Posted in Posted by Lemony Snicket

Hello! It's Snick! Just letting you know, I fixed the memeber's list a little, because the members who don't have a blog were getting squished into someone else, if you get what I'm saying.

And, I've edited my story chapter since I posted it, and have come to post it again. It's much to long to put into one Inklings entry, so if you want to read the rest, click here.

     Tristan stood at the edge of the ship, and stared out at the dark, endless, grey, icy, dreary waters. The chunks of ice floating in the sea looked as though they were big enough to bring a ship of any size down, but the captain assured Tristan that he had sailed though worse waters, and said that those pieces of ice were like miniscule ice cubes compared to the icebergs he had seen.

     Everywhere around him was grey. The water, the ship, the sky, the crew member’s uniforms, even the ice, was grey. Being on the ship for just a day around all the grey would drive you mad. It did drive Tristan mad, but he showed no sign of it to anyone.

      Besides the grey, what also would drive Tristan insane was the fact that there was no land in sight. None. There was nothing but water as far as even the sharpest eyes could see. This had been his life for the past week.

     This dull scenery would have brought his spirits down immensely, if he had any happiness in him at that moment. Why exactly were they doing this again; leaving their home, and their parents, with only enough money to last them a month, and heading towards a place that they had never heard of, let alone been to? Trying to remember that was like trying to recall a dream, a dream that told yourself while you were still sleeping that you would remember, but didn’t as soon as you woke up.

      But finally, Tristan did remember. He remembered why they were leaving without their parents, why they were leaving at all.

     It was the night his parents called a family meeting that he recalled. The fireplace lit up, glowing and warm, father and mother sitting on one couch, the older children on the other, and the younger ones on the floor.

     “Your mother and I have something very important to tell you,” Father had said, “and it involves all of us. You all know that things are going quite slowly where I work; not much is being built, no one really needs any new buildings. Well, because of this, I am not making any amount of money that could fit our needs. But the little money that I am making is not enough to support us; there isn’t enough for food, electricity, and certainly not enough to pay for the house.

     “Well, I have been searching for a job, and I, luckily, have found one, but it is very, very far away from where we live now. We would have to take a ship to get there. But, there is another setback. We have so little money, that we don’t have enough to send all of us there at once. You eight will have to go before us. It isn’t what we wanted; to send you all away without us, but there is no other choice. We will give you enough money to last the month, which should be more than enough time before we arrive there.

     “Darren, Tristan, Abigail, you must take care of the younger ones while you are over there. Your mother and I trust that you can look after them. You will be leaving in a week.”

     At this point he stopped. Mother, Jana, Eleanor, and Abigail had tears in their eyes, and Peter and William looked as if they were about to. Darren and Tristan, being the oldest, did not cry. They couldn’t cry, they had to be strong; strong for their siblings, strong for their parents, strong for themselves.

     Tristan remembered how hard it was for him to get through that horrible week. Knowing they were leaving truly pained his heart. Packing all of their belonging to go just increased his heartache. But he knew he couldn’t cry, he needed to show his parents he could handle this, and he didn’t want Darren think of him as a child. Also, his younger siblings to look up to him, and didn’t think they would look up to him anymore if he showed any sign of sadness. So, no matter how much he wanted to burst out into tears, he didn’t, he wouldn’t, but oh, how he desired to, how he needed to.

     He then remembered the day they said goodbye to their parents. He and his siblings boarded the ship, some crying, the others comforting. The memory was so foggy to him, as though it had happened years and years ago, and he was thankful that it was like a dream to him, he couldn’t bear the bitter reality.

     A sudden rush of cold air brought him out of his daydreams. He sighed, and looked around for any of his brothers or sisters. When he didn’t see any of them, he guessed they were all in their room, and headed towards there, his dark brown hair being tossed in every direction along the way.