MEETS: A middle school literary magazine

That was how it all started. It had really been kinda stupid now that Jack
thought about it. The night they had left was good with enough wind to move
them along nicely but it wasn't too windy luckily. He had stayed up till twelve
that night reading and packing. He packed flint and steel, his jackknife, a
compass, some charts of the area, three blankets, a tarp, a flashlight, a small
FM radio (to update them on the latest COVID-19 news), some granola bars,
an old coffee can (for cooking) and a book by a guy who had been the leader
of Outward Bound about foraging for food on islands on the coast of Maine.
He packed the whole thing in a huge old canvas duffel. He wrote a note to his
parents and left it on his pillow. The note read:
Dear Mum and Dad, Aiden and I are taking the BayBerry on a summer long
camping trip. We promise to be back by the 23rd of august so Aiden can go back
to New York. We are going to McGlathery island over in Merchants Row. Don’t
worry, we’ll be OK. It will be just like the trip we did last summer just a lot longer.
Love,
Jack
He had then hurried down to the boatyard. Painted dark red, the long low
building loomed up out of the darkness. There were no lights on the outside
of the building or on the dock so the whole thing was in total darkness. Aiden
was leaning on the gas pump at the end of the dock wearing a gray hoodie
and jeans with a grin on his face.
“You sure you wanna do this?” said Jack with a hint of nervousness in his
voice.
“Sure! What could go wrong!” said Aiden carelessly. A lot, Jack had thought. He
had started to worry as he packed and Aiden's carelessness about leaving
hadn't helped. They had gone down to the float and got into Jack’s rowboat,
the Mouse II, and rowed out the mooring that the Bayberry sat quietly on. Jack
had consulted his charts earlier that night and had decided that in order to
not be seen by any grown-ups they should go to McGlatherys island which
was in a group of islands called Merchants Row which was a ways off shore
from Stonetown, Deer island. Since they lived on North Fox island they had to
sail across East Penobscot Bay to get there.