Thankful (Completed)

Chapter 1- Last days at sea

Emily Johnston was crying. Not loud, not even a small sound escaped her. Her eyes were what gave it away. Red, bloodshot and painfully hurt as she carefully made her way to her familie's section of the ship. She glanced down at the cup of water in her hand. Not the cleanest she had seen but it was water and it would quench the thirst.

As she knelt beside her mother, she removed the damp cloth that lay over her mother's forehead, carefully lifted her head and brought the cup to her dry and cracked lips. A thin trickle ran down her mother's face.

"Thank you my dear." Emily's mother struggled to speak after the the cup was empty.

"You feel better, don't you?" Emily asked as she turned the cloth over unto a cooler side and gently placed it over the fevered forehead.

"Just seeing your smile makes this dark ship look brighter." She smiled and a tear escaped her eye.

Emily bit her lip and forced a smile. She had grown accustomed to these words. At first they had made her hopeful, as if just a smile a day could make her mother well again. Now those words scared her. Now she realized that her mother was cleverly avoiding answering the question. So Emily had taken to answering it for herself.

"No. I don't feel better."

Emily took her mother's cold hand and held onto it fimly. She watched as her mother closed her eyes and drifted off into another fevered sleep.

'If we had only stayed in England.'

Emily often regretted this doomed voyage. From the first day aboard her younger brother had gotten a horrible cut from running on deck. The wood that splintered his leg had become infected.

The first burial at sea had made everyone realize that leaving England had not made them free. An ignorant people became a slave to sorrow and sickness.

Shortly after, diseased rats were found hidden at the bottom of an apple barrel and so answered the cause of the strange sickness that had spread like wildfire. Though the rat was killed and the apples tossed overboard, it could not replace the dead nor stop the plague.

Now Emily's mother had caught a horrible illness that paled her face and weakened her body. The ship's doctor was no help as he had also caught a late case of the poisoned apples.

'I've lost my brother to a splinter, my father to an apple-'

Her mother and father had always said that prayer brings peace and healing. She used to belive it was wasteful but would never dare tell her parents. Her point was proven after her brother had died. Prayer after prayer her mother and father had sent up, to no avail.

She remembered looking at them curiously after they prayed long and earnestly one particular time. Her mother had looked Emily in the eye and said,

"God is faithful."

Emily now turned her face to the side of the ship and tightly closed her eyes, still holding firmly to her mother's hand.

"Dear Lord, I can not bear to lose my mother. Please spare her, do not leave me alone in this strange place. I beg your mercy on what is left off my family."

There. She had finally prayed though she felt none different, if anything the ship looked more gloomly. 

A/N
so.. what are your thoughts? I am still working on my other works but I feel bad about not posting something regularly so while I continue my other works in the background I would like to post this for you guys to read. Hope you enjoy it!!