Esoteric Paragraph 02, The meaning of ‘reeking with punctuality’ and others

Esoteric Paragraph 02, The meaning of ‘reeking with punctuality’ and others

The passage below is from Fathoms: The World in the Whale Hardcover by Rebecca Giggs.

(From the previous)

...but there’s nothing down there you can touch. It’s only pressure.

?Time. Time, and such weight.

?Wait. Who’s that? What’s there? Out of the blue, now: a lumpiness in the shallows. ?I can picture it. Fearing a body, but being drawn closer, step by step. ?The obscured bulk grows larger. ?Sea fleas shiver its outline, reeking with punctuality. ?Its mass is rocked by fractional waves.

?Time. Time, and such weight.

There’s nothing on the beach but it seems like something terrible is going to happen anytime, but right now just time ticks by with terrible tension. (Am I right?)

?Wait. Who’s that? What’s there? Out of the blue, now: a lumpiness in the shallows.

Now, on the seashore, there seems to be something full of lumps. (Am I right?)

?I can picture it. Fearing a body, but being drawn closer, step by step.

I can feel it. I am afraid that it could be a dead body, but anyhow I am inching closer to the lump. (Am I right?)

?The obscured bulk grows larger.

As I come closer to it, it seems larger and larger. (Am I right?)

?Sea fleas shiver its outline, reeking with punctuality.

‘Sea fleas shiver its outline’ can be paraphrased as ‘Sea fleas tremble around its skin. (it=the lump, probably a dead whale)’ (Am I right?)

‘Reeking with punctuality’ is much much harder.

The subject of ‘reek’ seems to be sea fleas. (Am I right?) But ‘sea fleas reek with punctuality’ put me out of my wits. I can use ‘reek with blood’, but ‘reek with punctuality’ is all Greek to me. But does it say that sea fleas trembles with a great regularity around a monster-or-something’s body? (Am I right?)

?Its mass is rocked by fractional waves.

Its body is shaken by small waves. (Am I right?)

Thanks a million. (Again sorry to bother you.)