(this first half wasn't written by me)

The ship sailed for many days and the occupants were enjoying their voyage. It was a beautiful day when the storm came. There was no warning, no way to prepare. The wind beat vehemently against the well-constructed vessel. In time it defeated its opponent in a match of tug of war.

The ship's passengers were instructed to leave the ship by the Captain. They were directed to the lifeboats that serve as their homes until they reached dry land.

As the lifeboats began veering off in different directions, some lost a few aboard through trials they endured. There were two boats that each had a child blown off into the water. Although life preservers were tossed to them successfully, they never got back to their home on the water.

Time went by and these two drifted toward one another. The ocean's waves pushed and pulled them closer and closer until they bumped into each other.

At first, they were both reluctant to speak much more than what was necessary just to make it each day. As time went by though conversations became a welcomed haven from where they both found themselves. The young lady found herself in a place she never knew before and realized that she wanted to tell her new friend about the discovery she had made recently about her preserver. It had a hole, so small, but that was gradually dropping her more and more into the water.

The young man eventually learned of the tear and offered what he could. He had a rope that encircled his preserver and attached it to the young lady's. He brought her peace that she had not been availed before by doing so and she began sleeping better at night.

It was a cloudy day and the young man was sleeping. The young lady began to realize that her preserver did not possess much more strength to carry her weight. In addition, she noticed that the young man's began to be pulled under by the weight of hers. She began to think that it would be better for him to drift to dry land alone than for neither of them to make it.

Another week would pass, the sun glaring at the two's misfortune, time seemed to sail at a slower pace. The conversations the two once had become a memory. They tried to fill the time with words to break the silence but uneasiness kept her mind occupied while he charted their path to the nearest land.

A new morning dawned and the young girl woke to three birds singing overhead. She glanced up and saw that two of them were flying perfectly in sync with each other. The other seemed to lag behind them. However she came to it, her mind was made up. While the young man slept at night she began pulling at the rope connecting them together. As days went by it began to get tattered and separate.

It was a cool morning breeze that woke her from her sleep. She spied a piece of debris floating by. There upon it laid a knife. The sun winked at her in its reflective blade and she reached out to get it. Taking it into her possession she chose to hide it from the young man. When he rose from his disturbing dream he asked her if she was alright. She lied and told him she was. Three more days would go by.

There was no rhyme or reason to why she chose that day or that course of action. She did not know that they were only miles now from land. It was a Thursday and overcast, as if the sky was giving her a backdrop for her decision. After the two had eaten lunch together she pulled out the knife. He questioned her intent. She explained and he insisted she not. With tears in her eyes she cut the rope that joined them together.

She slowly pulled away from his seat upon the water, crying. He continued to head in the direction to land while she seemed to circle a small area. Her preserver, appearing useless, continues to hold her up only to prolong her existence in the cold water. As she began to shiver from the heartless waters she finally called out to the young man. He answered.

She began to not care any longer about the preserver or the state that it was in. She knew there was always hope as long as she had a friend. She called again. He answered once again. The pain began to grasp at her as her body's temperature was dropping. She decided to stop calling and just save her energy. Her mind questioned whether or not he was turning around for her or not. Her heart wondered if she would even let him...

...to be continued?"

(this part by me)

It was a Thursday and overcast.  The dark gray hew overshadowing the sun.  The Warmth it provided the young man is what had kept him through the many days and nights at sea.  The sun was what had kept him company before his reluctant friendship had begun.

Fitting it was no longer there just as she was not either.

He did not understand the rhyme nor reason why she chose to cut the rope.  Why she chose that day.  Maybe it was the sky; maybe it was the freezing water.  He did not know. 

What he did know was that she had the knife.  It was her choice to cut the rope, and not matter how much he pleaded with her she insisted.  She had the knife it was her choice.  He had known that she possessed the knife since she found it three days earlier.  The sun was shining that day. 

The weathered and tattered rope floated in between them the places where she had tried to pick it apart impossible to see in the frost of the ocean.  The bond that once held such life and joy for them lay lifeless and dead as a fog fell upon the water.

He reached out to take a hold of her but she had already drifted to far.  His hand fell on the dead rope.  As he grasped it the memories of the days gone by not alone flooded in they enveloped his mind and heart and for a moment he was happy.  Suddenly a splash of salt water invaded this moment.  He clutched the rope and began to cry.

That was this morning.  His tear ducts were far too dry to cry any longer.  But the emotion was still there.  Just as dense and blinding as the fog that surrounded him.  His body about to give up and surrender just like his heart had.  He was exhausted from hours of yelling, from hours of searching the fog hoping for an answer.  A cold wind began to blow.  Shivering sleep began to overtake him. 

For some reason the young man raised his head and for the first time all day a stream of light broke through the clouds like an arrow.  Just as quickly as it came it was gone but that glimmer alone was enough to revive his dead hopes.

He opened his hears and heard a faint cry.  His heart leapt for joy as he began to pull himself through the waters toward her faint voice.  Using all of his strength he answered back.  His cries were for her to hold on, to not give up, that he was coming.  Every muscle in his body screamed from exhaustion as he drove himself through the fog'¦he would not leave her alone.  No matter the cost, no matter that fight, even if he would lose his own life in the process, he would not let her down.

He could hear her faint voice getting louder, as the fog became deeper, and the water more frigid.  If he did not find her soon all might be lost.  At last her cries stopped, and his mind dreaded the worst.  The water had taken her, he was afraid that she had quit. 

As suddenly as the light came, and was gone, he caught a glimpse of something in the water.  Frantically he swam to it, and found his friend passed out in the cold.  Her tube sinking more than it ever had before.

Without a thought he knew what he had to do.  He abandoned his life preserver, and placer her in it.  He took the cut rope, and wrapped it around her wrists, and tied it to the life preserver, and rested.  Not a rest from exhaustion, or pain, or even death, but a rest from peace.  A peace that only came when he knew that the ones he loved were safe.  As he gripped the life preserver, the young man knew one thing; he would not allow her to cut the rope again.   

The night passed, the fog lifted, and a new dawn began to rise'¦

To be continued again'¦.