Cast Off - A Fictional Story

This is a story that was written in 2002 by my late stepmother, Debra Traylor, who passed away in February 2006.  I originally published this for her in my old magazine, The Present Truth Trumpet, and want to include it here now for your reading pleasure.  I have edited it somewhat, but the original story is still there.

Cast Off

by Debra S. Traylor

Gripping the hairbrush in her hand, she raked through the long pale hair.  Gloom moved over her face as she fixed her jaw into a rigid frown.  She threw the brush to the dresser and flopped down on the bed.  A lanky twelve-year-old with deep-set grey eyes, Jennifer Winters had ideas of her own.

"I will go to Crab Island today in spite of Mom.  After all, Dad has taught me to power a boat well,"  Jennifer mumbled with conviction.

Things had changed since her parents divorced.  Jennifer thought her mother was overly protective.  She missed the outings the three of them would take in the boat over to Crab Island for the day.  Mom basked in the sun while she and her dad would swim and explore.  Now, Mom didn't want to go anymore.  The small speedboat just sat there tethered to the dock.  Everyone thought Jennifer was a little too young yet to go out past the cove.

"Well, I'm going to show them!"

Jennifer became alert as she heard heels clacking on the linoleum down the hall.  Her mother was going shopping today and expected her to tag along. 

A shadow fell across the doorway but Jennifer just stared at her mother's big feet.

"Now Jen, we have been through this.  You know I don't like leaving you alone."

"But Mom, it is so boring!  Don't you want me to have any fun this weekend?  Don't you trust me?"

"Of course I do, but I would just feel better if you went with me."

"Mom, I'm not a baby."

"Okay, I give up," Mom's hands flew into the air with exasperation.  "I don't know what I am going to do with you."

"Oh brother,"  Jennifer thought.  "Here it comes now!"

"Do what you want, but I expect your room to be straightened up when I get home this afternoon."  She turned around and added, "Stick around the house."

Jennifer fell back into the bed a little surprised.  It would have been too easy - that is, until she told her to stick around!  "But, I have to show her I'm ready to do things on my own."

She heard the car start and back down the driveway and wasted no time getting down to the floating dock.  The tide was out, but it should be coming in soon.  Jennifer almost tripped as she galloped down the incline to the boat.  Throwing her gear in, she hopped over the side of the boat and loosened the ropes securing it.  The engine started on the first try and she gleefully giggled a the thought of being off on her adventure at last.

As she moved through the cove slowly, she noticed the majestic oaks along the banks draped with gray moss.  They seemed to loom over the houses along the bank of the river.  Her own house suddenly seemed far away.

When she came to the end of the cove, where it emptied into the bay, Jennifer felt a chill run down her spine.  She opened up the engine to maximum speed.  The boat plunged forward with the bow planing off the surface of the water.  Underneath her feet she could feel the ripples reveberating off the bottom of the boat.  The water glistened like millions of tiny diamonds as the sun warmed everything around her.  She could taste the salty ocean spray as the breeze whipped strands of hair about her face.  Jennifer felt as free as the seagulls that soared above her head.

She moved ahead through the spindly marsh grass that bordered the channel until she approached the open waters.  Crab Island was in sight.  The current was somewhat swift, not unusual for that time of year.  Within minutes she was in the surf approaching the beach.  Jennifer cut off the engine, slowly letting the boat drift in the current as it approached the shoreline.  When close, she jumped out onto the shore.  Gripping the rope on the stern of the boat, she pulled the small craft up onto the beach, with it spinning casually.  She had arrived!

Jennifer played on the beach until approaching the sand dunes and crossing over, arriving at a secluded shelter under an adjacent grove of oak trees.  Once settled, she spent a considerable amount of time excavating an ancient heap of discarded oyster shells left there by earlier settlers in the distant past.  It had been a good day, she meditated, deciding it was time to head back.

As Jennifer approached the summit of the dunes, she noticed a dark cloud making its way over the ocean, and a primal instinct urged that danger was imminent and that she had better hurry and get out of there.

As she made her way into the channel, the storm had arrived and overtook her small craft, assaulting it with waves and tossing it to and fro.  As the waves assaulted the boat in successive volleys, water began to accumulate in the bottom of the boat.  Sheets of torrential rains showered down upon her head like a waterfall, and bolts of lightning flashed in greater frequency with each passing moment. As the lightning flashes became perilously closer, Jennifer was growing more frightened, cowering as best she could to avoid any danger.  Faced with an imminent capsizing of the small vessel that carried her, Jennifer made a valiant effort to cease her fearful trembling enough to steady the craft.   Although a noble effort, the attempt had imminent futility written all over it.  She therefore realistically came to the conclusion that there was no possibility that she could swim that rough current, and wondered silently what if I don't make it?

Jennifer realized she had probably gotten herself into something more than she could handle, and conceded in her thoughts that her mother might have actually been right.  It was a thought she found difficult to digest at the time, and the safety of her home was what her thoughts focused on at this point.

With a desperation and humility flooded with emotion, she looked skyward as she cried, "Jesus I am so sorry.  Please help me!!"

Upon making her way to the small estuarine river, Jennifer heard a voice that sounded joyfully familiar to her - they were calling her name!  She saw another boat approaching her, and in it were her mother and their neighbor, Mr. Stafford.  At this point, a wave of peace and relief flooded Jennifer with an uncharacteristic intensity, and resulting from that she went limp with a combination of exhaustion and relief.

"Jen....Jennifer?"

"Mommy, I'm over here!"

Upon coming to her, Jennifer and her mother fell into each other's arms and embraced as if neither wanted to ever let go.

"I'm so sorry, Mama!" Jennifer managed between sobs.

"I know, Baby," reassured her mother.  "Mr. Stafford saw you go out in that boat, and he got worried when he saw the storm coming and you hadn't returned."

"I will never go out like tht by myself again, Mama, I promise."

"I should have realized how much you really missed it.  And, tell you what - from now on we will do this together!  I guess I missed it too."

"That would be great, Mama," Jennifer said, smiling.  "And a lot more fun too."

The End