The HURON ll
By: Rijuta Gohil
The ship tilted. I bit my lip as I tried to keep from groaning. Maybe this was a bad idea after all. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. ‘I hate sea sickness’ I decided. First off, it was bad enough that my parents couldn’t afford for me to come to Canada in a legal way, which of course, would be an actual ticket to the boat I am on, but on top of it, I get sea sickness and I can’t do anything about it. ‘Nope, this was definitely not a good idea!’ I thought as another wave of nausea rolled over me. I felt bile rising up to my mouth. Why was the ship rocking so much? It wasn’t this bad a few days ago, when we set off was it?
I remember that day clearly. I was living by myself in the small cottage that my parents had owned. My parents had gone to Canada to settle in, leaving me behind since we didn’t have any money. Then two weeks later, I had gotten a letter from my parents about how I would have to be sneak into the Huron ll if I wanted to get to Canada. I was really mad then and wished that my parents were a bit richer. Aren’t parents supposed to be all responsible? Telling me to sneak onto a ship...nope, guess my parents aren’t. The day I was supposed to board the ship was clear and the sun was out. But boy, were there a lot of people, including security. Yet, somehow I managed to disguise myself as part of the crew, and I had made it onto the ship with a bag of clothes, food and water that I would need for the two weeks that it would take. Sadly, I was a hungry, growing boy, and three quarters of that food had vanished in two days. I face-palmed as I remembered it. I really need to learn how to split my meal up. ‘SO STUPID!’ I thought, mentally berating myself. I stood up and decided to take a stretch. The ship tilted again and I sighed, steadying myself, and forcing the bile back down my esophagus. I sighed again. I stretched all my limbs, holding back the sigh of relief as my aching legs finally got their freedom.
Thump, thump, thump, thump! Footsteps. I dived behind some crates as some men rushed down the stairs. I grabbed some extra tarps and threw it over me. I couldn’t make a sound or the Huron II crew would find me and that wouldn’t be good. I swore that the men could hear my heart pounding in my chest and my ragged breaths. ‘Shh!’ I mentally yelled to myself.
“Where is it, Harry?” one of them asked. Both men were soaked to the bone and were shivering.
“Don’t know, Bob!” replied Harry, frantically. “We need those life jackets.” he kept searching.
“Wait, I think those are them!” Bob yelled as he and Harry ran towards the crates I was hiding behind. My heart crawled into my throat. They can’t find me. They just can’t. Very slowly, I looked at the writing on the side of the crate. LIFEJACKETS in case of sinking. ‘I am so dead!’ I thought just as Bob and Harry reached the crates. They started untying the knots to the tarp that was covering the crates. ‘THEY HAVEN’T NOTICED ME!’ I thought joyfully. Now if I could just stay quiet. Luck was not on my side. The combination of sea sickness and hunger got the better of me and my stomach decided to make a dying whale sound. My heart skipped a beat. I felt the tarp being pulled away and I saw the faces of the two grown men.
Harry, was a tall, lanky man with red hair and blue eyes. He seemed kind enough with those wrinkles around his eyes, that showed he liked to smile a lot. Bob was short and slightly chubby and seemed like the meaner one of the two.Their mouths dropped open. I took advantage of their shock. I jumped to my feet and started running towards the stairs. I bounded up the stairs two at a time. They started yelling for me to stop but I didn’t dare. Yet, luck was still not on my side as the boat pitched backwards. I lost my footing and fell down the stairs with a thud. The last thing I heard and saw were the men yelling and going to get help. Then I saw black.
When I came to, I was in a comfy bed, in a warm cozy room. i blinked my eyes, trying to get a better view as the events that had occurred rushed through my head. Now, I was in one of the cabins in the ship and the chubby man was sitting in a chair next to me. He was dabbing a wet sponge at the corner of my forehead, which stung really badly. ‘Oh my god, am I in trouble?’ I wondered frantically as I tried to sit up. As soon as I lifted myself up, the room began spinning.
“Rest!” the man said, gently pushing me back. I frowned and sat straight anyway. I gritted my teeth as my vision got blurry. Something wet trickled down the side of my face. I touched it to find that it was blood. I looked at the tall man, silently demanding an explanation.
“Yeah, you hit your head pretty hard on those stairs. You have nasty wound there. Don’t worry about it though, I was a doctor back in Ireland so I fixed you up pretty good.” I stared at him. ‘Shouldn’t he be yelling?’ I wondered.
“Aren’t you mad? I’m a stowaway!” I croaked. He smiled.
“Well, I’m not exactly happy, but Bob talked with the captain and he says it’s ok. I think it’s ok too. I’m sure you have a reason for being a stowaway! By the way, I’m Harry!” he replied, still smiling. I looked around suspiciously.
He looked at my skeptical face and reassured, “We’re not mad...anymore! So it’s ok, you can relax.” I nodded, still not comprehending what had happened. “Plus, there is a huge storm going on and has been going on for a while and we need all the help we can get!” All of a sudden, Harry and I heard a CRACK from above. Harry’s eyes widened. We both looked at each other and shot up to our feet. I grabbed the sponge from him and pressed it against my head injury. Then we raced up to the deck. And what I saw, I definitely was not prepared for. The main sail mast had broken. It was now lying across the deck and hanging off the side of the ship.
“All hands on deck!” someone bellowed. I looked towards the voice to see a man dressed as the captain of the ship. He was yelling orders to the men around him. The crew was running everywhere frantically trying to get the ship under control. Then the smaller mast broke. “Man the oars!” the captain shouted immediately. I threw the sponge down and immediately rushed to help. Harry followed. The guy I recognized as Bob, ran over with two extra life jackets. I smiled my thanks and put it on. Then I kept on rowing. ‘I will survive!’ I thought. ‘I will see mom and dad again!’
We had been rowing for what felt like weeks when in reality it was just a few hours. The storm had calmed down and majority of it had passed. At least the worst part was gone. While some of us had been rowing, the others had been fixing the ship. I had had a chance to talk with the rest of the crew. They didn’t seem to mind that I was a stowaway. In fact, no one even mentioned it. Not even the captain. It all seemed alright. A week passed and everyone was happy. The captain had said that he would tell everyone our position on the map. Yet, luck was still not our side. Right after lunch, the navigator of the ship came running over. Jordan, I think was his name.
“We are off course!” he shrieked. “I don’t know where we are on the map! And we have no more food!” Our moods went down instantly. I trudged over to the masthead and leaned against the railing, trying to process what was going on. ‘So we are lost at sea now with no food!’ I thought. ‘Absolutely wonderful.’ I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t realize Bob come up next to me.
“Are you okay, Carl?” he queried. “It’ll be fine! None of us are going to let anything happen to you. I promise.” I nodded and sighed.
“It just seems so surreal,” I remarked. Bob nodded in understanding. Suddenly we heard a shout.
“LAND HO!” Everyone cheered. As we neared the beach, we saw the crystal waters and sparkling sand and the huge forest behind the beach.
“Drop the anchor!” I was so excited. When we reached the island, I ran around whopping with joy. Well at first, I just wobbled around. Kevin said it was because I had sea legs and as soon as I got land legs it would be alright. So when I got my land legs, I couldn’t contain my excitement. By nighttime, we had even found food. Everyone slept around the fire that night, feeling incredibly happy. The next day, we all got up and explored the island. We found no humans. All we found were animals and fruit. The captain decided we would stay here and wait to be rescued.
Another week went by. I learned how to fish, hunt and how to fire an arrow at a target. The whole crew acted happy, but we were all getting desperate. Desperate for food as our supplies were running out.
A month passed. All of us had lost the will to live. Soon it was left to Harry, Bob, Kevin and I to still try to act cheerful. Soon, though, we gave up on that too.
A month and half. February 22nd. 2 months after we had set off from Ireland to Canada. A day I knew I would remember for the rest of my life. I had woken up and somehow found the will to get. I stood up and mumbled something about looking for more food. No one tried to stop me. I walked around the forest hacking away at plants with an arrow. Then I slipped and fell down a hill. And this hill was endless. I think I broke my index finger and twisted my ankle. Then all of a sudden I stopped rolling...just fell down 2 or 3 feet onto a cold, rock-hard floor. I jumped to my feet, spitting and choking on leaves and grass. I brushed myself off and looked up to to see myself in a cave. On one side were beds and equipment that looked old. ‘This means that someone was here before!’ I thought. The other side of the cave had a chest. I limped to the chest, dragging my left ankle (the twisted one). I broke the lock open with a rock and opened it. Inside was ammunition and flares! I jumped up and heaved the chest all the way back to the others. For once they looked excited.
“FLARES!” I screamed happily. “I found FLARES!” We decided to set one off. Then we waited and waited. I finally fell asleep. Then around dawn, I woke up. I rubbed my eyes and looked around to see that I was the first one awake. In the distance, I saw something. A ship? I shrieked with joy, waking all the others up. I ran to the chest, opened it, grabbed another flare and lit it up. Then the others and I waited. One second, two seconds. Boom! A RESPONDING FLARE! As soon as we saw a responding flare, we all started crying in joy. Everyone praised me, ruffled my head and gave me hugs.
I smiled, truly happy, for what seemed like the first time in months. I was going to see mom and dad.
THE END
