Sleeping With My Best Friend - (Complete)

Chapter 21 - The Storm

***** Dream Continued *****

Berkley felt a tug on her scuba line, which was the signal for her to come up, so she kicked her feet and made her way up to the surface, pulling her goggles and oxygen mask off as she clung onto the ladder on the side of the boat.

"What's up?" she asked, catching her breath, with water dripping from her hair and face.

"Look at those dark clouds," her Mom said, pointing up at the sky overhead. "We should head back to the house."

"Alright, I couldn't find the artifact, but I can just bring the boat back out tomorrow with Dean. Hopefully the storm won't move it," Berkley told her, climbing up the ladder and then sitting down on the bench beside her. She unzipped her wetsuit and peeled it off before drying off with a towel.

She heard a loud rumble of thunder and lifted her head to look at the dark clouds that were overhead, feeling a cold breeze blowing in. There were lines of rain coming down from some clouds that didn't look too far away.

"Why did you wait until the storm was practically on top of us to tug on my line? You said you were gonna pull on it at the first sign of dark clouds," Berkley asked as she pulled on a hoodie and a pair of jeans over her wet bikini.

"I know," her Mom said with a guilty look. "I'm sorry. I was laying on the deck sunbathing and it was so relaxing that I accidentally fell asleep. It's been a long week and I was really tired."

"It's okay Ma," Berkley told her, letting out an exhale. "But we better get going. Pretty soon that storm's gonna be right on top of us."

She got up and started making her way into the control room and her Mom followed in behind her and shut the door.

Berkley turned the key over and the engine just made a gurgling, revving sound but didn't start up. She tried a couple more times with the same result.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me!" she shouted, punching the counter and hanging her head, letting out a frustrated exhale. "Of all the times for the engine to decide not to start up."

"Berkley Renee! Language!" her Mom scolded.

"Mom. If there was ever a time that it would be acceptable to cuss, it would be right now."

She tried a few more times to start up the engine but didn't have any luck.

"What do you think is wrong with it?" her Mom asked nervously. 

Her Mom didn't go out on the boat with them that often and didn't know near as much about sailing and boats as Berkley and the rest of the family.

"I don't know. I'll go down below and see if I can figure out what the problem is while you stay in here and start radioing the Coast Guard for help," Berkley said, handing her Mom the boat's VHF radio transceiver. "I've already got it set to Channel 16 that the Coast Guard monitors. If the storm's really gonna be as bad as Dad says, it's a good idea for us to ask for their help to get us off this boat ASAP."

Her Mom nodded and took the transceiver from her, but Berkley could tell by the look on her face how uneasy she felt about the whole thing. That hit her with a pang of guilt because she was the reason they came out in this storm in the first place, and it was obvious her Mom was freaking out about it.

Rain had already started coming down so Berkley grabbed the bright yellow fisherman's jacket off the hook behind her and pulled it on over her hoodie before she stepped out of the control room and onto the deck.