Chapter 4

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Solomon slept terribly that night, tossing and turning with an array of bad and often terrifying dreams. The last one, before he woke in the morning, was about Mikhail. He dreamt of their tender and awesome times in their teens, and Solomon was happy. He dreamt of them coming out to each other and their first time to make love. He woke to realize he had a wet dream.

“Damn, thirty years old and still having wet dreams. Damn.”

It was five-thirty in the morning. He quietly got out of bed and trudged down the hall to the shower area and washed before putting clean clothes on. He went to the employees’ exercise room but only lasted five minutes on the treadmill. He abandoned his intentions to hit the weights and walked the deck, looking out blankly. He was far more than depressed and, for a brief moment, considered throwing himself off the boat but knew that was wrong.