I entered the following into a writing contest. Spring break What could be more fun than Spring break in the Florida Keys, a day trip out on a boat with four of her friends, yeah right? A simple three hour tour Tommy had called it. It’d all sounded so simple, She’d agreed to join them even though she’d been the fifth wheel, thinking it would be a good diversion and might break her out of the dark mood she was slipping into, God, what she wouldn’t give to be back on dry land and obsessing about her love life again. They’d drifted for two days now, The Caribbean sun baking them into red cinder crisps. There’d been no sight of land since two hours into the trip, a few minutes before the motor had gone out. The radio didn’t work and they were only a few sips away from being without water. Things can’t get much worse, Jenny thought. She’d spent the time sitting in the bow, trying to save energy and quietly going over her twenty two years of life. Reliving the high points, examining the regrets, trying to figure out what she would have done differently. Her mind drifted to that boy from the other night, not a boy really, a young man. So different from the boys sheknew. Brown haired and blue eyed, with a scar over his left eye. He’d seemed so different, with a quiet confidence, as if he had seen it all and yet somehow found her interesting. She only had five minutes with him before Sissy pulled her away, but she wondered if she would be thinking of those blue eyes forty years from now and what might have been. “I hope I have forty years,” she mumbled to herself. I hope I have forty days, she thought and knew if she ever had a chance like that again, she’d do everything possible to make it happen. Wow, how pathetic was that? She thought, close to death and I’m thinking about some guy I met for five minutes. She looked at her companions, Tommy and Sissy were in the middle of the boat, Sissy looked like a wreck, her fair skin blistering and covered in salty sweat. John and Marla had the back end of the boat, after three years of college, inseparable and in each other’s back pocket; they were going to die not talking to each other. It was only about an hour before sunset which meant another night of fear and dread. Jenny wondered if they’d still be alive at this time tomorrow and who’d die first? The little boat began to rock in the gentle swell. It wasn’t fair, the wind was blowing somewhere else, sending them waves, but no relief from the heat. Bored, frustrated, and getting angrier with every lurch of the boat, Jenny twisted and pulled herself up onto the bow. She shielded her eyes as she scanned the horizon. The sparkling blue water was so tempting, her throat ached and her tongue felt like it’d swollen to the size of a loaf of bread. This was their last chance; she doubted they’d make it through the night. Her eyes swept back and forth, but there was nothing, no hope. Jenny dropped her head onto her hands, and would have cried if she’d been able to. Then looking one last time, a slight movement caught her attention, doubting what she saw, losing it, and then getting it back. A small orange speck, skimming over water, was it…, could it…, Yes! A Coast Guard Helicopter, the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. Standing up in the bow, bracing her knees on the gunnel, she started waving her hands, turning to make sure everyone else had seen it, needing confirmation that it wasn’t a figment of her imagination. The aircraft glided to hover forty feet up and slightly to the side, the thundering downwash raising a stinging mist that scoured her burnt skin. The beautiful machine hung there in the air for a moment and then a door slid back and a crewman stuck his head out. Wearing a helmet and darkened visor, the man looked down and smiled, giving them a quick thumbs up. Reaching out he attached a metal basket to a winch and lowered it to the water. Jenny could see him talking into a mouth piece, obviously giving directions to the pilot as the basket was dragged through the water to the edge of the boat. They decided Sissy should go up first, and the others soon followed, Tommy wanted to be last until Jenny convinced him that Sissy might need him. Finally it was Jenny’s turn. The trip up was thrilling, the sense of relief easily overpowering any trepidation. Finally she was at the doors edge and the crewman grabbed the basket and pulled her into the helicopter’s interior. Jenny watched the crewman slam the door shut as the aircraft tilted and turned for home. Jenny breathed an intense sigh of relief as she watched the crewman throw back his visor. A small wisp of brown hair fell across his forehead, almost hiding the scar above the gorgeous blue eyes. Jenny crumbled when he smiled and said, “I knew I’d get another chance.”