Read Online Shipwreck Island by S. A. Bodeen - Free Book Online

“I mean he is gone , as in not on the boat anymore.”
    Marco felt his stomach drop and Sarah gasped.
    Nacho looked up, his eyes red from crying. “Where? Where did he go?!”
    Sarah cried, “He can’t just leave us!”
    â€œHe wouldn’t just leave us, sweetheart,” said John.
    â€œAre you sure?” Yvonna asked. “How can he be gone?”
    â€œI’m not sure.” John slumped down on the floor. “I went to use the distress call, but I couldn’t get it to work, and then … he was gone.” He put a hand to his forehead.
    Yvonna said, “We need to look for him! He could be hurt—”
    Marco said, “It’s terrible out there.”
    As if to emphasize his point, the boat tilted horrendously to one side and paused there, causing Marco’s heart to stop, before the craft finally righted itself, only to tilt to the other side.
    â€œDad, what do we do?” Sarah’s voice was small and shaky, and John held out his arms to her. She crawled over to him, Ahab at her heels, and he embraced her as he looked at the others.
    John cleared his throat. “We’re not going to go looking for the captain.”
    Yvonna started to say something, but John’s expression made her stop. He said, “He was … he was already gone when we went up there. I mean—”
    â€œDead?” asked Nacho. His voice was shaky.
    Marco put a hand on his shoulder. “Yeah. We think it was the mast.”
    His mom’s forehead wrinkled. “The mast? What’s wrong with the mast?”
    Marco exchanged a glance with his stepfather, who nodded and said, “The sound we heard was the mast falling. It’s broken.”
    As Nacho ran to their mom, Sarah shoved her face into Ahab’s fur.
    Marco remembered the headset. “We can call for help!” He shined the flashlight at the electronics panel he’d found earlier.
    John made his way over and sat down in the chair. He put on the headset and starting pushing buttons. “SOS! SOS!” He paused. “Hello! SOS! SOS!” He kept flipping switches, shouting, “SOS!” now and then. After a few minutes, he took off the headset and put it on the table. He shook his head. “I don’t think it worked.”
    Sarah asked, “What do we do?”
    â€œWe have to ride it out,” John said. “That’s all we can do.” He swallowed. “We have no choice.”
    Marco made his way over to his mom, who put her other arm around his shoulder and squeezed. Marco had questions.
    He wanted to ask, What if the boat starts leaking?
    What if the boat capsizes?
    What if—
    But then he realized he already knew the answer.
    Worst case?
    They would go down with the boat.
    Best case?
    They would all be adrift in the ocean during a storm.
    Either way, the chances of surviving …
    Marco leaned his head on his mother, scrunched his eyes shut, and pretended she had never met John; they were still back in Texas, and had never even left home.

 
    13
    All night long they huddled in the cabin as the furious sea tossed Moonflight about, sometimes so violently that Sarah held her breath, thinking they were done for. She couldn’t sleep, not with her heart pounding and the rest of her body a trembling knot as she braced herself for each dip and sway of the boat. At least she was over her seasickness.
    Yvonna, however, had crawled into the small bathroom earlier and was vomiting for a while. Sarah knew how she felt and couldn’t help but muster a little sympathy for her.
    Ahab stayed by Sarah. He whined now and then, but he made no move to try to escape the boat, which seemed to help calm Sarah. The dog seemed to know things, and if he was content to stay on board the boat, then maybe … well, she hoped anyway, that it meant they would be okay.
    Finally, she gave up and laid her head down in her dad’s lap. She knew she’d never