Alone
"Mom I'm scared," Max whispered. Mom just held him tight and didn't say a word. I could tell by the look she had that she was too.
This had been a vacation from hell. I get along fine with my parents and as much as a pain in the butt Max is, he is a sweet kid, good kid in fact, but regardless, being and 18 year old senior, just graduated from high school, I would rather be in Cancun with my friends right now then in Florida with my parents. Yes, I realize I sound like a spoiled little brat, but I am far from it, all I wanted was a little freedom finally. I had graduated top of my class, within the top ten percent of my class, I had done all the extra cirricular activities, applied for best colleges, everything my parents wanted for me. The least I could ask for was a chance to go to Cancun with my friends, I mean the whole graduating class is there, and here I am, now in middle of some wierd storm, stuck out in middle of the ocean with my parents and little brother.
For some reason dad thought he still had it. He liked to talk about his wild days after high school and all the adventures he had. He spent a summer on the ocean, going from place to place, doing whatever he wanted, and apparently he thought that over 20 years later he could still navigate the water. Well, I guess not because now we are somewhere off the coast of Florida is some hellashish storm. Cancun would be so good right now.
Mom looks like a mama cat right now, holding Max close to her, petting his head, trying to push down all his crazy hair. Justing Beiber look is big this year, so he has this crazy head of hair and refuses to cut it because he says girls at school like it. I am really sure they don't, who could, I don't wanna run my fingers through my boyfriends hair I cant imagine any girl would, I really prefer the whole short messy look. But, right now I can hear mom whispering "it's gonna work out" to Max as he sobs in her arms. I guess I should be scared, maybe it's my coping mechinism inside my brain that keeps me from freaking out, instead I sit here and watch the caosis around me insu.
All of a sudden from out of nowhere there is a flash of light. This must be it, the end, I remember this one Christmas. Max was just a toddler, running around getting into everything. Having us be 8 years apart had it's benefits for my parents I think. It was at times, like Max had a whole extra parent. I had always been a very responsible person, even at a young age, my mom said by age two I took care of my baby dolls like a real pro, cleaned the house even better then my dad too. This Christmas was special though, this was the first Christmas Max started to understand all our traditions. Of course at only two he was into everything and mom, trying to keep it all perfect was trying to keep him occupied so we could open presents and Max had no patience for this. He had already tore through all his presents and was ready to play with them now. Mom was so frustrated, she wanted pictures and she had a special surprise for dad, so being me, I jumped in. I sat Max in my lap and we opened his toys. His favorite was trains. We opened the box and I began the journey of taking each piece of the cardboard and the wrapped around wire ties. I remember thinking at ten years old when I grow up i will work for a toy company and my first line of business would be to package gifts more effectivly for parents to open for their kids because this sucked but Max had this look of absolute amazement on his face, so I kept going. Mom got dad's special gift out as I continued to pull out train pieces and I watched in the background as my parents had a special moment. I always prayed I find love like my parents. I watched them as I grew up, so in tune with eachother, even at ten I seen my friends parents, they bickered and yelled, or just ignored eachother, but not my parents, they wanted to be together as much as they could, and with us as much as they could. I guess now looking back now I remember why I was here in Florida with my parents, because they loved me and they wanted to spend one last summer with me before I went off to live my own life. Before I died, I guess this is the most appropriate memeory to have.
The flash of light was gone, but I realized we weren't dead. The water all arund us was completly calm, the water a sarene shade of blue, almost like the color of my birthstone, aquamarine. Mom still had look of panic on her face, dad looked dumbfounded and Max just looked amazed, his eyes, same color as mine, a greyish shade of blue, now sparkled a brighter shade of blue, like the water glistened off his eyes. Where were we? This had to be a dream. I pinched myself to check.
I watched as mom got up from Max and went to dad's side. They were whispering, I tried hard to listen but Max came over next to me to look over the side of the boat. "Laney, where are we?" he asked. "I'm not real sure short stuff," I relplied.
"You know your gonna have to stop calling me that soon, I am the tallest boy in my class, you know."
"Yep, I know but you have been my short stuff for 8 years now, it's not like I can just drop your nickname. Just think though, someday 10 years from now you get to be Uncle Short Stuff and you can tell your nieces and nephews how by age 10 you were too tall for that name but it stuck anyways."
Max just stuck out his tongue in reply, I smirked. I love that kid.
"Stay here a minute, Max, I am gonna check on mom."
"I wanna ..." I cut him off with a look, the one that says, I can get more information if your not tagging along kinda look, so he just turned to look back at the water. What a strange shade of blue, almost creepy shade of blue, like water is not supposed to look that way. I shuddereed, and realized it had also gotten chilly. I ran under the boat and grabbed a sweater for Max and handed it to him before I went to check on mom.
As I went around the other side of the boat I say my mother in my fathers arms. He was stroking her hair and holding her to his chest. I could tell she had been crying but as soon as they noticed my presentence she quickly fixed herself to look strong. I had seen a lot of this side of my mom the last couple of years. She had some health issues for years and finally received a diagnosis of Mulitple Sclerosis about two years ago. But, to her it didn’t matter, she wasn’t going to let some “dumb disease” as she called it, stop her from enjoying her life. I could tell though. My mom was truly my best firend and I could tell it wasn’t as easy as she made it seem. My dad seen it too, but he let her be, as did I. Instead we just did a little extra around the house and never complained. Sometimes Max complained of his chores or slacked a bit, but all it took was a look from dad and Max did whatever was asked of him. Watching dad stroke her hair like that made her look so fragile, like a little porcelian doll.
“So, do we have any idea where we are at, oh Captain, my Captain?” I asked.
My dad smirked, he was king of quotes from movies, books, whatever and he always put me in my place when I said it wrong, but he defiantly gave me an A for effort.
“Well, it looks like we are in the ocean somewhere between here and there.” leave it up to my dad to be a smart ass at a time like this, guess I know where I learned it. My mom shot a look at him.
“It seems that nothing is working Laney. No radio, no compass, not a thing. I am not sure what is wrong either, but I am sure with your brain and mine we can figure this out.” Wow, another look from mom.
“Come on Beth, she is a young lady now, and smart one, I am not going to treat her like a child and pretend like everything is okay.”
Mom just bit her lip. “Alright your right, but we need to keep it quiet around Max, got it?”
“Agreed.” Dad and I both chimed in at same time.
“I am going to go check on your brother, you stay with your dad.”
She kissed me on the cheek and ran her fingers through my hair, gave me that help your dad and keep him out of trouble look, and off she went to check on Max.
My mom had always been my best friend. While most of my friends hated their parents and fought with them all the time, for the most part we had a great equal balance of parenthood and friendship. It had been just me and my mom the first couple years of my life. See, dad is not my dad by blood, but by all things that truly make a father he is 100% my dad. My biological dad was my mom’s high school sweetheart. She had big plans after high school but had decided to take a year before college to decide what she wanted out of her life. During that time she became pregnant with me. She said he wasn’t all bad, but then he started to get into drugs and alchol and she decided she wasn’t going to raise her daughter in that mess. When I was less then a year old, she left, started a new life for us. She worked hard, went to school, and took care of me. She says she never thought she’d find love, real love, she wasn’t even sure it existed. She knew her parents just dealt with each other and most people didn’t speak highly of marriage, so she continued focused on making the best of it all. School, work, and her little Laney, she would say, was all she needed. Then one day she met a man. They exchanged numbers and from there she was no longer in charge of her life she says. Phone calls began and just by talking they became very close. Mom said she fought it the whole way, refusing dates, always saying she was too busy. Terrified was the word my mom used to describe the way she felt, terrified that she would fall for this man and be hurt or worse yet, hurt me. God works in mysterious ways and my dad was not going to give up, so for 3 months they talked daily. Dad said he was already in love with her and was not about to give her up or give up on her. One day she had planned a day at the zoo for us. I was 2 ½ by now. Well, guess who showed up? Dad, of course. She said it was the best day ever and he even bought me a penguin that day from the sovinour shop. I still have it. Of course I don’t remember the day but we have pictures and I like to replay the story in my head. Dad said he was so scared to show up, because he hadn’t met me and mom was so protective of me, he was a little scared mom would hate him for showing up. Mom said she wanted to be mad, but her heart longed to see him again, so when she seen him she shed a tear of happiness and wrapped her arms around him. Now 16 years later, she says she falls in love with him everyday more and more. I asked once how she knew he was the one. Her answer, I will never forget. “I couldn’t live without him. When I left your father I could live without him, and that’s how I knew it wasn’t right but with dad, I wouldn’t be me, wouldn’t have a desire to be anything without him, that’s how I knew.”
As years went on, dad adapted me officially, they had Max, and we had a great life. Mom and I always stayed close, able to talk about it all, and dad, well dad was also my best friend. He was my biggest fan. When I had crazy ideas on what I wanted to do, maybe even things that were too big for me to do alone, he’d be right there cheering me on, helping me through. We would talk for hours sometimes. He was the best dad a girl could have. I never was the girl to dream of her wedding, more so, dreaming about all the things I would achieve someday, but I defently looked forward to seeing him walk me down the aisle someday. Dad had lots of ideas, a old soul mom called him. He and mom would sit on porch for hours talking, as a kid I remember playing Barbies on porch secretly listening to my dad talking about linear motion to my mom and even if she wasn’t interested in how linear motion worked, it was the love of her life talking and that interested her because it was apart of him, she would always look so interested. I asked once if all stuff dad talked about interested her too. She giggled. I could see the wheels turning in her head as she carefully choose her words. “It’s not always that I am interested in the particular subject but I am always interested in your dad. He has an amazing brain and that my dear is one of the reasons I fell in love with him.”
“Dad, what do you think is going on here?” I questioned.
“Sweetie, I really am not sure. You know that the impossible is never really impossible so we can not rule out anything.”
“You mean like a worm hole in the fabric of time, or something like that.”
“Yes, exactly. You see, we were off the coast of Florida, do you remember what is off the coast of Florida?”
“Of course, I think I have seen every documentary possible about the Brumenda Triangle, but you and I have talked about it, and you said you didn’t really believe it was anything more then the stories.”
“Well, the best way to become a believer is to see it first hand. Well, now we are lost at sea, nothing works, and we went from a horrendous storm to complete calm with no explanation.”
“I think first thing first, lets check over the boat for any damage above and below deck, once we have done that we will figure out what to do next. I will go below deck, can you check everything up here for me?”
“Of course Daddy,” I replied.
Could it really be? Could we really have been drawn all the way out to the Triangle, and if so, what do we do now? If nothing works we cannot call for help then it’s up to us to figure out how to get out of this mess. I wish I was in Cancun so much right now. I start checking the ropes on the starboard and start to tear up when I hear someone behind me.
“Lacey?”
It’s my mom.
“Yah mom.”
“Max is exhausted. I just layed him down below, how are you holding up?”
Refusing to show her any weakness, she doesn’t need to see me weak right now, she has enough to deal with right now, I don’t turn to look. “I’m okay mom. Just helping dad check the boat for damage.”
“Oh.”
She sounds so sad and far away. It makes me sad.
“It’s gonna be okay mom.”
“Oh I know that sweetie, arent I supposed to be the one to make you feel better though?”
“Sometimes you need it too mama.” She gave me that half smirk and I seen the smile in her eyes. She loves when I call her mama. I don’t do it often so when I do it makes her heart fly she once told me. When I was little I always called her mama, but as I got older it was just mom.
“It just feels like a scene out of a movie, Lacey, I mean this stuff isn’t supposed to happen to regular people like us.”
“God will watch over us mom. You tell me that all the time, remember. Just be strong mom. Dad will help us get out of this and before you know it you will be back in South Carolina at your PTA meetings and busy helping me pack up my life to head off to college. It will all work out for the best.”
“Has anyone ever told you that your wise beyond your years? You remind me of dad so much, a wise old soul, you are one of the wisest gifts God has given this world.”
“I love you too mom’” I said with a grin. She wrapped her arms around me for a moment as we looked out at the water.
“Eeary isn’t it mom?”
“What do you mean?”
“The water, look at it. It’s shade of blue I have never seen of water before, and how crystal clear it is. Look, you can see below the water, the ocean life, down there swimming about.”
“Well, I guess it is a little odd, but it’s not like we know what all the water all over the world looks like. I am sure its common for off the shore of Florida.”
“I guess.”
I don’t really agree but this is a good talk to have with dad not mom. We sit for a moment and just enjoy the quiet together. Dad interupts us.
“Hey girls!”
“Hey dad,” I replied, “All seems to be ship-shape on deck. I didn’t find anything broken. How was it below deck.”
“Good it seems, I didn’t find anything wrong. I took a quick look at our food supply and water too. We will be good for awhile but we need to be careful and ration out until we figure this out. Little Lady, do you think you can give me and your mom a minute?”
“Of course, I will go below and check on Max.”
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