Back at home on the local 6 o’clock news…
“This is a breaking news bulletin!! We have word that a cruise ship around Bermuda has caught fire and is sinking. We are told that three lifeboats full of passengers have been rescued, but many passengers are still missing. We will keep you posted as we get more information. And now back to your regular programming…”
Kristopher quickly switched the channel. He didn’t want to believe what he was hearing. Just two days ago he and Adam were eating pizza and playing Meteor at the Hangout, a local arcade. Now he was watching the horrific scenes of helicopters desperately circling above where the cruise ship had sunk, looking for any remaining passengers that may have surfaced. Just five minutes before, Shannon, the “third musketeer”, had called Kris.
You see, Shannon, Kris, and Adam had been friends since kindergarten. They all lived on “Cadbury Lane”, a set of estates in their small town, so they always hung out together. The three of them were closer than any brother or sister, and they confided all their secrets with each other.
When Shannon saw the news bulletin, she snatched her phone and pressed the quick-dial button labeled “K”, her nickname for Kris. She had recognized the name of Adam’s ship, as he had been talking about it non-stop before he had left, and remembered it when the news anchors mentioned what ship it was during the news break. Adam had been so excited that he and his mom were finally getting to go on a vacation. It was the first time they would get away since his father had disappeared.
You see, one day, when Adam was seven, he woke up and his father was simply not there. All his father’s stuff was still in his room. The only things missing were his car and his wallet. They never heard anything from him again. He and his mother grieved for a long three years before they joined a local support group. Even though the group sessions helped, they still didn’t talk about him much, although Adam always thought of his father at night, right as he was getting into bed. He had always tucked Adam in and read him his bedtime story. If he had known on that night that he would not see his father the next day, he would have hugged him extra long, or said something or… he never quite thought of it much more, as he fell asleep, clutching his raggedy old teddy bear, his only source of comfort and graspable memory of his father.
Well, now Adam was gone too, and the worst part was, there was nothing Shannon or Kris could do to get him back.
As Kris stared at the blank TV screen, he tried to fight back the panic and think straight. He thought hard for a good half-hour before he decided he would go and talk with Shannon about it. Maybe they could think of something together, or at least have each other’s company while they waited for more news.
Kris got up and leaped up the steps, two at a time, and into his bedroom. He stopped for a minute to let everything soak in. He looked up at his ceiling. It was painted midnight blue and had some planets painted on it, and some glow-in-the-dark stars glued on. When he had moved in when he was four, he wanted to be an astronaut more than anything in the world, so his parents decorated his room with a Space theme.
He looked over next to his bed, on the wall, where a faint reddish-brown stain could be seen. He was playing around with Adam when he was six and had tripped over his train set and cut the back of his head on the wall. Kris’ mother had tried to whitewash over the stain, but it still showed through.
Kris almost broke down in tears. He remembered how much he had begged his parents to have another kid because he wanted a brother or sister. They tried and had had two miscarriages and did not want to adopt, but Kris was okay with it because he had Adam and Shannon.
They would camp out in Kris’ “tree house.” It wasn’t really a tree house though, more of a playhouse because it was not in a tree, but they liked it anyway. They were planning on adding some carpeting and plumbing so they could have a sink, and maybe even a whole bathroom so they wouldn’t have to run into Kris’ house in the middle of the night to go.
But now none of that would happen, not unless they found Adam and got him home safe, and none of it seemed so important either. Kris snapped out of his flashback and grabbed his bookbag. He tossed in the “Three Musketeers” scrapbook that Shannon was putting together. He also grabbed his water bottle and a few energy bars. He was trying to stay in shape for the school soccer team.
Kris flew down the stairs and out the door. He looked ahead towards Shannon’s house and got into the “starting position,” like the professional runners he saw in the Olympics, and lunged forward in a sprint, but was stopped suddenly in his tracks when he saw a red Porsche pull into Adam’s driveway and a nervous looking man get out…
Submission Name: Stranded (Chapter 3)
