A Family’s Goodbye at Sea

By Arianna Fottis 

“Luna, don’t embarrass me. This is serious. This isn’t Southampton anymore. The both of us need to act like serious young ladies to impress mother and father’s work colleagues. If they don’t impress them, father and mother could lose their jobs and all of us will lose our house!”

“I know Marie, this is just so exiting though! I’ve never been on such a big ship before,” the little girl exclaimed.

“You’ve never been on any ship before,” the taller girl replied.

“That’s why it’s so exiting! I feel like I’m a pirate-princess! I want to explore,” the little girl with big curls in her hair exclaimed.

“Luna, we’ve been through most of the ship already. It’s been two days. We have barely anything else to explore. For once, just behave and don’t be the embarrassment of the family!” Marie hissed.

Luna ran away from her older sister, crying. “You’re the worst older sister ever! I wish we weren’t family,” Luna screamed as she ran past passengers, knocking into them.

“Way to cause a scene,” Marie said as she sighed. Somehow, their parents hadn’t seen nor heard the commotion. Marie slightly smiled. She was grateful for that, however her smile faded as she remembered what just happened with her sister. She needs find her, and fast before anything else goes wrong.

“Luna? Luna? Where are you? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said those mean words,” Marie shouted out into the air. Her sister is very small, and she likes to hide. She could be anywhere.

Ten minutes more of searching go by, and Marie sees the back of a figure, a familiar figure with big curls that she knows very well. However, the figure is leaning very far over the side of the grand ship, standing up on one of the bars. Almost too far.

“Luna, get down from the-” Marie screamed, before she knew it, the little girl got startled, lost her grip for a second, and fell off the side of the ship. The little girl has fast reflexes, so she was able to grab on to one of the bars with one hand, then the other.

“Please, don’t let me fall!” The little girl screamed. Immediately, Marie was by her side, trying to pull her up. After 10 seconds of trying to grab her hands, Marie finally did. She was able to pull her up and over the ship.

“Luna, what were you thinking? You could have died!” Marie exclaimed as tears were starting to form in the corners of her eyes. The little girl had nothing to say; she was silent, paralyzed with fear, looking over Marie’s shoulders.

“What is it now?” Marie asked. She slowly turned around, hoping it was not what she thought it was. Her fear came true though. There, their parents stood, scared and angry, with a crowd of her father’s colleagues. They saw the entire scenario play out.

“If you can’t even control your kids, how are you supposed to control the company?” One of the colleagues remarked with disgust.

“Marie, Luna. You are both in so much trouble. Luna, you could have died! All we wanted was for you two to for once to not get into any trouble. You both knew how important this voyage was for us. Marie, you as the older sibling should have been more responsible with your sister. This is YOUR fault!” their mother screamed. She had lost her temper and didn’t care about the other passengers watching them.

“Mother, you don’t understand!” Marie exclaimed. “This was all a big mis-“

Her mom cut her off. “I do not care what this was. You should have done better! Go to your stateroom now!” she yelled at the two girls, clenching her fists in anger. The two girls ran to their staterooms, scared of whatever would come next.

Marie and Luna were stuck in their stateroom for the rest of the day, as that was their mother’s command, after screaming at them for a good hour and a half. Luna would not talk at all, as she still seemed shocked from the whole situation. The two girls stayed silent for the rest of the day.

The girls had fallen asleep, then something odd happened. At 11:40 PM, the two girls had awoken to a big crashing sound and shaking. The ship felt as if it was being grabbed by a giant.

“Marie, what is this? What’s going on?” Luna screamed. Both girls had never felt such fear before. Not just the fear of what they were feeling, but the fear of the unknown. What was happening?

Their parents had immediately woken up too and ran into the children’s stateroom. “Children, we must get to the top of the ship! Something is wrong,” their father exclaimed.

The four of them ran up the shaky stairs to the top, as fast as they could. Everyone at the same time was trying to climb up the stairs, so there were people on all sides, pushing up against them. Luna and Marie were linked with their hands; however, their parents were nowhere to be seen. They got to the top of the ship and tried to look for their parents. Marie made sure to not let go of her little sister; she was not going to lose sight of her again.

There were people screaming. The ship started to tilt and sink. This was impossible, right? How is the unsinkable ship sinking just like that? These were all questions Marie had in her head, but she did not have the answer to any of them. Suddenly, the lifeboats were being filled with people. After not being able to find their parents, and the boats being filled up quickly, Marie made the hard decision to go on a lifeboat with her sister without their parents.

Because they were children, they were able to get on the lifeboat. The very last lifeboat. While the lifeboat was being lowered, Marie saw two familiar faces. It was their mom and dad.

“Please, honey, take care of your sister!” Their mom screamed.

Their dad could not form sentences, all he did was cry for them.

The rest of the night was a blur, a cold, wet blur. That was the last they saw of their parents.