"Stop! OH Please Stop! I'm coming - please Wait! "
Alannah could see a few passengers on board the vessel. They appeared to be on the top deck peering down at her, she also noticed that there were some people watching her from round portholes close to the water line. She kept waiving at them screaming STOP, finally someone spotted her running and began cheering her on.
"CAPTAIN - hold the gangplank! There's another one more coming - if she can make it!" One of the sailors on the deck of the ship yelled.
"Come on girl! The ship is already moving!" another replied "Run for it, lass! Don't mind your hat just let it go!"
Hearing that call, Alannah kicked it into high gear, and almost tripping over her own shoes, which were not made for running of course. Holding tightly to her carpet bag, Alannah ran for all she was worth. The footsteps behind her also picking up speed and she knew this was it, it was a miracle that they didn't catch her. When she arrived at the spot where the ship had previously been docked, she barely took time to register the ever widening gap between ship's gangplank and the dock. She knew that if she did not make the jump and missed that she could end up in the murky waters below. Alannah knew she had no choice, her mind was telling her that it was time to sink or swim. Alannah finally made the choice to jump, she backed up to what she estimated was 10 feet from the dock, taking a deep breath she mustered one last burst of speed, closed her eyes and jumped.
Alannah saw the two sailors who had yelled encouragement standing with their arms stretched out ready to catch her. She had to trust her life to them, complete strangers, that was something she had never done before. If those two sailors had been inexperienced, they wouldn't have been able to catch Alannah. But luckily for her they were able-bodied men who'd spent their entire lives at sea, and had experienced almost anything you could have thrown at them. Those two sailors had been witness to all manners of emotional extremes, brought on by the need to escape from one thing or another, and they thought they had seen it all. Though Alannah had fallen short in her leap of faith, and it seemed as though she were destined for a plunge into the murky blue-green waters of the North Sea, those two sailors, with their outstretched hands made a single death defying catch that threw everyone on board into an uproar of HOORAY's and clapping. As they stood upright, they brought Alannah over the rails and steadied her on her feet between them, she was still clutching her carpetbag to her chest. They acknowledged the cheers with a slight waive, and they took the now relieved Alannah away from the stern of the ship.