Page 27 of Swept Away

It means there’s hope.

I climb up to the deck, and in two steps I’m beside her, over by the railing, waving my arms, jumping up and down as Lexi screams, “Hey! Hey!”

There’s a ship.

When you’ve stared at the sea for hours on end wishing for something, actually seeing it there is totally surreal. The ship’s massive, loaded with containers—from this distance it looks like a toy made of Lego blocks.

We’re both jumping and screaming. Eugene’s cawing by our feet. My throat already hurts, and Lexi whacks the side of my head as she sweeps her arms back and forth, and we just keep going and keep going, but so does the ship.

“It’s not…” Lexi’s breathless. She grips the rail, bending over for a moment, head down. “It’s not coming this way. It’s not changing direction. It’s not seen us.”

“Hey! Help! Help!” I scream, still jumping. I’m not giving up. This is it. This is our rescue. This is when we go home.

“Zeke, it’s getting smaller.”

“Help us! Help!”

My voice breaks. It hits me that from this distance they likely can’t see us at all. Even if they can, even if we’re a speck on their screens, we’re not radioing them or sending up a flare—there’s no reason for them to think we’re in distress.

I’ve thought so much about what might happen to us out here, but it’s not occurred to me once that a boat might come and we mightnotget rescued.

Lexi starts yelling and jumping again beside me. Eugene shiftsfrom one foot to the other, stressed out. I scream until I’m hoarse and the cargo ship has silently vanished.

And then Lexi just goes wild.

“This cannot! Be! Happening!” she screams, kicking the folded deck chair and then doubling over.

I crouch down, pressing my hands to my cheeks. Beside us, Eugene keeps squawking, wings flapping.

“Hey,” I say, as she sobs. “Lexi, it’ll be OK. It’ll be OK. Another ship will come.”

“Shut up! You don’t know! You don’t know! It won’t be OK, we’re going to die out here and Mae will be traumatized and Penny will be alone…And there’s so much…Fuck. I’ve not done anything! I’ve done nothing interesting in my whole entire life and now it’s about to be over!”

Her face is blotchy and wet. I’d do anything to make her feel better.

“The ship just didn’t spot us, but this is good, we saw a ship. That means there will be more ships, right? We’ve got tons of food and water. There’s wood for the burner if it gets cold. The boat has held up until now. We’ll be fine.”

“You don’t believe any of that,” Lexi says into her hands. “One ship in twodaysand it didn’t even come close to us. You know we’re screwed.”

I don’t know what else to say. I’m all out. My heart’s aching.

“Can I give you a hug?” I ask, still crouched opposite her with Eugene in his box between us.

“What? Yes, fucking hell, just because we’ve said no sex doesn’t mean you can just squat over there while I’m having a breakdown,” Lexi sobs, and to my surprise, that makes me laugh.

I stand as she unfolds herself and I pull her into my arms. She smells of that perfume I caught on the first night—kind of lemony—but she also smells of the houseboat, and of the sea.

“This is so bad,” she says into my shoulder, her whole body shaking as she cries. “This is really, really, really…”

“I know,” I say. I stare out at the water. It’s so empty again, as if it’s reset to screen saver. I’m angry. Furious. Shaking with it. That ship justleft. That’s not…It’s notfair.

“I can’t do this, Zeke.”

“You can. You’re doing it. You’ve been doing it for two days and two nights and we’re still here.”

She presses into me. I hold her tighter.

“I don’t want to die,” she says.

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