Sunken ships

12

"What are you doing here?" I ask, looking at Alex who is standing in front of me on my doorstep.

"Why not?"

Ignoring my question he steps inside slightly pushing me against my shoulder to make room for him to pass.

"Are you coming?" He asks, leaving me in the hallway with a surprise and confused expression on my face. By the distance of his voice, I assume he is in the living room.

Standing in the doorway of the small living room, I see that it didn't look like that living room anymore. Normally there was an olive green couch, a tall lamp, a little round table, and an even smaller table near the window to put my gramophone, vinyls, and EPs on.

Now all the furniture was gone and replaced with one large wooden table, it confuses me that it even fits in the room, but surprisingly it does. On top of the table, there is a pearl white tablecloth. But there was nothing on it. Just an empty table.

I look around stepping further into the room. Then I realize that Alex isn't here anymore. It is just me and the big table.

"Alex? Where did you go?" I am getting slightly concerned about his absence.

The room is very dark which makes it look like there are no walls and just an open space without an end.

"Are you hungry? Because there is a lot."

My head immediately snatches in the direction of his deep voice. There he is again out of nowhere at the border of the endless darkness with a big silver plate balanced on his right hand. On that plate, a whole chicken just out of the oven, steam still rising from it. The chicken has a gold-brown shine all over it, making it look very delicious.

I look up to Alex who has a small smirk on his face, waiting for me to say something.

"Yes, I'm starving," I say, still a bit confused by what is going on.

"Perfect," He says, with a satisfied tone in his voice.

I look at him walking over to the table. That's when I realize he isn't wearing the clothes from before.

He is wearing the brown, slightly green uniform we wore at our mission at Dunkirk.

He places the plate down on the table that isn't empty anymore. There are two plates with a bowl on top of it on each end of the long table. With those, there are three different sizes of knives and forks and even two spoons, for all the different courses of a meal. All in silver. That wasn't even all of it, a crystal glass already halfway filled with red wine.

All of a sudden my nose picks up a strong scent of familiar herbs and spices. Rosemary, thyme, garlic.

Besides all the tableware there are now all kinds of food and dishes covering the whole surface of the table. Rice, beans, stewed carrots, pasta, bread, mushrooms,... and the list goes on. As a source of light, there is a candlestick with crystal pegs and four white candles in the middle of the table.

"Come take a seat, the food is getting cold." Alex is already sitting at the far end of the table, still in that brown uniform.

I start moving my feet but in less than a second, I am sitting on the chair at the table. Time is doing some weird stuff. I look down at my lap in confusion and see that I wasn't in my normal anymore either. I was also wearing my uniform just like Alex in front of me. He is staring directly into my eyes without any emotion on his face.

"You should taste the wine, it's really good. Fits perfectly with the food."

With a bit of hesitation, I reach out with my right hand over the table to take the crystal glass. I bring it to my lips and take a sip of the red wine that if you look a bit closer seems like a more thick liquid. The flavor was also a bit off and it left a metal aftertaste.