contrasts: ship

I crossed the grounds of an institution, perhaps a school. As I walked down the wide cement path, I passed a man who I have not seen in many years. He was very slender, wearing old clothes in brown and green and had the same feminine attributes as I remember him to possess in waking life. I lifted his hand to my mouth and kissed his fingers lightly in greeting. He smiled at me and said that I was funny, that one moment I could be very reserved and quiet, and the next I could be outgoing and warm. He said something about sliding up and down the scales. He walked with me in the direction I was going and, before I left him to enter a building, we sat down in the shade on the cement to talk for a moment longer. He rolled around on the ground and I was surprised as I knew that this institution frowned upon such things, indeed, it was even daring of us to be sitting.
Time elapsed. I was standing inside a huge ship, looking out the window. We were far, far out at sea. The waves around us were tremendously high. Outside was a large salt water swimming pool; the water was let in from the ocean. There were scores of men swimming in the pool and playing a violent game much like volleyball. The men were the biggest, most brutal looking men I have ever seen. There was a small section of the pool partially divided from the main pool by a wall, a narrow opening in the wall allowing water and people to go pass through. I was watching the pool, waiting for my turn to swim. I was nervous as I was wearing a two-piece swimming costume and felt a great contrast between my feminine body and the brawny bodies of the men, and I felt exposed. Finally I stepped outside into the salty air. I climbed down the tall white, metal ladder from the deck down into the pool area and could feel the icy cold air rising from the deep ocean water. I could see my pale feet as I crossed over to the partially protected section of the pool and noticed that I had red painted toenails. I lowered myself into the water, the cold sucking my stomach in, and found that I quite enjoyed the temperature. I swam under the water and experienced the engulfing silence, a contrast to the loud shouts and bellows of the men pounding the water and each other above. When I surfaced, the ship was being tipped by an enormous wave. The ship slowly rolled to one side, almost to the point of no return, and I, heart beating wildly, thought I was going to die. I could see the wave towering above us, threatening to turn the ship or crash over it, but then it passed under and the ship righted itself. It happened a second time, just as terrifying as the first. The sheer size and power of the wave took my breath away. I then found that I had been washed through the opening in the wall and I was in the dangerous waters of the main pool. Mammoth, beast-like men battled nearby and I urgently swam back through the opening in the wall and into the safe small section. I ducked my head under the water one more time and climbed back out of the pool and up the steep ladder to the safety of the upper deck. I was struck by the overwhelming size of everything, the ship, the waves and the men.