"Don't be late, I mean it!" This was the last thing I heard my dad say as my mom and I left our white Pontiac Montana. We planned on browsing in some summer beach shops which are next to the Ocracoke ferry parking lot that our van was stationed in. I was worried about what would happen if we were late getting back to the van and was hesitant to go. However, I knew that this would be my only chance to visit these shops, so I decided to go.

As we were leaving the car, I saw my dad's dark brown eyes gazing at the ferry that was to be
departing in thirty minutes.

The Kite Shop (my favorite shop) was just as I had left it the year before. My mom gave me an excited look, that mirrored my expression. I saw colorful kites lined up on the ceiling and walls. Soft elevator music played in the background, and I inhaled that new merchandise smell. The perfect start to the perfect vacation... Or so I thought.

We had only been in the store for ten minutes when I started to worry. "We should go check on Dad, the ferry might be boarding soon," I said, nervously glancing towards the door.

"The ferry doesn't even board for another twenty minutes, but if you're worried, we can go
check," my mom replied.

I hurried ahead down the wooden sidewalk toward the parking lot. When we got there, the lot was emptied of it's cars and people. I could see a ferry pulling away from the dock. The wind blew a Food Lion bag across the the parking lot, while I cast nervous glances all around, my mouth hanging open in disbelief. There was an army of screeching, scrapping, and flapping seagulls where our van should have been. The blood drained from my face, and the palms of my hands got clammy.

"What? He LEFT us?"


"Chill, Savannah," mom snapped. "He might have just pulled into the other parking lot. Let's
go check." The way that my mom rushed her words, and took on an extra peppy tone, told me
that she was just as nervous as I was. I heard the distant rumble of a far-off ferry as we
scrambled to the parking lot next to the one in which our van was originally parked. This one
was deserted as well.

"Ok, so we have no phone, no money, and no car," I summed up our situation, swallowing
hard. It just now hit me what big trouble we were in. I licked m parched, dry lips, tasting the salty breeze that blew off the water into my blanched face.

"We will be fine honey," my Mom said tensely. "I'll go find a ferry worker." When my mom
found an attendant, he radioed the ferry that had just departed, and confirmed that there was
indeed a white Pontiac Montana on board. This was simply peachy.


To my great relief, the attendant said we could just board the next ferry as foot passengers.


"Well, we can still have a nice ride," my mom said. We made our way to the front of the boat
as we listened to it's beast-like rumblings, and felt the vibrations of the motor under our feet.


My mom and I agreed to go to the top lookout to sit, since we didn't have a car to sit in.

From up here we could see the whole Pamlico sound stretched before us. As we entered the

room I noticed an old, musty smell, but ignored it. It was freezing in there, and my legs stuck to the red, leather seats.

An older man with an ice cream cone joined us in the lookout and started to talk to my mom
between his noisy licks. I listened to their rather boring conversation, while my nose
gradually got stuffed up. Next my eyes got itchy, and when it started getting hard to breath, I knew my allergies were kicking in. I laid down on the sticky, leather seat, and placed my head in my moms lap. I wasn't cold anymore, but hot as an oven, and my breathing became even more restricted. Ok, let's sum my life up; my sister, brother, and dad have abandoned me, I'm going to die from allergies, and my mom won't even look at me, but continues to talk to the Ice Cream Man.


After what seemed like centuries, my mom finally noticed what a horrible state I was in and
said goodbye to the Ice Cream Man. Mom took me to the bathroom and we basically swiped all
of the toilet paper, because there were no tissues to get my allergies under control.

As the giant ferry crawled nearer to the dock, my mom and I cooked up a plan. We waited

until all of the cars drove off of the ferry, then walked off ourselves. By this time, all of the ferry

attendants had heard of the "Brave Man Who Left His Wife Behind," and were gathered at the

back of the boat, ready to watch the show. A show was exactly what we intended to give them.

My dad, with a frightened look on his face, was already walking toward us, and we met him head

on. My mom and I stormed past him, ignoring his desperate attempts to explain himself. We

went straight to the van's trunk, grabbed our bags, and flung them onto the pavement.

"We're walking!" hissed my mom, giving me a sly grin. I looked up to see the ferry
attendants gaping at us, and tried to hide my smirk. My mom continued rooting around in her
gigantic vacation bag, trying to find my allergy medicine, while my dad pleaded with her to
believe that he didn't mean to leave her.

Eventually, my mom and I had to give up our act, and tell my dad that we were just messing
around with him. It turns out that the ferry attendants told my dad to board the ferry soon after my mom and I had left to go look in the shops. My dad knew the ferry wasn't leaving for thirty minutes, so he boarded. What he didn't know was that the ferry wasn't running by the schedule because they were busy, so as soon as it was loaded, it pulled out. To this day, my mom and I still tease my dad about leaving us behind on Hatteras Island.

When unexpected things happen, don't lose hope. Something good might come from the
disastrous turn of events. Who knows, there might even be a great story to tell someday.