Carrie knew it was too late to do anything when she saw her houseboat start to...

...float into the middle of the lake. The storm loosened the boat from its moorings and the winds along with the rough waters has moved it out of reach and any hope of retrieving it. All she could do was watch helplessly as her home began to take on water. Carrie knew it was just a matter of time before the whole thing sank to the bottom of the lake.

by Mary Smith, Fredericksburg, TX

...sink. She looked over at the Cubans and their automatic rifles in hand. They smiled and nodded. She cringed at the thought of events to come. She didn't want to be the next headline about an American being held for ransom. A dark and damp cage with small rations of insufficient food along with strange languages and constant harassment was not going to be apart of her life.

Carrie smiled back at the men and jumped off the barge. She heard muffled splashes of her pursuers coming after her. She swam as fast and hard as she could to the bottom of the river. Her hands found security in a log of some sort thirty feet under the surface. She held on tight for what she perceived as her life depended on it.

by Donald Stidham, Whitewright, TX

...pick up speed in the rapids. It had not seemed like a great idea, when Roger had suggested that they tie up to one of the trees along the bank, but she accepted the fact that Roger knew more about boating than she did. And, the prospect of enjoying a picnic lunch on the grassy hill overlooking the river, was very appealing. As she watched their rented boat bouncing off the rocks projecting above the surface of the churning waters, her thoughts drifted back to Roger's suggestion as to how to enjoy their vacation.

"Wouldn't it be great to rent a houseboat, and spend the week just cruising around the river!"

Too bad that Roger had decided not to travel south, toward the calm waters of the lake that fed the mighty river, but northward. All they could hope for now, was for the boat to get lodged amongst the rocks before reaching the brink of Niagara Falls.

by Stewart Lindsay, Buffalo, NY

...drift from the dock, but luckily nearby boaters returned it to the dock. She will now have some excitement to tell her husband when he returns from shopping for supplies. In the meantime she decided to take a nap on the houseboat.

Someone didn't tie the houseboat securely, and again it drifted into the St. Lawrence River with sleeping Carrie. The blaring horn startled her. She screamed at the shocking sight of an approaching freighter yards away. She quickly started the houseboat motor and charged from this ore laden carrier.

Her husband, storing the supplies, chirped excitedly about stories he heard in town about a freighter nearly swamping a houseboat. "A foolish, careless, nutty house boater," he remarked, shaking his head. He paused and glanced at Carrie twice. "Dear, we have been vacationing five days and you still don't have a tan. You look as white as a ghost."

by Anthony Bagnick, Lake Ariel, PA