[Clodfobble]

"...I SAID this would be a bad idea from the beginning, didn't I say that Betty? I SAID it. I just had a feeling. You know how I get my feelings, dear, I'm never wrong, am I? No, I'm not. God tells you something's a bad idea, you're supposed to listen. I should never have let you talk me into this. If your father were alive, he'd be rolling in his grave right now..."
Stupid fucking bitch. That doesn't make any sense. If you would SHUT UP for two seconds I could concentrate on waving my arms like a maniac.
"Dad, are we gonna get to go home soon?"
"Yeah, Tommy, but I think it's gonna take a little longer. I don't think anyone on that boat saw us, we're too far away."
I stared at the boat, so big that it seemed not to even move. But I knew it certainly was moving, and in the wrong direction.
"There's not another boat for miles, John, is there...?"
I knew that look. My wife was about to cry.
"Well OF COURSE there's not, stupid, would he plan a vacation with safety for his family as his first priority? Obviously he would not. We could be in the kitchen right now enjoying some cookies, that's vacation enough for me, but NO, he wanted to get on a boat and sail to the middle of nowhere so we could be sure to capsize with NO ONE around! As if being on these waves is relaxing in the slightest, I've wanted to throw up since we left the dock..."
I looked at my wife, whose tears had finally broken the barrier. I'm so sorry, honey. Goddammit, I'm supposed to take care of my family! I HAVE to do something. I have to.
"I'm gonna swim for it."
"John, no. It's a lot farther than it looks."
"Oh-ho-ho, THIS I have to see. Let him! Let him show what a man he is! He got us into this, let him get us out!"
"Daddy, can I go with you?"
"No, Tommy, I can swim faster if you stay here with your mommy. It might take a long, long time, but I'll be back, I promise. Ok?"
He looked at me very seriously. "Ok."
And so I found myself swimming slowly and carefully, not overexerting myself, not letting any unseen currents take me off course, towards the boat in the distance. Betty had been right, it was probably a mile or two at least, but I'd swum farther than that before.
Yeah, when you were 17. Dumbass.

The sun was getting very low on the horizon when I finally reached the boat. I'd had plenty of time to study it in the last couple of hours, and had slowly come to realize that there were no markings anywhere from stern to bow. Very odd. Suddenly a man approached the edge and saw me.
"FREEZE!" From out of nowhere, his hands raised to point a gun at me. I didn't know guns like I knew boats, but I could certainly tell it was no handgun.
For the record, raising your arms in the water without sinking is very hard. "I'm... pffllt... I'm a civilian! My...pffltss--my family's boat sunk!... Pfftllt... We just want to get back to shore!"
The man paused, then unrolled a rope ladder. "Climb slowly," he ordered.
At the top, I was taken through a whirlwind of very technical-looking equipment--it wasn't boats, so what do I know?--to a man I assumed was a captain. My rescuer muttered with the captain briefly, who then escorted me back out to the main deck.
"Look, son, I'm very sorry, but there's not a lot we can do for you. It is out of the question for us to alter our course." As my mouth opened he cut me off, "It's classified. I'd love to help you and your alleged family, but the best I can do is give you one of our motorized lifeboats--and tell you that we will be watching you all the way to the horizon and if you turn back to our ship or even significantly change directions we will shoot you."
"That... that's fine. A motorized lifeboat will be just fine."
"Excellent. We've got two kinds. The smaller ones move faster. How many people do you need to get back to shore?"
That's why I only held up three fingers.