Blood is Thicker Than Water
Title
Blood is Thicker Than Water
Creator
Amanda Gottardi
Date
04/17/2023
Text
Alone, but together.
That was it. Adapted to worrying about each other only. Annabella, Nico, and Nathan are constantly home alone due to a sea-level rise. They were excited for one reason only. School was canceled! Parents were at work , you know how it is.
In the year of 2100, you would think online school would be an option. When you live near Redlands, Florida and there are farm and agriculture areas, getting an internet connection was not an easy thing. The siblings try to make the best of their situation. A positive mindset was an important thing to have during these times. The three of them did their best to keep one another’s spirits up.
Wow, how times have changed. You don’t see your typical fresh green grass that goes down acres and acres. Now, the view is mostly murky ocean water that could come and go depending on where you live. No one ever guessed it would come to this. It started off as one feet, two feet, three feet, four feet, five feet, and now six feet. Cars have turned into aqua boats.. Bikes are now known as aqua cycles. In our area, golf carts are now aqua carts. Basically, they just have special tires called “water tires”. It’s normal to have a boat for transportation rather than a car nowadays. If you’re having a birthday party at one of those farmer’s markets, they have docks to dock your aqua boats or for aqua food boats. Oh and if you wanted to grow crops, you really needed a dock to be able to have your fruits and vegetables grow in a pot. Finding a vacant lawn with no water was rare and almost impossible to find and if you did find any, it was extremely expensive.
Sounds crazy, I know. No one ever imagined that our beautiful Earth would come to this. Growing up during these times, this water life was the dorm and is all the siblings knew. They never knew what normal back then life was like their grandparents and great-grandparents did. Their parents really didn’t know either, if you really think about it.
It was fine though. Human beings are really resilient mammals. They adapted, learned and now live to survive. Doesn’t mean that they don’t bond or have sibling moments. They now bond in different ways than siblings did prior to the sea-level rise. Annabella, the oldest, was 19 years old and she was the one that kept everyone in check.
“C’mon guys, we need to get this done today if not, then i'm choosing what movie we're watching tonight”, is something Annabella loves to say to her siblings.
Nico and Nathan were 14 year old twins. They had more of a creative mindset, but were also pretty lazy. You know those kids that are smart, but are just too lazy to do anything ? Yup, that was Nico and Nathan.
"Can you just let us go at our own pace? It’ll eventually get done sissy”, they both would chime in back at Annabella.
Together they made an excellent team and really knew how to get things done… Well, sort of.
They had their fair share of chores like, feeding their animals, getting groceries, and personal outings. However, they had it easier than most people. Luckily, their house was 10 feet elevated.This came to a great advantage as the water did not invade their home or anyone in their neighborhood. Although, they still had a lake at the backend of their house, so they mostly used their rain boots and water gear. If they needed to get groceries, they would walk to the boat dock and take the boat.
Annabella wasn’t the oldest really…
They had an older brother, Justin. Justin thought he didn’t need his siblings because they were younger than him.
One day, without telling them or making any sort of communication he goes out to get an item that he thought was very important. To this day they don’t know what it was he needed to get. He went out before the sun started to rise and didn’t realize the water was starting to rise faster than it had ever. There were a ton of boats driving around creating humongous waves that never ended. Sadly, this resulted in Justin having an accident and drowning. His siblings had no clue because they were still sound asleep when this happened.
Annabella, Nico and Nathan woke up to Fox Water News saying,
"A 19 year old boy was found dead from drowning in an unexpected accident caused by another sea-level rise.”
The three of them gave each other a blank stare. Even though Nico and Nathan were only five years old, they understood. After this day, Annabella made THE famous rule to “Never go out there alone. If you want to leave, tell one another, communicate all the way ,and go out there together.” That was the day they knew, things would never be the same and from this day on did did everything together as a unit.
As the years went on and everyone made sure to follow that rule. Until one day, Nathan let his love for his video games distract him from the importance of this rule. Nathan was into this computer video game called Roblox. Roblox was his life. A small shop far more down from where we lived. An aqua cart was needed for transportation in order to get there. The shop was selling Roblox money, which was rare to find anywhere else. Roblox money is something he always asked for because it allowed him to unlock new worlds and characters. Sounds dumb, I know I know.
Whatever back to what I was saying, Nathan secretly decides to leave and go get his Roblox money. Nico would have gone with him ,but didn’t let them go alone because you know everyone leaves the house together. He knew Annabella would never agree to go because she wasn’t a fan of Roblox.
Nathan didn’t want to hear her say,
“We’re not leaving the house for some silly game.”
As he started heading to where the water and dry land meet, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
”Wow, it’s never been this bad. Maybe I should turn back and get Anna and Nico” said Nathan frustrated with tears starting to fall down his face as his stomach starting to do back flips.
Car boats were flashing by quickly trying to get where they needed to go. There wasn’t another section to drive the aqua boats, and Nathan really wanted to get his Roblox money so he went for it. Waves were crashing into each other and into his vehicle. Water started to get into the manual transmission and the water tires started to fly off. Nathan started screaming for help, but no one heard him. At this very moment he thought to himself,
“ This is it.”
In a split second, he dug into his tangled pocket to reach for his brand new water-proof phone.
“Hey Siri! Hey Siri call Anna!” screaming and panicking into his phone.
“Hello? Hello? Please, please answer. Oh my goodness, of course this doesn’t work.”
Nathan was getting more furious that he didn’t have the connection to call his siblings to come rescue him. He then remembered the walkie-talkie in the emergency box located under the seat of the aqua cart.
“Anna! Nico! C’mon answer!” said Nathan desperately yelling into his device.
About thirty- minutes goes by and not even the walkie-talkies are helping. Nathan out of frustration started banging the walkie-talkie onto the steering wheel, and that’s when his voice started to go through. Annabella and Nico ran to the garage because they heard Nathan calling through their walkie-talkies.
“Yes? Nathan? Are you okay? What’s going on? Where are you? Why are you out alone?” said Annabella.
There was complete silence for about five seconds and the siblings’ stomachs started to catch butterflies.
“Yes, Annabella! The waves are too harsh out here. I’m by the “By Brothers Aqua Market.” Come help me and bring the other aqua cart if you can. Hurry I don’t have much time left.”
Annabella was very upset because he broke their very important rule for a silly reason.
“I don’t even want to go because you broke code, but since you’re my brother we are on the way.”
The siblings arrived and were shocked at how they saw the circumstances their brother was in. Nathan had his legs and one arm wrapped around the tree like a newborn monkey grabbing onto his mom. While, the other arm was holding onto a rope that he managed to tie onto the aqua cart before the wind and waves started to get worse.
“Well, don’t just stand there, come over here and help me!” screamed Nathan at the top of his lungs.
“Okay, you are going to let go of the boat and jump onto our boat” said Nico panicking.
“No, I am not letting go of this aqua cart. We need to save it as much as you need to save me and you know exactly why. Go more into town and find shops that sell a transmission and water tires.”
Annabella and Nico thought Nathan was crazy for making them do this, but off they went to go find the missing parts.
They looked around and saw a small shop called “Alice’s Transmissions Shop”.
“There! Stop there!” Nico hollered.
“Can you relax please, I’m going,” Annabella said trying not to show she’s freaking out inside.
They ran in and went straight to the cashier saying,
“Do you have a manual transmission for an aqua cart part? Please we need one right now! Our brother is going to die!”
Alice, the owner, responded in a calm voice, which made them furious,
“Well, you're in luck because a shipment just came in of new transmissions. A thousand dollars for one.”
With aggression in their voice they told her,
“We don’t have a card or cash with us right now. Please, please for free or I’ll give you anything.”
Alice spotted Annabella’s pearl necklace that her “Abuela” gave to her.
“I’ll give you a brand new one for that pretty necklace,” said Alice.
Annabella desperately gave her the necklace but started to tear up because that necklace meant so much to her. They got the transmission and jumped back on the aqua cart and looked for a water tire shop.
Zooming and passing everyone on their way, they spotted “Gio’s Aqua Cart Water Tire Shop”.
“Annabella, there! We got this!”, said Nico with a weird type of excitement in his voice.
They ran into the shop and started looking for aqua water tires, but couldn’t find any. Gio, the owner, had them stored behind the register. They asked him huffing and puffing,
“How much for four water tires?”
“Each one is five-hundred dollars,” said Gio.
Again, they didn’t have that kind of money. However, Nico offered to give his grandfather’s watch because they knew Nathan only had a matter of time left. Gio agreed and gave them the tires. They jumped back on the aqua cart and hauled ass over to Nathan. I know it seemed like they are taking forever to get the items, but really it took about ten minutes.
They hurried back to Nathan and as they were approaching him, they noticed there was no aqua cart and no Nico. Annabella and Nico started panicking and searching for him, and found him being taken care of by a water police that had found him.
“Wow, so we managed to get the missing parts and gave away the items that mattered most to us to find Nathan and the aqua cart to be perfectly safe,”said Nico in an exhausted manner.
Annabella so quickly responded, “ Well, no not really. He is our brother, our family. We would do anything for each other because that’s what family does. Yes, the items were worth a lot to us ,but Nathan is worth more than that. If we were there when Justin was drowning, we would’ve been there in a flash. True love in the family is never selfish.”
Annabella was right. If I would’ve been there for my siblings and not think I was so cool to just ask them to come with me, I would still be with them today and in that moment trying to help Nathan.
Thank goodness my siblings made it. I really wish I had been there with them. They jumped back on the aqua cart Annabella had brought, and hurried on their way home before our parents got home. Unfortunately, our parents were already home and were at the door waiting for them. Mom was always anxious and worried about everyone, and Dad was more relaxed and calm. Mom hysterically screamed,
“Where have you all been? I know we aren’t home as much but you really need to leave a paper or walkie-talkie note next time.
Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind. I don’t want to lose any of you again.”
That was it. Adapted to worrying about each other only. Annabella, Nico, and Nathan are constantly home alone due to a sea-level rise. They were excited for one reason only. School was canceled! Parents were at work , you know how it is.
In the year of 2100, you would think online school would be an option. When you live near Redlands, Florida and there are farm and agriculture areas, getting an internet connection was not an easy thing. The siblings try to make the best of their situation. A positive mindset was an important thing to have during these times. The three of them did their best to keep one another’s spirits up.
Wow, how times have changed. You don’t see your typical fresh green grass that goes down acres and acres. Now, the view is mostly murky ocean water that could come and go depending on where you live. No one ever guessed it would come to this. It started off as one feet, two feet, three feet, four feet, five feet, and now six feet. Cars have turned into aqua boats.. Bikes are now known as aqua cycles. In our area, golf carts are now aqua carts. Basically, they just have special tires called “water tires”. It’s normal to have a boat for transportation rather than a car nowadays. If you’re having a birthday party at one of those farmer’s markets, they have docks to dock your aqua boats or for aqua food boats. Oh and if you wanted to grow crops, you really needed a dock to be able to have your fruits and vegetables grow in a pot. Finding a vacant lawn with no water was rare and almost impossible to find and if you did find any, it was extremely expensive.
Sounds crazy, I know. No one ever imagined that our beautiful Earth would come to this. Growing up during these times, this water life was the dorm and is all the siblings knew. They never knew what normal back then life was like their grandparents and great-grandparents did. Their parents really didn’t know either, if you really think about it.
It was fine though. Human beings are really resilient mammals. They adapted, learned and now live to survive. Doesn’t mean that they don’t bond or have sibling moments. They now bond in different ways than siblings did prior to the sea-level rise. Annabella, the oldest, was 19 years old and she was the one that kept everyone in check.
“C’mon guys, we need to get this done today if not, then i'm choosing what movie we're watching tonight”, is something Annabella loves to say to her siblings.
Nico and Nathan were 14 year old twins. They had more of a creative mindset, but were also pretty lazy. You know those kids that are smart, but are just too lazy to do anything ? Yup, that was Nico and Nathan.
"Can you just let us go at our own pace? It’ll eventually get done sissy”, they both would chime in back at Annabella.
Together they made an excellent team and really knew how to get things done… Well, sort of.
They had their fair share of chores like, feeding their animals, getting groceries, and personal outings. However, they had it easier than most people. Luckily, their house was 10 feet elevated.This came to a great advantage as the water did not invade their home or anyone in their neighborhood. Although, they still had a lake at the backend of their house, so they mostly used their rain boots and water gear. If they needed to get groceries, they would walk to the boat dock and take the boat.
Annabella wasn’t the oldest really…
They had an older brother, Justin. Justin thought he didn’t need his siblings because they were younger than him.
One day, without telling them or making any sort of communication he goes out to get an item that he thought was very important. To this day they don’t know what it was he needed to get. He went out before the sun started to rise and didn’t realize the water was starting to rise faster than it had ever. There were a ton of boats driving around creating humongous waves that never ended. Sadly, this resulted in Justin having an accident and drowning. His siblings had no clue because they were still sound asleep when this happened.
Annabella, Nico and Nathan woke up to Fox Water News saying,
"A 19 year old boy was found dead from drowning in an unexpected accident caused by another sea-level rise.”
The three of them gave each other a blank stare. Even though Nico and Nathan were only five years old, they understood. After this day, Annabella made THE famous rule to “Never go out there alone. If you want to leave, tell one another, communicate all the way ,and go out there together.” That was the day they knew, things would never be the same and from this day on did did everything together as a unit.
As the years went on and everyone made sure to follow that rule. Until one day, Nathan let his love for his video games distract him from the importance of this rule. Nathan was into this computer video game called Roblox. Roblox was his life. A small shop far more down from where we lived. An aqua cart was needed for transportation in order to get there. The shop was selling Roblox money, which was rare to find anywhere else. Roblox money is something he always asked for because it allowed him to unlock new worlds and characters. Sounds dumb, I know I know.
Whatever back to what I was saying, Nathan secretly decides to leave and go get his Roblox money. Nico would have gone with him ,but didn’t let them go alone because you know everyone leaves the house together. He knew Annabella would never agree to go because she wasn’t a fan of Roblox.
Nathan didn’t want to hear her say,
“We’re not leaving the house for some silly game.”
As he started heading to where the water and dry land meet, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
”Wow, it’s never been this bad. Maybe I should turn back and get Anna and Nico” said Nathan frustrated with tears starting to fall down his face as his stomach starting to do back flips.
Car boats were flashing by quickly trying to get where they needed to go. There wasn’t another section to drive the aqua boats, and Nathan really wanted to get his Roblox money so he went for it. Waves were crashing into each other and into his vehicle. Water started to get into the manual transmission and the water tires started to fly off. Nathan started screaming for help, but no one heard him. At this very moment he thought to himself,
“ This is it.”
In a split second, he dug into his tangled pocket to reach for his brand new water-proof phone.
“Hey Siri! Hey Siri call Anna!” screaming and panicking into his phone.
“Hello? Hello? Please, please answer. Oh my goodness, of course this doesn’t work.”
Nathan was getting more furious that he didn’t have the connection to call his siblings to come rescue him. He then remembered the walkie-talkie in the emergency box located under the seat of the aqua cart.
“Anna! Nico! C’mon answer!” said Nathan desperately yelling into his device.
About thirty- minutes goes by and not even the walkie-talkies are helping. Nathan out of frustration started banging the walkie-talkie onto the steering wheel, and that’s when his voice started to go through. Annabella and Nico ran to the garage because they heard Nathan calling through their walkie-talkies.
“Yes? Nathan? Are you okay? What’s going on? Where are you? Why are you out alone?” said Annabella.
There was complete silence for about five seconds and the siblings’ stomachs started to catch butterflies.
“Yes, Annabella! The waves are too harsh out here. I’m by the “By Brothers Aqua Market.” Come help me and bring the other aqua cart if you can. Hurry I don’t have much time left.”
Annabella was very upset because he broke their very important rule for a silly reason.
“I don’t even want to go because you broke code, but since you’re my brother we are on the way.”
The siblings arrived and were shocked at how they saw the circumstances their brother was in. Nathan had his legs and one arm wrapped around the tree like a newborn monkey grabbing onto his mom. While, the other arm was holding onto a rope that he managed to tie onto the aqua cart before the wind and waves started to get worse.
“Well, don’t just stand there, come over here and help me!” screamed Nathan at the top of his lungs.
“Okay, you are going to let go of the boat and jump onto our boat” said Nico panicking.
“No, I am not letting go of this aqua cart. We need to save it as much as you need to save me and you know exactly why. Go more into town and find shops that sell a transmission and water tires.”
Annabella and Nico thought Nathan was crazy for making them do this, but off they went to go find the missing parts.
They looked around and saw a small shop called “Alice’s Transmissions Shop”.
“There! Stop there!” Nico hollered.
“Can you relax please, I’m going,” Annabella said trying not to show she’s freaking out inside.
They ran in and went straight to the cashier saying,
“Do you have a manual transmission for an aqua cart part? Please we need one right now! Our brother is going to die!”
Alice, the owner, responded in a calm voice, which made them furious,
“Well, you're in luck because a shipment just came in of new transmissions. A thousand dollars for one.”
With aggression in their voice they told her,
“We don’t have a card or cash with us right now. Please, please for free or I’ll give you anything.”
Alice spotted Annabella’s pearl necklace that her “Abuela” gave to her.
“I’ll give you a brand new one for that pretty necklace,” said Alice.
Annabella desperately gave her the necklace but started to tear up because that necklace meant so much to her. They got the transmission and jumped back on the aqua cart and looked for a water tire shop.
Zooming and passing everyone on their way, they spotted “Gio’s Aqua Cart Water Tire Shop”.
“Annabella, there! We got this!”, said Nico with a weird type of excitement in his voice.
They ran into the shop and started looking for aqua water tires, but couldn’t find any. Gio, the owner, had them stored behind the register. They asked him huffing and puffing,
“How much for four water tires?”
“Each one is five-hundred dollars,” said Gio.
Again, they didn’t have that kind of money. However, Nico offered to give his grandfather’s watch because they knew Nathan only had a matter of time left. Gio agreed and gave them the tires. They jumped back on the aqua cart and hauled ass over to Nathan. I know it seemed like they are taking forever to get the items, but really it took about ten minutes.
They hurried back to Nathan and as they were approaching him, they noticed there was no aqua cart and no Nico. Annabella and Nico started panicking and searching for him, and found him being taken care of by a water police that had found him.
“Wow, so we managed to get the missing parts and gave away the items that mattered most to us to find Nathan and the aqua cart to be perfectly safe,”said Nico in an exhausted manner.
Annabella so quickly responded, “ Well, no not really. He is our brother, our family. We would do anything for each other because that’s what family does. Yes, the items were worth a lot to us ,but Nathan is worth more than that. If we were there when Justin was drowning, we would’ve been there in a flash. True love in the family is never selfish.”
Annabella was right. If I would’ve been there for my siblings and not think I was so cool to just ask them to come with me, I would still be with them today and in that moment trying to help Nathan.
Thank goodness my siblings made it. I really wish I had been there with them. They jumped back on the aqua cart Annabella had brought, and hurried on their way home before our parents got home. Unfortunately, our parents were already home and were at the door waiting for them. Mom was always anxious and worried about everyone, and Dad was more relaxed and calm. Mom hysterically screamed,
“Where have you all been? I know we aren’t home as much but you really need to leave a paper or walkie-talkie note next time.
Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind. I don’t want to lose any of you again.”
Collection
Citation
Amanda Gottardi, “Blood is Thicker Than Water ,” Everything Speaks To Me , accessed September 18, 2026, https://everythingspeakstome.com/items/show/225.