When the man awoke the air was cool and the boat was rocking. His mind suddenly adjusted to his situation. Bilge water . . . I'm wallowing in stinking bilge water! Grasping the lifeboat's gunnel he managed to pull himself up to where he could look over the side. His vision was blurry, he rubbed his eyes trying to get them to focus. The sky was overcast except on the horizon where the sun hung just above the ocean. He was confused but his mind was trying to clear. Is the sun setting, or rising? He slowly turned his head as he looked in all directions seeing only water, water everywhere . . . but there towards the bow, a blurry lump of something lying on the seat . . . no, it couldn't be, his mind must be playing tricks on him. There's no little boy sleeping up there. His head was swimming with dizziness as he looked back at the sun, it was being swallowed by the ocean, a setting sun. Now he had his directions, the sun sets in the west. He was suddenly confused as he thought, does it set in the west . . . or is it the east? Come on . . . surely you know this . . . sure it's the west . . . I think? Any sailor knows that . . . is that what I am, a sailor? What's my name . . . surely I know my own name . . . it'll come to me. How did I get in this boat? My head, it's throbbing like . . . Suddenly his eye caught movement towards the bow and then a cough, a cough that sounded like a child. "Who are you?" There was no answer, the lump he could barely make out settled back down. "Answer me, you hear? Who are you?" Nothing, no more movement. Was it a breeze that moved some canvas? The cough . . . did I really hear it . . . or was it my imagination. I'm so dizzy, head is swimming. What's real . . . and what's not.
About the Author: Donald "Wayne" Manning was born on a farm in rural southeastern Oklahoma, a state that is still known as the Indian Nation, and growing through childhood at a time when electricity had not yet been extended to those rural areas. Mr. Manning remembers those times when life wasn't so easy. It was a time when a family grew its own food, drew its water from the well in a bucket, cooked on a wood burning cook stove, heated bath water over a fire and bathed in a laundry tub. Farming was done with horses or mules and crops harvested by hand. One of the highlights of his growing up was going to visit his grandparents who lived even more primitive in the backcountry of Oklahoma's Kiamichi Mountains. An avid interest in history has been his lifelong passion and along with his real life experiences has given Mr. Manning special insight into how people lived during the western expansion and he incorporates it all into his novels of adventure and the old west. He writes about people, countries, rivers, terrain, landmarks, towns and ghost towns. Many of these places he has actually been to and incorporates them and historical events into the lives of the characters in his novels. Mr. Manning now resides in northern California. He says; "Good story telling is a gift, sharpened by life's experiences. It's not something wholly learned out of text books. I thank God that I have been blessed with that gift."