We didn't have any reason to worry... until just before sundown, when the barometer dropped like a rock. This is how it happened.

In spite of the crew's obvious nervousness, none of us girls took the threat of the storm seriously.

For one thing, the sky was clear. There were one or two small clouds, but they were fluffy, white, and harmless as lambs.

For another, the sea was calm. There were little whitecaps everywhere — but whitecaps aren't waves, they're little would-be waves.

And lastly, the Captain and the crew had told us many times before not to worry. They had stressed that our safety was their main concern; that if there was even a hint of danger, we'd make straight for port.

So we took the bustle and seriousness of the crew as a reaction to the Captain's excessive caution.

We didn't have any reason to worry... until just before sundown, when the barometer dropped like a rock. This is how it happened:

We were all on deck, lazing around, trying to stay out of the way. It was hard, though, because every place we sat or lay down, someone told us to move so they could do some urgent work. In the end, all of us passengers (the ten girls and two teachers) gathered on the poop deck, because it was the only place where we could be outside and out of the way.

Ding-Dong had just said, "Does it seem like every ten minutes one of the sailors comes to check on us?" when boom! everything changed.

Well, it wasn't actually a boom. It was the opposite of boom, whatever that is. Everybody felt it. It was like something suddenly went away — you know? The way things change just before a thunderstorm?

One of the deckhands, a girl named Brina, happened to be nearby, and I said, "Wow! What just happened?"

She gave me a serious look and said, "The barometer fell. Storm's coming. You girls might think about getting below." Then she quickly descended the stairs.

Even Ding-Dong knew what "the barometer fell" meant. Heck, even *I* knew what it meant. Nobody laughed or joked, but still we weren't worried. We knew the island wasn't far off; we would be there by nightfall, and night was falling soon.

Then the clouds came gliding in: heavy, black, wide sheets — no, not sheets — They were blankets: big, thick, heavy blankets. You could see they were loaded with rain, and carrying a heavy charge of lightning and thunder. They were ready to let it all go and dump it down on us.

I've never seen clouds move so quickly. It was like those films where they speed up natural processes: where you can watch a flower blossom in less than a minute, or crowds of people sweep through Grand Central Station in seconds, as if they were an army of ants jazzed up on caffeine.

One moment, there were no clouds. The next moment, they swept up from the horizon at a hundred miles an hour. They came over us, they kept on going, and more clouds flowed in their wake. Soon the whole sky was full and black, getting blacker by the minute.

Cakey said, "I'm going downstairs," and Ding-Dong said, "I'm with you."

Before either of them had a chance to move, a huge rain drop fell from the sky. We saw it come sailing down until it hit the center of the poop deck with a resounding SMACK! The message was unmistakable: the gauntlet had been thrown down. What was our response? We screamed like a pack of girls and got the hell on out of there.
 

Luckily no one was hurt in the rush from the poop deck. We did manage to just get inside just as the floodgates opened and water came ripping down. Well, most of us managed to get in. Donkey and Boogers were at the rear of the pack, and the two them were absolutely drenched in a matter of seconds. There wasn't a dry spot on them! They had to change every piece of clothing, down to their underwear, and their hair was wet and scraggly.

After they changed, the two of them sat in a corner brushing their hair.

We all gathered — the ten girls and the two teachers — in the dining room. It was the biggest place we could all be together.

"Think good thoughts, girls," Mirina instructed.

In spite of her admonition, we all chattered about our situation. We speculated about how far we were from the island, and whether we'd be safe once we got there. Every one of us dredged up the tiniest scrap of nautical science the sailors had told us, and tried to piece together some sort of coherent assessment. We discussed what the Captain might be thinking or doing, whether another port was nearby, and how quickly the storm would blow over.

We played board games and card games. From the darkness outside, you'd think it was ten or eleven at night, but it was only 5:15. Wiggy, Cakey, Ding-Dong and me made ourselves some hot cocoa and sat around a table, telling each other the stories of our lives.

It was scary and exciting, but scary the way a roller-coaster is scary: no matter how frightened you feel, you know that the ride will end and you'll be fine. You'll emerge exhilarated, with your hair thrown every which way, but happy, safe, unscathed. Our mood was a lot like it would have been if we were telling ghost stories around a fire. Spooky, but fun.

At about seven o'clock Shaylen came in to talk with us. She took off her rain hat and slipped out of her slicker. Her shirt was wet all around her neck and shoulders. "Do you want something to drink?" I asked her. It was the first time I'd ever seen Shaylen without a smile on her face.

"Hot tea would be nice. Thanks, Marcie." There was a hot water tap at the bar, so in a few moments I handed a steaming cup to her. She sat on a table where she could see all our faces and we could all see her.

"All right, then. Everybody here?" She counted silently and nodded. "Good. I came in to give you an update. You can see we've got a storm blowing, and it's a bad one, but I've seen worse. We've got a good ship, a good crew, and a good captain, and we're going to get through all right."

Cakey said, "I thought you told us that if things looked bad, we'd make for the nearest port."

"I did say that." Shaylen admitted. "And right now the nearest port is Muktaphala."

"That's our island, right?" Wiggy asked.

"Right."

"So...," I ventured, "is that a good thing, or a bad thing?"

"It's a good thing," Shaylen said, "because we're still on course. We're about three hours from Muktaphala, considering present conditions. The problem is, once get get to the island, we'd have a hard time securing the ship."

"Why?" Cakey asked.

"Because Muktaphala is a coral island. There's a reef around it. With the the wind and the sea as rough as they are, we'd risk running against up the reef, and damaging both the reef and the hull. We're better off sailing out the storm, even if it means overshooting the island. The storm will let up by morning. Then we can come about and sail to the island easy."

There was silence for a spell. Then Mirina spoke. "It sounds like you've got things well in hand, Shaylen."

"Thanks, Mirina, I think we do." Shaylen looked down for a moment, and puffed up her cheeks while she ran through her thoughts: had she covered everything?

"Oh, there is one more thing. I just have to warn you, girls, it's going to be a bumpy ride tonight. When the wind kicks up, or if the sea goes one way and the wind goes another, you're all going to feel it." As if to illustrate her point, the ship lurched beneath us. There were a few shrieks of surprise, and two drinks went over, but we all laughed afterward. Shaylen smiled.

"I'm glad you're laughing," she told us. "You're one of the best groups we've had aboard. I know tonight is New Years, and we were going to celebrate, but we'll hold off until tomorrow. If you want to stay up tonight, you're welcome to stay here. Tipper's going to make sure we don't starve tonight: we'll have plenty to eat or to snack on. If you want to rest, you can either keep to the lower bunks, or rig up the nets to keep you from falling. All right? Any questions?"

She waited. "No one? All right, then. I've got to get back to work."

"Thank you, Shaylen," Mirina said, speaking for us all.

After the sailor donned her slicker and left, Knickers said, "I don't know about you, but I'm going to stay up all night! I've always wanted to, and now's the perfect chance. Besides, it's New Years!"

"Yeah, I've never stayed up all night either!" Graffy (or Grooty) agreed. There was a general chorus of agreement.

Ding-Dong asked, "Should we put our pajamas on?"

"No, why?" Knickers asked.

Ding-Dong shrugged.

"It's not a sleepover," Knickers said, laughing. "It's a— it's a— it's the opposite of a sleepover... it's a stay-up-a-thon!"

"We could drink coffee," Cakey proposed.

"We could prop our eyelids open with toothpicks, like that mouse in the cartoon," Ding-Dong put in.

"Does anybody know how to make coffee?" Donkey asked.

"We could go ask Tipper," Cakey proposed, and off we trooped — all ten of us — to the tiny galley, where we were surprised to find Tipper hard at work. She was preparing food for the crew, and she seemed relieved to see us. Since she was so obviously overwhelmed, we set to work to help. Most of us, that is. The teachers returned to the dining room, but the rest of us fit in where we could.

Tipper had a lot to do. She was making an enormous quantity of stew, and was trying to make sandwiches at the same time. "That way, if the crew — or you girls — want something hot, it's ready. Or if they want something quick, they can grab a sandwich and some fruit."

Mirina quickly took over. She moved the sandwich preparation and the chopping and peeling operations to the dining room. Graffy, Grooty, and Donkey carried things back and forth, and Wiggy and I washed pots and trays and knives and things.

"Ooh, girls," Donkey told us, "soon you'll have rosy red-apple cheeks like Tipper!" I was pretty sure she was right. The dishwasher, which was a little steaming box of steel, soon had the pair of us dripping with sweat and steam.

Occasionally the boat would abruptly lurch. Usually it was just a surprise, but one of the lurches made me bump my head, and Donkey very nearly lost a tray loaded with chopped onions.

When we were done preparing the food and wrapping the sandwiches, we ate some cold rice salad Tipper had prepared earlier. Then she showed us how to make coffee. We each did our best to swallow a cup — more as a dare than anything else.

We all expected the coffee to magically keep us awake all night, but it didn't. One by one we put our heads on the tables and fell asleep.
 

I don't know how long we slept, but we we were shaken rudely awake. Nobody fell, but we all woke up a little confused. It was still dark outside, still raining, but it felt like a giant hand had taken hold of the ship and was shaking it like a toy. Not a gentle, rythmic shake, either: it was a random, jerky shake, and it wasn't pleasant.

By some kind of instinct, we all gripped the tables at once, and it was a good thing we did. The entire room heaved to one side and we felt the boat being pounded on the stern.

It was as if the giant hand had turned the boat on its side and was smacking it on the butt.

Finally there was a loud CRACK, followed by a few smaller ones. They sounded like explosions, or claps of thunder. A few moments later, the boat righted itself.

I looked at the clock. It was just about midnight. New Years! My head was so foggy, I couldn't think! Explosions... New Years... was that what it was?

We were all sort of groaning — mostly in protest at having been awakened. All the girls were in a fog, a scary fog. The boat was still shaking, but not as badly as before.

About five minutes later, Captain Blackett stepped into the room, rain streaming off her rain gear. She shut the door behind her. Her expression was grim.

"Girls! Wake up!" she shouted. "I need your complete attention! Something serious has happened: we've lost the rudder."

"Where did you last see it?" a sleepy Ding-Dong asked.

© 2008 by Kaleigh Way

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