Family Comes First- ASOUE

Chapter 38: Sailing to the Rescue

*Klaus' POV*

We had just... borrowed the sailboat and we pushed ourselves away from the dock.

"I read a book on sailboats," I said over the sound of the waves crashing and rain falling, "The sail catches the wind, and seeing as there's a hurricane, I think we'll get to Curdled Cave quickly, considering how windy it is."

"I've seen this lever here in naval blueprints," Violet added. "This is the tiller; it controls the rudder, which is below the water, steering the ship. Sunny, sit in back and work the tiller. Duncan, hold the atlas so we can tell where we're going, and I'll try to work the sail. I think if I pull on this rope, I can control the sail..."

"What can I do?" I asked. Duncan stood up.

"You have an extremely important job," he said. "Do you see Isadora?"

I looked over at her. She was curled up into a ball hugging herself and she was looking at the floor of the boat with an emotionless expression, shivering in the cold. Bubba the bear was peeking himself out of her raincoat. "Can you please keep her, you know, more comfortable than she is now? This is really hard on her and she's being so incredibly brave."

I nodded to him and sat down next to Isadora. "Hey..." I said, just loudly enough to sound soft over the rain. She didn't answer. I frowned. "Brunch was tasty, right?" I added, trying to start a conversation. How could I help her if she wouldn't talk to me? I only wanted to help...

"I wonder how that waiter knew your name." I continued, "I think he was lying when he overheard. He got pretty upset about learning Aunt Josephine is dead... Well, she's not dead, but people think she's dead... He must've known her! And if he knew her, then he knew our parents, right? How do you think they all met?"

She looked up and blinked at me. I smiled softly to try to calm her. "It might have something to do with this..." I added, pulling out the picture I grabbed. It had my parents in it so I really wanted to grab it before it was lost. There were some people I didn't recognize though. I showed it to Isadora and pointed to my parents. "Those are my mother and father, and there's Uncle Monty, Aunt Josephine, and her husband." I blinked at it, looking closer. "And that's Larry, our waiter..." I exclaimed, pointing at a man standing next to Aunt Josephine. Isadora smiled at the picture, scooting closer to me.

She pointed to the couple standing next to my parents. "That's my mom and dad," She said. "Look, doesn't that lady look just like me? Look at us! Duncan and Quigley looked a lot like dad too. You look like your dad as well. Your mom's pretty too, I can tell where Violet got her features from."

I smiled from Izzie's chattiness. She started telling me stories about when she was little and her parents and Quigley were still alive. They all seemed so close... Losing my parents was hard enough for me, but I couldn't even imagine where I'd be without Violet or Sunny.

"Sunny, mind the whirlpool coming up!!" Duncan shouted, and the boat turned so quickly that I had to hold onto the side of the boat to keep myself from falling. Isadora hugged herself again when the boat stabilized and I tried to comfort her again.

"Hey, hey," I said, "It's okay. We're all right here. Do you want to talk about any more stories you have?"

"I wanna hear yours." She said. "Tell me some stories..."

"Well, I don't know if I have any particularly interesting stories..." I began. Isadora smiled at me expectantly. I gulped. "But, ahem, I think I have a couple..." I added.

I told her some things about my old friends, and my mother's bats, and the things Violet and Father would make, among other things. She listened happily, sharing her opinions on the topics and I agreed with a lot of them. We were in a conversation about poetry when I finally realized the storm had broken and the waters were calm. I smiled up at the sky, taking off the hood of my raincoat. "Well look at that..." I said. "You made it through Hurricane Herman. I'm so proud of you!"