Awaiting the Freedom Boat - Part 3

Author's Note:

If you haven't read the first two parts to this story, please do so in order to gain proper context:

Part 1, written by Rowan Finley:

Part 2, written by Komal:

Part 3, below

Casta's caretaker had a grave expression. She looked a Casta, shaking her head. Closing her eyes for a moment, she reopened them.

"Robert, you must take her back to the dock now."

Robert nodded with silent understanding in his eyes.

"Zero lifeboats."

"Casta, you need to go with Robert and listen to everything he says. He will be your new caretaker!"

The old woman smiled with a sad edge to her smile.

Robert took Casta's hand, saying,

"Come with me. We are going to swim back to the dock. We must escape now!"

"But you need to come with us too..."

Casta started to whimper as she looked with a lovely gaze toward her caretaker that she had gotten very used to over the last couple of years.

"I can't swim with my leg like this..."

She gave Casta a tight hug and a kiss on the forehead. Nodding to Robert, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Discreetly, Robert and Casta slipped into the water and swam as good as they could away from the boat. The water was shockingly cold and felt like ice to their thrashing bodies.

Moments went by but they felt like hours...

Casta's caretaker had a flashback to her grandmother in a rocking chair. Her grandmother's name was Irene Fogel Weiss and she told her the horrors of the holocaust that she'd experienced.

"I should have known better..."

She whispered aloud to herself. There was another scream and a thud on the boat.

Her heartbeat quickened. Every stage of her life flashed through her mind.

"Take good care of her, Robert!"

She breathed into the sea breeze. The two children couldn't be seen because of the blessed mist that hung above the water and she was grateful for that.

"This way!"

One of the shipmates motioned for her to follow him.

Looking down at her limping leg, she quoted Winston Churchill,

" "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." "

Robert gripped the edge of the wooden dock, pulling himself up on the pier, he reached down and pulled Casta up to the dock. Trying to catch their breath, they sat in silence as water droplets dripped down from their bodies. They had made it back to some form of safety.