𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐒. ᵒᵘᵗᵉʳ ᵇᵃⁿᵏˢ ¹

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 05.

    "What time is it?" My morning voice was groggy and low-toned, as I wiped my eyes and stepped towards her.

    "Charlotte, you're up," Caroline forced a happy smile to her lips, as she turned around to look at me, slightly startled. "It's noon," she widened her eyes, "I guess storms do that to people," she referred to the over-sleeping.

    I didn't hear her. I was looking out the window, at the hurricane damage. I didn't really know what to expect in person, but the scene in front of me was far worse.

    One of the gigantic trees, that used to hold up the hammock, was lying flat on the ground, ripped out from its roots. It's extremely large length reached out all the way past the front part of the house, and over to my bedroom, which I assumed is where the branches had come from. The multicoloured hammock was no where to be seen. I felt a wave of fear spread through my chest, knowing that the tree could have landed right on top of my room.

    Caroline and Daryl's boat had been pushed all the way back into the water, and the rope they'd used to tie it the day before, was long gone. The tree they tied it to, though, was still in place, which was probably the only thing in the front yard that hadn't shifted. Branches of every size, pieces of cardboard, dirty leaves, wooden planks, and stray metal rods lay absolutely everywhere. There was barely an empty patch of green grass.

    The red bicycle wasn't on the porch, where I'd left it last, causing me to think it had been taken away by the wind and possibly crushed by the tree. A hand rose up to cover my mouth, as I then became completely speechless at the sight of everything. Despite every mess created by the storm, the sun still rose and still shined down over the water, making it glimmer with a sparkle.

    "Agatha's a bitch," Caroline spat out, from beside me, sounding like a teenager. She referred to the hurricane.

    I'd never heard her swore, causing me to look over at her. She spoke the cuss word with a weird tone, sounding like she didn't use foul language often.

    I didn't respond to her as I lunged for my shoes, sliding them on quickly. I ripped open the screen door, and jumped off the porch, hopping over all the damage with alarmed eyes pinned on the red bicycle, that floated peacefully in the calm waters right beside the dock. It shimmered in the sunlight. I ran onto the rickety docks, the loose wooden planks echoing beneath the thuds of my steps.

    The handles were hard to grab, but once gripped, the red bike was pulled out of the water. I rose to my feet after crouching down to reach it, and looked forward at the water.

I stopped.

Realizing I'd never been this close to something like it before, I found myself genuinely admiring the way the water shined under the sun. As I stared with a mouth open in awe, a motor-sound caught my ears, approaching, and I didn't know where it was coming from.

    Curiously, I turned back around to see Caroline and Daryl watching me from the porch. It was only when I'd made it back to the porch that I realized they weren't looking at me at all. I followed their shared gaze and saw a blueish-grey motor-boat slowing driving by on the water, at a distance.

    Two manly-figures were on it, both wearing SnapBack hats on their heads. The side of their old boat had writing on it, and I squinted my eyes to be able to read it. In white paint, it the boat was labeled "HMS pogue". I wondered what it could mean as I stared at the two men, who seemed to look a lot like young boys now, one driving the boat and one standing up near the front.

    The one driving their boat turned his head in our direction, his hand rising up. Caroline and Daryl waved to him, and he waved back. I couldn't tell if they knew who it was on the boat, since their faces were no more than faint blurs in the distance, if they were simply being friendly, or if it was a common thing to wave to people passing by.