A Stormy Sea

“Excuse me… Miss…” I hear from beside me. It pulls me out of my trance. I step back and let the young man pass me. I glance back a the gold framed picture, its blues and greys very familiar to me. A Stormy Sea is what the title card called it, the ship on the horizon was almost sideways in the painting. I remember the night that inspired that painting.

The wind was howling and the waves were crashing onto the ship, sounding like walls toppling down. I look out the porthole and see the dark green-blue water swirling around, so dark that it almost looked black. My mother was quickly strapping a life jacket onto my baby sister and my older brother was frantically putting one on.

“Hurry Cara, we have to go now!” My mother said as she grabbed hold of my wrist and pulled the door to our room open. Water flooded my shoes as i was pulled down the hall to the stairwell. We met my father on the top deck and he rushed us to a lifeboat. My father helped my mother and sister into the lifeboat as my brother scaled the side and took a seat. Next was my turn.

“Daddy are you coming with us?” I asked as he lifted me over the side of the ship into the lifeboat.

“Not in this one but I will see you when we reach the shore.” My father replied. He quickly kissed each of us on the cheek and exchanged a few hushed words with mother. Then the lifeboat was being lowered and the women along with help from the older boys, my brother included, started rowing the boat away. I waved at my father, yelling goodbye until I couldn’t tell who he was in the chaos of the top deck. That was the last time I seen him.

I was snapped out of my memory by a couple of small children who had run into me while playing tag. The littlest of the two smiled and giggled while the older one looked shocked. I smiled and looked around for the parent of the children, spotting her almost instantly , pushing through the crowd that had gathered, yelling out names. She spotted me and the children and made a beeline for them, apologizing profusely.

“Itsalright, they were just having some fun" I smile politely as I reach for my bag. “May I offer them a treat?” I ask the lady as she tries to round up the kids who are laughing loudly now. She nods but doesn’t say anything. I pull some lollipops out of my bag and hand them off. The kids smile and thank me before following their mother out of my sight. I turn back to the painting.

They row the lifeboat as far as they can, I can still see the ship as it slowly sinks into the ocean. There are many lifeboats around us, and I wonder which one my father is on. My brother wraps a blanket around my mother and sister, and sits beside me, wrapping his arm around me sharing his coat in the process. He has taken off his lifejacket and I urge him to put it back on. Eventually he does, taking his coat off and using it like a blanket for us. We float through the ocean, wondering when we will see another ship on the horizon, not knowing if one even received our s.o.s signal.

My sister is asleep and my mother is staring out into the endless ocean. My brother is picking at his shoes and the other people in the lifeboat are either sleeping or staring off into the distance I heard a sob coming from a lifeboat near ours and turn towards it. I watch as the ship fully submerge and disappear into the ocean. We are so far away from it that I can not tell if all the lifeboats were se t out or not. I shudder at the thought of how many people may not have made it off the ship and my brother wraps his coat around me tighter. He thinks I am cold, but I am not, or at least not that I could tell.

I reach for my mothers hand, holding it tightly. My mother squeezes my hand slightly, and smiles at my brother and I. I can tell she’s scared and trying not to let us know. I scan the horizon,, looking for the ship that would save us. My sister eventually wakes up, crying that she is cold and hungry. My mother sings quietly to comfort her. We float for hours and hours, waiting for anyone to come to our aid.

Again I am pulled out of my memories, this time a familiar face is in front of me. My brother smiles slightly, pulling me into an embrace.

“How are you doing Cara?” he asks me, looking me over as if checking to make sure I was really in front of him. I smile slightly and hug him again.

“I am surviving.” I reply as I pull away from him. I look over to the painting again. “I can't believe I finished it.” I trace my fingers along the frame. I see the stickers placed by the title card and am shocked to see how many have gathered there in a short amount of time. A dozen copies in the first hour of the gallery, my best work so far.

“What will you do with the money?” my brother asks, as another couple of buyers place a sticker next to the title card.

“I will donate it. I never painted this one to make a profit off of it.” I replied, turning away from the painting and grabbing my brothers arm, pulling him away. I glance back one last time as we walk to the exit.

We had a wonderful evening, my brother and I, we had dinner and caught up with what was happening in each others lives. We walked to his hotel and I hugged him again as we said goodnight. I flagged a cab to take me home. As I locked my door and got ready for bed I looked at a photo I had framed on my nightstand. My mother and sister, as pale as they could possibly be, and my brother and me helping them onto the dock. We had spent all night on the ocean before a ship had rescued us. When they arrived my sister had been so excited she fell off the lifeboat and my mother had dove into the water to save her. They both ended up with hypothermia and spent a long time in the hospital. I guess that’s why my brother and me are so close now, we had spent that time taking care of each other.

I crawled into my bed, pulling my covers around me and laid there for awhile, thinking about that night and how it could have been different. They determined that my father had stayed with the ship trying to save every life he possibly could. Part of me is still angry that he had done that, but I know that it was how he lived everyday of his life, putting everyone else before himself. I drifted off to sleep thinking about how much I loved him and miss him. But I knew I would see him again someday and that calmed me.