made in the kitchen for lunch time.
You can hear the women gossiping and the children laughing. The gossip around
the ship was how attractive the captain was and what his real name was. Nobody
knew what the D really meant. There were theories of course, but all seems to
fall short.
After everyone on the ship gets their stuff together and everything
unpacked, the whistle blows to let the people know that lunch was served.
Captain D stalks the dining room to find the group of people he wants to have
lunch with. He finally sits down with an Italian family with five beautiful women
and their husbands. The families didn’t have children of course. The women
seemed much too young for that. The men told stories and laughed with Captain
D as the women slipped in a few words every now and then. This went on until
late in the afternoon, just enough time for them to get a good buzz from the lunch
wine.
An hour after the ships departure, lunch with the captain begins. Any
one and everyone is allowed to come to the table and ask the captain questions
on any topic. Some questions were complex like " which is stronger, wolverines
Adamantium claws or Captain Americas vibranium shield?" Other questions were
simple like if the captain was a single man looking for something new and
exciting. Even though all the questions were worthy of answers there was one
question that was reoccurring that the captain refused to answer. The reoccurring
question was, ."what does the D stand for in his name .Eventually, after hearing
the question continuously the captain stands up takes a sip of his 40 year old
scotch, takes a puff of his Cuban and takes a deep sighs.

2. He says "questions have been raised about my name , would a rose
by any other name be so sweet ?" The passengers chuckle. He continues by
telling them about his life as youngster. As a child the captain was a troubled
child. He wasn't in the type of trouble that was felony worthy but he occasionally
would knock over a streets worth of trash cans, and light bags of cow dung and
leave them in peoples mailboxes. One day his uncle caught him participating in
one of his acts of mischief and decided that it was his civic duty to punish him
severely . His uncle locked him in his basement chained up for three days
watching 'Crank that' by 'Soulja Boy' on repeat. He felt as if his brain was going
to turn to mush. The doctors believed that if the computer didn't short out on the
third day, around mid day, from the amount of ignorance that was constantly
streaming through it, he would have become brain dead. He told the passengers
how this event traumatized him to the point that he couldn't speak correctly for
four years. When he finally regained the ability to talk he still couldn't say the
alphabet without skipping the letter D, or words that started with a D . As a result
all the people who hung out with him started calling him D to remind him to not
forget that letter. His uncle was never arrested for the abuse because when the
detective that was on the case would ask who did this to him he could never say
the name , he would choke on the words.
He hasn't tried to say any words starting with D since.
After he told his story to the people of the ship some people were
disappointed and thought that it was going to be a more entertaining story and
make more sense. No one on the ship realized how long the story took to tell or
how close they were getting to the coast . In Italy, the major canal has a current
that pulls in anything and everything that in the direct path unless it is strong
enough to fight the current. An alarm goes off on the ship, which was the
proximity alarm that alerts the people when they are to close to anything
dangerous. Panic moves over the whole ship and people start rushing around to
figure it all out. When Captain D gets back to the control room, his worst fear
comes to life. He is stuck in the canals current and the engine isn't strong enough
to pull out of it. the captain hits the emergency overdrive button but it is no help.
There is nothing else he can do so he comes over the ships intercom and tells
the passengers to brace for impact. Expecting that the wreck is going to be a
tragedy the captain comes over the intercom again and says " the story I told you
about my name was a complete and utter lie , I don't even have an uncle". He
goes on to say that the reason he lied is because his name is actually just D, no
middle or last name just D. The ship keeps getting pulled in. He goes on to say
that he was left on the community church's step as a baby and the pastor who

3. found him just named him D so that he would have something to call him but
something that wasn't a complete title so he wouldn't get attached, incase
someone came back for him. After three years of no one coming after him he
decided to adopt him officially and decided not to call him by any other the name
because he didn't want to confuse the child. So Captain D Grew up with a father
and a family but no full name. The boat gets drug in the canal hits a rock and
sinks. There were no survivors.