The Letter

Cold, biting winds whipped around Ceri and me as we struggled to pull the small boat towards the frigid dashing waves of the ocean inlet. Snow crunched under our feet and I clutched my jacket closer to me. With the salt water spray stinging our eyes we positioned ourselves in the little dinghy and began rowing on our treacherous journey. Again I double checked to see if I had the letter. That letter was the whole reason for this foolhardy trip.

Had it really only been yesterday that we had realized that the letter must get to our contact many miles away at the opposite end of the inlet, near the sea. Sending it by regular mail service would be much too slow at this point in time and possibly compromisable. Flying it in was out if the question as severe winter storms quickly arose at this time of the year, and well hiking in would take much too long. So here we were rowing amid the icy ocean waves. "Alissa," Ceri called, "do you think perhaps our boat will not be able to withstand all these waves?" fear laced her words. I too was worried. If our small boat capsized there would be no way we would be able to swim to shore without dying of hypothermia, being smashed by the towering waves, or drowning. As the waves continued to roughly toss the dinghy as though it were a toy boat, Ceri and I desperately attempted to make some headway. It seemed our rowing was doing no good. We quickly discussed our dire situation and decided that despite the extreme importance of the letter, we simply could go no further. If we did, we would die and the letter wasn't worth dying for. So maneuvering our craft around we headed back to shore, though we could hardly see it for the waves. With a death grip I clutched my oar, silently willing us to move more quickly towards the safety of solid ground. And then I looked up.

Towering high, high above us was the most massive wave I had ever seen. It seemed to rise 10 stories above us. As our tiny boat began to ride up the wave, I gave up paddling all together to simply hang on for dear life. As we neared the top of that wave, to my horror there was another wave even taller than the last. I watched as the second wave began to break and then crashed down on us in all it's fury. All I could hear were terrified screams. Our boat was smashed as if it were made of fragile glass. The next moment I was fighting for my life, swimming with all my strength back to shore. In between the pounding waves I would catch a glimpse of the shore that never seemed to be any closer. Chilling cold clutched at my very core. Just when I thought I would not make it, I felt hard ground beneath my body. Gasping for breath, Ceri and I dragged our shivering bodies onto the icy sand. Pulling ourselves up we looked at each other and voiced in anxious unison, "Did we buy that boat, or did we rent it?!"


And then I woke up.