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Storm
Jared and Michelle’s Quarters
Manfred VII
During
the day, Jared and Carmen successfully tested the new changes to the builder
code and hardware. All of the
optimizations in the hardware and software combined with Carmen’s physics
functions caused it to work perfectly on the ship with complicated things including
clothes, drinks and food. As they
finished, the rocking of the boat picked up.
The captain had mentioned they were heading into a storm.
After dinner, it started raining
heavily. Lightning lit up the sky
followed by deafening booms. Jared had
no trouble sleeping, but Michelle hated the lightning. Lightning always scared her, but on the ship
it was worse. She knew how dangerous
storms could be. She finally gave up on
sleep, dressed and went to the bridge. The
captain and crew were very busy. She
overheard one of them say, “That last wave was forty-five feet!”
When the captain noticed her he said, “You
shouldn’t be here. You’ll be safe in
your cabin.”
She walked back to her cabin and got back
into bed, still clothed. The rocking and
the noise were too much; she couldn’t sleep.
Somebody knocked on the door. She
pushed her husband to get him to wake up.
He shook his head as he awoke.
“What is it,” Jared said.
“Somebody’s at the door.”
The knock sounded again. He got up and pulled on a robe. He opened the door and Carmen was there. “What’s wrong, Carmen?” asked Michelle.
“I’m sorry; I can’t sleep. Were you sleeping?”
They both said no. Jared said, “Well, since we’re not sleeping .
. . want to play a game?”
Carmen said, “Actually, I want to check on
Keith. I know it’s silly, but I’m
worried. I stopped here because it was
on the way.”
Michelle said, “OK, we’ll go with you.”
Jared yawned, “We will?”
Michelle poked him, “We will.”
Jared gave in, “We will, let me get
dressed though.” Carmen turned around so
he could get dressed. He quickly put on
jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers. “OK,
let’s go.”
They walked down the hall and knocked on
Keith’s door. There was no reply. They knocked again, but louder. Jared sighed, “I’ll go in.”
He knocked a final time then opened the
door. It was pitch-black in the room
until Jared found the light. Keith was
still asleep under the blankets. Jared
poked Keith to wake him. Keith rolled
over and mumbled, “I don’t want to go to school.”
Jared poked Keith again, “Kara, get the
phone,” he mumbled.
Finally, Jared shook him a little and
said, “Wake up.”
Keith partially opened his eyes, “What’s
happening? What do you want?”
Jared laughed, “There’s a storm, and we
wanted to see if you were all right.
Carmen’s here. You should get
dressed.”
“Carmen?
OK.”
Keith got up, still half asleep. He slowly got dressed. He walked into the door, which woke him the
rest of the way.
When Keith finally got into the hall,
Carmen said, “Are you OK? Didn’t the
storm keep you awake?”
Keith shrugged saying, “I guess the
rocking was soothing.”
Jared asked, “So . . . now what are we
going to do?”
Michelle said, “We should check on Kara.”
They went farther down the hall, and Michelle
knocked on Kara’s door. There was no
answer, so she knocked again. Jared looked
at Michelle and said, “Your turn.”
Michelle opened the door. She called into the dark cabin, “Kara?” Michelle turned on the light, but Kara was not
in her bed. Michelle returned to the
hall, “She’s not here.”
Jared said, “This is a non-stop train. Let’s see how Aaron and Sarah are doing.”
They continued down the hall to Aaron and
Sarah’s room. Aaron, Sarah, and Kara
were all dressed and playing Chinese checkers.
Keith knocked, and the door quickly opened. Sarah opened the door from the inside, and
Aaron called to Jared, “They woke you up, too?”
Jared shrugged, “Yep.”
Aaron said, “Well, now that you’re here,
want to play checkers . . . Asian style?”
Jared joked, “Is that like football . . .
European style?”
Aaron laughed, “No doubt it is.”
They all found a spot to sit in the
cabin. Michelle said, “I stopped in the
bridge and the crew said there were high waves.”
Aaron replied gently, “I’m sure it’s
nothing they haven’t seen before. We’ll
be fine.” Then he turned to Jared,
“Except for a lack of sleep, eh?”
Jared nodded.
They sat down to play Chinese
checkers. The checkers were pegs that
stuck into the board so that it could be played in cars and on boats. Since only six could play, Michelle said,
“I’ll sit this one out.”
The game went quickly, and Aaron won. They continued playing for hours as the storm
continued to beat the ship. Around
Sarah said, “Are you sure? We could
play for a few more hours!”
Aaron replied with a slight hint of
bitterness, “Fine, play in the galley!”
Michelle said, “Well, we’d better go. Good night thanks for the company!”
They walked back to their cabins. Carmen hugged Keith and then the Millers before she went on to her cabin. Kara said goodnight to everybody and went to bed. Jared and Michelle both went back to sleep.
Copyright (C) 1998-2001 East Coast Games, Inc. and 2001 - 2006 Forest J. Handford
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