"I'm not strong like you," Prudence said. She patted the gut draping over her waist. "I'm more like Rebecca."
"There's nothing wrong with either of you. You're my two best friends." Samantha reached across to wipe the tears from Prudence's cheeks. "Someone is going to come along and see you the way I do and love you even more than me."
"Thanks," Prudence said. They rowed in silence until the sun began to sink beneath the waves. Prudence went to the back of the boat to rouse Wendell. If only Samantha could wave a magic wand and make Prudence thin and Wendell tall and herself with all her memories intact. But not even the Fountain of Youth's water could help with that.
Fog rose during the night to shroud the Primrose in gloom. Samantha, Wendell, and Prudence took turns rowing all through the night, saying little to each other. Samantha woke in the morning to find the fog even thicker, so that she couldn't see her hand when she held it over the edge of the boat. "Let go of the oars," Samantha said. "We'll wait for this to clear."
They gathered in the stern to eat a meager breakfast of apples, cold bread, and thin strips of salted meat with sips from a skin of water to wash it all down. "How long until this fog lifts?" Prudence asked. She ate the least of any of them; from the greenness of her face Samantha sensed it had more to do with seasickness than self-consciousness about her weight.
"The sun should burn it off," Samantha said. The day came and went with the fog still in place and the Primrose drifting ahead on its own.
"We're cursed," Prudence said that night when the fog still hadn't lifted. "God doesn't want us to cross the sea. He wants to keep us in Eternity forever."
"It's not a curse," Wendell said. "It's a perfectly natural phenomenon."
"How would you know?" Prudence shot back.
"I know it's not some kind of silly curse by God."
"Settle down, both of you. Let's get some sleep." Despite Wendell's reassurances, Samantha prayed before she fell asleep for them to reach the mainland.
The next morning dawned clear without a cloud in the sky. A divine wind caught the sail, pushing them westward without the need for the oars. Before the sun reached directly overhead, Wendell gave a shout and pointed excitedly to a dark smudge on the horizon. "Land!" he cried out.
Samantha tried not to get too excited, but in a few minutes the smudge became a set of cliffs. At last they had found the mainland.