Darit had a hard time sleeping from the memories of what has been done to him. He wakes up in a cold sweat and looks around trying to remember how he got here. Once he realizes he no longer a captive of the people who forced him to have sex with men and such. He lays back down and cries.

The only light coming into the small cabin was from the port windows lining the top of the cabin. He does jump occasionally when the thunder booms right overhead followed by flashes of lighting. The boat rocks a little during the night. He opens the cabin door to look out and let some of the cool air drift inside. He crawls under a blanket he had brought earlier and watch the lighting as it dances across the cloudy sky. He slowly falls back asleep while watching the storm.

Darit wakes late the next day and it was only misting outside. He walks out onto the deck and sits in the Captain chair looking out at the pier. There weren’t many people out on their boats today because of the mist. He was thinking that maybe today he should leave, but the weather man had said there was going to be a thunder storm today and since he wasn’t a skilled boater, staying where he was a good idea.

He sits there and think about what he should. He had no papers and didn’t speak English very well. He was young and not skilled in much. He stays like that just enjoying the wet morning and wondering what he should do next. He gets up and heads back into the cabin and grab an orange and the rest of the sandwich he brought yesterday. He didn’t know how to operate the mini-stove in the cabin. He did learn how to use the radio and the various gadgets by playing with them and learning what they did. He had a fish finder and a few other gadgets available to him.

He hears someone speaking Russian and looks out the port window to see who it was. There were two Russian guys he saw once walking up and down the dock. They were peeking into boats that weren’t occupied. He turns the cabin lights off as he moves to an area of the boat you couldn’t see through the port window. Just as he heard them approach his boat.

“Hey, what are you two doing? Get out of here before I call the police.”

Darit heard the man right across from his boat yelling at the two Russian guys. More people were coming out of their boats to see what all the commotion was. The two Russian guys turn and leave the pier. Darit peeks out from his cabin and climb up to see if they have left. He watches them get into a van and drive off.

The old man that had been yelling at them look over towards his way.

“You’re safe now kid. I don’t know why they are looking for you, but you might want to consider moving on tomorrow if you can.”

“Thank you.” Darit smiles at him.

“You’re welcome kid.”

Darit gets his jacket and boots and head back to the little store and buys a few more items so he could leave first thing tomorrow morning. He was going to pull out early so no one would know he had left. He searches the cabin and finds the direction to light the mini-stove and some dishes. He heats up a soup he had brought and has that to take the chill off him. It does start to rain again and well into the night again.

Darit gets some sleep and wakes up early the next day. He disconnects the shore power and water and powers the boat up and pull out being careful not to rub up against the piling that mark the berth. He gets back out onto the main river and heads left so he is going down further the intercostal water way. It does rain and the water is a little choppy as he continues to travel. He doesn’t stop for the night, but continues carefully. The last thing he needed was to damage the boat. By morning he comes to several marinas he could berth in. He picks one that is a private community and the only way you are let in is by a person who lives here or if your boat is docked here.

He pulls into a berth and goes up and pays for a few days stay and buys a hot meal. He learns he can get fuel here as well. He picks up a few groceries and takes them back to the boat. So, far no one has reported the boat as being missing. Darit wonders why no one has reported the boat as missing? When he went into the store, the clerk called him a she and said have a nice day ma’am. He wonders if he looks like a girl?

As he climbs back onto his boat he wonders if maybe it would be better to travel as a girl, that way no one would recognize him. He learned how to the turn the power on for the microwave in the cabin as well. So now he knows how to use it.

He sits out on the deck and eats his dinner. He had checked the map to where he was and found out he was out of New Jersey and down near the Northern part of Virginia. If he kept going he could end up in the Carolina’s where he would stand a better chance of being hidden among the people there. He also found out that he had an aft cabin where he could sleep and be hidden without being seen. The boat he had found drifting was a 1996 Wellcraft 26 SE Excell. He finally found the owner’s manual and learned some of its secret. Since Darit traveled all night.

He heads into the aft cabin after shutting the door that lead down into the cabin. He crawls onto the mattress and falls asleep.