Abby Carter was a fourteen-year-old girl who grew up and lived in Jonesport, Maine her whole life. She lived her life with only the close comfort of her dad, Martin who every one referred to as Marty and her dog, Searrya. Her dad worked the typical job of a quahog and scallop dragger. Therefore, her dad worked from roughly three a.m. to seven p.m. every day of the week. Leaving Abby to get her self ready for school and prepare her own meals. Due to that fact of her father’s job she often woke up at about two a.m. to the ringing phone from Buddy, who was the captain of the boat her dad worked on. He would call to make sure they were all set to go out within the next hour.
So this day didn’t start out unusual, the call came through and Abby was awakened. Buddy called and said, “Hey there Marty bud, you about ready?”
Marty responded with “Sure am, waiting on you pal.”
They exchanged byes and then hung up. So Abby ran to give a good bye hug to her father and then went back to enjoy a few more minutes of the comfort that came from her plush bed.
She awoke later and did the usual. Slipped on some jeans and pulled over a light blood hoodie. She then went down stairs, made a bowl of frosted flakes for breakfast, and placed the same for Searrya on the floor. They ate in complete silence and then Abby let Searrya outside to go to the bathroom, later letting her back in. After everything was taking care of, she shut the house up and waited for the bus.
Her bus arrived and carried her to the front of Jonesport Beals Middle School. She then went to first period. School for her was often a blur because it seemed so easy, so it was no surprise that the school day went bye within what seemed like minutes. After school she boarded the same bus as in the morning and sat in silence with only the noise of her music blaring, IPod. She tuned out all the chatter around her for the most part. She was not vary sociable but she still had many friends including people like Stacey and Jacob. Her stop was the third stop so her bus ride was not very long. She unloaded from the bus to find as usual her dad was still out on the boat, probably in the Northern Bay by this time of day. So she did most of her morning in reverse, opening up the house and allowing the dog out, then going back later for a snack. Abby then laid on the couch watching her favorite show The Simpson’s. She finished the first ten minutes of the show before she conked out. She slept for nearly three hours, waking at about six thirty. It was about dinner time, so she went to the freezer and pulled out a chicken and brownie frozen dinner and popped it into the microwave. While she waited for it to finish cooking she puled out two cups of dog kibble for the pup. They sat eating on the coach while watching more TV, but this time flipping the channels to Good Luck Charlie. Time ticked past and it was now eight o’clock. She expected her dad home any minute. While she waited she decided to get a head start on her Social Studies homework. So she headed to her room to work. She worked for a while until she finished the assignment and that’s when she looked over at the clock. It was now nearing nine thirty. She was a little worried her dad was not home yet, but figured that they just decided to sell there catch instead of storing it in the floats. She knew the lengthy process of scallop and quahog dragging and figured that’s where he was. So she just got ready for bed and crashed for the night. She tossed and turned a lot that night, probably a combination of worry and discomfort from the squiggly dog she shared a bed with. She slept and awoke around six. Then went down stairs and checked to for any signs of her father, but there was no Marty, and there wasn’t even a note. She even checked the voice mail on the phones but nothing. She decided that her dad was probably just spending the night on the boat and heading out again today for some more work. She thought and knew that no matter where he was he would want her is school, so she went about her schedule as usual just with a bit more worry. She got on the bus and found Jacob one of her friends who happened to be the son of Buddy, the captain of her fathers boat. She sat next to him and asked him the question she was also trying to avoid.
Abby asked, “Hey Jacob, did your father, come home last night?” She feared his response.
He responded with a seemingly calm, “No” and further questioned with “Why did your dad not come home?”
Abby thought that if she told anybody Jacob was the only one she would tell. So she shared, “Well no, he didn’t come home and I’m a little worried, he always comes home or leaves me a message on the answering machine but there was nothing.”
Jacob thought a minute and then replied, “We figured my dad was just out drinking or something. He does that sometimes, but if he went out drinking I’m sure he would have dropped Marty off?”
The bus was now unloading so he said they would catch up again at the bus home and talk about plans. She left it at that and decided she would go about her day and not tell anybody, Jacob did the same.
Today school went bye super slow for Abby, she spent most of it looking at the clock and taping her pencil, luckily no teacher noticed he lack of attention to the class instructions. She got through the day and rushed to the bus, wanting to get home quick to see if her dad had arrived home during the school day. She was also anxious to see if Jacob had learned anything new. Sadly Jacob new nothing new and worst of all when she got home her dad was still not there.
She then decided that she was going to take a walk to the pier to check to see if her father’s boat was back in, but it still wasn’t in. She walked to the end and asked the man in the bait shack who was the Wharf manager if he had seen the boat, Mother’s Pride, come in but he said he had three boats come in that last night and none of them went by that name. She slinked her head down and walked back up the Wharf. She only looked up when she heard the sounds of a car coming, to her surprise it was Jacob and his mom, Nicky. They slowed and stopped next to her, rolling down there windows to talk. Nicky told Abby that she hadn’t herd from either Marty or Buddy, she said she also checked the bar and drinking hot spots and hadn’t found neither. She further explained that she was going to have to contact the state, so Abby was going to have to get a bag of things and bring Searrya with her and go with them to the police department that was two towns over, in the town of Machias Port. So she hopped in and did as she said, after all Nicky was no stranger and her dad would have trusted her, so she decided that it was probably in her best interest to go with them. After all she surely didn’t want to sit home alone, and worry by herself. The drive lasted about twenty minutes, and was fairly quiet everybody slightly worried.
When they got to the department they made a bed for Searrya in the back of the car and went into the building that for Jacob and Abby seemed slightly bigger then they expected and a little on the creepy side. When they went in they sat the kids on a bench in the lobby and took Nicky in to and office down a long hall. They sat twiddling there thumbs in silence for what felt like an hour. After the hour passed Nicky and an Officer came out, he then asked the two kids, Jacob and Abby a few questions. They answered them in shaky voices and then continued to sit in silence just this time with Nicky. They told us that they were working on sending out ocean skimmer planes to hopefully detect the boat, and that they checked the boat navigation number but it came up that the navigation system was out of service range or shut off. It finally sunk in that Marty and Buddy weren’t just out drinking or out late on the boat but indeed where missing. They sat and they sat for a long time before and officer came out again and told them they probably should get going home and come back in the morning and he also said that if they gained any new information or got any promising leads they would give them a call. Nicky also told the officer she would take care and take custody of Abby while the search went on. So they did as told and went home. When they reached home Nicky made up a bed on the couch for Abby and Searrya and sent everyone to bed. No calls came or went that night but no one slept well under the worry. The next day Nicky woke and made chocolate –chip pancakes to brighten the start of the day for Abby and Jacob. The kids awoke by the scented smell of there fresh fluffy cakes dripping in syrup and then slumped about. After Nicky cleaned for a bit, they headed to the department. First they stopped in at Abby’s and Marty’s house to check for any signs of life but when they arrived Marty and Buddy were no ware to be found, the house like a ghost town. So they headed to the police department.
When they got to the police department they were told there was no leads and no discovery’s from the skimmer panes. They also said they were widening the searching zone. So Nicky, Abby, and Jacob sat the day away in the waiting room. They left only to go to the bathroom and to get snacks from the vending machine. By six p.m. Nicky was the only person awake. When the kids awoke again more realization sat in. Abby began to shake and sob, and Jacob seemed slightly teary eyed so they decided to call it a day and go home. That night more family arrived at Nicky’s house but none came for Abby. Abby grew dreary and sad that no one had come for her, she felt alone and really was in need of her father. That night she silently cried herself to sleep. Once she finally got to sleep she and Searrya slept soundly. So soundly she didn’t even here the phone ringing around two a.m. Quickly Nicky answered the ringing phone and tried super hard to control the emotions that poured into her and keep quite. The voice on the other line was from the police department, saying they had skimmed up the boat about five hundred miles off, down near the under side of the Mass. tip. Everyone on board they told were healthy but suffered hypothermia and they were being transported to the Machias Hospital to be treated. He said they should arrive at the Hospital at about five a.m. Nicky thanked the officer and then they exchanged good byes, and proceeded to hand up. After hanging up Nicky contemplated when she would tell the kids. She could wake them now and wait three hours at the hospital until the men arrived, or let them carry on sleeping and wake them when it got closer to the arrival time of Buddy and Marty. She decided to wait, so at four-thirty she woke them up and told them the news. They exchanged tears of happiness and ran for the car. When they arrived the ambulance, carrying the two had just arrived so they were placed in the waiting room for the time being. They waited ten minutes and told they were all set, so Abby ran to her fathers bedside while the others went to Buddy’s. She didn’t mind because she actually preferred to be alone with her father for a little while.
Later they told Abby her father, Marty, seemed to be clear of any sicknesses but had to stay for a while to make sure no sicknesses surfaced or sunk in as a result of raped temperature increases. At this time Abby and Searrya had already climbed in the hospital bed and fallen asleep curled up with there father, finally feeling safe and comforted.
The incident scared Abby but also taught her having friends and being sociable wasn’t so bad after all. So on the bus she began talking and when her dad got home she started to spend more time with him and never failed to say, “I love you.” Fearing that it could be the last time she could have seen her father.
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