Starboard Hearts

The moonlight finally escaped through the clouds and caused the water to glisten in its stolen light. The stars shone down on the dock like a myriad of watchful, gate keeping eyes, as a group of kids scurried across towards the water. Two of them jumped off the dock disturbing the tranquil waters, while the rest of them threw backpacks full of supplies into a nearby boat.

“Ralph, David, quit messing around, we gotta be quick” one of them scolded quietly.

Ralph surfaced with his freckled face and red hair now drenched and dripping. David came up slowly after him. He was facing downwards his head still under the water, not so much as twitching.

“Oh my god! David, David!” One of the boys on the dock yelled reaching in to pull him out of the water.

As he wrapped his arms around him, ready to pull, David yelled and splashed him. The boy let out a scream and fell on his back throwing his backpack in to the water.

“No, no, no” he said snatching the backpack out of the water as quick as he could.

Ralph couldn’t help but snigger.

“He got you good Tony”

“Yeah whatever Paul” Tony snapped, shaking the water off his pack.

David was laughing uncontrollably at this point.

“You’re so immature” Tony said pushing him back under the water.

“Hey! What are you kids doing with my boat!” An elderly man cried from shore.

“Time to go” Paul said untying the boat from the dock as quick as he could.

Ralph and David got out of the water and sprinted over to the boat. Paul finished tightening the luff and secured the halyard to the cleat. The old man hobbled towards them as fast as he could manage, but the kids just barely managed to get off the dock and out to open sea before he reached them.

“I swear, you kids have no idea what you’re in for when you come back!” He warned.

“It’s a good thing we’re not coming back then!” Paul shouted back at him.

The kids made themselves comfortable, David laying out a towel on the seat so he wouldn’t get it wet. Paul tooled with the sail, trying to get it at just the right angle to take them away from land as fast as possible. After getting the sail adjusted just perfect, Paul sat down and let the wind do it’s job. He started going through the backpacks, sorting through the food and supplies they had brought with them.

“I take it this is Ralph’s backpack” Paul said holding up bags of chocolate and Hershey Bars.

“Yep” Tony confirmed.

“What? I came prepared” Ralph said defensively.

“You did better than David” Paul laughed, pulling out a ball of twine and a box of paper clips.

“What? That way I don’t have to bring food, I can just fish off the side of the boat when I get hungry”

“You didnt bring any food because you thought you could fish with twine and paper clips?” Tony asked incredulously.

“The store was out of regular string” David replied.

“Yeah that was the problem with that plan” Tony said rolling his eyes.

They continued to let the wind take them out as they sat and gazed at the stars. The gentle, serene waters accompanied the gorgeous view. The night washed over the distant mountains, giving them a sort of overshadowed glow.

“The wind is going in the right direction for the most part, so that’s good for us” Paul said.

“Maybe we’ll see the green flash” David said, noticing that the sun was beginning to rise.

“The what?” Ralph asked confused.

“The green flash. When the sun rises or sets, if you look just above the sun, you’ll see a green flash that only lasts a couple of seconds” Tony explained.

“When Mom and Dad used to take us sailing” everybody flinched “They’d say that if you see it you can make one wish and it’ll come true” David said.

“I heard from a friend that if you see it you die on the spot” Paul said creepily.

David and Ralph went pale.

“If that were true no one would know what the green flash was” Tony argued.

“Why are you always like this now? I was just messing with them. Why won’t you just relax and have fun anymore?”

Tony walked to the back of the boat and took a seat, staring at his reflection in the water. The tension was incredibly thick. The incident was a very touchy subject for all of them. The sounds of their parents screams as the car flipped through the air still burned fresh in their heads. They could still see the paramedics arriving, and they remembered the feeling of their hearts dropping to their feet when Officer Jordan broke the news.

“You’re parents were good people, and they will be missed” Paul recalled him saying.

And they were, all of their neighbors would stop in and tell them stories of the things their parents did. The memories and marks that their parents had made on everyone in town. Everyone in town gave their condolences and would forever hold their memory in their hearts. But they were missed by no one more than their kids. None of them even considered going to school for weeks. Paul, who usually couldn’t stand being indoors for more than a few hours at a time, spent all of his time lazing around in his room. Ralph and David couldn’t even look out the back door without seeing their parents ghosts, waiting for them to explode through the door with uncontainable excitement and begin playing their usual games. But of all of them, Tony seemed to be the least effected. He still went out with friends, made sarcastic comments, and played video games. In fact, he hadn’t even cried. But he had become so uptight and closed off.

Ralph fidgeted uncomfortably and began nibbling on one of his chocolate bars. Paul sighed. Suddenly the boat started wobbling a bit more profoundly. Waves were beginning to form and they were growing larger. Ralph began to feel raindrops on the top of his scalp. What started as a light rain very quickly escalated into a downpour. The wind became violent and began to shake the boat nearly capsizing them.

“You Moron! You steered us right into a storm!” Tony screamed.

“I don’t understand! Where did this come from?!” Paul shouted defensively.

Paul began frantically loosening the halyard from the clear, trying to lower the sail as quick as he could, but he wasn’t fast enough. The boat shortly capsized, dunking them all underneath the cold, deep waters. Paul managed to resurface and grab on to the bottom of the boat which was now flipped upside down. The other three managed to grab on as well and gasped for breath as the water threw them around like rag dolls.

“Paul! If we don’t make it out of this, I’m sorry! I know I’ve been a jerk! I just Miss them so much! I miss when they used to take us sailing and took us out for ice cream when we had a rough day at school!” Tony cried, tears streaming down his face “I just wish they were here”.

“I do too” Paul said.

“We all do” David agreed.

And then they saw it. The green flash. It’s light was there for only a moment before fading as the sky bled orange. And the waters calmed, leaving them drifting.

“Well that was interesting” Paul said.

“Yeah it was” a female voice said.

Everyone stopped for a moment before realizing there were two new people hanging on to the boat. One was a short blonde woman and the other was a tall, brown haired man who wore thick prescription glasses and black jeans.

“Mom, Dad” Tony said throwing himself into his fathers arms as the tears streamed down his face again.