Ocean’s Triumph

The deck was slick with water and waves leapt over the railings at every edge. Kilita gritted her teeth and started to make her way across the deck. Cold rain pounded against her skin and within seconds she was sopping wet and shivering. But even though the torrent felt like ice against her skin, she continued.

When she finally made it to the captain, she had seen no fewer than thirty men running around the deck, trying to keep the boat afloat. She found the captain leaning on the steering wheel with all his weight and shouting at the men.

“What can I do to help?” she shouted at him.

“Turn this wheel,” he shouted back. Kilita yanked on the wheel with all of her might and felt it move the smallest bit. She pulled and pulled until the captain shouted at her to stop. She pushed her hair out of her face with trembling hands and looked for Giovani.

He had said that he was going to do something terrible. Talisha had wanted her to keep an eye on him. When she had first met him, he had said that the storm was certain death.

Kilita searched through the sheet of rain and spotted him. Just as she began slipping her way towards him, the boat tipped farther than ever before and she went skidding across the slick deck. A man grabbed her at the last moment and she came to a halt seconds away from being tossed into the ocean. She looked up to thank the man, and found Giovani helping her stand.

“What are you doing out here?” he roared over the ocean.

“Talisha asked me to keep an eye on you,” she replied. He glared at the water sloshing around them, then back at Kilita.

“Go back,” Giovani said and pushed her towards the stairs, pointing. Kilita somehow managed not to fall as the boat rocked and tipped in the swells. She clambered down the first few steps and out of sight from Giovani before she turned back around. Pressing herself against the stairs, she peered out at him.

A man slid across the deck, grasping for a handhold, and Giovani snatched him. The man stood and rushed back off to do whatever he was told to. The boat tipped sharply and Giovani fell to his knees. The boat tipped the other way and Giovani slid towards the ocean. No one was there to catch him.

Even though Kilita was across the deck from him, she could see his eyes go wide. He scrambled for a foothold, a handhold, anything. The railing was too high, and he had slid too far. Their eyes connected for a split second before he vanished over the side.

Kilita leaped out of the stairwell and slid across the deck to where he had disappeared. She grabbed the railings in a white-knuckled grip and stared down at the churning black water. “Man overboard!” she screamed into the shrieking wind, hoping with all her might that someone would hear her.

Five men came running over. “He fell right here.” Kilita pleaded with Yasmin that Giovani could be saved. The men buckled on vests and tied themselves to a rope that they tied to the railing. Then they threw themselves into the ocean.