Sacred Barge to Transformation

The storm had been raging for days. The small fishing boat, which was barely seaworthy in fair weather, bobbed furiously on the rough seas.

“I told you we should have left two days ago!” Pa yelled at Ma. Ma ignored him. She was holding a cloth to her forehead, tears streaming down her face. Two of their children lay on the floorboards of the boat, unconscious.

Suddenly the boat creaked and lurched over to one side. The youngest child, four-year-old Juliana, screamed as the boat tipped precariously and water sloshed up over the gunwale. Ma grabbed her by the back of her dress and tried to pull her away from the edge of the boat.

“Help!” Pa shouted to his brother Omar, who was sitting on another smaller boat tied up alongside theirs. Omar rowed frantically over to them, jumping into their boat when he got close enough. He quickly tied their two boats together with a long rope.

“What happened?” Omar asked once they had gotten settled again. “I thought you said you could sail this boat!” He said angrily at his brother, who shrugged sheepishly in return.

“The gods must be angry! We should pray to them while we still can!” Ma said, nearly sobbing as she did so. Omar looked over at his brother skeptically but also bowed his head in prayer. They all prayed together as best they could through their fear and exhaustion until finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the storm began to subside and their prayers were answered by silence and calmness instead of harsh winds and waves crashing against their fragile wooden boats that may or may not have been able to withstand those waves for much longer without breaking apart and sinking them all down into the depths of the sea where they would join their ancestors – perhaps along with whatever creatures now haunted those depths who took advantage of this stormy night to attack these fishermen for food before returning back down into their underwater caves once more where they belonged, far from sight and out of mind until next time when there was a storm such as this one...