The water brush my feet, sweeping off the sand that seem to caress my rough ankles. This back and forth love we seem to share only rears its head whenever I come to these parts. It goes back again only for a slightly bigger wave to breeze past me embracing my thighs in the process. The cool breeze unrelentingly pushing my hair away from me and causing the coconut trees behind me to dance slightly from side to side.
As I look ahead in silence, I see nothing but the rolling waves and a horizon that slowly blur the farther I try to look. My silence interrupted by the intermittent sounds of tumbling waves and other times of Pintails or are they Mallards?
“How could I have come to be so alone?” My mind raced back to the horror that got me stranded on this desolate Island somewhere around the South China Sea. The fear from almost drowning. The unsuccessful struggles to hold unto someone... anyone, so we could paddle ourselves to safely. I had blacked out only to be awoken by my now familiar friend and foe, slapping against my legs while gently caressing my face with its saltiness.
I have been here for what was 8 days but felt like an eternity. Surrounded by only trees and leaves and stalking birds that I neither have the skill nor grit to hunt. Meat would have been tasty right now. All I've had is coconut water and berries off of this damned place.
It was his fault. Trying to escape the heartbreak he caused eventually landed me here. I was devoted to him and seeing a 4 year marriage abruptly end drove me to seek solace in the vastness of unknown faces and places. Morocco, Egypt, Tanzania, Seychelles...Thailand, Mongolia, Japan, and this little escapade aboard an exquisite looking yacht with friends...more like acquaintances I met 2 days before the silly escaped. “Life begins at 40”, they say but I was still 25, so I partied for the first time, like my age until I heard the cracking sound of a seemingly formidable ship as it was torn apart by what could only have been an alien tempest.
And now I'm here...all because of Matthew. Oh! How I hate him...Oh! How I still love him. His boyish smile, his wandering eyes...kissing my forehead over and over just to wake me up. He was an angel when we began. It feels like another lifetime. 2 years after our joining he became something else. One day he came back different as if someone had switched something in him and he looked at me different...He did everything differently. Should we have had a child? Maybe he would have stayed or maybe I would have had something of him that would...
I suddenly look up to see a speck at the distance not too far from the horizon. I squint my eyes. It was a boat.
“Help! Help!!...Over here!!!” I shout as though my life depended on how far my voice could reach. I couldn't light a fire without a match and no ship would see my S.O.S sign on the beach. The ship gets bigger and bigger and a sudden happiness envelopes my core upon hearing an echoing voice coming from the distance.
“This is Captain Nagashi of the Sayun II vessel of the Japanese naval fleet. Please stay calm as men of the Japanese Navy are currently underway to rescue you”.
As I lay back on the sands which I had become accustomed to, waiting for my inbound rescue, my happiness slowly gives way to sadness and regret. Civilization had it’s perks but also it's burdens. I would have to face my turbulent life out there. At least here, life was simple.
“Oh God!”