"Why?" asked Myiah, lying on her temporary bed, her red hair spread out like a fan beneath her head.
"Just come!" I answered, as Crystal made her way over to the window. Myiah sighed and finally rose from the bed.
"What are we looking at?" inquired Crystal from my left.
"That ship," I replied, pointing at the beautiful wooden sailboat with a white sail, floating gracefully in the bay.
"Wow," said Myiah, wide-eyed. They both shared my love of sailing, which was one of the reasons why I invited them to come with me to my grandparent's over the summer.
I dashed to my suitcase and pulled out my binoculars while Myiah and Crystal got a better look at the lovely sailboat. When I returned, they backed away from the window, probably hoping that I would give them a turn with the binoculars if they were nice enough to me.
When I looked out, I saw a young dark haired man at the rudder, turning it this way and that, making sure it was lined up just perfectly with the dock.
"Can I have a turn?" asked Myiah, and I handed her my binoculars.
"What is that? You guys, it looks like there's a rope comig from the ship and leading into the water. I wonder what it's for?" she said.
I peered out at the ship, but failed to see what she was talking about. I jerked my head back in surprise when the boat suddenly jerked backwards and the man fell down.
"Myiah, lemme see," demanded Crystal.
Crystal looked through them and described what she saw. "The rope going off the ship is- no. It can't be." I was about to ask her what couldn't be when she screeched loudly.
"What?" I asked.
"He- that guy- the owner of the boat, fell off. He's trying to get back on. Hey! Where is it going?"
I was getting kind of mad that she wasn't saying anything clearly, but then I saw what she was talking about. The boat was now moving steadily backward, away from the man, and against the direction the tiny waves were moving.
"That's weird," Myiah commented.
"Yeah," I agreed.
"Hey! That rope going off the boat is tight now, like it's pulling it or something, but maybe it's just caught on a rock or something. What do you guys think?" asked Crystal, looking at us.
"I think it's just caught on something," Myiah answered.
"Yeah, that's gotta be it," I agreed.
Just then, I heard the metallic clanging of the dinner bell, so I put away my binoculars and we went downstairs.
Sunlight streamed through the open window and a soft breeze fluttered in. I sat up, stretched and yawned, completely forgetting the strange happenings that went on yesterday afternoon.
I got dressed, then went down the three flights of stairs and into the kitchen, where cereal and rasberries were sitting out on the counter. I ate some Cheerios with milk and rasberries out on the screened porch.
The screen door banged shut after Myiah walked through.
"Hi," she said, smiling with her cereal bowl in hand. She sat down at the table with me and began to eat.
"Do you think we can go to the beach today?" she asked, looking up.
"Probably," I replied.
"'Cuz I ws thinkin' it would be fun to go today."
"Yeah," I said, as the screen door banged and Crystal walked in.
"I asked your grandparents, Ronia, and they said we can go down to the beach anytime, as long as we let them know we're going," Crystal said.
"Great! We were just talking about that," I answered.
After we finished our breakfast, we got ready to go to the beach. About an hour later, we told my gradparents that we were leaving and set out for the beach.
We reached the beach and started to wade in near the dock, so we could look at the sailboats while we swam. I saw a ship headed for the dock (which was almost empty, because it was too early for most people to be returning from a sailing trip). All of a sudden, it was pulled backwards, and the lady at the rudder fell overboard. She was shouting "Hey, hey!" but swimming toward the dock. I dove in and swam out to the ship. It took a bit, but I finally reached it. I pulled my self on to the moving boat and saw a taut rope pulling it.
I was searching in the cabin for a knife to cut it with, when I heard a thumping noise on the left side of the sailboat. It sounded as if someone else was also boarding the ship. I ducked under some yellow raincoats, hearing footsteps nearing the cabin. My fear grew as they got closer and closer and closer-
"Ahhh!!!!" I yelled as someone lifted up te rainncoats, but they had screamed too. I looked up.
"Crystal?" I inquired, looking at her.
"Yeah," she answered, brething hard. "You scared me."
"You scared me!" I replied.
"Myiah's calling the police," Crystal stated, completely ignoring my last statement. "I think people are stealing the ships by pulling them with a rope."
"No," I said disbelievingly. "That's crazy. Tey'd get caught with a plan that stpid. Besides, what can they do with that many ships?"
"Re-paint them and sell them," she answered. "We need to cut the rope."
"I can't find a knife."
"There's one." She picked up a knife from one of the seats.
"Now how come I didn't see that?"
She shrugged. "Let's go."
We went up on deck and Crystal started to saw through the thick rope.
"Crystal!"
"What?" she answered in an annoyed sort of tone.
"Look up."
She stopped cutting and saw the huge rock island in the bay, and that we were headed right towards it!
She dropped the knife onto the deck and ran inside. I chased after her.
When we got in the cabin we dropped onto the floor in the position you would be in if a tornado was coming. But instead of hearing a gigantic crash and and the splintering of wood, we heard only the swishing of vines against the boat. We sat up, confused.
"Careful, careful boys, it looks like someone tried to cut the rope," said a coaxing female voice. "Search the inside."
We heard them getting on and we quickly hid under the bright raincoats. My heart my pounding and I stopped breathing, for fear they would hear me. They whipped off the raincoats and grabbed us by our ears, leading us out of the cabin.
The cave was lit up with lights. I guessed they were probably battery powered, but I really had no idea.
"Hmmm." A tall, gangly lady with short black hair looked down on us. "Now whatever shall we do with them?" she asked, with a cold and devious smile on her face.
The smile vanished. "Kill 'em," she ordered.
The men who had us by our ears took out their gigantic knives and put them at our throats.
Eeeeeooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeooo! cried the police siren as a police boat come crashing through the vines.
"Drop your weapons and put your hands behind your head!" yelled a policemen over a loud speaker.
Crystal and I both heaved huge sighs of relief. as we ran toward the boat. Myiah was on there with all of them.
"Thank you!" I said.
The culprits were convicted of their crimes and Myiah, Crystal, and I had the best time spending the reward money. All in all, I think it was a pretty fun vacation.
