Furtive Fernando

~A Prologue~
Furtive Fernando opened the giant book to his favourite story of the High Seas. He took in the comforting sound of the kitchen and the more distant laughter of the Well-To-Do as they raucously dined out. He always found this story much too scary to read by the silent gaslamps. 

But here! Here, beneath the blessed generosity of the Sunday Night Chef's window of light- He is Fernando the Fearless! And as Fernando the Fearless pours over the passages of Coleridge with such reverence, he does not even notice his little lips moving.

 And he begins again to read the strange tale, betraying a silent whisper, 

"Argument: How a ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country." And there it was- that familiar chill every time he read it...