GOD of a man

“Patience is the effort which bears the fruit of success!”

Chapter Twenty Eight: What GOD wants, survives!
Dated: February 2427

Achievements are seldom had just by the sheer force of motivated actions. Irrespective of how intelligent and intense one works, if the efforts are not backed by patience to wait for the results without letting go on efforts, success can never be achieved in any endeavour. When you are patient you wait for your efforts to bear fruits. When your efforts are being negated by unforeseen obstacles, if you are patient you will reformulate your strategies and work around the obstacles or destroy them. But as long as you have patience, you will get what you want. GOD may test you by putting you in situations that seem impossible to get out of, but if you are patient enough you will find the door of opportunity that HE has hidden among the obstacles for you to find it and escape with more experience and learning. What GOD wants, survives, irrespective of what anyone may try to destroy it because no one is bigger than HIS wishes.

The original team that left Hatsu Saisho was able to make it across the seas inspite of violent storms and hardships including starvation. GOD had left a door open for them, the door of hope. They ran low on fuel because GOD wanted them to go the full distance and not return midway as Robin wanted to. GOD wanted them to find a better home. If Robin, Daniel and Andy were able to make it back it was again GOD’s wish to help them return with more people. They could have ditched the wood at sea but that was their door of opportunity that GOD had left for them. Now Robin is about to do what he believes is a master stroke and cannot be beaten. The question is, “What does the MASTER think about it?”

“What are you doing?” Daniel was shocked when he saw Robin untying the rope that connected his wife’s raft with their boat.

“Why do you think I insisted on them boarding the last raft in the line?” Robin spoke in a hushed voice and with an evil grin on his face.

“But, they will die?” Daniel stammered for words.

“Do you want a new wife, the stunning Natalie or what?” Robin asked a question that killed all the “buts” in Daniel’s speech. Robin left him alone on the deck, standing as if in a daze, straining his eyes in the dark moonless night watching the raft carrying his and Robin’s wives and kids, another couple and a mate, slowly lag behind the others who were being actively added by the pull of the boat in their advancement. How long he stood there is hard to say but it might have felt like just another moment to him for he didn’t seem to notice the time.

The sun rose up for another day like any other day, but it was greeted by an agonising wail. Rosalyn, Robin’s wife was the first one to notice they have been left behind.

“What happened?” Lisa Garner, Daniel’s wife woke up with a shock along with others. But Rosalyn fainted out of shock and panic, her finger barely managed to point forward. Lisa was no better adapt at braving the shock. She freaked out as well and so did the last lady onboard, Alexia Robert.

“What happened?” Rajon Robert, Alexia’s husband asked everyone as he woke up rubbing his eyes.

“We are lost! We’ve floated adrift from our group! You fell asleep on your shift,” Omar Farooq a young man from Hatsu Saisho who was onboard with them replied.

“What?” Rajon was on his feet in no time as he looked ahead and around but failed to see a sign of anyone else on the sea as far as his eyes could see. Daniel’s clone and Kid Jaden, and Rosalyn’s clone and kid Suzie, the two kids on board sensed the tension and panic on the faces of the adults and began to cry incessantly adding to the chaos and confusion.

“What do we do now?” Alexia the only lady still conscious asked, her voice trembling with fear and panic writ large on her face.

“Lets’ not panic! Lets’ not panic!” Rajon replied as he panicked.

“Hold yourself together!” Omar said trying hard to fight his own demons. He grabbed a bit of water in his hands and sprinkled it on the faces of the two fainted ladies. They woke up and added to the prevalent panic. Their raft was rocking because of their uncoordinated movements out of fear, and that made them panic even more.

Meanwhile, another set of cries and panic matched this turmoil at sea, many nautical miles away. The news that the craft carrying President’s family has vanished, how long would have it taken to spread between ten sailing entities, a boat and nine rafts.

“No!” Robin if anything was good at acting. He screamed at the top of his voice and ran towards the rear of the deck as if to see for himself his wife and child are lost. “No!” he screamed hoarse again. Daniel was a bit slow in getting the clue but he too joined in as the two men wailed as loud as they could. For Robin it was easy but it took a while for Daniel to shed a few crocodile tears.

“I want my wife and my kid back! Turn the boats around! We need to find them!” Robin acted uncontrollable as he grabbed the fence and tried to climb over it as if he is going to jump in the sea.

“What are you doing? Have you gone mad? You’ll kill yourself,” Larry who was supposed to go to bed after finishing his night shift grabbed Robin with all his strength as Andy assisted him.

“I want to kill myself. I can’t live without my wife,” Daniel took the hint and tried to jump of as well. It only took Shiva to hold him as he didn’t resist much.

“Hold yourself Andy!” Shiva exclaimed.

“Turn the boat around! I don’t care if we spend all our fuel searching them, but I want my wife and kid back,” Robin exclaimed collapsing on to his knees, crying and beating his chest.

“Have you gone crazy? Such an action will put everyone’s life at risk,” Larry replied, “Who knows where and how far their raft has drifted. Even a degree of change in wind’s direction could mean nautical miles of distance. We might end up looking for them in all directions. We will run out of fuel, possibly loose our course and direction and then we all will be stuck at sea.”

“I don’t know! I don’t care! My wife! My kid!” Robin knew he was on right track so continued with his charade.

“I want my wife back! My kid!” Daniel helped him to his best.

“Look, we can understand what you two are going through right now, but perhaps it is the kind of sacrifice humanity needs from you. It might be your greatest personal loss but being the President of Hatsu Saisho, you need to lead by example,” Larry tried to calm Robin down.

“I am not the President! I want my wife and kid!” Daniel carried on.

“Daniel, you are a strong man. You need to set an example for the rest,” Shiva tried to pacify them.

“I don’t know! I don’t want to live,” Robin exclaimed as Kina moved over to console him. He grabbed Kina’s hand in his hand and holding his face on to it, he supported himself by her side, “Kina, she was your sister. Please help me!”

Kina broke down as well and knelt besides him and embraced him, “Hold yourself! Please hold yourself!”

Daniel saw it and looked around trying to spot Natalie and tried to move towards her. Andy who was standing close to him realized Daniel needed support and so he grabbed his hand and knelt besides him, “Be strong brother! Be strong!” And Andy embraced him to pacify him.

The drama continued on the boat for a while and everybody who was a part of this trip was engulfed in grief.

Meanwhile, the panic on the raft carrying the two kids and five other occupants had subsided, the kids had become silent but the grown ups were all engulfed in despair and were crying.

“It’s all Robin’s doing,” Rosalyn exclaimed.

“What’s his fault in it? Don’t blame the poor man for dragging you along on this trip. He only wanted his family to be with him,” Rajon said.

“No that’s not what I am saying,” Rosalyn replied.

“What do you mean?” Alexia asked.

“We could have easily travelled on the boat as his family if he had wanted to but he told me that I need to be on the rafts to show other people that the rafts are safe,” Rosalyn replied.

“What? Wait a minute, are you trying to say you husband wasn’t sure the rafts are safe?” Omar asked.

“No! I am saying that he told us to be on the raft to show other people that the rafts are safe,” Rosalyn stated.

“That’s exactly the reason Daniel gave to me,” Lisa added, “Do you think there’s something more behind it?”

“I certainly do now!” Rosalyn replied.

“What do you mean by that?” Lisa asked as Alexia, Rajon and Omar were all ears.

“Have you all noticed the way he has been trying to get close to my younger sister lately?” Rosalyn answered, her eyes fixed on to a distant object as if she was engrossed in deep retrospection.

“Now that you mention it, yes we have,” Alexia answered.

“And I have noticed Daniel trying to get close to my sister Natalie even before we had started on this journey. He doesn’t seem to like Natalie getting too close to Andy. Are you trying to say the two have tried to get rid of us for our,” Lisa stopped before finishing her sentence, “For our own younger sisters?”

“I am afraid that seems to be the case,” Rosalyn was right on point but had no evidence to back it up.

“You are just assuming things. The panic has gone to your head. Why will your husband try to pull such a nasty trick on you and his own kid?” Rajon lambasted.

“She may be right,” Lisa said, “These two can do anything.”

“Now you too have joined her,” Rajon looked on at Lisa with agitation.

“You don’t know how they have lied about Steve!” Lisa replied.

“What? How can you say that?” Omar asked as everybody including Rosalyn, were shocked by her statement.

“Daniel told me that Steve was the one who wanted to bring wood along to make a boat, and he joked how they have used the same wood to promote themselves. He told me not to mention this to anyone but it was Robin and Daniel who forced Steve to stay behind with Clara who didn’t want to leave her now dead husband Nakata’s grave,” Lisa shocked everyone with the last bits of her expose, “Yes, Clara is now a widow of Nakata and was expecting his child.”

Everybody was left shell shocked and speechless. “You mean,” “Are you saying,” “So Steve” and many more sentences like these tried to come out of their mouths but were left hanging for want of right words.

“Why didn’t Robin tell me anything about this?” Rosalyn finally managed a few words.

“Perhaps he didn’t want you to know for the fear of the word spreading around. Daniel is not as crooked like him, and I don’t mean it as an offence to you, but our men can’t be trusted,” Lisa replied.

“I can see it clearly now, the whole picture,” Rajon exclaimed, “I can see why Robin wanted a lot more people to travel on this trip. It will make sure he is safe against Steve and I think he is going to blame Clara’s kid on Steve, but why? Just for a Presidency? How can he be so cheap?”

“I want to kill that man,” Omar’s furry erupted as well.

“How? How can you kill him when we are not even sure if we will ourselves survive?” Rajon asked and every body was lost in despair again.

“Mom, I am hungry,” the innocent Suzie asked Rosalyn, unaware of the deep trouble they were in.

Sinkers were dropped into water from all the rafts and the LCM, a long way away from this raft.

“Should we warn the people about the sharks?” Daniel asked Robin in a hushed voice as the two sat in a corner acting to be in grief and consoling each other.

“Are you crazy? They will think we hid it intentionally earlier and put their lives at risk,” Robin replied a bit enraged, “Let them find for themselves and we can always claim we didn’t know the sharks were dangerous.”

“Everybody listen carefully!” Andy however came out of the wheel house and shouted at the rafts following them, “We are in a shark infested area. Be on your watchout and remember to withdraw your hooks the moment you spot any.”

“Damn this idiot! He’s blowing everything away!” Daniel seethed with rage.

“Relax! It doesn’t prove anything! Infact he’s saved us a lot of uncomfortable questions,” Robin calmed him down, “Thanks to him we can say that we never thought sharks were an issue because just like us even he didn’t warn them beforehand.” And Robin smiled at Daniel who smiled back.

“Sharks! You didn’t tell us anything about Sharks?” Kina asked Robin as she walked up to him.

“There’s nothing to tell about them. They will come and go! You don’t need to worry too much about them,” Robin replied.

Everybody was all attention and atleast three people on each raft knelt along the three sides of the rafts watching the waters carefully, to spot any predators before it’s too late.

“Sharks, how do they look like?” one of the men asked another.

“I don’t know! I guess we’ll find out when they show up,” the other reply.

“I hope they don’t show up at all. They don’t sound to be very friendly,” the first man replied.

Miles away from them Rajon and Omar were preparing their hooks to start fishing when Jaden spotted something in water, “Hey mom, look! That’s a huge fish!”

Jaden had barely finished his sentence when a pair of jaws lined with long mean teeth sprung out of water and tried to grab the raft. The impact was enough to toss Jaden off his feet and onto the floor of the raft and everybody was shaken. The women let out screams.

“What the hell was that?” Omar asked. But before anyone could answer another hit rocked their raft.

“Sea monsters!” was all that Alexia screamed and the two kids on board started crying.

A couple more hits and Rajon shouted out, “Grab the oars and hit them if we have to survive.”

He and Omar picked up an oar each and reached for the two opposite sides of the raft. They swung the oars hard a few times before both of them were able to hit a shark each. They continued swinging the oars for a while hitting and missing, but their efforts made sure the sharks were thwarted in their attempt to overturn their raft and have their meal.

“Somebody please save us!” Rosalyn cried out.

“There’s no one who can help us now!” Lisa cried as well.

“Hold on you ladies, hold on! We are not dead yet!” Rajon replied. He and Omar stood on guard for about half an hour more before they were sure they won’t be attacked by sharks soon.

“We can’t fish in these waters. It will only attract our predators,” Omar exclaimed.

“You are right,” Rajon replied.

“But how will we feed ourselves and the kids? We need food!” Alexia reminded them.

“I don’t know! I can’t say!” Rajon shook his head dejectedly.

“Mom, I am hungry!” “Mom, I need food!” Both Jaden and Suzie cried clinging on to their mothers who were themselves crying at the heartless treachery of their husbands. Alexia saw the heart rendering scene and broke down in Rajon’s arms. Omar grabbed his head in his hands and sunk into a corner. They were without food and running out of water. Nobody realized they’ve got company.