"All Ashore that's Going Ashore!" that was the last call from the purser aboard the great liner, which was about to embark on a voyage across the Atlantic. Tucked under a tarp in lifeboat number 5 huddled Jimmy Stone. Smug in the fact that he was finally getting away from his family. Not really his family but his stepfather. Jimmy's real father left several years ago, traveled to Europe and never returned. His mom tried to hold things together as best as she could, but it just got to be too hard for her. Paul was a co-worker at Jimmy's mom's office. They talked everyday, had a few lunch dates, finally a dinner date and eventually fell in love. After the divorce became final, Paul asked Mary to become his wife. At first she said no, then she said it was too soon. Finally she asked him if he was really sure that's what he wanted. The date was set and the ceremony took place at the clerk of the courts office.

"Hello Captain". Jimmy heard the voice directly outside his hiding place. "Mr. Jones we're in for some bad weather tonight, I want all the life boats battened down and put extra lines on everything." "Aye aye sir!" said the first mate. Jimmy heard the footsteps leave the area where he was hiding. He didn't think that he had anything to worry about. He had plenty of food and water enough for the five day crossing which lay ahead. Relaxing now, he soon drifted off to sleep. This whole episode had tired him out. Not to mention the gentle rocking of the ship, now that it had cleared the harbor.

A bright light snapped Jimmy wide-awake. It was dark outside, the weather had turned fearful very quickly and the lifeboat spotlights had been turned on. The ship was now tossed on the mighty sea like a child's toy in the bathtub. How the giant vessel was tossed about amazed Jimmy. "I'll be alright," thought Jimmy, it's dry in here and there are plenty of blankets to keep warm. Rain was pelting the canvas over his head as the lifeboat rocked to and fro on its davits. Jimmy finished his first bottle of water and ate some of the food. He was feeling pretty good about himself. However there was one problem he had not counted on. When food items are consumed and liquids drank, our bodies have a reaction to get rid of waste products. While he was sleeping, the ship's crew had already put the extra lashing on the lifeboats. What this meant was that all the lines were doubled and snubbed really tight to keep out the driving wind and rain. Consequently, this also kept Jimmy confined inside his hiding place. "I'll just use the empty water bottle," he said out loud, but not too loud. He accomplished the task without too much difficulty, but then he thought, "what if I have to do the other?"

A few decks below Jimmy in fact almost directly below him sat another young man. His name was also Jimmy; in fact he was almost exactly the same age. He sat looking out the porthole at the tossing seas and the lightning that was flashing all about. "James, come away from that window!" said his mother. Jimmy looked at his mother questionably and asked, "Why?" "Don't get smart young man" said his mother. "Lightning can strike over ten miles in a horizontal direction. "Ahew!" replied Jimmy, "I never did believe that anyway." "Nevertheless" continued his mother "come here and finish the game" They had been playing monopoly. "I'll bet I'm the only young person on this tub" complained Jimmy. Little did he know how right he was? In fact other than himself and the stowaway above him he was the only person under the age of thirty on board. In fact the ship was less than half-full. The captain had upgraded all the lower class passengers to upper class rooms. Jimmy and his mom got a stateroom accommodations. They could not believe it when the purser showed them to their cabin. It was three times the size of their former one. Instead of bunk beds there were two large queen-sized beds, a separate bathroom and even closets.

Jimmy's joints ached, despite the waterproof cover over him; an extreme amount of moisture had crept into every fiber of his body. Unable to stand and stretch, he tried to do the next best thing. He stretched out on the bench in the boat and hooked his toes under the thwarts. Then he reached to the thwarts on the opposite side and pulled with all his might. Muscles stretched, joints popped and the blood flowed at last and he felt a little better. Grabbing another bottle of water, he took a big gulp and let it trickle down his throat. From his sack he pulled out some of his mother's roast that she had made last Sunday. "Last Sunday" he thought. Why that was only yesterday! The smell of the meat filled not only his hiding place, but his memories also. His mother made the best roast in town. People used to call her on the phone every Saturday, to see if she was making roast the next day. If she was, they always seemed to find an excuse to drop by. Either right at dinnertime or during the main course. With every bite, his heart was broken a little more. Tears flowed, it had only been about 20 hours since he left, but he was homesick already. Surely his mom would miss him soon. But then he remembered that he had told her he was going to spend the night at his friend Tom's house. That would explain his clothes missing too. He realized that he actually would not be missed until this time tomorrow.

Back in the city, the phone rang. "Hello, Jane? This is Mary, Jimmy's mother, may I speak to Jimmy please?" asked his mom. Tom's, mother looked across the table at her son as she replied "Oh hi Mary, I'm sorry Jimmy's not here. In fact we were wondering why we hadn't seen him all weekend." Caught like a rat, Tom tried to squirm his way out of the kitchen before his mom got off the phone. But he didn't quite make his escape as he had hoped. "Tom!" his mother called, "Freeze young man!" Tom froze, he could tell by the tone of his mother's voice that the jig was up. "Tommy" his mother started, "tell me a story son, and make it a good one. Where's Jimmy?"

Almost an hour later the phone rang at Jimmy's house. His mother rushed to pick up the instrument. "Hello?" she said. She listened very intently to the voice on the other end of the line. A look of concern crossed her brow and then distress tugged at her heart as the story unfolded. Tommy was Jimmy's best friend, and he had told him everything, almost. The only thing he left out was that he was going to find his dad in Europe. All he knew was that his friend was unhappy with the present situation and he was going to leave to make it easier for everyone, or so he thought.

Jimmy's mother hung the receiver on the cradle and stood there, tears streaming down her face. Her husband Paul stepped to her side with a questioning look on his face. "Honey? He asked, "what's wrong, did something happen to Jim?" All she could do was nod, she could not bring herself to speak the words, she knew she would eventually have to say. Finally she looked up and saw the concern on her husband's face. "Sit down Paul, we need to talk."

Paul listened, without saying a word. He felt really bad. Not for himself so much as for Jimmy. Although he had married Mary he had yet to adopt Jimmy as his son. Neither had he actually spent as much time with him as he knew he should have. The empathy he felt for Jimmy was because he himself had been raised in a broken home. The same yet different. His dad had been killed in an accident. "What are we going to do?" asked Jimmy's mother. "I'm so worried about my baby." Paul looked at his wife long and hard. His mind was thinking about how he might have prevented this incident. "Let's go up to his room, maybe we can find a clue as to where he might have gone." Together they went upstairs, approaching Jimmy's door; she stopped and turned to Paul. "Honey," she said, "would you mind if I had a few minutes alone in there", indicating Jimmy's door. Paul really did not understand, but he submitted and stood aside as his wife entered and closed the door behind herself.

Pictures of the past flooded Mary's sight as she turned on the light. Jimmy and his dad and their dog Flip. That picture held a place of honor next to Jimmy's bed. Something drew her to that picture. She was not quite sure what it was, but there was something about it. She looked in the closet, under the bed and all around the room. Every time she turned around; that picture came into her view she stopped and stared again. A gentle knock came at the door, startling her. "Mary?" called Paul, "Are you OK honey?" "Yes" she said, "come in dear."

Paul had only been in the room a couple of times. Each time was because Jimmy had done something he needed to be reprimanded about. "Is everything OK?" he asked. "Did you find something?" "No" she replied, but you know something strange? When I was looking around, I kept seeing that picture on the night stand. I couldn't take my eyes off it." Paul picked up the picture and looked at the images. Noticing who was in the picture, he felt really bad. But then he noticed that the back of the picture was bulged out a little. Removing the back, out fell a folded piece of paper. Not normal paper but a thicker type. A commercial type used for advertisements and schedules. "What is that?" asked Mary. "It's a steamship schedule" responded Paul, "and look here, this one is circled." As they both looked they saw the name of the vessel, the sailing date and arrival time in Europe.

"Hello! I say Hello!" The voice seemed a million miles away as the ship to shore operator made the connection to the ship being tossed about in the midst of the storm's fury. Asking the purser to check his manifest listing they asked if there was a Jimmy Stone on his passenger list. "No ma'am!" responded the purser. "No Jimmy Stone, but we do have a young man named Jimmy in 1^st class. I'll check it out and call you back."

The knock came at the cabin door about the time that Jimmy and his mother were getting ready for bed. His mother was in the bathroom getting changed and Jimmy was reading a spy novel. "Yes" answered Jimmy. "Who is it?" The voice on the other side of the door said, "Sorry to bother you sir, it's the purser, may I talk to you and your mum please?" Jim knocked at the bathroom door and told his mother that the purser wanted to talk to them. His mother came out of the bathroom with a questioning look on her face. "May I help you?" she asked after opening the cabin door. "I hate to have to ask this question ma'am, but please it's very important" pleaded the purser. "Go ahead young man, get on with it" responded Jimmy's mother. "Yes ma'am" said the ship's officer rather meekly. "Is this young gentleman," indicating Jimmy,"actually your son, and if so do you have some kind of proof?" Well this almost sent Jim's mom over the edge. "Is he what?' she exclaimed. "Just a moment, I'll show you proof!" She went to her suitcase that was open on the bed and pulled out a leather valise from within. From this she pulled two pieces of paper and two small leather books. Handing them to the purser and stood there with her hands on her hips and tapping her foot. "Oh Oh!" thought Jimmy, "this guy's in for it now" and he stepped back. The purser looked at the papers; the first was a transfer from an American school to a European school. The second was Jimmy's birth certificate. Opening the two books he saw two pictures and stamps and official signatures of the two people standing here on US passports. "Everything seems to be in order ma'am," said the officer. "Again I'm sorry to disturb you, but I was just doing my job. Please accept the line's apology and mine. His mother realized that the man was really just following orders, softened and nodded her understanding as she replied. "Yes, well I'm certainty glad it's all straightened out. Good night!" "Good night ma'am, good night sir" he said as he nodded to Jimmy and left.

Jim's mom closed and latched the door, as she turned around, Jimmy was standing there with a puzzled look on his face. "Mom?" asked Jimmy, "Do you suppose there's another boy on this ship?" Jimmy was sensing an adventure coming on, something to put a little excitement into a normally dull crossing. "Go to bed Jimmy!" said his mother. Her familiar "There isn't any use arguing" tone was quite evident, so Jimmy said goodnight and turned in. His mind didn't follow suit however. It raced on and on with all the possibilities surrounding the current events.

"Yes ma'am" said the purser, "I checked their papers and they are who they say they are." The line crackled and the purser wasn't quite sure he heard the frantic plea from the lady over 200 miles away. "Excuse me ma'am but we're in the middle of a force three gale out here, there is no way that we can initiate a search of the entire ship." "How soon do you feel that you can start one sir?" said the stateside voice. "Hello? Hello?", the line was dead. "Honey" said Paul, "we were either cut off or the weather caused us to be disconnected.." Mary looked at her husband, her gaze full of questions, full of fear, full of worry for her son. "What do we do now?" she asked. "I'm sure they will search the ship as soon as they can and call us back" he said. But he didn't tell her that the ship was fast approaching the place in their journey where there was no way to communicate with them via ship-to -shore telephone. Not until they were closer to their destination. Until then they were out of communication range.

Dreams flooded Jim's mind as he slept in the over-sized bed in his 1st class stateroom, while above him; shivering, wet and also dreaming the other Jimmy dreamed and wished above all things that he was home tucked into his own warm bed.

Dawn broke, the storm had blown itself out, but it's aftermath remained as a mess on the decks of the still steaming east vessel. Already out and about was a virtual sea of stewards, uprightintg chairs, rolling up storm covers, getting everything shipshape for the passengers when they awoke. Young Jim had been awake for a over a full hour, even though his mom was still fast asleep. He penned her a short note stating that he was going to explore the ship and would meet her for breakfast at 9am. Closing the door quietly behind him he started on what he hoped was going to be the end of a boring trip with a bunch of old people.

About the same time, the other Jim was also awake. Not from excitement, but because he shook himself awake shivering from the cold and dampness and hunger. His bread supply had gotten wet and soggy and now lay in a sodden lump on the bottom of the lifeboat. Voices near him jerked him back to reality. "Man, I'm tired already" said the first voice. "Yeah, me too!" continued the second. "The Captain wants this mess cleaned up before breakfast. Better get those extra line stowed away." "Right away", replied the first voice again. "When you get done there's fresh coffee and pastries down on the leedo deck." "Alright!" said his companion, "let's hustle" The ropes came off quickly and Jim heard the fading footsteps as the two men moved away finishing their tasks.

"Well hello, hello!" These were the words that Jim heard coming nearer and nearer. The next thing he knew there was a boy, somewhat his own age staring at him with a smile as big as the ship he was on. "Hi there! I knew you'd be here, i just knew it!" said the boy. Jim just stared, stared unbelievingly at the sight before him. Then all at once they both heard the voices coming towards them. "Quick!" said Jim. "Get in!" Jimmy dis just as he was told and they both held their breaths as the voices stopped just beside their hiding place. "Yes sir!, I've searched the lower decks personally and there's no sign there that we might have a stow-away there." The other voice responded in an authoritative manner, and both boys knew that they had a very short time in which to make good their escape. "I want this entire vessel searched from bow to stern! I want all these lifeboats checked!" A hand slapped the canvas just above the boy's heads. "Yes sir!" responded the first voice. "Right away sir, I'll do it myself sir." "No!" came the loud reply, "I want every hand on deck now!" "Yes sir!" came the reply and footsteps could be heard running away from the site. They both heard the captain mutter something under his breath and then walk off. It wasn't until they could hear his footfalls did they both breathe a sigh of relief.

"We've got to get you out of here right away!" said Jimmy. Well, now Jim was stunned and just sat there and stared at this young boy full of excitement and vigor. "Hey!" said the boy again, are you in there?" He watched as the new boy started gathering all his things and putting them in his bag. Finally Jim snapped out of it and started to help him get it all together. Finally everything was ready. Jimmy peeked out of the cover, seeing the way was clear, climbed out and urged Jim to do the same. Now Jim felt quite safe here in his hiding place. But then he remembered hearing the captain tell the mate that he wanted all the lifeboats checked also. In fact both boys again heard the steps approaching. Scrambling quickly, they stumbled and half ran to the companionway and ducked inside, just as the two sailors came around the corner. "Follow me!" whispered Jimmy. Jim did as he was instructed and followed his new found friend.

Down the corridor they ran, like their lives depended on it. Finally stopping next to a door in first class. Jimmy put his ear to the door, while he held up a finger to his lips to tell his friend to be very quiet. Slowly Jimmy opened the door, looking inside he saw that his mother was still asleep. Motioning for his friend to follow, Jimmy went inside. Jim looked around at the stateroom, he was amazed with the size of it. Why it was larger than the living room, parlor and dining room back home all put together. He saw all the luxurious items in the room, but one thing which he dwelled on and whispered what he wanted to see was the bathroom. Jimmy nodded and kicked off his shoes and jumped back into bed because his mother was starting to stir. "Is that you honey?" asked his mother. "Yes ma'am" he replied. "OK" she said sleepily, "call me in a little while" "Uh-huh" he said.

As many times as he'd heard the plumbing work both at home and here on the ship, he had never heard it sound so loud. He cringed as he could almost hear his mother's eyes pop open. "Would you like to invite you friend to join us?" she said. Jimmy then realized his mother must have been awake the whole time while they were coming in. "Yes ma'am" he replied meekly. "Hey Jim" he called, "come on out!, she's already seen us"

Slowly the door opened and out came Jim, the other Jim, the stow-away. "Close the door quickly!" exclaimed Jimmy's mother. Jim did as he was instructed, red-faced he sat dow where he was directed to do so. "Jimmy, it's 8am, call the steward and tell him we'll be taking breakfast in this morning, and tell him we're really hungry, to double or portions. We'll dine at 9am sharp. I think by then we should have a few things straightened out". Jimmy followed his mother's orders as she excused herself and went into the dressing room and then returned with a red dressing gown over her nightgown.

As Jim watched his new found friend's mother sit down, he was not quite sure how this was going to proceed. "I presume your name is Jimmy Stone?" said Jimmy's mother. Jim looked at the lady with an astonished expression on his face. "How did you know my name ma'am?" asked Jim. "Never mind," she responded "my son I'm sure will explain all that later. Right now I want to hear your side of the story. It must have been something very serious to make you leave your home and your family. Tell us about it",she said...

..."and then Jimmy" indicating her son, "found me hiding in lifeboat number five, and the rest you already know." Jim had been talking non-stop for over a half an hour. He didn't know why, but he told them everything, not leaving out a thing.

A knock at the door startled the three into reality. Jimmy's mom motioned for Jim to get into the dressing room, quickly he responded and she closed the door behind him. "Come in young man" she said as she opened the door for the steward. "Please set it up there on the table, and I hope you brought plenty, that storm last night really stirred our appetites." "Yes ma'am, as you requested we more than doubled the portions. There's also some extra plates for the fruit" said the steward. "Thank you" replied Jimmy's mother said as she signed the receipt. "Good day" "And to you ma'am" responded the man as he left. They waited until they could no longer her his footsteps in the hallway. Then she nodded for Jimmy to get his friend.

Jim's eyes opened wide at the bounty set before him. Eggs, bacon, ham, biscuits, toast, cereal and even fresh fruit. There also was a large pitcher of fresh milk and orange juice too. Twenty minutes later there wasn't a crumb left to see. Jim had not realized just how hungry he actually was, but now he fully realized just how much he had eaten.

"You know of course, that we have to let your mother know that you're alright?" she stated. Jim just nodded, with his eyes downcast. "Yes ma'am" he replied. Deep inside he was actually glad that his mother would know what he had done. And yet he knew that he would be punished for his actions. But at this point he was ready to accept it. He was so homesick he could hardly stand it.

"Are you sure?" asked Jimmy's mother. "Yes ma'am" replied the radio operator. "We're out of range with either continent until at least tomorrow afternoon. If the weather holds, we should be able to raise London by 6pm out time." "Thank you sir" replied Jimmy's mom, "please notify me when we make contact, I have a very important phone call to make." "Very well ma'am" he responded, "I'll send the steward the moment I have a clear channel."

Back in the stateroom, the boys listened while she explained the problem with the overseas telephone system. "I guess you'll have the rest of today and most of tomorrow to be together. But I need to call the Captain and let him know what's going on." Jim now started to really get scared. "Is he going to lock me up?" he asked. "I'm not sure son, let's find out" answered Jimmy's mother. Picking up the phone, she held up a finger for the boys to be very quiet. She really didn't have to do that both young men were already holding their breaths.

A knock came at the door. "Who is it please?" asked Jimmy's mother. "Mrs. Starr, this is Captain Smith, you said that you needed to discuss a very important matter." After making sure that Jim was safely in the dressing area, she opened the door. "Thank you for coming Captain, please come in" she said.

Fifteen minutes later Jimmy opened the door to the dressing room and motioned for Jim to come out. As he entered the room he noticed that the Captain was putting some money into his pocket and Mrs. Starr was putting away her purse. Mrs. Starr held out her arm and Jim came to her like a little puppy to it mother. "Captain Smith" she began, "I'd like you to meet Jim Stone, Jim this is Captain Smith." The man smiled and extended his hand. "I'm very glad to meet you my boy" said the Captain. Now Jim was really confused, as he looked at each person there. All were smiling very openly and were apparently having a good time at his expense. Jimmy was suddenly very fearful, and a look of concern crossed his face. The Captain seeing that the young man was uncomfortable straightened everything out as he started to explained. "Jim, Mrs. Starr has explained everything to me, and has paid your passage to England." "What!, I don't understand!" said Jim.