Ben was seven years old when he last saw his mother. One morning she told him he had to go fishing with his father. Ben sensed that something was wrong, because his mother was so agitated, and he didn't want to leave her, but she insisted. When he went to the dock, he saw a long line of people silently boarding his father's boat. His father came and got him and told him that they were going to take a very long trip.
When the boat left for sea it was riding quite low in the water, and there was barely any room to move around.
A long time passed. Food and water had been gone for quite a long time. They were far out to sea, and big ships would pass them without offering help. Some people died and Ben's father would throw them overboard. Then a lot of people were dying. One day someone was trying to throw his father overboard, because his father looked dead, but Ben insisted that he was not, and soon his father revived. They were more careful after that, but with little rain and but a few fish caught, people kept dying. Then Ben's father had to throw his eldest son overboard, and then Ben's sister.
One day Ben was lying next to a dying boy who asked to speak to the captain. Ben got his father, and the dying boy said to him, "When I die, throw me off the back of the boat."
"Why?" asked the captain. The boy replied, "You threw my brother off the front of the boat. He is pulling us. I will push, and together we will get you there."
Shortly after that, the boat people were picked up by a U.S. Navy ship, and the survivors spent two weeks in a hospital recovering from malnutrition and dehydration.
Ben Duc is now 25 years old and a student at College of Alameda. Barbara says that before she read his story, he walked around with eyes downcast, but now he beams when he sees her. She found out that he had carried this history for eighteen years and not shared it with anyone before, because, in his words, "Nobody asked me to."