Missed Connections Read Online Free Page A

ferry, accompanied by a horrifying crunching sound. Paul looked at Connor, his eyes wide with fear. "What was that? " he asked.
    "I don't know, but it didn't sound good or feel good."
    The ferry's horn started blowing Ahh-ooh. Ahh-ooh. Ahh-ooh. Ahh-ooh. Then a metallic voice announced over the loudspeaker system, "All passengers proceed quickly to the aft deck and put on life preservers. The rear of the ship. Now!"
    The boat was starting to tilt. Was the ferry going to go down?
    "Let's go," Paul said urgently, taking Connor by the hand and pulling him up from his seat. Connor still had one pizza dog uneaten in front of him. He pulled the aluminum foil wrapping around it, pinched the aluminum to seal it, and thrust it into his pocket. He could hardly believe the ferry was sinking. When things had settled back down, he would take the pizza dog out of his pocket and eat it. There was no sense in wasting good food. Besides, he was still hungry.
    It seemed the boat was sinking. The passengers were crowding the aft deck urgently reaching for the lifejackets that the crew members were handing out, and in fact some of the people had already jumped overboard. The ship's list to one side was getting more pronounced, and Connor's heart rate speeded up considerably as he contemplated the prospect of jumping off the ferry and into the fog-shrouded waters that surrounded it.
    Were they anywhere near land? He couldn't tell. The fog was so thick that visibility was near zero. Surely they were nowhere near the mainland yet, but Ogumconquit Bay was studded with numerous smaller islands besides the larger one he'd just been vacationing on.
    There was much jostling and shoving in the throng of people crowding toward the six crew members who were handing out life jackets. Understandably, everyone wanted to be sure they got a life jacket before the boat went down—or possibly the supply ran out. People jostled Connor, trying to wedge in ahead of him, and he fought to maintain his position. He was not going to lose out on getting a life jacket if by any chance the supply was short, or if the boat went down quickly. It seemed to be listing more and more pronouncedly, and Connor's heart raced.
     Paul kept peering around, and Connor was sure he was looking for Patrick, but it seemed he didn't see him among the crowd. Connor didn't look around. To begin with, he still didn't know what Patrick looked like, and besides, he was focused single-mindedly on getting to the front of the crowd and not letting other passengers usurp his place in the group as it moved toward the life jackets.
    At length Connor and Paul found themselves at the front of the surging throng, and each quickly secured a life jacket for himself and put it on. The crew members were urging the passengers to jump now, jump clear of the boat and swim away, before the ferry went down. Connor hesitated for a moment, staring toward the fog-obscured waters, wondering how they might be rescued, and remembering how cold the bay's waters were. The boat lurched, and now the deck was at even more of an angle. Connor and Paul took each other's hand and, with one last look at each other, leaped overboard, swimming out into the fog and the unknown.
    They had to let go of each other's hand in order to swim, but they kept up a conversation in order to know where each other was. Otherwise it would have been too easy to lose each other in the fog. They swam strongly, quickly, urgently away, so they wouldn't be pulled under when it finally went down. When they were a safe distance from the sinking ferry, they agreed to tread water rather than continue to swim pointlessly, not knowing in which direction to head. "When the fog lifts, we'll see if we're near any land," Connor suggested, and Paul agreed that was a reasonable plan of action.
    "I wonder if I'll ever see my home again," Paul mused.
    "Don't talk like that. We'll get rescued," Connor answered with more conviction in his voice than he truly felt.