back where Tai has unfastened the railing. The life raft sits on the water, fully inflated, a little canopy over it. It looks like a cheap floating house that kids would play in, albeit with a flashing beacon on the top.
How the hell is that going to protect us?
“Get in!” Tai says, reaching forward and grabbing me by the arm, pulling me to the landing at the back of the boat, where once upon a time I would sit on calm days and watch the water pass beneath my dangling feet.
Seems like a lifetime ago.
The raft is tied up against the ship, but with the waves threatening to tip us all over, I’m scared to death to try and jump in it.
“Jump!” Tai yells. “You’ll be okay, you have your life jacket.”
I almost want him to push me but I don’t think he would.
Instead, I take in a deep breath, conjure up all my courage, and leap.
I miss, of course.
Half of me lands in the water, so much colder than I thought it would be, but most of me (my boobs) lands in the raft, so I’m able to work that weight load to my advantage and tumble inside.
Some of our bags are already inside, so Tai must have some pretty good aim. I wait under the plastic tarp, the bottom of the small enclosure moving violently with the waves, and then Lacey manages to get inside the raft, then Richard.
It’s tight in here and smells like chemicals, and I hold hands with Lacey, more me wanting to be comforted than the other way around, as Tai starts throwing the rest of the bags to Richard.
Then one doesn’t make it. Richard’s bag. It bounces off the raft, just missing the opening and lands further away in the water.
“Fuck!” Tai yells. “Sorry Richard!’
“It’s fine!” Richard yells back.
Tai quickly climbs down to the bottom of the boat’s platform, with the fishing rod in one hand, and the rope attached to the life raft. Then he ties the rope around his waist, tight.
He closes his eyes and jumps straight down into the water, sinking beneath the waves, only the top of the fishing pole visible.
“Tai!” I scream, as his life jacket pulls him back up the surface. “What are you doing? Get in!”
He shakes his head and shoves the rod in the raft, then starts to swim up alongside the boat, away from us.
“What is he doing?” I cry out.
“This raft is only for four people and we have too many supplies,” Richard says grimly. “If you haven’t noticed, Tai is all muscle. If he came in here, we would sink.”
Oh, I noticed all right, but now’s not the time to dwell on it.
“He’s trying to swim to shore,” Lacey says. “Pull us all in.”
“A modern-day He-Man,” Richard comments.
“But that’s crazy!” And yet, that’s what Tai is attempting to do, he’s swimming, making powerful strokes and we’re actually moving away from the boat a little, I guess because the boat could suddenly collapse on us, or we could be bashed against it.
The land in front of us is getting closer and when I chance a look over the side into the water, I think I can see the coral reefs just below the surface. No wonder we ran aground, the reef is so close to the surface, I—
A scraping sound fills the raft cavity, then a hiss. The raft seems to stop moving for a moment, then we’re lurched forward as Tai pulls us.
“Shit!” Richard swears. “I think we punctured on the reef.”
He leans out of the raft and Tai is swimming back to us.
The raft starts to deflate in one corner, water starting to seep in right behind Lacey.
“Stay where you are,” Tai yells at us, spitting out water as we bob up and down in the waves. “Stay in the raft until you can’t.”
He starts swimming again, trying so hard to get us closer and closer to land.
It works.
We’re about fifty meters from the beach.
But the raft doesn’t have enough buoyancy anymore.
“Time to get the fuck out,” I say, grabbing my bag.
Lacey and Richard do the same, grabbing the rest of the stuff.
One by one, we awkwardly, reluctantly pile out into the water.
I think this is the point where my adrenaline runs out.
The moment I’m floating in the water, I barely have enough strength to hold onto my LV, let alone swim. All of us are struggling. We’re just slaves to the life jackets at the moment.
But then I see Tai