Ruby's Island (Watty awards 2011) (complete)

Food For Thought

I sat thinking for a while.

I had watched a documentary once that showed a man stranded on an Island and he managed to start a fire with wood, by spinning it round quickly between his palms.

Maybe I could do that, after all anything was worth a try.

But first things first, getting up with my home made spear in my hand, I walked into the ocean.

I stood still, my arm raised in the air, the spear held high, watching the fish swim around me.

Suddenly I became aware that I was holding my breath, and I released it slowly.

The adrenalin began to pump through my body, my arm beginning to shake in anticipation.

“Now,” I yelled as I brought the spear down hard into the water.

Bringing it back up, I looked excitedly, my face dropping as I saw there was no fish attached.

Damn, I really thought I had got one.

Steeling myself, I tried again............ and missed.

The more I failed, the more agitated I got, which caused me to become more careless. In the end I was just thrashing about in the water, I suppose, hoping that a fish would somehow just jump on the end of the spear.

Of course I knew this wasn't going to happen, but the hunger I felt was beginning to cloud my thoughts.

I was tired, angry, and most of all starving.

Hell, I would starve to death before I caught a fish I thought angrily as I stormed out of the sea.

I plonked myself down heavily on the sand, and picked up my stone, grabbing a coconut, I began to hack away at it scowling with anger as I did so.

I guess coconut would have to do again I thought miserably.

I broke through the outer shell, drank the milk, then ate the flesh. Feeling a little more settled, but not quite full, I sat back against my tree.

I called it my tree, because it was, no-one else was here to claim it, so therefore I had decided that it was mine.

And just to confirm it, I picked up my stone and scratched my name into the bark, followed by two small lines underneath, for how many days I had spent on the Island.

I was just hoping there wouldn't be a third line there tomorrow.

Sitting back again, I looked around miserably.

The worst part about being stranded here was the lack of socialisation, the loneliness was so immense, it made you feel as if you were the only person left alive in the whole world.

I stifled a sob, wishing that I could just have somebody to talk to, even if it were only for a minute.

I had so many things unfinished, so many things unsaid......... to my Mother especially.