A New Life, Part 2 (COMPLETED)

Chapter 26

"Well, this isn't going to work" he said aloud, checking what few fishing items he'd found. Even if he could find anything, he didn't have any bait for the ocean fish to be enticed by. "Well, I can go without eating, just need to find something to boil the salt water in so I can drink it. Damn, this is like trying to be the professor on Gilligan"s Island" he laughed as he scrambled about trying to find anything that could be used. The boat had never been fully stocked for any time frame longer than a couple of hours. Anyone who used the boat always brought a cooler along stocked with whatever they would need for their day at sea. Right about now, he wished he'd done the same but soon realized the storm would have washed it all away.

Stoking the fire, he wondered if anyone would see the smoke that occasionally billowed from it. Mentally kicking himself for not telling anyone he was heading out, let alone being home at all, he suddenly realized he had placed his cell phone in his pants pocket. He quickly ran to where they laid drying. Finding it still in his back pocket, his heart raced with excitement thinking he had left it on and someone would have traced it by now.

"You stupid ass" he yelled at himself, finding the phone off. He tried turning it on, but immediately knew it was ruined not only by his being thrown across the boat but the excessive amount of salt water that it had been immersed in during the storm.

"Damn it, Dad....I know..ok, I know" he stated to himself as the reminders of his father's lecture rang through his mind. Not thinking he started to throw the phone but something stopped him. He sat on a nearby bench of the boat and began to disassemble the phone, hoping that perhaps he could dry it out enough to turn it on and that maybe the tracer would work.

A few hours had passed, the phone was apart in several pieces, laid across the deck of the boat. He stared at all the pieces, praying this would work somehow. Feeling a slight chill in the air, Chance noticed the sun beginning to set. Jumping off the boat, he jogged to the limb, checking his clothes to see if they were dry. Finding them only slightly damp, he dressed before rebuilding the fire that had now become only hot, bright coals. 

Sitting by the fire, his stomach grumbling from no food and his thirst increasing, he began to have thoughts that he may never be found, or worse yet, die from lack of food and water before anyone did find him. "Keep your head straight, Adam. This ain't over yet" he told himself as he watched the colors change across the sky while the sun set behind him. Soon he had lay down next to the fire and was fast asleep.