A young individual is learning to sail and decided to sneak off to practice their lessons in the harbor alone. They are blown out to sea due to a sudden squall and now must remember how to navigate to get back to the harbor and safety. -- Anon Guest
Could'a, Would'a, Should'a was going to kill her. She could'a stayed home. She should'a listened to Old Terry, who could predict the weather by his knees. If she would'a taken along a compass, she wouldn't be in this much trouble.
Lost in the middle of the trackless sea in a small sloop with one sail. No supplies, only the endless confidence of youth.
Such confidence could be fatal and Vera would be lucky to live long enough to take that lesson to heart. Old Terry had been right, the squall was vicious and honestly half a very interesting hour had been spent keeping the boat upright and the water out of her hull.
There was no sight of port. No sign of any other sail. No moon to give much more shape to the dark of the night.
It's only a tour around the bay, she had thought, It won't take more than three hours. Ha! If she knew then what would happen to her... Vera paused in her self-reflection. No. She wouldn't have changed a thing. She'd known what she was doing. She would have been so certain she could handle anything. Which was how and why she was here now. Wishing she could at least partially throttle her past self.
Vera took a deep breath and focussed on how to get out of trouble rather than her regrets. Step One - think. She still had a boat, and an intact sail. All she needed was a direction.
The scattered clouds, scurrying to keep up with the rest of the squall, were leaving a decent view of the stars. Find Orion. Find Polaris. If land was westward, she could at least find a coast, and then follow it south until she found a town.
She'd be tired and hungry and relying on the kindness of strangers, but at least she would live to tell a warning tale.
A child's rhyme came to her as she set her sail and leaned on her rudder. When the blazing sun has gone, When he nothing shines upon, Then you shine your little light...
This traveler in the dark was certainly grateful. They did not shine beams like a dark lantern to illuminate her goal, but they gave shape to the sky, and a direction to sail in.
When she told it later -to anyone who would listen- she would say, If you're determined to get into trouble, be sure you know enough to get out of it again.
There were plenty of stories of lonely little boats found in the middle of nowhere... sometimes with sad remains of a lost soul. More hauntingly, without, yet containing some trace of a person who had once been in it.
Vera was glad at last for the shape of buildings in the dawning twilight. Her story would not be of a lonely end.
May her lesson reach others and teach them.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Gaborturcsi]
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