Quiet Reflection

• Michael Degail, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2008

It is the sixty seventh day of my solo yacht circumnavigation around the world. I am sailing through the Pacific Ocean as a ferocious storm approaches. The wind howls through the air ripping the sales, carrying with the wind rain, which falls hard on my face stinging momentarily. Masses of blue form and crash against the boat pushing it in every direction. Slipping and sliding across the deck I eventually take refuge in the corner under the weal. Suddenly the mast snaps cracking the boat in two. Grabbing a life boy I jump into the blue abyss. I bob up and down like a rubber ducky in a bathtub for the rest of the night.

On the third day stranded I start to dream. Land was still out of sight and my arms were tyred of hanging, the cramps becoming more frequent. Closing my eyes I dreamt about life, my childhood, university schooling, marriage and now.

“Was I good enough to reach Heaven” I murmured as each episode flashed before my eyes. I battled my conscience. I wanted to live to survive. I could not comprehend my own death.

“Will anyone remember me or will I ever be found”. Death is inevitable. There is one thing my father would always say:

“Two things in this life are certain death and taxes”. But I was not ready for death to snatch me yet; I began to kick, presuming I was going to bump into one of the islands that are littered through the ocean.

I kicked through the night. My legs were hot in the cool water and lactic acid caused frequent spasms and craps. My spirit was broken, I was a man who had been isolated and condemned to death. I came to a final judgement about my predicament, a judgement that I contemplated for the hours that rolled by.

Processing each episode in my mixed life, I trigged a moment that brought tears to his eyes. It always did. I remembered how my family was taken in a horrendous car crash. It was my fault, my shakes returned and the strong guilty feeling returned back to my stomach. My death seemed to gloom closer with each moment. Suddenly my shakes ceased- it occurred to me that I may see my family in heaven, alive and well. With my excitement bubbling I laughed and sung and daydreamed looking up to the heavens. Closing my eyes I imagined them. Remembering the times we shared, their smiles and laughs. For the first time in ten years I was happy. I let go of the boy and lay in the water like a starfish.

On the fourth day my strength lessoned further. I was dehydrated and hungry but full of spirit. When my first child was born that was the happiest moment of my life. We drank Champaign and laughed all night till morning. “See you all soon” I yelled as my mind drifted to David. My youngest son’s first word, Dad, it brought happiness unique only to that moment- The innocence and playful simile and then “DADA”. I re-lived each episode in the fatherhood chapter of my life

Then I heard a boat push behind me and a scream “are you ok”. The guilt and sorrow returned bringing with it depression as he lifted me out of the water. I was rescued, my life saved but all I wanted was to die- to see my family which I missed so much.