"What are we going to do now, Captain Chapman?" my mother asks. Or captain scratches his head and shrugs.
"There's no dock or civilized island for miles now. An', no offense, Miss, but I doubt Mr. Tame is smart 'nough to sail for help or even to sail back 'ere to us. Guess we're gonna survive thin, ma'am," replies the captain, sadly.
He's probably right. David Alexander Tame would never be smart enough to do anything, really.
"I could use my cell phone!" yells a lady with white hair and a crooked smile that I don't know the name of.
" 'Fraid not, Mrs., no reception for a while now from as far as I can see," the captain looks around, searching.
We all sigh. I hug my mom and whisper, "I'm sorry.". It is only the morning still, of course, so there is no need to rush around for food or shelter or anything.
"Alright, then. Let's split up. It's not a big island so it's okay to do so. Young men all o' ages 13 to 31 can go look for things for a shelter. Ladies all can go lookin' for food. And other ones of you gents and ladies can find water, and set up things for camp. I'll help little bits o' everyone. Meet back 'ere when ya done."
Everyone heads off quickly so that the tasks can be completed before dark. I am off to help mom find some food, when this really mean niece of Dave's comes up to me.
"Um, Anna-Dork! Cover for me. I like would never be caught dead doing actual work, duh!" she snarks.
"Well, Bethany Lattiot, you will be dead if you don't do work, duh!" I snap at her.
I head off with mom and Taylor. We spent only a couple of hours picking berries, finding dead animals, picking fruit, and scraping moss off trees. We figure we should gather food for more than just one meal. Plus, we are gonna have to feed 100 people. So we gather the food in our shirts and purses, and bags, and arms, and anything else we have laying around. We bring it all back to the captain and he starts a fire with a couple other of the men. One of them is Gerald Lattiot, Bethany's dad. He isn't very good at making fires and it keeps smoking up. It takes 25 minutes to start a tiny fire. It's already 3:00 in the afternoon and no one has had lunch yet. Us ladies who gathered food ate a couple of berries, but that's it. So we start up our fire and the captain finds some pieces of scrap cardboard and a bunch of other stuff to cook the meat on. We pick through and find the ripest, cleanest, healthiest food we can. We also cook the bark. Only certain people get to eat fruit, usually the people that did the most work. Everyone gets a thin slice of meat and a handful of berries. The young kids and babies get the bark, because it is "good for growing". We cut the meat with some guy's pocket knife.
Turns out the shelter people did a pretty good job because every family gets their own mini shelter thing. It's made of sticks in a house shape. There are branches with leaves attached to hang over the top. Straw is weaved into the sticks to keep the rain out. Each family, no matter the number of people, gets one shelter. We also get 3 oranges in case we get hungry. We're able to keep everything safe under the shelter.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
CHAPTER 3: Stuck.
Right now I am sitting above-deck staring out the back of the boat. After the party last night, Taylor came out to comfort me. I had run down to our room crying.
"Anna, she's just doing what she thinks is best for us!" she had said.
But I ignored her and didn't start thinking about that until now. What if mom was just marrying Dave for us. What if she just wanted us to have a father figure again? Couldn't she have just asked us if we wanted that figure to be Dave? Maybe things just aren't that simple anymore. I pick myself up and head over for some breakfast at the all-you-can-eat counter. I stuff my face with hash browns and bananas, I can feel myself getting chubbier and chubbier. Mom walks up beind me and rests her hands on my shoulders.
"Sweetie, I'm sorry. I thought--"
"I know what you thought, mom. But you thought wrong!" I start to yell, but something stops me.
All of a sudden, the boat comes to a halt. The captain orders Dave to anchor the boat and people swarm out like fruit flies at a garbage dump. Mom grabs a hold of my arm and tugs me over to the side of the boat. She points out at a beautiful little island forest surrounded my sparkling water. The water looks cleaner than the rest of the ocean. It's shallow too. Women begin pulling up there dresses a little bit and trudging through the water, which reaches up to their ankles.
"Anna! Down here!" Dave's sons yell at me--I don't even call them by their names anymore --and I follow the little metal ramp down to the water. I shove my shoes off and kick them onto the boat. Then I start to tippy-toe through the water as I get used to the icey temperature. Once every one has safely gotten onto the island, we all look around a bit and start to go back to the boat for our stuff. But as we move the water towards the boat with our feet, the boat begins to drift away, slower, and slower. Dave's on it to, he's trying to anchor it. But, since he was a first-time sailor, and his dad had done all the work on the way over here, he drifts away with the boat and can't get it back to us. We all watch the boat float away slowly, I am in shock. A couple of men attemp to swim after the boat, but even if they're aable to get to it, what will they do, there is nothing to climb onto or hold onto, and they are not strong enough to pull it. Mom comes up and squeezes me tight, she begins crying, and so does everyone else, as we face the truth: We're stuck.
"Anna, she's just doing what she thinks is best for us!" she had said.
But I ignored her and didn't start thinking about that until now. What if mom was just marrying Dave for us. What if she just wanted us to have a father figure again? Couldn't she have just asked us if we wanted that figure to be Dave? Maybe things just aren't that simple anymore. I pick myself up and head over for some breakfast at the all-you-can-eat counter. I stuff my face with hash browns and bananas, I can feel myself getting chubbier and chubbier. Mom walks up beind me and rests her hands on my shoulders.
"Sweetie, I'm sorry. I thought--"
"I know what you thought, mom. But you thought wrong!" I start to yell, but something stops me.
All of a sudden, the boat comes to a halt. The captain orders Dave to anchor the boat and people swarm out like fruit flies at a garbage dump. Mom grabs a hold of my arm and tugs me over to the side of the boat. She points out at a beautiful little island forest surrounded my sparkling water. The water looks cleaner than the rest of the ocean. It's shallow too. Women begin pulling up there dresses a little bit and trudging through the water, which reaches up to their ankles.
"Anna! Down here!" Dave's sons yell at me--I don't even call them by their names anymore --and I follow the little metal ramp down to the water. I shove my shoes off and kick them onto the boat. Then I start to tippy-toe through the water as I get used to the icey temperature. Once every one has safely gotten onto the island, we all look around a bit and start to go back to the boat for our stuff. But as we move the water towards the boat with our feet, the boat begins to drift away, slower, and slower. Dave's on it to, he's trying to anchor it. But, since he was a first-time sailor, and his dad had done all the work on the way over here, he drifts away with the boat and can't get it back to us. We all watch the boat float away slowly, I am in shock. A couple of men attemp to swim after the boat, but even if they're aable to get to it, what will they do, there is nothing to climb onto or hold onto, and they are not strong enough to pull it. Mom comes up and squeezes me tight, she begins crying, and so does everyone else, as we face the truth: We're stuck.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
CHAPTER 2: The Stupid Party.
"Whatever, mom!" I say. She has just forced a frilly blue girly-looking dress onto me and I am squirming below deck, trying to peal my way out of it. Taylor struts into the room looking perfect in her indigo silky dress that trails down, covering her black Mary-Janes. I huff. As I peer into the mirror, I see myself. Taylor looks beautiful, and I look tattered and forced with my ratty brunette hair and bright green cat-eyes. Taylor is blond-haired and blue-eyed just like my mom is. Now Chase come in flashing us a super white smile and shining in his brown tuxedo. Chase looks like mom, too. His hair and skin are both pale and he is tall but farely muscular. We are all going to be heading up deck for a special ceremony of some sorts. Actually, though, it is more of a party in celebration of Dave and mom. It's not like they're married or engaged or anything but Dave's Hawaiin and his super-friendly family wanted to host this shindig in honour of Dave finding love or something cheesy like that. Anyway yeah, here I go to celebrate something I am fuming about. In fact my face is beet red from anger (and sweating). Mom is the prettiest of us, with her brown highlights glistening and her red silk-soft dress reaching down to her pale white knees. Her hair is swept back into a friendly, but elegant up-do and her makeup is not but red lipstip.
"OK, Anna, brush your hair; Taylor do your makeup if you need to; and Chase, find some shoes," orders my mom. I hed over to the mirror the sits on an old stained dresser. I feel around and find a hairbrush, designed to straighten my tangly mess I call hair. Today, it is leaning and moping around the back of my head, and stick out off the top as if I have a rats' nest up there. Once it's brushed and straightened, though, I look quite fine. Not compared to Taylor and mom--or even Chase, for that matter. Finally, 20 minutes later, we are looking clean and dressy so we head up to the loust boat deck or whatever you call the top of the yacht. Many people I don't know are standing aroung in silk designer dresses or traditional Hawaiin ones that still look elegant (to them). I have never been to one, but I've seen them in movies and stuff, so to me, this looks like one of those office parties where you're supposed to go up and make small talk with people you don't even remember the name of, and the whole time you're talking to them, you are trying to guess their name in your head. Yeah. But at this party, instead of mini sandwiches and coffee, there is ounch and bowls of fruit and stuff. Some random people in the corner are doing some traditional Hawaiin dance. Mom says it isn't a Hula but I say all the dances must be the exact same then. Dave rushes over to mom and grabs her slim, soft hand in his rough, tense fingers. "Layla Shonon, may I take this dance?" he asks, jokingly. Mom laughs (her name, in case you haven't guessed, is Layla Shonon). Then they sweep onto the dance floor and start a Hawaiin-ballroom mixture thing. Finally the lights, dim and a spotlight fades onto mom and Dave. Everyone claps and Dave yells something in his parents language. Then, to my surprise, instead of leaning in to kiss mom, he kneels.
"Layla Aubrey Anne Shonon, will you marry me, my dear?" he pleads.
I already know mom's answer, and personally I think it'a dumb of Dave to propose to her while we are half-way to the island on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Because now, he's just gonna have to turn this thing around and go back home. Maybe he'll even have to push us Shonons right off the boat and have us swim the rest of the way home.
"Yes. Yes, Dave. Yes!" mom squeals.
I gasp. How dare she?
"OK, Anna, brush your hair; Taylor do your makeup if you need to; and Chase, find some shoes," orders my mom. I hed over to the mirror the sits on an old stained dresser. I feel around and find a hairbrush, designed to straighten my tangly mess I call hair. Today, it is leaning and moping around the back of my head, and stick out off the top as if I have a rats' nest up there. Once it's brushed and straightened, though, I look quite fine. Not compared to Taylor and mom--or even Chase, for that matter. Finally, 20 minutes later, we are looking clean and dressy so we head up to the loust boat deck or whatever you call the top of the yacht. Many people I don't know are standing aroung in silk designer dresses or traditional Hawaiin ones that still look elegant (to them). I have never been to one, but I've seen them in movies and stuff, so to me, this looks like one of those office parties where you're supposed to go up and make small talk with people you don't even remember the name of, and the whole time you're talking to them, you are trying to guess their name in your head. Yeah. But at this party, instead of mini sandwiches and coffee, there is ounch and bowls of fruit and stuff. Some random people in the corner are doing some traditional Hawaiin dance. Mom says it isn't a Hula but I say all the dances must be the exact same then. Dave rushes over to mom and grabs her slim, soft hand in his rough, tense fingers. "Layla Shonon, may I take this dance?" he asks, jokingly. Mom laughs (her name, in case you haven't guessed, is Layla Shonon). Then they sweep onto the dance floor and start a Hawaiin-ballroom mixture thing. Finally the lights, dim and a spotlight fades onto mom and Dave. Everyone claps and Dave yells something in his parents language. Then, to my surprise, instead of leaning in to kiss mom, he kneels.
"Layla Aubrey Anne Shonon, will you marry me, my dear?" he pleads.
I already know mom's answer, and personally I think it'a dumb of Dave to propose to her while we are half-way to the island on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Because now, he's just gonna have to turn this thing around and go back home. Maybe he'll even have to push us Shonons right off the boat and have us swim the rest of the way home.
"Yes. Yes, Dave. Yes!" mom squeals.
I gasp. How dare she?
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