The Stranger in the Lifeboat

Sea

Benji laments that he is grieving over the slow but steady march of death through their group, having now lost two members since their escape onto the lifeboat. For the moment, Benji sets about writing down his recollection of how they all came to be rescued. As he recalls, Geri immediately began acting as the default leader of the group once she pulled him into the lifeboat and asked for Benji’s help with setting the sea anchors out so that they did not drift away from the site of the wreck. One by one they were able to find the remaining members drifting along through the current until they found their last member, the little girl Alice.

In the present, the group begins to speak about the horror of losing Mrs. Laghari, and they manage to say a few words of remembrance. The stranger gives a short word of comfort, telling them that she is in a better place. Meanwhile, the man Nevin has begun to grow sicker and weaker as a result of his injury, but at the moment there is nothing anyone can do about it: “Not about him.