The Journey

"Buffy" PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS...

It was August 5, 1902. Andréa was getting ready to take a long travel on her father’s old boat. Her father had died about two years ago out at sea. No one really knew how he had died, but he never came back. Her father was taking a big trip to go fishing. But the day he was supposed to come back, he never did. Andréa used to wait for him every day after that, but he never came, so she just gave up. Her father had given the boat to Andréa about of month before he had died. The boat looked more like a pirate ship. It was very old and had been made out of auburn wood that was faded to a very light colored brown. The boat was so old but somehow was kind of nice. As Andréa was untying the boat, her necklace dangled from her neck. It swayed back and fourth. She had gotten it for her sixth birthday present from her dad. She wasn’t really sure why it had been a dolphin, but it was very beautiful.

After she had untied the boat and got it ready, she hopped on and started steering down the Atlantic Ocean. The day was nice but the clouds seemed dark. Andréa was hoping it wouldn’t rain.

As she was sailing down the big ocean, she saw birds soaring in the sky; she also saw white and gray seagulls and the big blue ocean that was in front of her. Andréa had picked the perfect day to go sailing. After a while of sailing and admiring the appealing ocean, the sun started to set. Andréa looked up and saw the clouds were still dark. Maybe even darker. Andréa decided to go back home. She didn’t want to have to sail home in the dark, so she turned the big boat around and set off back home.

She heard a loud split of thunder. Andréa ignored the thunder and decided to just focus on getting back home. Then after at least five noisy cracks of earsplitting thunder, it hit her. Miniature tiny raindrops fell on her. First it started slow, 1... 2... 3... 4... 10... 20... then after maybe one blink thousands of chilly damp raindrops were falling on Andréa. It got really dark fast. Then the waves started crashing, the boat started swaying, and the thunder was so noisy that she had to cover her ears. Andréa tried to steer carefully but every time she went to turn, the gigantic waves would turn her in the opposite direction. Then she looked a round in puzzlement. Was home this way? No, maybe it was that way? After sitting there thinking a while, she couldn’t decide. She now knew that she was lost, in a boat, in a thunderstorm. Andréa felt scared. How was she going to get home? Was she going to die out here? Would she drown? So many horrible questions went through her head. Andréa started too panic. She wished her dad was here to help her. He would have known what to do. Then maybe she would’ve gotten out of here by now.
A gigantic wave came towards her boat and knocked it almost over. The wave was so large that Andréa lost her balance and fell down. She was knocked out. She must have been having a dream because she was on a boat, fishing, it was sunny, and her father was standing right next to her. He looked down at Andréa and smiled. The first words he said were “Don’t give up Andréa.” He then laid his hand on her shoulder and said, “I know you can do it.” Then with a blink of an eye, he was gone.

“But wait!” Andréa yelled. “Come back! I need your help!” Then the dream was over. She opened her eyes very slowly and rubbed them. Her head still ached a little bit to. Andréa must have been knocked out for a while because the sun was shining. The bright sun had dried up all the rain and it had seemed to be smiling down at her. She had to squint to get used to the brightness. Andréa stood up, looked around, and took a long stretch. In the distance she saw land about three miles away. She now knew where she was. Now she could make her way back from where her boat was.

“Yes!” she screamed. “I’m going to be okay!” Andréa was so cheerful she forget about her aching head.

When she finally reached the dock, she got off the old boat and tied it to the wooden dock. She looked back at the ocean, and in the distance she saw a dolphin. The dolphin looked up at Andréa and seemed to smile at her. As if to say, “Good work.”

“Thank you,” she mumbled.

After that she decided not to ride the boat only if she knew it wasn’t going to rain.