Emerson and Spencer

chapter six

"Well, we were sleeping, and something, probably a whale, came and rammed the boat- no damages, we checked- and then it pretty much capsized. We tried to get it upright, but it wouldn't work. So we waited about 10 minutes, and people began to wake up, and they helped us pull the boat up again. So, yeah. Capsize in a nutshell."

Trev frowned. "Okay, that seems legitimate. Now what was lost? Anything that wasn't tied down, I suppose."

As soon as Emerson heard this, she knew it was true. The contents of her bag, some easily replaceable, like her clothes, but others irreplaceable; her notebooks and sketches. Everything was now sitting at the bottom of the deep blue. This loss didn’t quite register until she thought it about it for a while, when she realized; she didn’t lose everything. She saved her camera. Her photos were safe, and as far as Emerson was concerned, they were everything. Everything except… Well, Spencer, and he made it.

"I lost a couple things, but it's ok. I can borrow stuff," said Emerson.

"That's the spirit. Now shoo, we're setting sail in 10." Said Trev, dismissing them.

They returned to their boat, where Emerson saw none of her things. She hadn’t expected to, yet somehow, now she had confirmed it, seen it with her own eyes, the loss felt real.

"You lost everything, didn't you?" Spencer said, watching her closely.

Emerson shook her head. She walked slowly towards him.

"Nah. All my stuff, but my camera. And I didn't lose you."

“Good thing you saved your camera.” He said.

She pressed herself against his body, warm and secure, so unlike the sea that surrounded her. She kissed him softly.

“I could live without my camera.” Emerson whispered.

She dressed herself in her favourite shorts (she had been wearing them before the capsize) and one of Spencer's shirts, glad to be rid of the seawater- soaked clothes she had worn at the capsize. It was incredible to imaging that only hours before, they had been sleeping, relaxed.

 Word about the capsize spread fast.

Everyone seemed to want to know everything about what had actually happened, so people were pestering Emerson left right and center. No one realized, nor cared, that she was in shock and just wanted to be left alone with Spencer. Pressed against him, with the world locked away. He was the only one who understood the aftermath of something like your home, the only place you felt truly safe, falling apart and almost killing you before your very eyes. Only he and Emerson had been through that.