“I am an ambassador for the United Nations. “Who are you? Why are you dressed so strangely?” he asked. His expression was too serious, and there was none of the naiveté in him that I remembered having when I’d been his age. He looked young enough for it, only twenty or so. He was saying his name was Diogo Dias, and that he was the captain’s escrivere. One of the sailors responded in another language. I was too soaked and chilly for it to be a hallucination. Must have been part of the hallucination, but it couldn’t be a hallucination. They were dressed like buccaneers of some sort. The sailors on board looked at me in confusion. Then, slowly, it turned around and came in my direction. I would survive after all, and then, after I was rescued, I would wake up from my headache-induced hallucination, or whatever dream I was having that felt so real.

I didn’t care what type of ship it was, though, because it was coming in my direction. It was a massive galleon, the likes of which I had only seen in pirate movies. All I could do was tread water and hope I found land before I was drowned by my waterlogged business suit. Nobody could hear me over the sound of the storm, and I doubted there was even anyone to hear me.

A wave towered overhead, then crashed down upon me. When I opened my eyes, I was in an ocean. I rested my head on my arm, I closed my eyes, and prayed for the pain to end. My eyes looked bloodshot but otherwise I looked alright-Īgony, and I sank onto the floor. I examined myself in the bathroom mirror. I rose, and stumbled down the hall into the restroom. My head ached so much that I could no longer think. Someone was asking, “Frederick, what were you about to say?” My head suddenly burst with pain, and I broke off. The only thing was, how did I know it was moral if everyone else in my delegation disagreed with it? It was a point I actually believed to be true myself.

She had raised a particularly good point. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to answer. Fortunately I didn’t need the interpreter’s help, because I understood Portuguese from school. She asked it in Portuguese, and the interpreter took a while to translate it. The ambassador from Portugal shook her head and asked, “How do we know that others won’t take advantage of our inaction? Besides, isn’t it our duty to promote human rights?” Second, who knows how any of the rest of us will react? It might start a war that destroys us all.”Įverybody else seated around the negotiation table nodded, save for one person. “We shouldn’t intervene when others abuse human rights,” I said. I didn’t believe what I said on that April day at the United Nations, but I could live with that. NOTE: Aspects of history have been changed to suit the purposes of this story.

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