"Madeline, darling, don't stare."

I turned and looked back to my mother. Her lip was dirtied by a smudge of ketchup on the right hand side, but I didn't tell her. Why should I?

"I wasn't staring," I lied.

The boat lurched again, and I clutched onto the edge of the cheap table. It was screwed onto the floor, so it was a safe thing to grab on to. I looked down under the top to see that it was still stable, and yucked at the number of mouldy chips and half-eaten bits of bun and burger that had been thrown under, to stick to the black metal pole. Classy.

"Darren, eat your dinner," Mum said. My brother, only five, dropped a vinegary fry on to the floor. That's how they got there, then; kids like Darren. Then he stuffed a chicken nugget into his gob and dunked his elbow into the spread of tomato sauce on his plate.

"Can I go play?" he asked, already scrambling off the plastic chair as the ferry dipped again, struggling to stay level in the choppy water.

"Yes, yes," said our mother, grabbing a handful of baby wipes to make the table ready for the next poor family who had to suffer badly cooked food at ridiculous prices. "Maddy, look after him."

We ran to the edge of the section, where the thick scratched windows were being hammered by wind and rain. It was exciting to look out into the storm. Darren clutched my hand and squealed with delight.

"What were you looking at?" he asked.

"What?"

"When you was staring?"

"Those two." I jerked my head for him to follow, but he completely failed to understand the gesture, so I grabbed his head between my palms and rotated it until he was staring straight at the odd couple. It was a man and a woman, both about twenty-something, both pushing their lasagnes around on the plate with their fingers. Nothing eaten, forks left by the side, just shoving the cheesy meat around with the tips of their digits. It was weird.

"Why?"

"They're weird. I like weird people."

I did like weird people; like the man who lived a few doors away from us. Everyone knew he was a wizard, but we all pretended that we didn't, just in case he did something nasty to us. Turn us into frogs, that sort of thing.

"Weird how?" Darren asked.

"Weird in that they're not eating their food."

"It's disgusting," Darren pointed out. "They probably don't want to."

"Yeah, true, but then look at their eyes."

Their eyes were white. Not just white around a bit in the middle with some colour and a pupil, but white all over, like the whole working bit had been rubbed out.

"I can't see their eyes," said Darren.

"You have to really look," I told him, and for a moment, he really looked. Then he gasped and I knew he saw it too.

"Yuck," he said.

"Definitely yuck," I agreed.

Mum had decided to sit on one of the comfortable chairs. She waved at us and made a 'you are staring again, please stop' gesture with her arms. Sighing, I pulled Darren away. "We need to go over here," I said, "because Mum doesn't want us annoying those people."

Darren didn't argue, and we moved a little further away to look at the rain again. There was a man outside, in a big coat that made him look like a spy. He leaned on a railing, and held on as the boat rocked and turned against the waves. It looked fun.

"Mum!" I shouted. "Can we go outside?"

She shook her head.

"Please!"

With one hand she pointed at the window, with the other she made rain symbols. I took it to mean something like 'you're going to get wet in the rain', or 'it's raining outside', or even 'enjoy the rain'. In all three, I felt she was happy with us being on the deck, so I shoved open the door and pushed Darren outside. "Come on, let's go watch the sea," I told him.

Immediately I regretted it. While it was easy to see the rain from inside the warm lounge room, it was a whole lot harder to understand just how wet and windy it was. Straight away, Darren slipped out of my grasp and went slipping and screaming along the wooden part of the deck. There wasn't much of that, and he ended up in a tangle, clinging onto the rail and a little gate thing. I tried to make my way to him, one step at a time with my hand on the freezing bar, but spy-man was faster, and was already helping my brother to his feet when I got there.

"Thanks," I said, cringing at the wetness of Darren's clothes. "My mum'd kill me if I let him fall into the sea."

"You're welcome," said the man. There was something about the way he spoke (very deep, and wobbly), that made me shudder. It was sort of like talking to Darth Vader, but with fewer breathing issues. "You need to watch yourselves out here."

Well yeah, I know. "Thanks," I said again.

"Yeah, thanks," said Darren, still happy somehow. He was an odd brother; if he stepped on a lego, he'd be screaming for hours, and nothing would make him happy, but slip almost to his death on a tempestuous boat, and he's beaming. I liked the word tempestuous, it sounded really good, so I used it again:

"It's very tempestuous," I said.

"It is," said Spy-Vader. "There's a great swell coming in from the south."

Whatever that means.

"Maddy, let's look over there." Darren tugged, and without proper balance, I had no choice but to follow him. We saw Mum as we scrambled up the small metal steps and both waved. It was dark, and she was far away, but she looked happy to see that we were fine. Behind her were the two eyeless lasagne-eaters (or not eaters), and for a moment I worried that they thought we were waving at them and it would get all embarrassing, but they didn't seem bothered.

"Maddy!" Darren said, insistent. I turned away from Mum and concentrated on helping him over the little chain at the top of the steps. I thought I heard Mum shout from behind me, but when I turned back, both she and the weirdos were gone. She was probably just telling us she was going back inside.

On this second level, the ship became more interesting. There were ledges, and big pipes, and chains to hold onto; we could even see a row of lifeboats, over to one side and below us. The rain was still hammering, the droplets bouncing off the white metal floor, and even though it was only dinner time, the sky was dark; we could see nothing but grey clouds, piled on top of each other. Darren grinned, his hair so wet that it stuck to his head.

"Look!" he said, pointing.

We had missed the entertainment. Mum had seen the little leaflet when we'd first come on board, but she'd taken one look at the ticket price and said that we could easily entertain ourselves for a few hours. From our high-up vantage point, though, there was no need for a ticket. Darren had managed to find a brilliant view into the big hall room area. It was brightly lit, all yellow light and polished floorboards, so everyone in there just looked like silhouettes; it was like watching a silent shadow play.

"What was the story?" I asked, trying to remember what the leaflet had called it. Darren didn't know either, so we just tried to work it out as we watched. There seemed to be some sort of fight scene, with some of the people running around and waving their arms, and others following them slowly, and then jumping on them to pull them down. One man pulled an axe-shaped thing from the wall and waved it about, keeping the attackers away for a moment, before finally getting him in the chest. Both Darren and I went 'oooh', to see the moment of impact. For a stage play, it had some good effects. The axed man fell and crawled forward a few steps while everyone kept running. Not knowing the plot made it kind of annoying, and I wished Mum had bothered to fork out the tenner for the tickets.

A sudden wave tipped the boat and Darren and I forgot all about the show while we scrambled for something to hold on to. There were a frantic few seconds where I think I really believed I'd lose my little brother, but it ended with us gripping hands and bars and anything else we could lock ourselves around. Darren started laughing.

"Shit!" I said.

"Naughty word, Maddy!" he said.

"Yeah, well, I thought you were going in the sea, so I'm allowed to swear. Anyway, it's not like Mum can hear us, she's miles away."

"It's cold."

"Yeah, me too. Maybe we should go back."

"Or in there!" Darren pointed at one of the lifeboats. It was hanging on some sort of rope thing, and drifted from side to side, sometimes coming close to us. If I was honest, it looked like a really great swing.

"One go," I said, and Darren grinned.

We were going to have to jump, and time it really well. "Darren," I said, thinking that maybe it was a bad idea, but he'd already gone. I heard an excited cry, and then saw him crash into the tarpaulin.

"I did it!" he shouted.

Great. Now I had to do it, too. Counting to ten, I held my breath and then... leapt!

I hit the small boat with a crunch, making it swing even wilder. Darren was whooping, clinging on to the bench as we moved in a big arc, made wider by the heavy storm and churning sea. I watched as my brother scrambled under the cover, finding a spot hidden from the rain, and then joined him.

"What are we doing in here?" I asked, as the boat flew back and forth.

"Getting dry," he said.

"We're not getting dry in here, Darren, we should go back to Mum. She's probably worried about where we are."

"I don't think we can," he said. "It's a big jump."

It was a big jump. I poked my head out of the canvas and gazed out as we continued to lurch from side to side. "Shit, Darren, we're never managing that. We're stuck!"

"Bad word, Maddy."

"Shut up about the bad words. I'm twelve, and I can use bad words; I'm nearly a teenager. Now, shush and let me think."

There was a sudden thump and a man landed on our lifeboat. Darren yelped from inside, and I shrieked.

"What did you do that for?" I asked the stranger, but he only groaned. The impact must have winded him.

"This is our swing!" I protested. "Get your own!"

The man looked up at me; it was only a trick of the light, I was sure, but like the people in the cafe, he looked like he had no pupils. He held out a hand for me to help him up, but I hesitated and in that moment the ferry tilted another time and he slipped.

I screamed as he fell, praying that he wouldn't be hurt, or worse; fall overboard. It had been my fault, I knew it, as I hadn't leaned forward to help. From where I was sat, I couldn't properly see him, and I moved, staring hopefully into the growing dark. Then I saw a shape of a man below me, getting up off the deck. He seemed fine; and I let out the breath I didn't even realise I had been holding.

"Maddy, what was that?" Darren called.

"A man, but he's gone. He's fine; he just slipped. He's OK though. I saw him run off."

"Can I come out?"

"Of course you can - it's still raining, though."

Darren poked his head out of the covers. "Shit!" he said, looking at the waves crashing against the side of the ship.

"Darren! Naughty word!" I admonished automatically.

"Mum's not here," he said.

"Not the point!" I told him. And it wasn't.

"Sorry."

"We need to get back to the inside," I told him. "I can see where we can drop down; are you happy to come?"

"OK."

I had plotted our jump for the last few swings; it looked far, but the other man had made it no problem, so I didn't think it was difficult. Both Darren and I were fairly good at jumping around; we practiced almost every day on our trampoline and even my brother could do sit-down-stand-ups and somersaults with ease.

Then a light caught my eye and I looked across. Spy-Vader was there, shining a torch into the night. He was holding something in one hand, like a sword.

"Darren, look; Spy-Vader has a sword!" I said, pulling my brother so he could see, too.

Suddenly, two men raced out across the deck and to Darren's earlier saviour. Yelling, Spy-Vader cut through the air with his weapon, and sliced into both men. I screamed.

"What?!" Darren cried.

In the gloom, it was hard to be sure. Had he really just murdered two people? But no, after a little scramble, both of the men got up and kept walking. Spy-Vader had run off.

"What was that?" Darren asked.

"I don't know," I said. "I thought he cut those men down, but, well, they're fine; look."

They were fine, if a little unsteady on their feet, scrambling and bumbling across the deck.

"They need to hold on," warned Darren.

"Yeah."

Maybe it was just a game, or part of the play we saw from earlier. Maybe Spy-Vader had been one of the actors waiting his turn. I said as much to Darren and he agreed.

"We still have to make our jump," I said, pointing to the deck below us.

"That's very far," Darren said.

"It looks far, but it's not. It's just the weird light, and the rain making it look bad."

A shake of thunder rolled across us then, louder than any we had heard before. Darren clung onto me, and then the lightning came, a fork that lit up the sky in the distance.

"Wow, look at that!" I said.

"Maddy, I'm scared of the storm. I want to get back inside."

I agreed with him, though I didn't want to tell him that in case it frightened him more. Neither of us wanted to be out in a lightning storm.

We counted one, two, three, as the lifeboat rocked above the main ferry, but neither of us tensed to jump. One, two, three, again, but again we didn't move.

"I can't do it," Darren said.

"Me, either," I admitted.

"I wish Mum was here," he said.

I knew she'd been telling us not to go outside, I knew it, even though I'd told myself it wasn't the case, and that she was giving us permission. I wish I'd listened. Now, soaked to my skin and clinging to a swinging lifeboat, I felt small and very stupid.

"Look, Darren," I said, "we're going to have to just go for it, do you understand?"

"I'll break my leg, or slip and fall in the sea, or bash my head and die."

"No, no, stop it." I had been thinking all the same things. "We're going to be fine. One, two, three, go, OK? And we really will go."

"OK," he said, meekly.

"One," I said, gripping his hand.

"Two."

Another roll of thunder made us fall back onto the tarpaulin. "Shit!" I said; neither of us mentioned naughty words.

"One," I started again.

And then the lightning. It hit the mast, just above our head, and there was an echoing crack. All of a sudden, our world was turned upside down, upwards and sideways, as the lifeboat rocked and bashed, banging into the ship and unravelling its ropes.

"Maddy!" screamed Darren, and I clung to him; one hand on the bench, the other wrapped around my little brother's back. "Maddy!"

Then we hit the water. There was a rush of wind, and a shower of water, and we came free from the main boat, ropes unwinding, and cloth tearing.

"Darren!" I said. "Hold tight."

I let go of my brother and desperately began to unwind the mess of canvas and plastic sheeting that threatened to tip our little boat over. My eyes sought out the ferry, which was already too far away for us to swim, and heading further every moment. Then I saw the strangest thing; a huge group of people jumping from the side to come and save us. They must have seen the lifeboat fall with two small children on it, and were swimming to get to us. I cheered; pleased to see so many people working to help. We only had to wait.

"Darren, look," I said, "people are coming."

We both held on to the side as we watched the swimmers, but it was obvious that they weren't going to be able to make the distance, not in the storm. Some of them seemed to be struggling themselves, and others turned back.

"No!" I called. "Please help us!"

I scrambled through the benches; I knew I'd seen them. "Here," I said, shoving an oar at Darren, "we have to row."

"I don't know how!" he said. "What do I do?"

I dropped both paddles into place, and sat Darren down next to me. "Watch," I said, "put it in the water and then pull, like this. Dad did it with us that one time, remember?"

Remember? He'd been strapped to Mum at the time, too small to even walk. Of course he didn't remember.

"Just give it to me!" I said, grabbing the other handle and trying to find a rhythm. The wind howled around my ears, and made me realise how freezing I was.

"Someone is still coming," Darren said, pointing. "Look!"

How did you steer a rowing boat? The oars were heavy, and I didn't know what I was doing. I dropped them, for just a minute, and turned to look where he was pointing. Even in the dark night light, and smeared down with water, I recognised that hair. It was Mum.

"Mummy," I cried, happily. "Mum."

Darren and I both scrambled to the back of the boat, reaching out our arms so that she could get on board faster. Her fingers touched mine first, as Darren wrapped his smaller hands around her wrist, and together we pulled.

"Mummy!" said Darren.

Lifting her head, my mum looked at us both. Her eyes were white.