Second Departure

Seagulls cawwed incessantly, and music was playing in the distance- neither of which would’ve been so bad, if not for the rest of the soundscape. The atmosphere was heavy with the screams of metal and electronics. You could never avoid the sounds of the rides nearby, of course, though even they were dwarfed by just the ambient chatter of the crowds nearby them. Parting around the sisters, everyone else on the boardwalk had somewhere in the park to go as they talked without stop, creating an environment where not even the most adventurous of introverted teen girls could survive.

Tied to the dock, the small watercraft, marked Youth 445, gently bobbed in the saltwater that had flooded into its home state long before it was constructed. Cleaned the previous day, it was all set for customers. Two had already arrived, on that morning- Saturday, January 2nd, 2013 NGP.

“The blue looks really good on you!”

Smiling, Frankie felt the salty wind through her brightly-colored, freshly-cut hair. We really made it… She mused to herself.

It had taken some time to reach the self-driving boat they’d rented. Hitchhiking down south to a marina in Tennessee, they’d finally arrived back at the coast- a small park here offering watercraft rentals and similar services. Over the swim gear they’d bought the last time they were on this side of the country, they wore new life jackets, Frankie’s in lime green and Katie’s colored a bright red.

Katie spun the silver keys. “Ready to hit the waves?” Frankie snorted in response, stepping onto the craft with her sister.

A medium-sized motorboat with provisions and an inside cabin, the purchase seemed well worth the money. They’d filled the fridge to the absolute brim- Frankie had only planned on a small getaway, but as usual, Katie had other, more dangerous ideas. After shooing away a generation of mayflies, they started to check out its features.

“This is gonna take like… two weeks, right? Are you sure about this?” Frankie familiarized herself with the soft edges of the vehicle.

“Why do you think we went and bought all that gas for?” Katie explored the deck with excitement, nodding to the metric ton of canisters she’d thrown onboard. “We wanted to see every park anyway, you should’ve seen this coming.”

The dragged-along little sister sighed. “You wanted to see every park. If you’d of told me last month I would be on an improvised transatlantic cruise I would’ve said you’d lost your mind.” She made sure her favorite hat was safe in their bags before they got going. “Not that you haven’t.”

The adventurer laughed. “What, you don’t want to go on a seafaring adventure? We’ve got to get to Everfair somehow!”

“Wonder what that Lord guy there even wants from us…”

“Probably just heard of our winnings and gave us tickets as an act of goodwill.” With everything in order, Katie stepped down to the lower deck, followed by her sister. “Can you get the rest of those gas cans?”

“Look, it’s not that I’m worried about some cosplay convention.” Frankie set the red things down by their impressive food supply. “My threat sensors are pretty fixated on the fact that we’re, I dunno, going out to freaking sea? Alone?”

“We’ll be fine!” Her travel buddy laughed. “Look, this bad boy’s got state-of-the-art self-driving controls.” She casually twisted the boat’s systems. “This screen predicts every tide and storm in like, a million-mile radius! There’s nothing to fear. Absolutely nothing.”

“You are not very reassuring…” Frankie smiled. The girl couldn’t deny she found the whole thing more than a little exciting, if not ill-advised.

The screen did indeed seem quite feature-full. It made her feel a lot better when the absolute perfect course was already planned out with an endless catalogue of backups right there where she could see it, not a stray thundercloud or rough patch of waves in sight, the systems predicting every one before it happened without the smallest degree of error. They couldn’t drown if they tried, and getting lost was all but an impossibility. Katie had put in some decent effort to get her boating license- certainly more than the one she used to ride roller coasters on a daily basis- though it was looking more and more like she wasn’t gonna need it.

Cracking her knuckles, she inserted the key. “Here goes nothing!” The girl was never one to downplay what she saw as something important happening in the veritable action-adventure novel her and her sister’s life had become.

The engine sprung to life. They were ready to go at the press of a button, headed straight to Europe- and on the way, Frankie could finally catch some peace and quiet.

“After we see this renaissance fair, can we go somewhere cooler?” The forcibly-removed shut-in grabbed a soda out of the fridge.

“You’ve got somewhere you wanna go?” Katie jumped at the opportunity, eager to encourage her younger sister.

“I wanna see Studio Rouge!” She cracked open the can with her nails, flinching as some lemon-flavored sludge got on her face. “In Japan?” She hoped Katie would remember.

“Oh, do they make all that anime you like?” She seemed pretty interested. “Sure! After we hit the UK, we can check that out! I would’ve gone there eventually anyway, after all.”

Frankie smiled and nodded. “Deal, then. Come on, let’s get out of this noisy dock.”

“Right away!” Katie pushed the button to start their route and they were off to sea.

“Hope the silence is all I cracked it up to be…” Frankie stewed, feeling the rapid breeze hit her as they came up to the deck.