One bright and sunny day, Arbo was with Stephanie and Lisa on a cruise ship, something he always wanted to go on, but being with Stephanie and Lisa made the moment even more special to him. They spent the day wandering and getting lost in the halls and passenger spaces having the time of their lives.
As night fell, however, conditions outside quickly took a turn for the worse as storm clouds quickly formed and the ocean waves quickly swelled around the cruise ship. Suddenly, a giant rogue wave appeared and struck the ship, damaging it so severely that it began to sink. As Arbo, Lisa, and Stephanie approached their muster station, another wave grabbed all three and threw them into the icy water, separating them. Arbo eventually spotted them and tried to swim toward them only to be swallowed by a whale from behind. The whale, having been aggravated by the storm, then spat him out and whacked him with his tail, knocking him out and flinging him to an unknown location.
When day broke, Arbo came to and found himself all alone on the sandy shores of an island. In despair, he curled himself into a ball, wrapped his tail around himself, and started crying, feeling that nature was out to get him and seaparate him from his friends. Eventually, he heard a female voice say to herself, "What's this?"
As a shadow quickly hovered over him, Arbo realized the female was about to grab him. Scared out of his wits, he instinctively wailed, "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!"
The female, who was much, much taller than Arbo was, was taken aback for a moment, but when she eventually saw how terrified Arbo was, she softly said to him, "It's okay. I won't."
Arbo still wasn't convinced. The woman asked him, "What are you doing here? It's over a hundred degrees here and you're shivering."
Arbo stammered while trying to tell her that he was on a ship that had sunk. When the thought of Lisa and Stephanie came to his mind, he turned toward the ocean and shouted, "Lisa?! Stephanie?! Where are you?!"
The woman asked him, "Who is this Lisa Stephanie?"
"They're two friends of mine on the cruise ship," Arbo said falteringly. " I don't know where they are."
"Would you like for me to try and help you find them?" the woman asked him.
"Yes, please," said Arbo as his voice continued to tremble. "I want to go back home with them."
The woman introduced her as an Amazon warrior named Melissa and told him about two friends of hers. One of them was a fellow warrior named Fannie. The other was a purple elephant named Christopher. Both were really good at finding things. After Melissa gave a loud holler, Christopher appeared seemingly out of the sky and asked Melissa what she needed.
"See this?" Melissa said to Christopher while giving Arbo a quick glance. "He needs a ship back home. If you think you see a ship, give us a trumpet and we'll head back. I'm going with him to the village to see if we can find two friends of his."
"Yes, ma'am," said Christopher.
With that, Melissa and Arbo made their way to the village. As they entered, Arbo noticed a large sign that read "Village of Beautiful Women."
"The village of beautiful women that I know has Lisa and Stephanie," he sadly thought to himself. In this village, the women looked mostly the same as Melissa and were likewise many times taller than Arbo, but eventually Melissa noticed Fannie and called her over.
Initially, Fannie was pleased to see Melissa, but when she noticed Arbo, she quickly became suspicious of him. "Melissa, you know men aren't allowed here," she said. "Besides, remember that stupid imbecile we had to deal with a while back?"
Despite this sounding very misandric, Arbo quietly said, "It's fine. This is your island. Rules are rules. Besides, I should be back home."
He was about to turn around and trundle back towards the shore, but Melissa blocked him with her hand. "Don't worry," she said to Fannie. "I'll keep an eye on him. Besides, we're Amazon warriors and we have to help those in need, man or woman. I mean, look at this poor kid! He's lost, he's alone, he's scared out of his mind, he clearly needs help!"
"Do you know what he needs help with?" asked Fannie.
"Getting back home," answered Melissa, "but he's also looking two friends of his. They were on a ship that sank in that storm that passed us by last night. That's why I turned to you. You're pretty good at finding things."
Fannie's mood took a turn for the better. "I was about to head back home from shopping," she smiled, "but I'll be more than happy to help."
Fannie, Melissa, and Arbo spent all afternoon looking around the island for Stephanie and Lisa, with Arbo telling the two warriors about them. Despite all their efforts, there was no sign of Arbo's two beautiful friends. Eventually, Arbo began to lose hope that they would ever be found.
"I'm sure they're around here somewhere, Arbo," said Fannie. "There are some other islands close by. Even if they're not on this island, they could be on one of those other islands. They must be thinking about you too."
"You would've loved to met them, ladies," said Arbo quietly.
"From what you're telling us, we definitely would," smiled Melissa, "but there's something else we want to tell you."
"We understand you're scared, Arbo," said Fannie, "but you're still a warrior yourself because you were still brave to ask us for help."
"Sometimes, the power of just asking goes a long way," said Melissa. "The answer may not always be yes, but if you don't ask, the answer will always be no."
Arbo nodded and gave the two warriors a tearful and humble yet appreciative smile. "Thank you, ladies," he said quietly.
"And I have never seen anyone say 'please' or 'thank you' anywhere as often as you have," Melissa went on.
"I was told they go a long way," chuckled Arbo. The two warriors nodded and chuckled in agreement.
Just then, they heard a trumpeting sound. "That's Christopher! He must've spotted a ship!" shouted Melissa. The three ran back to the shore where Christopher was.
Sure enough, Christopher had indeed spotted a ship. "Let's see if they can here us!" said Fannie.
Fannie and Melissa made their warrior yells, Christopher trumpted, and Arbo shouted all as loud as they possibly could, but there was no sign of the ship getting any closer to them.
Just then, Melissa spotted an old withering tree. "Let's see if they can spot this," she said. With Fannie's help, they pulled the tree out with ease and set it ablaze with Melissa waving it like a makeshift flare. They continued yelling and shouting, knowing their chances of being spotted would be better if they were both seen and heard.
Eventually, the ship noticed the smoke from the makeshift flare and headed towards them. As the ship got closer, Arbo seemed to recognize the ship from his youth. "That's Nautilus!" he shouted excitedly. "That's a navy ship!"
"A navy ship? That sounds pretty cool," said Christopher.
Arbo's enthusiasm faded quickly, however, into a sad sigh. "If only Stephanie and Lisa could see this, but I do appreciate all the help you gave me, ladies."
"Oh, you're welcome," said Melissa, "but remember we told you they could be around here somewhere?"
"Yes," said Arbo.
"Well..." Melissa said as she and Fannie revealed they weren't Amazon warriors at all. Melissa and Fannie were actually Lisa and Stephanie themselves! "SURPRISE!" they elatedly shouted.
Arbo could not contain his joy as the three hugged each other. All the while, Christopher was intially confused, but then he said to Arbo, "Oh, let me guess. You're Don Knotts?"
Stephanie and Lisa laughed while Arbo simply gave a weary grin. "Sorry, Christopher," said Stephanie. "I noticed you had an autographed photo of him thoe."
"Yeah, never got to meet him," said Christopher, "but at least I have that, and I'm very pleased to meet you three. You have just as much humor as Don Knotts does. So does that ship. I've never seen a ship with eyes before."
Just then, the navy ship anchored near the island while a lifeboat was sent out to rescue Lisa, Stephanie, and Arbo, who thanked Christopher for all the help. "No problem," he said them. "It was my pleasure. I'll let the others know all's well for you."
"Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!" smiled Arbo as the lifeboat pulled up.
Arbo, Lisa, and Stephanie then made their way into the lifeboat. As the lifeboat made its way back towards Nautilus, they waved gratefully at Christopher until they could see him no more. As they approached Nautilus, Arbo asked him if he found any other survivors from the sunken cruise ship.
"No. We checked the surrounding area and the other islands nearby. All we found were bodies and debris. Not a pretty sight," the ship said forlornly.
Arbo gave a deep sigh as tears trickled down his face. Stephanie and Lisa sadly hugged him. Although they were the lucky ones, their hearts went out to all those who were not so fortunate as well as their families.
Soon after the three boarded the ship, however, Arbo would be in for one more surprise that made him feel even better about the situation he was in. He gasped loudly as soon he saw two people already on board - two people he easily recognized.
"MOM!! DAD!!"
The two people turned around and quickly ran toward Arbo to hug him. They were Arbo's parents Theo and Emilisha. The three hugged each other tightly as Stephanie and Lisa made their way to join in.
Afterwards, Theo and Emilisha thanked Stephanie and Lisa for taking care of Arbo and asked them to tell their friend Billy that they appreciated all he had done for Arbo as well. Stephanie and Lisa promised.
"We're so proud of you, Arbo," said Theo.
"We are, Arbo. We really are," said Emilisha.
--
Just then, Arbo suddenly found himself laying on his bed. Theo and Emilisha were no longer there. It was all a dream. Theo and Emilisha were still dead. Although Stephanie and Lisa were still with him, it didn't stop him from crying over the fact that Theo and Emilisha were gone. He was still struggling to be at peace with the number 447, the number of the flight that took his parents from him.
"I met your mother and father," whispered Lisa. "They asked me and Stepanie to tell you they love you and they're very proud of you."
"Yes, they did ask us," whispered Stephanie. "They are indeed very proud of you."
The three eventually fell back asleep only to wake up a few hours later. Later that day, they, Billy, and their friends set up a big party for Stephanie as it was a big day for her. She was turning 38 today!
After the festivities began, Stephanie and Lisa had something to tell Billy.
"We met Theo and Emilisha," Lisa said to him.
"We promised them that we would tell you how appreciative they are of all you've done for him."
Billy smiled, knowing that Stephanie, Arbo, and Lisa must've had one heck of a way past cool dream. "They're very welcome," he said to them. "They're way past welcome."
--
So I know it's been five years since I introduced Arbo to the world, but I felt it would be nice if I could draw his late parents with him, Stephanie, and Lisa.
From left to right, you have Stephanie, Theo, Arbo, Emilisha, and Lisa. Although Lisa is the only one pictured in this drawing who never truly had the good fortune of meeting Arbo's parents, she still feels honored to have become part of the family.
The dream that Arbo, Stephanie, and Lisa were in was inspired by an episode of the animated series Johnny Bravo. While that series is known for its slapstick comedy, adult humor, and pop culture references, I'm more known for writing stories that are much more serious in nature, ranging from somber to uplifting to exciting, hoping to figure out the way towards the happiest ending possible.
Theo and Emilisha, who were known by those close to them as being venerable as a vegetable and vigorous as a vineyard, are based off of the tugboats Theodore and Emily. For years, I kept thinking that Arbo's mother's name was Elisha. I don't know why I've been doing that, but it's really Emilisha. Emilisha's shoes are also colored and made of the same material of the patch Emily wore when she bruised one of her bumpers.
And in case you've forgotten, Arbo is based off of R. Boat - R for row - while Stephanie is based off of the Queen Stephanie, the greatest, grandest, and nicest ocean liner in the world.
The Queen Stephanie's name is based off of the RMS Queen Elizabeth, hence the last name of my mink character. The Queen Stephanie's design is based off of the SS Canberra, another ocean liner which was named after the Australian city of Canberra, where my mink character's parents were originally from. They gave birth to Stephanie soon after arriving in America via the SS Canberra herself. My mink character's middle name, Diana, is not based off of any ocean liners, but after the late, great Princess Diana.
Stephanie herself is indeed the greatest, grandest, and nicest mink I've ever had the good fortune of knowing. Happy Birthday, Stephanie! Here's to more great, grand, and nice birthdays with us all, including Theo and Emilisha!
--
Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along. Tell me who wants to look back on their youth and wonder where those years have gone?
