It was a gray windy day as you stood on the shore of Chichagof Island waiting. The rain coming down just enough to dampen your hair. The cold breeze causing you to wrap your arms around yourself. You were shivering but not from the cold it was from your nerves. You had been a mess for a week now. That’s how long your husband Matt and his 3 brothers had been gone. You usually didn’t worry while they were out on a hauling job but this time was different. From the moment Matt had told you about the job you had a sick feeling deep in your stomach. A worry that for some reason just wouldn’t go away. You told Matt you didn’t think they should go but he told you not to worry. But no matter how many times he hugged you and promised everything would be OK you couldn’t shake the horrible feeling. As they left that snowy day one week earlier you held Matt as tight as you could. You had lost count of the I love you’s and kisses and reluctantly you watched as they sailed away.
The days had gone by so slow you didn’t know if you would make it. You tried to keep yourself busy but it seemed nothing could distract you long enough to ease your mind. Routine chores only gave you more time to imagine the worst case scenarios and would often end in you wiping away tears. The endless nights were even worse. Holding onto his shirt as you tried to shut your mind off long enough to sleep was pointless.
They were only suppose to be gone for 5 days and when that day came and went with no sign of them your heart sank. The rest of the family had told you not to worry that maybe the weather had slowed them down. But you knew in your heart something was wrong. You had no way of contacting them so all you could do was sit and worry. When they still didn’t come home on the sixth day you had cried yourself to sleep.
Now here it was seven long days since you had said goodbye. That morning at breakfast you could see the concern starting to appear on the rest of the families faces. You had excused yourself and snuck away in the gloomy weather to the beach to be by yourself. Every minute that ticked by your heart broke a little more. You turned to start walking back to your cabin when something caught your eye. As you turn to look you can see a boat in the distance. As it got closer you could tell it wasn’t the familiar boat you had been waiting to see. Your heart sank as you realized it could only be someone coming to deliver horrible news.
You were blinded by the tears filling your eyes but you could hear the sound of a skiff coming towards shore. As you wiped your eyes you couldn’t believe what you saw. Two unfamiliar men shaking hands with the 4 brothers you had been waiting all these days to see. You could hear them saying thank you and good luck and the unfamiliar skiff pulled back out towards the ocean. As they started walking towards you you could see the tired looks on their faces. Their clothes looked ripped and disheveled. You ran as fast as you could and jumped into Matt’s arms hugging him as tight as you could and kissing him over and over. Matt kissed you back and whispered in your ear “baby have I got a story to tell you”.
