The promise

I woke up and saw the ocean and wooden furniture floating around me. It was cold and a strong wind was blowing. I sat up in my bed and my feet plunged into the cold, wet, and salty ocean water. When I did that, I immediately pulled them back on the bed. I was so shocked that I didn't realize where I was and what I was doing there. The last thing I remembered that I was going to sleep, but it was at home, through the dream I heard the shouts of people and then nothing. I thought it was only a dream…

After a moment, I suddenly realized how desperate the situation was, I was in. I began to scream. "HELP!" I shouted, but at that moment I found out that I couldn't hear my voice anymore, because the wind grew louder and stronger.

After about an hour, I realized that no one was looking for me and no one even heard me. I had to reach the land before nightfall, because I could be washed away from the land and also because it was dangerous. I found a plank that looked like a paddle and began to row to where I thought the land was. The sun set and I didn't reach or even see any piece of land. I was really nervous and upset about it, because it could get really dangerous in the ocean in the night.

Suddenly I saw a small boat floating in the horizon. I shouted again, but no voice was coming out of my mouth. Then I remembered that I could whistle. My mum didn't let me do it, because it is rude, but I tried to whistle, though it wasn't really loud. At last, when I was already tired, the boat started to sail towards me. When it was sailing closer, I saw that there were many people on the boat. Two of them were wearing special shirts. These men were rescuers. "Does anyone hear me? " Shouted one of the men. His voice was tired, because of shouting the whole day in cold windy weather. "Is anyone here?" shouted the other man with deeper voice. I think he started shouting not long ago. Then I thought, "Maybe my mum, dad or my sister are on this boat. Maybe…"

The rescuer with deeper voice asked me "Are you here because of the tsunami? Where are you trying to get?" I wanted to reply them, but I was so weak that my voice wouldn't work. I only opened my mouth. Hopefully it wasn't that stupid.

They took me from my bed on the boat where the other survivors were already sitting. I was the youngest among them. There were about ten to fifteen survivors. I knew nobody of them. They started asking me questions, but I was so tired that I wasn't able to think properly. Then I fainted.

When I opened my eyes, I was still on the boat, but not on the floor. Instead I was lying on a bench wrapped in a blanket. I sat up. My head hurt so much that it seemed to me it would break. I thought my right leg was frozen, because I couldn't move it. First I looked to the front of the boat. There was some land to be seen in the distance. It looked grey and lifeless.

Then I looked to the right and I couldn't believe my eyes, my sweet elder sister Eva was sitting beside me and was holding my hand in hers and a baby in another hand. The baby was sleeping. And I hope it had sweet, kind and good dreams full of joy and happiness. "Eva, Sister!" I whispered. She immediately turned her head to me. She smiled at me, but it wasn't a happy smile at all. She had tears in her eyes. Her eyes were red. Her always pretty hair was tangled and wet. Her clothes were also wet. Then she answered, "Thanks God, you're alive! I nearly thought you wouldn't wake up again like …" She felt silent for a moment.

"Like who?" I asked her, because she didn't want to say it by herself. "Em… em... Like… like… daddy…" she whispered at last.

"Daddy… Is he dead? I can't believe it! Are you sure?" I whispered shocked.

After a couple of seconds Eva answered, "Yes, I am and I can't believe that this bad thing happened either!" We didn't speak to each other to the end of our trip on the boat.

Then one of the rescuers shouted: "Get out! Get out of this boat! We have more work to do!" We had already been pulled on to a poor landing. Then we got off. The land on that we stopped was grey and monotonous. Everything there was messed up. And there were nearly no houses there. I thought, "How strange this place is! How many miles did I swim to here?" Suddenly the voice of the first rescuer said, "Now you're all at home!" I stood with wide opened mouth till Eva asked me a question "I'm also surprised about the view of our lovely, green village. Look there." she said and pointed at the top of a small hill. "There had been our house."

I was interested in what had happened last night, so I asked Eva a question. "How did it happen, the tsunami?" And Eva told me this "It happened late at night. I think you remember in the evening a strong, cold north wind blew. It blew from the sea. First we heard the screams outside then we saw a really huge wave was coming towards our house. We understood that a tsunami was coming. We took yours and mother's beds out on the ground. We wanted to swim on them. We decided that on your bed would sit dad and on mother's would sit mother and me. When the wave was already close dad remembered to take something out of the house with him.

The huge wave came before he could get out of the house. It filled the whole house with water and closed all the windows and doors so no water could go out. When it came back we ran to the house and opened the front door. Much water came out and washed your bed a little further to the coast. Then we ran into the house to mum's and dad's bedroom we saw that papa was dead, because he had drowned. He wanted to take documents, because was sure: when we would be found we could go and live anywhere and not afraid to be sent back.

Then we saw that the next wave was coming. This one wasn't so big as the first one, but it took your bed and you sleeping on it into the ocean. In the next ten minutes we got also washed away. We got separated with mum in the flush of water. Then when I woke up, I was holding on a piece of wood. I started to swim. I found a bed and sat on it. Then I found a young woman in the sea she was dead and on the piece of wood she was holding on there was this baby and a message. It was said: "who finds the baby should take care of it." I took the baby to my bed that the rescuers found us. Then we found you. You were the last one who got onto the boat. "

"You wanted to say that you don't know where mum is?" I asked her. "Yes, but I know she must be healthy and alive. I'm sure she will come on the next boat" In her voice there was not even a drop of certainty- only hope. The next boat didn't come until very late at night with only a few alive persons, but there wasn't our mother among them. Then everyone lay in the last hut that was left in the village.

The next morning we asked the rescuers, if they could help us to find our mother. We had been searching her all the morning and all the afternoon. Then late in the evening they said that our mother must be on the continent now. And the last boat that went there would leave in five minutes. We packed our left things and ran to the boat.

In three weeks we reached the continent. There we saw a lot of people standing and crying. Fortunately, we saw our mother! She was standing with her back to us and she was talking to someone and showing something. She was also crying. We came closer. That was she, our mother! "Mum!" shouted we together with Eva! The woman turned around. That was really her that was our mummy! Her face was red and she was crying her clothes were wet. She ran towards us and whispered "Oh, girls... I love you so much ... I won't leave you alone again!" "Promise us!" I begged her. "I promise! I will never leave you alone in my whole life!"

We decided to stay on the continent. Mum adopted the baby girl Eva found in the ocean. We bought a small house near the ocean next to the cliff, because it had a beautiful view. I was a little afraid of this cliff and never went there alone.

After a year she fell in love with a young man. He was always nice to her and our whole family. Mama wanted to tell him about her feelings, that she loved him very much.

Some weeks later he came to us and said that he had to leave us, because he wanted to return to his motherland and to his wife that still lived there. Mother although told him about her feelings. He wasn't upset or sad at all. He said "You thought that I love you and your family? No, no, no, Never. I only wanted to have someone to spend time and talk with! So, I'm not even a bit upset, on the contrary, I'm happy to return home to my wife and children! I have a small daughter! I never liked your children. They are ugly!" He grinned and turned to the door to walk away, but mum stopped him and asked crying "Why have you done this? It's really mean of you!" She was holding on his clothes. "Maybe…" He replied. Trying to hold back from mum. "Now let me go or I'll be late for the ship. And if I am late you'll pay the price of the ticket for me." He looked really strange. He wasn't that kind and friendly man, he was a real 'monster'. He ran out of the door.

When he was going out of the door something fell down. Mum picked it up. That was his ticket for the ship. The ship left late at night. After a while he returned and pulled the ticket out of mum's hand and whispered to himself or to us, who knows? "It's not good to steal things! Yes, it isn't! I trusted you!" Then he turned to the door and rushed out and didn't return any more. We looked where he had disappeared.

Then I noticed that mother had gone. Eva and I searched all over the house and found her in her room packing her clothes into a travel bag. When we came in, the door creaked and mother pushed the bag under the bed and told us to go to bed immediately. It was too early to go to bed, only eight p.m. We lay down, but didn't sleep for a long time. Nearly at midnight Eva said that she would stay awake for the whole night, because she was really nervous about our mother. I was too, but I knew I'd fall asleep in first three minutes staying awake.

I woke up when Eva was still sleeping. I didn't hear the familiar noises from the kitchen. Then I recollected the shouts, screams and crying at night. I thought it was a bad dream. I was terribly scared.

I decided to wake Eva up. Just when I wanted to touch her, she suddenly opened her eyes, as she hadn't been sleeping. Her eyes were red and as she had been crying the whole night or hadn't been sleeping for a week or so. Her eyes were full of sadness. I asked her "What happened this night? Has mum gone with Charley or still sleeping?" "Worse" she answered. "I don't know what can be worse!" "I can't explain it in words! Let's go to the kitchen. There is the answer." She stood up. I was very amazed by seeing that all sister's body was in bruises and scratches. I didn't know what to think. Who did that to her? Mum? Charley (the young man mum loved)? Stranger? Herself? We slowly went to the kitchen.

It was the hardest way to do in all my life. My temples pulsed loudly, the whole head hurt. I didn't know what was written or shown there, but I felt that it was terrible news and I was afraid. I was afraid for my sister, because she was nearly falling down; also I was afraid about our future. We went into the kitchen it was filled with the smell of fresh blood, the whole floor was in the blood spots. And on the table there was a message. It was from our mother. It was written on the table with blood I think and it wasn't clearly written. It said "I'm sorry girls. I know I've broken my promise, but I can't live without him anymore."…

My elder sister whispered: "I did my best to stop her, but I wasn't able to!"