Violet stared back at the island, watching it sink out of view slowly until it was no more than a small dot of the horizon. She turned to the other passengers on the boat. Klaus was staring out to sea, looking quite lost and deep in thought. Sunny was rocking Beatrice who she had taken a liking to. Beatrice was quite fond of Sunny, too. Although Violet needed to help occasionally, Sunny enjoyed taking care of Beatrice. Sunny had grown so much since their parents had died. Violet smiled slightly until she realized the island had sank out of view completely and she had no idea where they were. The four children on the boat were entrusting their lives to fate.

No, children isn't the right word. They had been through too much in life to be merely referred to as children.

Violet stood up and walked to the front of the boat. She peered out to sea and looked for any hint of land or anything that would help them, but she could see nothing. She turned back to the passengers and tried to think of anything to say to keep their hopes up, but she couldn't. She wasn't known for being good with words. She sighed and sat down at the front of the boat to conserve her energy. She would probably need it later, seeing an unwelcoming mass of clouds in the sky. It was quite far away, but Violet knew they were bound to have trouble sooner or later.

Violet stared out at the sea again, thinking of an invention that could help them survive at sea if they happened to be out there for a while. She took her ribbon, now bleached, faded, and worn, and tied up her hair with it.

The familiar feeling relaxed her for a moment and she tried to think about what she could possibly do if they ran out of supplies. She thought about water. That would go quickly. They were surrounded by water, but it wasn't potable. She thought if she had a pan and fire she could boil the water. Then she could take some kind of foil and make a dome over the pan. The water would condense and what would be left in the pan would be salt. But that would take ages and be very ineffective. Plus, who knew what else was in that sea water? Violet realized that was a rhetorical question and smiled to herself. She knew who actually knew what was in sea water.

"Klaus," she asked, just for the fun of it, "what else is in sea water?"

"Well," said Klaus, getting a small smile on his face and turning around to face Violet, "besides from hydrogen and oxygen, obviously, salt water has an average of 3.5% salinity...which is unfortunately toxic...it has to do with your kidneys. Lets see, there's also a small percentage of sulfur, chloride, sodium, magnesium, and bromine. And THEN there's the pollution..." Klaus' voice trailed off. He had changed his gaze to the floor of the boat and was scowling.

Violet reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling weakly.

"It's not the time nor place to concern yourself with human pollution. But there's no chance of us being able to somehow drink sea water?"

Klaus shook his head. "Unless you can invent some kind of distillation device. If we were to just drink the water as is we'd be severely poisoned. It'd lead to death in a short while. Not that we won't fry anyways..." Klaus mumbled the last part quietly so Violet could just scarcely hear him. Her smile immediately fell.

"Hey, don't think like that. Your mood will rub out on all of us and no one will like that." Klaus made a 'Mmm' ing sound and turned back to the sea to think. Violet sighed and returned to her train of thought as well. She wondered where they would get water since any form of sea water probably wasn't an option. They could get water from rain clouds... Speaking of which, Violet checked on the mass of clouds. It was approaching faster than she thought. They were heading in it's direction and it was moving towards them. At least, she thought that was what was happening. She wasn't really sure...

A wave of confusion and unknowing came over Violet, and she shook her head to try to get it to go away. She had to come to her senses; she would need to invent something to help them survive the storm. She stood up and started rummaging around the things they had brought with them at the bottom of the boat.

"What are you doing?" asked Klaus, irked by the noise. Violet's response was to point at the sky before she returned to her rummaging.

"Cumulonimbus..." muttered Klaus. "Can I help?"

"Tear off those boards from the side of the boat," replied Violet, digging out some rope that was in the pile of stuff. Klaus raised his eyebrows and hesitantly tugged a board partly off.

"Violet, if I take these off the boat has a strong chance of capsizing if we get tossed around."

Violet sighed and gave him a look. "You know as well as I do what is going to happen when those clouds reach us, Klaus. I need to keep people alive, and this will make sure they stay afloat." Klaus resumed his tugging and handed the boards he took off to Violet. Violet took the boards and bent the wood as far as she could and then tying it with rope so it wouldn't spring out flat. They formed sort of a U shape. Sunny watched all this with interest, trying to keep Beatrice asleep despite the noise.

"I think that's enough," said Violet as Klaus handed her one more board. He had pulled off most of the boards from the top layer of the boat, so you couldn't lean back because you would fall out. Violet continued making U-shaped boards until she ran out. She ended up with twelve pieces. She then started to tie them together, so three boards together would make a really deep U.

You can't picture it? Well, dear reader, try this. Take your pointer finger and make a hook-shape, like you're the hook-handed man. Then take your middle and ring fingers and do the same thing. Good. Now put them together, and that's what Violet was making. Now, look at the people around you and see them wonder what on earth you're doing with your fingers.

The other passengers were watching Violet anxiously. Violet had successfully made three inverted triple-U-shaped things. She was starting on the last when she felt something hit the back of her head. She gasped and turned around, seeing a very unpleasant sight. The edge of the cloud formation had just started to pass over them, and the only clear sky that could be seen was back the way they came, and even that was disappearing fast. Violet abandoned her work on the fourth inverted U and started tying the first three together with the little rope she had left. It started to rain harder, and Violet made the last knot as their boat started to precariously move from side to side with the stormy water.

The rain started to come faster, and soon all the passengers on the boat were drenched. They could feel the boat getting lower in the ocean with the added weight of the water from the rain, and soon water would be coming over the sides. Violet turned the middle U right side up so it looked like a U again and set Beatrice inside securing her with a rope to block the sides where she might fall off. The boat went over a wave and Violet felt a surge of water on her feet as the boat started to take on water. Violet shoved the other two inverted U into Klaus and Sunny's arms.

"If you keep it upside down, like a half barrel, it's sure to keep you afloat!" shouted Violet over the din of the storm.

Klaus tried to shout something back, but at that moment there was a large clap of thunder. We can only assume he said, 'What about you, Violet?'

Violet didn't hear him, nor was she paying attention, because she was focused on her inverted U. It was still in three pieces, and she was desperately trying to tie them together with my he remaining soggy rope. She wasn't unfortunately wasn't as successful as she hoped, because she couldn't tie her U together before a huge wave overpowered the boat, sending all of its passengers topping into the water.

Violet spluttered and grabbed a piece of wood she found floating in the water.

"Klaus!" she yelled. "Klaus!"

"Violet!" came a very faint reply that Violet could just make out.

"Klaus! Hold onto the wood! It's buoyant! Take care of Beatrice!"

Violet never knew if Klaus heard her or not because everything went black.

A/N: A-hah! Cliffhanger. Ooh, I'm so evil. I can't wait to continue this story. I have big plans. Which means it will probably go on a long time.

Anyways, I want to take everyone who took the time to review my stories. I feel so loved! It's a much nicer change from real life! Just kidding! But seriously.

Young lady, have you been good to your mother?

Tee-hee!

(Oh, crap, I think that's copyrighted. Oh well. I want a tee-hee baller band. Skitzo!)

Review, sugar! (bowl. ;))