Raft

It was crowded in the raft. It was a small raft but the man had said it would carry us to Greece. Half way across, it began listing.

There were too many of us on the raft. Many of us sat on the edge. Many families were hunched in the middle where it sagged. The water was rough and many of us threw up.

There were women with babies, men with wives, families with bundles. The sea was rough. Sometimes the wave lifted us high and dashed us back down and a cry would rise from the men and women. Sometimes the raft would spin and there was nothing we could do but pray, or howl.

There were two life jackets. When the raft got too full and the sea got too rough we would see that someone had fallen off. We would try to get hold of them and give them a life jacket.

We were half way across the diamond-blue sea when someone cried:

‘The water is above our ankles!’

Then we saw that the raft was leaking. We didn’t have anything to bale the water out. Someone was using a small Evian bottle to bale out the water. The water kept rising.

Babies were crying. Women were wailing. The men were shouting. Overhead white birds were keening.

The waves were rough. We were crowded in the raft and the raft was leaking. Soon the water was at our knees and we were sliding into the sea.

We were sat on the edge leaning back. Many of us were sick because we could not swim. The land was still far away. There was no horizon and no land to be seen. A yacht sailed by on the edge of the blue sea.

The raft was sinking. The women were wailing. We were crowded in water rising up to our waists. There were men in the water clinging to the raft and wearing life jackets. There was no space on the raft. The women and children were in the sea, and the sea was in the raft.

We had run out of prayers. Our feet were no longer in the raft but in the sea.

Then there was a whirling sucking sound.