Distraction

New Day, Same Day

The days flew by, and Manny realized that every day was possible to make the best of in a different way. You may ask yourself: What does that even mean? Well. For his grandpa Fiete, Manny had to keep things recognizable and unchanged. 

There were days when he seemed like his old self, other days when Manny discovered completely new sides about his grandfather and days when he came to feel like the world had turned its back on him. 

Sometimes Fiete would wake up, asking Manny where his wife and daughter were, treating his grandson as a stranger, trying frantically to find them. Other days he would acknowledge Manny as his grandson, and they'd sit out on the dunes for hours and chat their days away.

Manny would tell him about his idea of what life looked like for him, how the other kids at school already knew exactly what they wanted to do, and how they wanted to become businessmen and women. To some extent, Fiete encouraged the idea of his fellow students. But, he had to keep his tough guy, successful former businessman image up, he thought. And so, Manny wouldn't feel as understood as he thought he would be by his grandfather. However, he knew this image would vanish soon, and he would show his true colours again soon. And so he waited and waited, but his grandfather kept his tough image up for days. 

From day to day, his grandfather became more of a stranger again.

Nothing in common, no warmth and kindness was seen in his so worrisome and wrinkly face.

And so, Manny tried to distract himself by actually working on the tasks he had to finish over the summer. Of course, he hated doing it, but; at least it distracted him.

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He came to think through. Why do I need to distract myself? What do I have to distract myself from then? 

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Before he could question it any further, he was interrupted by a strange sound from outside. 

It was some thump, a loud ear thrilling noise, something like a motor.

It was around 4 p.m., so it wouldn't be hard to identify where the noise came from.

As he walked closer to the cliff, he saw a relatively small and rusty ship that had trouble getting started up in the waters. Then, all of a sudden, the boat moved. Mannys' heart sunk once he had realized who was steering that boat. It was his grandfather. 

Now, he still didn't know much about dementia; however, one thing he knew was that his grandfather had trouble with orientation sometimes. Those feelings of being lost, even in his room, would appear unexpectedly and sometimes lead to emotional outbursts. 

Grandpa Fiete was in great danger. So the first thing Manny did, once his mind cleared up again, was run over to the telephone to call the police and inform his mother. But, to his shock, he discovered that his grandfather had cut all the telephone cables and unfortunately he had to leave his mobile phone back at his parents' place. 

And so he ran through forest and coastal scenery until he finally reached the small town. He figured he'd try to call from the nearby coffee shop. But, of course, there were no police on this island, and it would take police hours to get there. 

He remembered that he was living in a lighthouse after all. So he ran back to it and activated the alarming light system, hoping his grandfather would see it and come back. 

The sea's surface seemed to roughen up and would slowly but surely turn itself against the wind.

You could see dark clouds in the distance and the seagulls flying back on land.

In the distance, he sighted the boat, slowly but surely struggling to keep up with the winds and waves. He was frightened for his grandfather and couldn't take a look at the happening any further. But, he had to take action, so he sneaked up to the nearest boat and stole it, starting the motor with wire, just as he had once seen it in a movie. He had never steered a ship before. Especially not one of those all-manual ones, where you'd need a card to navigate where you were. 

And so he tried to navigate where Fiete was, having no idea whether he needed to go south, north, west or whatever direction he could be. He just dragged the boat across the sea until he would finally see something that looked like a boat. Unfortunately, it would be hard to get there, as although it seemed as if the ship was close, it was actually quite far away, and the air began to fog up. His sight would soon consist of only the steering wheel and a white broth. 

He kept going in that direction where he thought he had seen him last.

Hed started screaming his name, Fiete, over and over again until he finally heard something that kind of sounded like a human from nearby. Then, finally, he sighted the boat.

It seemed so weak and lost as if the sea would swallow it any second now. 

He realized right away that his grandfather was overwhelmed by the situation. 

But yet, he would still be frantically screaming for his wife and daughter. 

It seemed like he didn't care for anything else in the world than just finding them again. His current situation didn't seem to phase him at all.

He was in this phase of his life again. There wasn't any worse timing than that.

Because not only was he desperate, but he would also not recognize his grandson.

When Manny tried to get his attention, he didn't even look at him.

And to top it all off, the boat manny had stolen had given into the waves. 

There was no other option other than to jump over onto his grandfathers' boat.

Even if that meant that he might appear as a threat to Fiete. There was no other way.

And so he jumped over, with whatever adrenaline and bravery he had in him, millimetres away from being torn into the now icy cold and rough water. In this rush, he didn't realize that Fiete had equipped himself with a bat that he used to kill fish with, as it was a fisher boat...