how long

I watch the water slowly creep up around me, I move to what I believe to be a safer place on the boat. I try to convince myself that situations can be changed for the better, that perseverance can overcome many seemingly insurmountable obstacles. I pass the Captain. The Captain doesn’t say the boat is sinking, that all we have done is for not, to go and try to save ourselves. The Captain designates who gets thrown overboard to temporarily lighten the ship.

I have seen many thrown overboard. Some went willingly, some went with sad faces and some fear as to what was to become of them. I wonder how long can they last in that cold water?

To quote Robert Louis Stevenson’s Long John Silver; “Them that dies will be the lucky ones.” I fought against that manner of thinking. Do what you can to survive, to make it work.  Now perhaps, looking around at the sinking, crumbling vessel that was once a mighty ship…. I wonder how long before the Captain points and signals that I am to be sent overboard.