Edgar lit the hook on fire and tossed it out into the Bering Sea. The crew cheered as the traditional good luck throw was a success.
"Come on, come on, come on," chanted Jake as he leaned over the rail, "Please let there be crab in this…please!"
Jack shared his anticipation. The first string was always an important one to the crew. It would make or break the moral and as of recently the moral was rather good and Jack did not want that to go away.
Baylee watched from the baiting area. If the pots were good then Sig would order them to be reset and she would have to start doing bait duty, otherwise she would have to go back inside until they moved to another location to drop another string.
"Yeah!" shouted Jake.
Matt, Norman, Jack, Griffin, and Edgar leaned over the rail to take a look at the pot as it came up.
Instantly they all broke out into excited cheers. The pot was packed full of large, clean, King Crab.
"Red gold baby!" exclaimed Jake, "Yeah! Woohoo!"
Edgar laughed as he helped Jake swing the pot around.
Griffin was practically leaping with joy at the sight of the crab. This was his first time seeing the massive creatures up close. It was as thrilling as it was daunting.
After the crew dumped the crab onto the table, Baylee walked over to take a closer look at the crab.
Jack shot her a look.
"I thought Sig said you stay at the bait area?"
Baylee gave Jack an irritated look. She really did not like Edgar's bossy, nagging young wife.
"I'm fine, thanks," she snapped.
Jack's eyes flashed in anger for a brief second but she forced herself to remain calm. Sig would have to deal with this issue on his own, that is of course if he chose to. Jack was rather disappointed in her captain. He just caved in and let Baylee have her way.
After the sorting was done, Baylee came up with the next bait set up and passed it to Griffin.
"Thanks Mom!" he said as he ran over to the pot and scrambled inside.
Baylee nodded and smiled at her son. She was so proud of him!
She was about to return to her station but paused. She glanced up a the wheelhouse and saw that Sig was not paying much attention to the deck at the moment, so she decided to hang around the starboard side of the boat and watch her son hang the bait.
Jack turned around and saw Baylee leaning over the starboard rail. She sighed in exasperation and rolled her eyes. This woman was getting on her nerves.
Jack was just about to open her mouth to warn Baylee that the starboard rail was the most dangerous place on the boat to just mill around when suddenly, a large wave smacked into the starboard bow and traveled down the rail, heading straight for Baylee.
"Look out!" Jack screamed.
The rest of the crew whirled around to see what was going on. They too began to shout and scream in panic as they watched the wave hit Baylee.
The wave swamped the deck with water, causing the crew to stubble and slide across the deck. The pot that had been on the launcher with Griffin still in it flew to the stern of the boat. Griffin was screaming in terror as the pot slammed into the stern railing.
As the wave finally cleared, the crew ran over to Griffin. While they were all pulling Griffin out of the pot, Jack was standing by the sorting table, frozen in shock. Her mouth was open and moving slightly but nothing was coming out.
Edgar glanced over and saw his wife's expression. He instantly knew something was horribly wrong.
"Honey?" he called out to her, "Jack what is it?"
Reality seemed to finally make its way back to Jack. She shook her head and shot Edgar a horrified look.
"Baylee…Baylee, just…she went over…I don't see her…oh my…"
Jack stammered, trying desperately to force her frozen mind to work properly. She grabbed the life-ring and ran to the rail. She looked out over the choppy seas, trying to find Baylee within all the freezing spray.
Edgar alerted the rest of the crew. Griffin was limping heavily and struggling to make it back to the galley, but when he heard the news he turned and forced himself to run over to the rail.
"Mom!" he shouted in fear and desperation.
But Baylee was no where to be seen….
PLEASE REVIEW!!
My apologies for not updating yesterday…I was SUPER busy with college shopping, studying, and the DC marathon! : )
I'm about to start the So Others May Live sequel…I'm thinking its gonna be called: Real Life.
Thanks for all the reviews!!
And for some reason the emails fan fiction sent out didn't have review reply options…there was just one with the review reply option so I apologize for not responding to everyone's review…hopefully it'll be better this time around!!
