Annoyed With Himself

Terence is in the lead, with the torch.

Hold it steady, says Ageless.

Can't, says Terence. Unless I stop moving.

He stops. 

Why are you stopping? asks Ageless.

There's a window, says Terence.

He shines the torch at the window.

This is the second window, says Ageless. Three more to go to the top.

Okay, says Terence.

He keeps climbing.

Ageless follows.

The torchlight flickers on the curved walls. 

The circumference shortens.

Third window, says Ageless.

This is a very tall lighthouse, says Terence.

So sailors can see it, says Ageless.

From the sea, says Terence.

Yes, from the sea, says Ageless. 

Can the cuttlefish see it? asks Terence.

If they bother to look up, says Ageless.

Why would the sailors look up and not the cuttlefish? asks Terence.

Fourth window.

Think about it, says Ageless.

Terence thinks about it.

Sailors look ACROSS, says Terence. 

Across and up, says Ageless. To see the lighthouse. So they know where not to go.

Which is where? asks Terence. 

Onto the rocks below the lighthouse, says Ageless. And be shipwrecked.

Someone should tell the cuttlefish, says Terence.

They already know, says Ageless.

Fifth window. 

A big one, in a small round room with a decommissioned light in the centre.

Terence flashes his torch at the window.

Turn it off, says Ageless, or we won't see anything.

Terence turns the torch off.

They peer through the window. 

Blackness, blackness.....

Hear the ocean? asks Ageless.

Roooaaarrrshhoom! 

No, says Terence. Yes, maybe.

Well, I can, says Ageless. 

Terence's eyes are becoming accustomed to blackness. He sees white flashes rising and falling.

Sea foam, says Ageless. That's where the rocks are.

I'll warn the sailors, says Terence. What's the SOS signal?

No need for that, says Ageless. 

Captain Baudin does it, says Terence. 

He said he flashes the torch over the ocean, says Ageless. But not what for.

I'm going down to ask him, says Terence.

He turns and runs down the winding staircase with the torch.

Ageless is left in the dark.

Annoyed with himself.

 Baudin will think he doesn't know the Morse code.