BEYOND THE EVENING TIDE

I am alex I'm 23 years old, i live in Moscow and I am in my last graduation year after that I'll find some decent job and settle down. I never was a big dreamer. I just wanted to live a normal life maybe that was my dream all along.

My father was a drunkard. he wasn't like that from the start he was an honest man who loved his wife in every way possible. he cooked, sang songs for her even though he was terrible at it.

One day when mom went to the market and we were alone I told dad that he was terrible at singing he laughed and said 'i know' i asked then why do you still sing he said ' I just love when your mom laughs after hearing me sing. that smile makes me sing everytime.' That was the moment I realised he really loved mom.

As a 10 years old kid that life was the the dream that I wished it could have lasted forever, things could have been the same if not for that accident, if I didn't thrown a tantrum and listened to what mom said then maybe she could have been with us and dad wouldn't have became like how he is now.

Those memories still gives me nightmares. They haunt me ever since after that accident maybe it will haunt me for the rest of my life.

I'm not really good at studies how I passed all those exams is still mystery to me and soon I'll be a graduate in a few months. Kid's my age all fall in love and date each other but in my case I never really felt that genuine connection that people talk about, that love at first sight thing.

Well I'm not the only single guy my 2 buddies harry and Robert are single too but In their case it's kind of opposite, they fell in love with every beautiful girl they see.

Last semester they both fell in love with one of our teacher and even proposed to her and you know what could have happened. both got scolded, turns out that teacher was the one of Harry's mom friend and when Harry's mom found out about this she got really angry.

Harry had to stay at home for a whole week as a punishment but in the end everything turned out fine nobody found out about it but I still make fun of them about that incident time to time.

My life would have been boring if it wasn't for them. I'm introvert and don't like to meet people but harry and Robert are opposite they even talk to random people when they feel like it. With them time flows so fast that I didn't realised how my graduation came to an end.

Today is my graduation ceremony and everyone's parents came except mine. I knew dad won't come but I still tried calling him and the result was same as always he didn't picked up My call.

The truth is I can't blame him for being like this to me, him hating me. I was the reason his happy life came to an end but still I wished that dad would have tried to listen to My end of story.

Maybe I'm being selfish but still at least I can dream about it.

Finally my college life came to an end. My goal was simple find a job in any corporate company that pays me well and live my life happy ever after but soon this dream came to an end Well not in a bad way.

I always wanted to travel the world but I didn’t have the money, so I tried applying in cruises but It didn't worked out but after completing my graduation i finally got a chance to go to the cruise ship.

I was happy that I finally got the chance, i thought it will be big cruise ship where I'll do some cleaning work and enjoy going to many places but maybe because of excitement i forgot how unlucky I was.

We were going to maxico i was excited it was my first cruise. I always dreamed about it i always wanted to try titanic pose on cruise while cold breeze touches my skin but as always I'll be doing it alone.

Ship will sail in 1 week and distance between my home and ship is around 3 days so I have 4 days to prepare. I started packing all items needed in my travel , it wasn't some big of a luggage so I packed all the luggage within a day and I went to roberts house.

As soon as I got the job i told Robert and harry about my job that I'll soon be leaving. they were happy for me but we all knew when we looked into each other eyes that we won't be able to hangout like we used to. They told me that they'll throw a farewell party for me it was less of a party and more or a family gathering.

It wasn't really my own family but I had spend so much time with robert's and Harry's family that now it feels like I'm also part of their family.

When I went to Robert's home for party we dance , sang and enjoyed the days I had. It was finally the time for me to go we said each other our goodbyes, it would be really hard to leave those baboon's they are stupid but they are what makes my life whole and now I'm leaving them and going to my own path.

We didn't said anything to each other except goodbye, we all had tears in our eyes but we didn't cry. it was our goodbye and who knows when will we meet again so I controlled my tears too, leaving was hard but this is something that I can't run away from.

After a long trip of 4 days I was finally near the coast fully exhausted with sunburn all over me, I didn't gave it too much thaught and forgot to apply sunscreen and now I have the result of my ignorance.

In the left side of coast I can see 2 ships, one of them was mine in which I'll be going on a trip I went near them. I was confused which one is the ship in which I'll be boarding then an old man in a white shirt with a sunflower pattern waved a hand on me asking if I'm alex.

I said yes I'm alex he was an old man but not too old he seemed like those funny old grandpa's who'll tell you stories about his time and tell you funny stories about when he was young, he's name was Steve and he was a man of friendly nature.

Ship was really big, not gigantic like billionaires party ships but yeah it was big. It can easily take 200 people on board without a problem and one of those 200 will be me now.

I was little nervous cause it was my first time being on a ship, steve noticed it and told me to relax. We had time till evening for people to come so i asked him "so what's I'm supposed to do".

I told him I can even cook , normally I cook by myself cause i live alone. He smiled and showed me the way of where I'll be working I was really excited what kind of a work I'll be doing. He gave me tour of whole ship and then took me to the kitchen. I even thaught of dishes I'll be making but he gave me waiters uniform and told me to serve drinks and food when everyone comes.

It wasn't really bad I just had to serve food and drinks when they'll come that's pretty much all I had to do. I took the uniform and went the servants accomodation.

I was happy that we'll be going to the lãven island I heard many things about that island it's beautiful, there seafoods are top-notch and people are very friendly.

Steve told me we'll be there in a week. i was tired already so I went to my room. Every room has 4 beds and I was alone at mine "maybe they are not here yet" after saying this to myself I went to sleep. I slept like a baby and I didn't realised when time passed so fast and evening came.

Peoples footstep were really loud, and so was the music. I woke up changed and ran towards the kitchen they gave me drinks that I had to serve I took the drinks and went upstairs.

Steve was little angry but he didn't said anything I smiled at him and apologized then went to serve drinks. In the blink on an eye, my tray was empty and then started the real work trays getting empty and I'm going downstairs to get more drinks.

going up and down was making me really tired but my work was not done so I had to keep doing it till the party was over. I can see all the other workers getting tired too so I didn't felt alone and kept doing my work . It was finally over, My work was done and then one of the guy who was working too approached me.

he said "it was pretty tiring wasn't it?' I nodded my head as yes he smiled and passed me the bottle he was drinking he told me he took it from the kitchen when no-one was looking, i said "aren't you scared what will happen if they'll catch you".

he smiled and said "leave those things to me and enjoy the drink". it was really good you can tell by a single sip that it was of high quality. "i never drank anything like this before" I said. "well if we had money to afford this kind of drink then we won't have been working here and instead we would have been here for a cruise trip won't we?" he replied we both laughed.

he asked me my name "I'm alex and you?" I asked. "I'm Jack" he said we talked about here and there and then we said our byes to each other and went to sleep.

Like this 2 days went by today it was the same routine people were parting and it was fun and all until we saw the sudden change in weather rough waves were coming from all directions, the ship began corkscrewing and I was out at the deck.

people were scared they were screaming, kids were asking the same question " mom what's going on, what's happening?" Many kid's started crying so I was trying to comfort them. then, once again, the rough waves came.

one of the kid was about to fall because of a sudden wave so i tried to save him and I even succeeded but in the process of saving him I fell in the ocean.

it was night, so when when I fell nobody noticed me, I tried to scream asking for help but waves and storms were stronger then my voice can ever could.

Thankfully there was a one wooden door that fell down here too, i grabbed it while holding by my arms. i saw my ship going further and further from my eyes, i didn't know where these waves were taking me, but i clung to that door as if I were clinging to my last hope of survival.

I don't remember much after that, but when I opened my eyes i was in an unfamiliar place. Local said they found me near the ocean they said it was a miracle that I was alive.

They were all nice peoples they told me this island is called denviles . "I never heard of this island before is it some unknown island?" I asked " it's just a small island kid not big enough for you folks to know about." one of the local said.

This island Is beautiful i thaught there would be a lot of tourists coming here but when I asked they told me no-one comes here and it's been like this for decades.

I was surprised when I heard it, so I asked why. those friendly locals who were laughing and smiling a minute ago all went silent with serious face and then they told me one thing "somethings are better not known, when the time comes you'll find out yourself". After saying that the room who just went silent turned to the room filled with a laughter's again.

It took me time but i finally accepted that there's no way for me to leave this island and There's no way for me to go back to my home so I just started living here with locals.

I don't know why but i think they were isolated from outside world for some reason. if they were really the type of people who should have been isolated for something they had done, then I wouldn't be alive right now.

There is a strange rule in this island that everyone follows without a question and that is not going outside after 7 PM.

when they told me this for the first time i thaught they were joking, I mean for a man who has lived his life in a City where nightlife is considered the best this does sound like joke but they weren't joking at all.

peoples and Market seems so lively but the moment it turns 6:30 all goes so quiet that if I were to come here after 7 and someone told me it's a empty island I would have believed without a question.