A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

- Grace Murray Hopper

„You've heard about the sailing boats of the Leviathan school“, Mr Tuniak said. „At first, there was only one and it was mostly used to ferry food and other things from close harbours to the island.“

“Couldn't your mothers do this with their time machine?”, I asked.

“They do, whenever they are on Leviathan”, Mr Tuniak said. “But they aren't there all the time. There is also a tradition connected with the boats. During the holidays all the children that can't leave Leviathan – because they don't have any other homes for example – take the boats and go on a sailing trip.”

“There was one when we went to the island, wasn't there?”, I remembered.

Mr Tuniak nodded in agreement. “I was part of the first sailing trip they ever did, but it very nearly was the last one as well. It was pretty much a complete catastrophe, starting with the planning... what little there was of it.”

“Then we'll sail to the south. I still can't see where the problem is”, said Estevan.

“The current. It's too strong for that”, Louis countered. “If you had real sailors for a crew, that wouldn't be a problem, I agree. But we two are the only ones who have any experience in sailing. And we both know that two people are not sufficient to sail the boat the way you want to.”

“What's going on?”, Miriam wanted to know. Passing in front of the office, she had heard part of the conversation and had become curious.

“Estevan promised the children to take them on a sailing trip”, Louis said. “Without thinking it through first.”

“They are children, we can't keep them on a small island forever”, Estevan said. “They want to see the world and they should.”

“Where's the problem?”, Miriam asked. “What's the problem with a little trip?”

“The Cold War”, Louis answered. “It's good to know that it will end peacefully, but in the grand scheme of things: What's one little sailing boat that gets torpedoed by accident? History wouldn't notice it. It's not safe.”

Miriam frowned. “That's true”, she agreed, deep in thought. But then a smile spread across her face. “Well... we can always go somewhen else, can't we?”

“I don't know why they decided to go to the past for the trip and not to the future”, Mr Tuniak said. “But in the end they went to the end of the nineteenth century.”

“Who went?”, I asked.

“Well, Louis and Estevan, as the grown-ups who were responsible for us teenagers, then Alice, Sarina, Mowgli, Farid and me”, Mr Tuniak recounted. “There were three other children as well, but I never really got to know them that well. They only stayed on Leviathan for a few months.”

The teenagers were sitting on deck and basked in the sun. The ocean was quiet and because there was no wind, they hadn't spread any sail.

“I've never had a sun burn”, Alice laughed as she watched the other teenagers putting on sun tan lotion.

“At least it doesn't take us an hour to get dry after swimming”, Mowgli returned. He hated the lotion and was convinced that his naturally dark skin would offer enough protection against the harmful rays from the sun. “What's for dinner tonight? Not fish again, I hope.”

“We are in the middle of the ocean, what do you expect?”, Alexander asked.

“I'm a wolf, not a bear”, Mowgli said.

“Uh, oh”, Sarina interrupted the banter and looked out to the horizon.

“What is it?”, Alice asked.

“I think the fish object to our eating them too”, she said. “Look over there!” She pointed with her hand out to the sea. The other teenagers went and stood next to her to see what she had discovered. It took them a few minutes, before they saw it: A dark mass, like a cloud, moving rapidly over the surface of the ocean. Getting closer and closer to the boat.

“What is that?”, Alexander asked.

“Flying Fish!”, Sarina cried. “Those are Flying Fish!” She was right, of course, but that didn't change the fact that the animals were still heading right towards the boat. “We should go down.”

Although not strictly necessary, they ran as fast as they could and closed all the hatches behind them. Before Estevan, Louis or any of the other teenagers could ask them what had happened, they heard the first fish hitting the deck with a loud thump.

“It's their revenge”, Mowgli said in a spooky voice, unable to hide a grin.

The rain of fish only lasted a short time. When it was over and everyone returned on deck, they saw dozens of fish lying around. The swarm had passed the boat without really noticing it and was continuing on its way.

Sarina took one of the dead fish and held it towards Mowgli. “I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid we are going to have fish tonight.”

“We were sailing for three weeks without any troubles”, Mr Tuniak said. “There were a few problems, of course, but that's only to be expected for a first trip. But then, when we were near the coast of France, we got hit by a storm.”

“Where's the sun?”, Alexander asked. Sarina was standing next to him and was holding a sun stone in her hand. Clouds covered the whole sky, but with the stone the teenagers were trying to find the position of the sun the same way Vikings had done it a long time ago. At the other end of the boat Alice and Mowgli were trying to achieve the exact same thing.

“Somewhere up there”, Sarina said.

“You are not concentrating.”

“No”, Sarina admitted. “But will you look at the clouds over there? You see, how big and dark they are? That's going to be a gigantic storm. I hope our boat can stand it.”

“Sarina had had one of her premonitions and it was one, where she got it absolutely right”, Mr Tuniak said. “We sailed directly into a thunder storm, the biggest thunder storm I had ever experienced. The boat got tossed around as if it was only a leaf and we all got bruises and cuts and other small injuries.” I noticed by the way his voice changed when he described it, that the events of that day had burned themselves inextinguishable into his memory. “It got so bad, that the mast threatened to break away... or something like that. Anyway, Estevan and Louis had to go outside and after a few minutes, Sarina, Mowgli and I went after them to help. We managed to save the boat, but even though we were secured with ropes, a huge wave flushed us three over board.” He breathed heavily, as if he was reliving that day again.

They swam. What else could they do? They knew that they would never make it back to the boat, which had become hidden in the rain. They couldn't see it any more. But they knew that they had tried to reach the coast before the storm broke and that they had gotten very close to it. Mowgli, whose sense of direction had been perfected in the jungles of India, took the lead and the other two followed him. Time and again waves pushed them under the surface and they had to hold their breaths and try not to lose one another. Their eyes and lungs burned, but they had to ignore all pain and concentrate on swimming. Only later would they realise how close they had come to drowning.

They managed to reach the beach and crawl to relative safety. They found a few trees which offered at least some protection against the storm and the rain. They were wet, hurt and miserable, but they had survived.

It was evening when the storm abated. They looked out to the sea, but they couldn't see the sailing boat and there was no way to make contact with it. They had to find other people first.

Fortunately, they saw a little village, not far from the beach. There were no lights in the windows of the houses, which themselves looked like a dark mass in the beginning night.

“A bit like a cemetery”, Alexander said. He was so cold, his whole body was shaking.

“I thought electricity had already been invented”, Mowgli said. He was difficult to understand, because his teeth were chattering.

They hesitated a moment, if they should really go to the village. What would the people there say if they saw Sarina and her three eyes? But they didn't really have much of a choice and they were hungry. They went to the village, Sarina a bit behind the other two, hiding behind them and pulling her hair over her face.

Mowgli and Alexander knocked on several doors, but nobody responded. They didn't even see or hear anyone in the buildings.

“Ok, that's enough”, Mowgli finally said and with brute force knocked a door open.

The three entered the house. The quiet, quiet house.

“Hello? Anybody there?”, Sarina called and Alexander repeated the question in his best French – which wasn't very good. No response.

They went to the kitchen and looked for food. They found dried meat and ate a bit, just enough to stop the worst of their hunger.

“We should find some dry clothes”, Sarina suggested. She had already taken a cap she had discovered in the kitchen and put it on, pulling it over her brow.

“Why do we need clothes?”, Mowgli asked.

“Because we are not in India and it's winter here”, Alexander said and went up to the first floor. He found the sleeping room there, but when he opened the door he stopped. On the bed, mostly hidden under several blankets and sheets, a family was lying. Two children and their two parents. Alexander could only see their motionless faces.

Sarina and Mowgli, who had followed him, stopped right behind him. “Are they dead?”, Mowgli asked. He couldn't see any respiratory movements but that could have been due to the thick blankets.

Together they went slowly and silently to the bed. Alexander bend forward, extended his hand to check for breath. He was shaking from the cold and from fear.

“Let them sleep”, a voice suddenly said. The three children turned around and saw Miriam standing in the door. “They are hibernating.” She gestured to them, that it was time to go.

“How could your mothers find you that quickly?”, I asked.

“They didn't. It took them several days”, Mr Tuniak explained. “But in the end they found the door Mowgli had knocked in and suspected that it had been one of us. So they went back to the past and arrived there just a few moments after we did. Still... all of us had a terrible cold after this adventure and we were very lucky that we didn't get pneumonia.”

“I'm honestly surprised that there any other sailing trips after this one”, I said.

“A few years passed before they tried it again”, Mr Tuniak said. “And then they prepared for it more carefully and thoroughly. They checked the weather in advance, for instance. And there were no more disasters, after that first one. But as dangerous as it was, the trip had changed something within us. We had left Leviathan and although it had nearly killed us, it hadn't. We were convinced that nothing could really hurt us. It was the first time any of us seriously considered leaving the island. You could say that in a way we had already taken the first step.”

NEXT WEEK:

Omnia mutantur. Nihil interit.