My Journey On Boat - A Short Story

It was a bright sunny Saturday morning when I heard mums footsteps go marching up the stairs.

“No way is she going to wake me up this time!” I thought.

Mums footsteps meant she was going to hurriedly run up the stairs barge into my bedroom and head straight for my bed and rip me out of there. I snuggled under my duvet and hugged Tim my teddy tight. I suddenly caught sight of her walking quickly towards my room and across the corridor, her face red and furious.

“I told you Denley!” she yelled, almost bursting my eardrums. “Wake up!!!”

She dragged me out of my bed and pushed me into the toilet. Then her face twisted into a smile.

“I’m sorry if I scared you a bit, Denley. It’s just that we got a bit of a treat for you.”

“What’s that?” I asked curiously.

“We are going to ride the mayflower!”

I dropped my mouth open.

“How do people ride a flower?” I wondered out loud.

Mum gave a laugh and said “A mayflower is a boat, Denley”

I gasped. She surely couldn’t mean… couldn’t meant… The Mayflower, the one with huge decks and… and…

Mum guessed my thoughts and said, “I suppose you’re wondering about it, Denley. Isn’t it exciting! It’s got huge decks, a cafeteria, a library and lots more!”

“When are we going?” I asked her.

“I hope it’s soon, whenever it’s going to be,” Mum grinned and whispered “You’ll never guess. That day is..” She stopped and walked away letting the bathroom hang in suspense.

Then suddenly she put her head round the door and shouted “TODAY!”

“So get your jims and jams ready, and for heavens sake boy, get going!”

Image Courtesy via google.com

I’d never seen her so enthusiastic before in my life. And with that, my mum strode briskly out of the bathroom, to get dressed herself. I began brushing away on my teeth as fast as I could. I didn’t want the chance to miss a ride on the mayflower! I took bath, got dressed, and in no time at all I was rushing down the staircase that I bumped into dad. His pale hazelnut eyes were staring deep into mine, and there was a look of excitement on his face. It seemed that he too hadn't got a chance to ride a boat once, and this was his first time.

And the very next thing I knew was we were all in the car, seatbelts firmly strapped and ready to go. Dad drove so fast and nearly jumped a red signal, and soon enough we arrived at what seemed many boats packed together, and if you looked far at a distance there seemed to be a new land blocking its way. Mum passed a man with a striped uniform

some tickets, and we climbed aboard. I began to tremble and shake. Oh, how exciting this was all going to be!

Suddenly, someone cut off a strong rope that was holding a boat to something very strong to prevent it from floating away. The huge ship gave a sudden jerk and raced through the waters. It was till then that I began to slither away. This wasn’t exciting at all! The books in the library were all classic and the cafeteria had no much food that I liked and all that fuss about a silly old boat! I glanced at the waves crashing over the boat and falling back into the sea, and then hesitated. Should I really jump into the waves? Just at that moment a man tapped smartly on my shoulders.

“Down you go there, young lad.” He said and with that he hoisted me up in the air and flung me overboard into the deep sea. I hit the waves with a SMACK spurting the water into a fountain.

Had I not seen an evil fin of a shark making its way towards me, I wouldn’t have been so afraid. I began to trash my arms and legs around furiously trying to tell the people on board I needed help, but the ship had already raced through the waters. All of a sudden I began to feel myself drown, go unconscious and drink lots of water.

Suddenly I blinked my eyes open. Water flooded in, and I caught sight of many pretty fishes and the shark appeared in view again. I tried to swim away quickly, but it didn’t work. I only drank more water and went deeper into the sea.

I got the shock of my life when the shark whispered to me, “Sit on my back and I’ll take you through.”

I did as I was told and leaped onto his back, holding his tail for support. And miraculously we raced through the waves and I felt I wanted to be zooming on the sharks back forever. And soon enough we caught sight of the bottom of the ship and broke through the waves.

“Thank you, Shark.” I murmured, and climbed myself up the busy ship.

There was a rattle on the ship and a lady was frantically calling out, “Where have you disappeared off to?”

I soon got to the brim of the ship and climbed over using the ropes tied to the mayflower to help me. I then realized that my mum had been calling out for me and I quickly jerked my head and gave the shark a grin before getting back to my mum.

“What have you been up to, Denley?” she said crossly. “You’re totally drenched!”

I told her that the man had pushed me overboard.

“How did you get back?” she had asked.

I explained what had happened, the shark to the rescue. Big mistake. That night I went to bed was the one that I could never forget.

**********

A revolting ending: Sharks do not like their secrets told when they rescued people. This one certainly didn’t. Can you guess what it did? Tiptoed to my bed and ate me up.