Shipwreck: Part III (Cast Away)
We catch up with Paul a month after the shipwreck. He thought he was doing well...
The Song:
Lying on the sand
Finally found land
Trying to catch breath
There’s nothing much left
Sun on my skin
Debris by my side
It’s happened all over again
I’m just happy that I’m alive
I’m just a castaway
Washed up on your shore
I just want to be alone with you
Then I’ll never be cast away
I’m finding out once again
The places I’d been
Is where I wanted to be
But it’s not where you saw me
The Story:
Audio edition:
PART III
I started feeling much better, except for the full body pains and throbbing ache in my foot. Hey, I’m alive, aren’t I?... Aren’t I? Yeah, for sure, because this is no form of heaven or hell I have ever thought of. I believe its closest proximity would be some sort of limbo.
I must have dragged myself up and into the makeshift shelter that was miraculously still standing. I can't remember much after the spike removal, but I can recall some glimpses of waking up in a fever state repeatedly. I hoped that tonight I would be able to get some actual rest. I have absolutely no idea how to tell time here, and I stopped to wonder where my watch may have ended up. I lightly fantasized about some cool-looking fish gliding around with my watch wrapped around his body.
I thought about the day my parents gave me that thing. I was sixteen, and obnoxiously obsessed with wanting an expensive watch that I could show off to my friends at school. It was a Fossi because…I was a teenager and that's just cool was at that time, okay? I loved that thing, and always took care of it. I even know what the inside of a watch repair shop looks like, thanks to the first time I had a photography gig at a beach and I fell off the rocks and shattered the timepiece glass.
I became suddenly aware of just how alone I really was. My parents, my girlfriend, my friends, and my co-workers; were all back home just living their lives. I am by myself, and I have no one to talk to. I didn't even have a volleyball to turn into a buddy that I could vent to. Oh boy, did I want to vent. I could feel myself consistently getting more and more aggravated with the predicament that I was in, and I just couldn’t believe no one was searching for that freaking boat yet.
***
It’s been a month, I think…yeah, I am pretty sure. I kept getting lost between the days and falling asleep at random times. The good side of things is that I am all healed up, somehow. The hair I had lost on my head is growing back, so the injury must not have been too severe. I am about ninety percent positive that I have nerve damage from the injury to my arm, but it isn’t hurting and hasn’t slowed me down much.
I have been sick off and on because my body decided to evacuate everything I had ever taken in my life BTI. Oh, so BTI means Before The Island, and it is now officially a time period for me. After a few days of constantly running to use the bathroom (and by “bathroom” I mean an extremely dedicated spot in the treeline), I actually started to feel a little bit better. However, soon after I started feeling a lot hungrier, and like my stomach was beginning to eat itself. I got good at fishing, and there was an insane amount of fruit for such a small island.
Most of my days are spent trying to stay alive while keeping an eye on the horizon. I have caught myself absent-mindedly singing a variety of songs that were somehow suppressed into my subconscious. I could tell the loneliness was starting to get to me, and I kept seeing the trees sway and imagining they were throngs of people walking down a city street.
It had gotten late, and I was wandering the shoreline in the moonlight hoping to see any sign of light in the distance. There wasn’t any. I turned to head back to my hut and for a moment I could swear I saw movement. It looked like a person hunched over and running about 100 meters away. Without thinking, I gave chase. I was feeling some excitement mixed with wonder as I ran after them.
“Hey, wait! Oh, thank God!” I screamed as I flailed my arms and ran.
Finally, the movement stopped right by the outcropping of rocks. They must have known they couldn’t scale the side of it in the darkness without getting hurt. I tried not to burst into laughter from my joy as I approached them…but then I saw it.
I was chasing brush.
I fell to my knees and I began to sob. I am alone, and my mind is starting to play tricks on me. Oh, no.
