Day 7: The temperature dropped last night and we huddled beneath the thin drop cloth shivering most of the night. She was still too weak to walk, but she did try standing some. I made her choke down some of the crab. She was more successful than I had been; she even asked for more. I gave her a funny look as I recounted my crab eating incident and today for the first time in six days, we laughed.
We laughed like we had no business laughing given the circumstances. But it was a laugh of desperation, of release and it felt good if only for a short while. Later, I scouted the island. If my waterlogged watch could be depended on, it was about a four hour walk around the island at a slow, exploratory pace.
Beyond the back side there were about three or four other small islands. The back side also contained a nice long rock outcropping that looked like a more suitable long term shelter than the overhang of the trees.
I returned to find her attempting to stand, against my strict orders not to move, but she said it felt good to stretch. With me supporting her, we moved slowly but steadily to our new shelter. I made good use of the all purpose fishing knife I always carried with me, cutting small branches, and pushing rocks from the top of the ledge to the outside.
I decided to walk around to the other side and float our makeshift raft or whatever it was back here to add on to the shelter. It had gotten us that far, and it didn't seem right to just abandon it now.
After an afternoon of her laughing at my occasional clumsiness, and my backbreaking workout, we had what I consider to be a pretty respectable pseudo cave dwelling. There was room for both of us to lie down side by side with width to spare and three or four feet of extra length. My next mission was not so successful. I wanted fire. This brought even more laughter. Finally, I gave up and decided that would have to wait.
_________________ "Life isn't about the number of breaths we take. It's about the moments that take our breath away."
Sat Jul 19, 2008 5:44 am
Stormchaser
Joined: 04 Aug 2007
Posts: 95
Day 8:
Day 8: How strong of a prescription eyeglass lens does it take to burn something? I'm not sure, but the most mine could do was brown and singe. No flame. She finally got the brilliant idea that I'm sure I eventually would have come to if not for her help, that I should remove both my lenses and stack them to double the power. Well, I'm master of the cave and fishing, she proved to be the master of the flame. I can thank her for my newfound affection for (cooked) crab.
[/i][/b] _________________ "Life isn't about the number of breaths we take. It's about the moments that take our breath away."
Sat Jul 19, 2008 5:48 am
Stormchaser
Joined: 04 Aug 2007
Posts: 95
Days 9-11:
Day 9-11: Her strength is coming back quickly now, and I finally let myself really rest. Exhaustion finally overtook me and I slept for almost 2 days straight. Apparently I worried her, enough that she would awaken me every few hours to make sure I was ok.
I woke feeling almost refreshed. As I write, I'm watching her spell out another cry for help on the shoreline. I laughed as I watched her try to rock the crabs missing quite like I had done days earlier. I tried to keep the tears from my eyes thinking where I'd be if she hadn't pulled through. She asked me what was wrong I told her that she was flinging sand everywhere including my eyes, which wasn't entirely untrue.
We don't talk about what happened. I'm not even sure how much she remembers. Part of me hopes she's at least forgotten the night spent clutching her for dear life, sobbing, crying out to God to help her pull through, not to rip away the only thing I had left, not to rip away someone I loved so much.
The nights are still cool, with our tattered tank tops and shorts, but our swim suits at least dry quickly. We sleep in the cave, huddled close beneath our drop cloth. Nothing was said about it, but last night she pulled my arm around her as we settled in.
I wonder if she knows how reassuring it is to feel her heart pounding strong and steady in her chest.
_________________ "Life isn't about the number of breaths we take. It's about the moments that take our breath away."
Sat Jul 19, 2008 5:55 am
MysteryGirl Moderators
Joined: 02 Jun 2007
Posts: 3419
Location: I come from a land downunder
Yay, so glad to find these new instalments Stormy, keep it up.
HugZ, Noni _________________ Be yourself.............everybody else is taken!
Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:01 pm
sillywolf
Joined: 09 Jul 2007
Posts: 311
Location: The last frontier
great adds storm! looking forward to the next ones
Silly _________________ Smile. It makes people wonder.
Mon Jul 21, 2008 10:07 pm
Stormchaser
Joined: 04 Aug 2007
Posts: 95
Day 12
Day 12:
We joked around a lot and talked of somewhat trivial things today. We still don't really talk about what happened. Lately we've just been going over the logistics of setting up our camp, scouting the interior of our island, and finding a more diverse food selection.
There were some unfamiliar fruits growing along the edge of the tree-line, brave as we both usually were we'd stayed away from them so far, afraid of eating something poisonous. It was still too soon for any risk taking behavior, we were both recovering well, but not fully there yet.
Basically the plan was to walk the island back and forth from side to side in wide sweeps mapping what we find. We would start that tomorrow. Today, though, we rested some more.
I made her laugh when I told her I found the whole situation reminiscent of those old sleepover conversations where you'd go around asking people who they'd want to get stranded on a deserted island with. I said it was funny, that of all the people we could've wound up with, we were stuck here with each other.
She couldn't help but agree. Given our not exactly smooth, and at times quite volatile, friendship it was a little ironic. But here we were. I told her I already knew who she'd pick.
She said, "Oh yeah, who?"
I said "Jake, duh."
I regretted it immediately, but the hurt only flashed across her eyes briefly before being replaced with a smile.
She said "yeah, he'd be a good one."
" Except you guys would wind up doing a real life remake of "The Blue Lagoon," complete with running around half naked, all the sex, and babies."
She threw sand at me, but couldn't stop herself from blushing madly.
Then she said, "I really miss him."
"I bet you do."
"Do you think I'll ever see him again."
"You will if I have anything to say about it."
She smiled at me, "Alright missy, who would you pick."
I was afraid to say. Strangely, given the choice, it probably would have been her. She could drive me up the wall for sure, but she could make me laugh like crazy and lift my spirits when nothing else could. I'd have chosen her, even with our rocky past and friendship that was just beginning to recover from old wounds.
"Tough call," I replied, "Brad Pitt probably wouldn't last long with my raging hormones and I wouldn't want to get pregnant… Angelina is hot and would definitely be fun and she's got the UNHCR background of spending time with people who have nothing, so she'd fit right in here. Of course I'd probably be too self-conscious to even speak to her… I guess I really don't know. I'll have to get back to you on that one."
"Come on, out with it. No bailing on the question. I answered."
"Actually I answered for you, you just agreed so that really doesn't count."
She sighed and shook her head.
"Ok fine, if I was going to get stranded on deserted island with anyone I'd pick you. You make me laugh, you can make fire, and I definitely don't have to worry about you getting me pregnant."
She groaned and threw sand at me again.
The truth disguised in sarcasm works every time. No one can accuse me of being a liar, if she didn't pick up on it that was her own damn fault. _________________ "Life isn't about the number of breaths we take. It's about the moments that take our breath away."
Tue Jul 29, 2008 6:23 am
gentleheartgirl
Joined: 11 Feb 2008
Posts: 1
Location: heidelberg germany
I really love this story. Can't wait to read more.Pleaseeeeeeeeeee
Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:03 pm
Stormchaser
Joined: 04 Aug 2007
Posts: 95
Day 13
Day 13
We spent most of the day mapping the west side of the island. We started walking along the shoreline keeping a log of anything interesting we found. Anything from fruit to solid looking trees were logged in the notebook. Any significant landmarks were named.
There was palm alley, an area where the trees grew on both sides of an open area giving the impression of an alleyway and turtle rock, because until we got close enough we thought it was a really large sea turtle.
Then we turned around and started walking through the trees back to the other side. It got a little tedious after awhile, but playing explorer, feeling like we were doing something useful takes the edge off being stranded.
I think as long as we keep busy we won't feel quite as helpless, or hopeless. Our day of mapping ended when we found a decent sized spring fed stream about halfway through the middle of the island, just a little closer to the side of our camp, as we now referred to it.
It started in a large pool then ran down the rocks, over an 8 foot ledge making a small waterfall, and then out to another smaller pool from which it finally flowed into the ocean. I found a spring in the middle of the island to be an unexpected surprise. We still did decide to be safe and try to use only rain water for drinking water.
The water fall seemed to be perfect to rinse some of the salt and sand off our bodies. Neither of the pools were very deep and it was reassuring to be able to clearly see what else was swimming there with us.
We rested around the upper pool until the sun started setting and followed the stream back toward camp. It was about a 15 minute walk.
The next order of business was to establish a bathroom area. I insisted on someplace where nature would remove the waste products for us and provide privacy at the same time. The area where the stream met the sea was hidden from camp around a bend, it sat lower on a ledge so even if you could see around the bend you couldn't see someone without walking down the shallow ledge. The flowing stream seemed to be an adequate system for washing things out to sea and away from us.
We ate crab beside the fire and I decided that we needed to establish some sort of routine and rule system to keep our food supply up and keep us safe.
"I think we need to get some general rules down for safety," I commented.
"What do we have to worry about out here, as long as we have food and water we should be fine. Don't you think the worst is over already?"
"Maybe, maybe not. I mean say you go to the falls and slip on a rock and hit your head and I didn't know where you were. I'd have to search the island for you and by the time I found you it might be too late to help you. There also might be poisonous snakes, or dangerous insects to worry about. I don't think we've been here long enough to really make any judgments about how safe it is here even though it's been good so far."
"Yeah, I guess I see your point. What are you thinking?"
"Well, I think that after we have the island mapped we should tell where we're going if it's out of sight range of the other person and give them some approximation of how long we're planning to be there."
"What if I just want to go for a walk with no specific destination."
"I dunno, maybe just give your expected route. Another thing is, we obviously can't live on a diet of crushed crab, so finding other food sources would be a good idea. I was thinking that we might be able to test the safety of the fruit by following a kind of experimental procedure to test it."
She raised her eyebrow at me, "And what exactly are you proposing?"
"Well, we pick anything that looks edible and one person will take a small piece and taste it. If it doesn't gag them or taste really bitter then they take one small bite. That's it. If they aren't sick after half an hour or so, they can take a bigger bite and so on until they've eaten the whole thing."
"And who gets to be the guinea pig?"
"I figured we'd cross that bridge when we get there. I think we should just alternate, but only one of us can test per day so we don't both wind up sick."
"Yeah that sounds good. What if one of us does get sick?"
"I guess we try to throw it up and drink lots of water and pray really hard."
"Nice, Paige."
"Well, if you have a better suggestion I'm all ears. It's not like we have any animals we can force fruit into to see what happens….although maybe we can watch what the birds eat to get an idea of what to start with."
"Yeah, that sounds better brainiac. You try to be a little too scientific at times."
"Sorry, I do miss the forest for the trees sometimes."
"It happens. I think we should try to fish too."
"Yeah, another thought I had was about dangerous stuff in the ocean too. We have to watch out for rip tides, sharks, sting rays, jelly fish, fish with poisonous stickers and stuff like that."
"I think that just boils down to not going out too deep and keeping your shoes on."
"Yeah, no swimming out there alone though. I know you liked doing that back home, but it could be really disastrous here."
"What about the spring pool?"
"I dunno, I think that should be okay. It's only about shoulder high and really clear so I think you'd have plenty of time to see a snake or anything getting too close. That leads us to the matter of privacy. We're obviously going to need some at times."
"Definitely."
"Mainly in our bathroom area and shower area. I think just saying where you're going and that you need privacy should be sufficient don't you?"
"Yeah, they're both fairly sheltered areas."
"Any thoughts on how we can catch some fish?"
"Make some kind of net or spear them I guess."
"Well I can try to make a few spears tomorrow evening after we map out the other half of the island and maybe we can find something to fashion a net out of. Oh, another thought I just had was to make some kind of signal flame pyre up high, so if we do see a plane we can get their attention by lighting it."
"So we just need to find someplace high and dry to pile a bunch of wood and stuff."
"Yeah, so anything else you can think of?"
"Once we get set up we should probably start some kind of daily fishing and fire duty routine. Maybe we can just switch off, that way we both get good at each task in case something happens to one of us?"
"Ok, well I think that's a good start. We can spend any extra time sprucing up our digs."
"Oh brother," she laughed rolling her eyes at me.
"I think it's about time we hit the hay, don't you?"
"Yeah," she replied yawning.
Crawling back in our cave I noticed we could see the crescent shape of the moon out over the water through the entryway. It was beautiful out here. It might've been a cool place to visit under different circumstances.
We pulled the cloth up over us and huddled together to keep warm. We laid there for awhile before she turned onto her stomach and guided me to my side to face her. She said goodnight and I said sweet dreams and we fell asleep with her head resting on my chest, my arm across her back.
_________________ "Life isn't about the number of breaths we take. It's about the moments that take our breath away."
Thu Aug 21, 2008 6:56 am
MysteryGirl Moderators
Joined: 02 Jun 2007
Posts: 3419
Location: I come from a land downunder
Great to see a new addition to this interesting story. Well done Stormy.
HugZ, Noni _________________ Be yourself.............everybody else is taken!
Thu Aug 21, 2008 4:26 pm
angelsheart
Joined: 19 Nov 2006
Posts: 496
Location: Nis/ Serbia
aaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwww so gently and caring
keep it coming plsssssssssssssssssssss _________________ There used to be a grayin' tower all alone on the sea... You became the light on the dark side of me...
Sun Aug 24, 2008 9:38 pm
Stormchaser
Joined: 04 Aug 2007
Posts: 95
Day 14
Day 14:
Last night was rough. She woke me up screaming sometime before sunrise. A nightmare I guess, but try as I might I couldn't get her to tell me about it. It took quite a while for her shaking to finally subside and fall asleep in my arms once again.
We slept past sunrise today opting to recover from the restless night.
Today we started at the east shore and worked our way toward the spring again. There was strange looking fruit there hanging from the trees and birds flying around the area. It seemed like a good way to figure out what else we could try and eat. After awhile, we collected a few and returned to camp.
At dinner we spun a stick to see who would be the first to test it. When it stopped spinning, it was pointing at me.
"Does this mean I get a kiss?" I joked.
She laughed and rolled her eyes at me.
So I won, or lost, depending on how you look at it and got to taste the ruby colored fruit. It was the color of a grapefruit inside when I cut it open, with large seeds around the middle. I took a small piece and tasted it. It was quite juicy and a little sour but still good after a week of nothing but water and crab meat. I took a small bite.
An hour later I was still feeling just fine so I took another, half an hour after that I took another, half an hour after that we decided I could probably just eat the rest of it. We *cleverly* dubbed it ruby fruit.
_________________ "Life isn't about the number of breaths we take. It's about the moments that take our breath away."
Last edited by Stormchaser on Fri Nov 28, 2008 3:59 am; edited 1 time in total
Thu Sep 11, 2008 6:20 am
Stormchaser
Joined: 04 Aug 2007
Posts: 95
Day 15
Day 15:
If the night before last was rough, last night was just strange.
Sleeping huddled so close is the only way to keep warm at night with what little we have to cover up with, but when her hand found it's way under my shirt I was quite uneasy. She, of course, was out cold and had no idea that it had happened. As she slept her hand had been around my waist, then she shifted and it moved up under my shirt against the bare skin of my stomach. It made me shiver, and not from the draft. I just hope this doesn't start getting awkward.
Today I attempted to carve out fishing spears and she attempted to make a net. Eventually, she gave up. After testing my spears I decided that crab was going to remain a staple food group for awhile.
We spent the afternoon lounging around by the spring pool, just lazily enjoying the sun while we catalogued what fruits the birds ate. Around dusk we jumped in to cool ourselves in the water. The fresh water feels so nice in compared to the salt of the ocean.
"I think I'm going to have to come here tomorrow and take a shower under the falls," she said. "Bathing in my suit and shorts doesn't quite cut it you know."
"Yeah, the salt still sticks."
We returned to the camp and air dried by the fire, before heading to bed.
[/b] _________________ "Life isn't about the number of breaths we take. It's about the moments that take our breath away."
Last edited by Stormchaser on Thu Sep 11, 2008 6:38 am; edited 1 time in total
Thu Sep 11, 2008 6:31 am
Stormchaser
Joined: 04 Aug 2007
Posts: 95
Day 16
Day 16:
I'm not sure what happened last night. I feel like something's shifting, though I'm not sure what. Or maybe I am, but I'm afraid to be wrong.
Last night she crawled in and snuggled up next to me under the covers. Nothing is said about our sleeping habits, or the fact that every night we sleep more tangled up in each others arms than the night before.
It isn't done so subtly anymore though. There's no attempt made to disguise the motions, trying to make it look like a need for more warmth. This isn't about body heat and fending off the cool night. I don't know, maybe it's about fending off loneliness. Last night she said my name after I thought she was sleeping, as I gazed out over the moonlit water again.
"Paige?"
"Yeah," I said, looking down into her eyes.
She just looked up at me, like she wanted to say something, but she just kept silenty looking into my eyes.
"I'm glad you're here with me," she said finally, breaking eye contact.
"I'm glad too," I said holding her tighter.
Then we fell asleep, her head resting on my shoulder. This morning she ran off to shower under the falls. When she returned we stripped bark from the trees and tried to make some kind of fish trap. I think this one might actually work. It's really nothing more than a container that will be pulled up from the water, hopefully with some fish inside. In any case, it should be entertaining to try it.
I tried to make a necklace out of some dried grass and shells I'd gathered from the beach, but so far I'd only been successful in cracking them when I tried to make a hole for the grass to go through.
That's pretty much how we entertained ourselves today.
_________________ "Life isn't about the number of breaths we take. It's about the moments that take our breath away."
Last edited by Stormchaser on Thu Sep 11, 2008 6:38 am; edited 1 time in total
Thu Sep 11, 2008 6:35 am
Stormchaser
Joined: 04 Aug 2007
Posts: 95
Sorry for the delay
I apologize for the delay. I'm the worst about patience when it comes to waiting for other people's stories. I guess I still just can't get my head around the fact that someone actually wants to read my stuff. As always, comments are much appreciated. _________________ "Life isn't about the number of breaths we take. It's about the moments that take our breath away."
Thu Sep 11, 2008 6:37 am
MysteryGirl Moderators
Joined: 02 Jun 2007
Posts: 3419
Location: I come from a land downunder
Yay, finally
Keep it coming Stormy, wow on a diet of crab and fruit, these gals must be losing some serious weight LOL
Look forward to more to come.
HugZ, Noni _________________ Be yourself.............everybody else is taken!
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