Original fiction · Chapter 2 of 2
One More Crossing
Daniel was seven. His mother had brought him aboard because the road on their side of the river had flooded, and she couldn't leave him home while she worked. When the ferry stopped moving, the adults waited a long time before anybody said it had got stuck.
Dad hadn't been a member of the crew. He was a mechanic coming home with a tin of bolts in his coat. He'd brought my life jacket because the buckle was sticking and he meant to show it to someone at the dock. When the crew started moving people onto a smaller boat, he found Daniel shivering near the rail and put the jacket on him.
“He said his daughter would be cross about the buckle,” Daniel told me. “He made a big production of fastening it. It gave me something to watch.”
A crew member took the boy to shore first. Dad went back for his mother, then stayed on the dock with both of them until the rescue workers got a heater running in the ticket office. Daniel said his mother had written a note to thank Dad, but she'd never found his address. She kept the jacket at home. When Daniel started working on the ferry, she made him bring it back.
I remembered Dad coming into my room after I turned my lamp off. He sat on the end of the bed and asked if I wanted to tell him about the concert. I said no. He told me he'd be in the kitchen if I changed my mind. I could hear him opening the cutlery drawer downstairs. I thought he was making himself supper.
“Did he ever find another jacket for you?” Daniel asked.
I said yes. The new one was orange and it had a good buckle. Dad brought it home the next Saturday in a paper bag. I made him keep the bag so I could put my old mittens in it.
The ferry reached the far dock. Daniel asked whether I'd like the life jacket back. I held it in my lap until everyone had got off.
Then I asked if he had time for another crossing. He said he'd be there until the crew tied up the boat. I moved over on the bench. The river was wide and gray, and there was still enough room to sit beside me.
